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COMPENDIUM OF LOCAL BIOGRAPHY, 

Including Biographical Sketches of Hundreds of Prominent Old Settlers 

and Representative Citizens of 

BUTLER, POLK, SEWARD, YORK AND FILLMORE COUNTIES, 

NEBRASKA, 
with a Review of their Life Work; their Identity with the Growth and De- 
velopment of this Region ; I^eminiscences of Personal History 
and Pioneer Life; and other Interesting and Valuable 
Matter which should be Preserved in History. 

ALSO A 

COMPENDIUM OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, 

Containing Biographical Sketches of Hundreds of the Greatest Men and Celebrities America has Produced 

in Various Walks of Life, including Great Statesmen, Lawyers, Jurists, Scientists, Editors, 

Poets, Writers, Financiers. Railroad Magnates, Army and Navy Officers, Inventors, 

Speculators, Scouts, Merchant Princes, Humorists, Electricians, Educators, 

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Explorers, All the Presidents, etc. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



CHICAGO: , , « 

GEO. A. OGLE,& CO. \^ ,' •' ' 

Publishers, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. 
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Biography is the only true History. — Emerson. 

A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors 

will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with 

pride by remote generations. — Macaulay. 




-*— r— 



^^^^^^^^^!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



OONTENTS 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Table of Contents, 
Introductory, - 



3 
11 



Compendium of National Biography, - 13 
Compendium of Local Biography, - 223 



INDEX TO FART I. 



Compendium of National Biography. 



Biographical Sketches of National Celebrities. 



page 

Abbott, Lyman 144 

Adams, Charles Kendall 143 

Adams, John 25 

Adams, John Quincy 61 

Agassiz, Louis J. R 137 

Alger, Russell A 173 

Allison, William B 131 

Allston, Washington 190 

Altgeld, John Peter 140 

Andrews, Elisha B 184 

Anthony, Susan B 62 

Armour, Philip D 62 

Arnold, Benedict 84 

Arthur, Chester Allen 168 

Astor, John Jacob 139 

Audubon, John James 166 

Bailey, James Montgomery. . . 177 

Bancroft, George 74 

Barnard, Frederick A. P 179 

Barnum, Phineas T 41 

Barrett, Lawrence 156 

► Barton, Clara 209 

Bayard, Thomas Francis 200 

Beard, William H 196 

Beauregard, Pierre G. T 203 

Beecher, Henry Ward 26 

Bell, Alexander Graham 96 

Bennett, James Gordon 206 

Benton, Thomas Hart 53 

Bergh, Henry 160 

Bierstadt, Albert 197 

Billings, Josh 166 

Blaine, James Gillespie 22 

Bland, Richard Parks 106 



page 

Boone, Daniel 36 

Booth, Edwin 51 

Booth, Junius Brutus 177 

Brice, Calvin S 181 

Brooks, Phillips 130 

Brown, John 51 

Brown, Charles Farrar 91 

Brush, Charles Francis 153 

Bryan, William Jennings 158 

Bryant, William Cullen 44 

Buchanan, Franklin 105 

Buchanan, James 128 

Buckner, Simon Bolivar 188 

Burdette, Robert J 103 

Burr, Aaron Ill 

Butler, Benjamin Franklin.. . . 24 

Calhoun, John Caldwell 23 

Cameron, James Donald 141 

Cameron, Simon 141 

Cammack, Addison 197 

Campbell, Alexander 180 

Carlisle, John G 133 

Carnegie, Andrew 73 

Carpenter, Matthew Hale 178 

Carson, Christopher (Kit) 86 

Cass, Lewis 110 

Chase, Salmon Portland 65 

Childs, George W 83 

Choate, Rufus 207 

Claflin, Horace Brigham 107 

Clay, Henry 21 

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne.. 86 

Cleveland, Grover 174 

Clews, Henry 153 



PAGE 

Clinton, DeWitt 110 

Colfax, Schuyler 139 

Conkling, Alfred 32 

Conkling, Roscoe 32 

Cooley, Thomas Mclntyre. . . . 140 

Cooper, James Fenimore 58 

Cooper, Peter 37 

Copely, John Singleton 191 

Corbin, Austin 205 

Corcoran, W.W 196 

Cornell, Ezra 161 

Cramp, William 189 

Crockett, David 76 

CuUom, Shelby Moore 116 

Curtis, George William 144 

Cushman, Charlotte 107 

Custer, George A 95 



Dana, Charles A 88 

" Danbury News Man " 177 

Davenport, Fanny 106 

Davis, Jefferson 24 

Debs, Eugene V 132 

Decatur, Stephen 101 

Deering, William 198 

Depew, Chauncey Mitchell 209 

Dickinson, Anna 103 

Dickinson, Don M 139 

Dingley, Nelson, Jr 215 

Donnelly, Ignatius 161 

Douglas, Stephen Arnold 53 

Douglass, Frederick 43 

Dow, Neal 108 

Draper, John William 184 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART I. 



PAGE 

Drexel, Anthony Joseph 124 

Dupont, Henry 198 

Edison, Thomas Alva 55 

Edmunds, George F 201 

Ellsworth, Oliver 168 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo 57 

Ericsson, John 127 

Evarts, William Maxwell 89 

Farragut, David Glascoe 80 

Field, Cyrus West 173 

Field, David Dudley 126 

Field, Marshall 59 

Field, Stephen Johnson 216 

Fillmore, Millard 113 

Foote, Andrew Hull 176 

Foraker, Joseph B 143 

Forrest, Edwin 92 

Franklin, Benjamin 18 

Fremont, John Charles 29 

Fuller, Melville Weston 168 

Fulton, Robert 62 

Gage, Lyman J 71 

Gallatin, Albert 112 

Garfield, James A .... 163 

Garrett, John Work 200 

Garrison, William Lloyd 50 

Gates, Horatio 70 

Galling, Richard Jordan 116 

(ieorge, Henry 203 

Gibbons, Cardinal James 209 

Gilmore, Patrick Sarsfield 77 

Girard, Stephen 137 

Gough, John B 131 

Gould, Jay 52 

Gordon, John B 215 

Grant, Ulysses S 155 

Gray, Asa 88 

Gray, Elisha 149 

Greeley, Adolphus W 142 

Greeley, Horace 20 

Greene, Nathaniel. , 69 

Gresham, Walter Quintin 183 

Hale, Edward Everett 79 

Hall, Charles Francis 167 

Hamilton, Alexander 31 

Hamlin, Hannibal 214 

Hampton, Wade 192 

Hancock, Winfield Scott 146 

Hanna, Marcus Alonzo 169 

Harris, Isham G 214 

Harrison, William Henry 87 

Harrison, Benjamin 182 

Harvard, John 129 

Havemeyer, John Craig 182 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel 135 

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard.. . 157 
Hendricks, Thomas Andrew. . 212 

Henry, Joseph 105 

Henry, Patrick 83 

Hill, David Bennett 90 

Hobart, Garrett A 213 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 206 

Hooker, Joseph 52 

Howe, Elias 130 

Howells, William Dean 104 



PAGE. 

Houston, Sam 120 

Hughes, Archbishop John 157 

Hughitt, Marvin 159 

Hull, Isaac 169 

Huntington, Collis Potter 94 

Ingalls, John James 114 

Ingersoll, Robert G 85 

Irving, Washington 33 

Jackson, Andrew 71 

Jackson, " Stonewall " 67 

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan 67 

Jay, John 39 

Jefferson, Joseph 47 

Jefferson, Thomas 34 

Johnson, Andrew 145 

Johnson, Eastman 202 

Johnston, Joseph Eccleston... . 86 

Jones, James K 171 

Jones, John Paul 97 

Jones, Samuel Porter 115 

Kane, Elisha Kent 126 

Kearney, Philip 210 

Kenton, Simon 188 

Knox, John Jay 134 

Lamar, Lucius Q. C 201 

Landon, Melville D 109 

Lee, Robert Edward 38 

Lewis, Charles B 193 

Lincoln, Abraham 136 

Livermore, Mary Ashton 131 

Locke, David Ross 172 

Logan, John A 26 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 37 

Longstreet, James 56 

Lowell, James Russell 104 

Mackay, John William 148 

Madison, |aines 42 

Marshall/John 156 

Mather, Cotton 164 

Mather, Increase 163 

Maxim, Hiram S 194 

McClellan, George Brinton... . 47 

McCormick, Cyrus Hall 172 

McDonoueh, Com. Thomas.. . 167 

McKinley^ William 217 

Meade, George Gordon 75 

Medill, Joseph 159 

Miles, Nelson A 176 

Miller, Cincinnatus Heine 218 

Miller, Joaquin 218 

Mills, Roger Quarles 211 

Monroe, lames 54 

Moody, Dwight L 207 

Moran, Thomas 98 

Morgan, John Pierpont 208 

Morgan, John T 216 

Morris, Robert 166 

Morse, Samuel F. B 124 

Morton, Levi P 142 

Morton, Oliver Perrv 215 

Motley, John Lathro'p 130 

"Nye, Bill" 59 

Nye, Edgar Wilson 69 



PAGE 

O'Conor, Charles 187 

Olney, Richard 133 

Paine, Thomas 147 

Palmer, John M 196 

Parkhurst, Charles Henry 160 

"Partington, Mrs." 202 

Peabody, George 170 

Peck, George W 187 

Peffer, William A 164 

Perkins, Eli 109 

Perry, Oliver Hazard 97 

Phillips, Wendell 30 

Pierce, Franklin 122 

Pingree, Hazen S 212 

Plant, Henry B 192 

Poe, Edgar Allen 69 

Polk, James Knox 102 

Porter, David Dixon 68 

Porter, Noah 93 

Prentice, George Denison.. . . 119 

Prescott, William Hickling.. .. 96 

Pullman, George Mortimer.... 121 

Quad, M 193 

Quay Matthews 171 

Randolph, Edmund 136 

Read, Thomas Buchanan 132 

Reed, Thomas Brackett 208 

Reid, Whitelaw 149 

Roach, John 190 

Rockefeller, John Davison.... 195 

Root, George Frederick 218 

Rothermeli Peter F 113 

Rutledge, John 67 

Sage, Russell 211 

Schofield, John McAllister 199 

Schurz, Carl 201 

Scott, Thomas Alexander 204 

Scott, Winfield 79 

Seward, William Henry 44 

Sharon, William 165 

Shaw, Henry W 166 

Sheridan, Phillip Henry 40 

Sherman, Charles R 87 

Sherman, John 86 

Shillaber, Benjamin Penhallow 202 
Sherman, William Tecumseh.. 30 

Smith, Edmund Kirby 114 

Sousa, John Philip 60 

Spreckels, Claus 159 

Stanford, Leland 101 

Stanton, Edwin McMasters. . . 179 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 126 

Stephens, Alexander Hamilton 32 
Stephenson, Adlai Ewing. .. . 141 

Stewart, Alexander T 58 

Stewart, William Morris 213 

Stowe, Harriet Elizabeth 

Beecher 66 

Stuart, James E. B 122 

Sumner, Charles 34 

Talmage, Thomas DeWitt. ... 60 

Taney, Roger Brooke 129 

Taylor, Zacharv 108 

Teller, Henrv M 127 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART I. 



PAGE 

Tesla, Nikola 193 

Thomas, Gtorge H 73 

Thomas, Theodore 172 

Thurman, Allen G 90 

Thurston, John M 166 

Tilden, Samuel J 48 

Tillman, Benjamin Ryan 119 

Toombs, Robert 205 

"Twain, Mark" 86 

Tyler, John 93 

Van Buren, Martin 78 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius 35 

Vail, Alfred 154 

Vest, George Graham 214 



PAGE 

Vilas, William Freeman 140 

Voorhees, Daniel Wolsey 96 

Waite, Morrison Remich 125 

Wallace, Lewis 199 

Wallack, Lester 121 

Wallack, John Lester 121 

Wanamaker, John 89 

Ward, "Artemus" 91 

Washburne, Elihu Benjamin. . 189 

Washington, George 17 

Watson, Thomas E 178 

Watterson, Henry 76 

Weaver, James B 123 

Webster, Daniel 19 



PAGE 

Webster, Noah 49 

Weed, Thurlow 91 

West, Benjamin 115 

Whipple, Henry Benjamin. .. . 161 

White, Stephen V 162 

Whitefield, George 150 

Whitman, Walt 197 

Whitney, Eli 120 

Whitney, William Collins 92 

Whittier, John Greenleaf 67 

Willard, Frances E 133 

Wilson, William L 180 

Winchell, Ale.\ander 175 

Windom, William 138 



PORTRAITS OF NATIONAL CELEBRITIES. 



PAGE 

Alger, Russell A 16 

Allison, William B 99 

Anthony, Susan B 63 

Armour, Philip D 151 

Arthur, Chester A 81 

Barnum, Phineas T. . . . .' 117 

Beecher, Henry Ward 27 

Blaine, James G 151 

Booth, Edwin 63 

Bryan, Wm. J 63 

Bryant, William Cullen 185 

Buchanan, James 81 

Buckner, Simon B 16 

Butler Benjamin F 151 

Carlisle, John G 151 

Chase, Salmon P 16 

Childs, George W 99 

Clay, Henry 81 

Cleveland, Grover 45 

Cooper, Peter 99 

Dana, Charles A 151 

Depew, Chauncey M 117 

Douglass, Fred 63 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo 27 

Evarts, William M 99 

Farragut, Com. D. G 185 

Field, Cyrus W 63 



PAGE 

Field, Marshall 117 

Franklin, Benjamin 63 

Fremont, Gen. John C 16 

Gage, Lyman J 151 

Garfield, James A 45 

Garrison, William Lloyd 63 

George, Henry 117 

Gould, Jay 99 

Grant, Gen. U. S 185 

Greeley, Horace 81 

Hampton, Wade 16 

Hancock, Gen. Winfield S 185 

Hanna, Mark A 117 

Harrison, Benjamin 81 

Hayes, R. B 45 

Hendricks, Thomas A 81 

Holmes, Oliver W 151 

Hooker, Gen. Joseph 16 

Ingersoll, Robert G 117 

Irving, Washington 27 

Jackson, Andrew 45 

Jefferson, Thomas 45 

Johnston, Gen. J. E 16 

Lee, Gen. Robert E 185 

Lincoln, Abraham 81 

Logan, Gen. John A 16 

Longfellow, Henry W 185 



PAGE 

Longstreet, Gen. James 16 

Lowell, James Russell 27 

McKinley, William 45 

Morse, S. F. B 185 

Phillips, Wendell 27 

Porter, Com. D. D 185 

Pullman, George M 117 

Quay, M. S 99 

Reed, Thomas B 161 

Sage, Russell 117 

Scott, Gen. Winfield 185 

Seward, William H- 45 

Sherman, John 99 

Sherman, Gen. W. T 151 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. .... . 27 

.Stowe, Harriet Beecher 27 

Sumner, Charles 45 

Talmage, T. DeWitt 63 

Teller, Henry M 99 

Thurman, Allen G 81 

Tilden. Samuel J 117 

Van Buren, Martin 81 

\'anderbilt. Commodore 99 

Webster, Daniel 27 

Whittier, John G STi 

Washington, George 45 

Watterson, Henry 63 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART I J. 



INDEX TO PART II. 



Compendium of Local Biography. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES— BUTLER, POLK, SEWARD, YORK AND 
FILLMORE COUNTIES, NEBRASKA. 



PAGE 

Abrahams, Claus 472 

Aden, John H 691 

Ahern. James 396 

Aldrich, Charles 1039 

Aldrich. P. M 918 

Allen, John E 532 

AUen, Samuel W 687 

AUen, Solomon C 917 

Anderson, Aaron 649 

Anderson, Andrew 502 

Anderson, Nels 794 

Anderson, Nils 8,38 

Anderson, Ross P 633 

Anderson, Swan A 319 

Anderson, IT. O 278 

Andrews, Alice A 870 

Andrews, Alonzo 870 

Anstine, Samuel R 487 

Archer, Elijah 341 

Archer, John 426 

Archerd, Dr. John W 978 

Armstrong, Edward A 995 

Arrasmitli, John W 853 

Ashley, Dr. S. F 884 

Atki,son, Thomas, 323 

Austin, Francis M 983 

Axline, Daniel 575 

Babcock, Wm. M 1071 

liable, P]maDuel 256 

Backlund, Wm. O 327 

Badeer, Lewis H 1099 

Badger. Henry L 1098 

Baer, Jacob D 419 

Bair, Samuel 901 

Baker, Francis A fYork Co) 606 
Baker, Francis A. (Fillmore 

Co.) 775 

Baker, Dr. O, P 986 

Ballard, Harlow S 455 

Barghahn, Uenry 443 

Barlean, Samuel 1090 

Barrett, Mrs. Caroline T. . . 662 

liatchelder, J. \V 448 

Baugh, C. M 460 

Beach, Lyman 1019 

Beattie, Isaac J 352 

Beatty, Wm 584 

Bechtel, Mrs. Mary E 347 

Beckman, John 1064 

Bedford, Henry 384 

Beishline, Daniel 684 

Hell, James H 438 

Bell, William 1030 

Belsley, David 880 

Bender, Thomas J 1049 

Bennett,Capt. Frederick C.1108 

Bennett, E. Douglas 894 

Bennett, J. C 356 

Bennett, John W 317 

Bennett, Thomas E 451 

Bense, Herman F 239 

Betzer, J. H 258 

Bick, Hon. J. B 834 



PAGE 

Bick, Mrs. Julia 560 

Biggs, Edward C 624 

Biggs, Thomas 617 

Bingham, George 857 

Bishop, Thomas H 430 

Bittinger, Frederick 980 

Bittinger, Samuel 1 968 

Bivens, William A 949 

Bjerrum, Niels 536 

Blair, William J 1014 

Bloom, F. P 322 

Bloomer, Andrew F 303 

Bogart, A. G 461 

Bohl, Philip 318 

Bond, Oscar M 393 

Bortner, James C 690 

Bosserman, William H... 1110 

Bouchard, Louis T 471 

Bouton, Albert A 1027 

Bowers, George W. 714 

Boye, Julius C 656 

Brabham, Henry H 578 

Brabham, Richard B 733 

Bradley, Thomas C 1009 

Brandt, Dietrich 660 

Brechtel, Anton. 1083 

Brewer, Jacob J. W 493 

Broadwell, Rev. David 830 

Brobst. Daniel 555 

Brochtrup, Joseph 829 

Brokaw, Hon. Wm. A 401 

Brower, Judge 11. H 251 

Brown. Daniel. . 881 

Brown, Jas. D 307 

Buckley, P. T 720 

Buckley, Mrs. Tillie C 707 

Buckniaster, -Joseph A 414 

Bunting, James F 833 

Bunting, Orrick 1089 

Bunting, William M 229 

Burge, Alfred H 437 

Burke, Gusta F 710 

Burke, John A 445 

Burgess. Clayton 6.30 

Burgess, Harvey S 601 

Bush, John 368 

Cady, Martin 357 

Cain, James M 450 

Cain, Samuel E 417 

Calder. J. M 729 

Calhoun, C. C 292 

Callaghan, Leander S 955 

Campbell, Henry H 265 

Carey, Milton D 484 

Carlisle, James B 574 

Carlson, C. H 424 

Carlson, N. Fred 361 

Carney, Joseph 1113 

C'arpenter, Wni. A 406 

Carr, Hon. Thomas 302 

Carscadden, Dr. Richard.. 609 

Casey, Cornelius 796 

Casper. Hod. Charles D.. .1050 



PAGE 

Catenhusen. Rev. J 620 

Catholic Church of Seward 692 

Cattle, John, Sr 644 

Caywood, James S 412 

Challis, Charles H 679 

Chamberlain, .Joseph S — 1113 

Chapin, Rev. John A 930 

Chase, Col. H. W 279 

Chattin, Edward 550 

Cheney, Edmund M 448 

Cherry, William 452 

Chesnut, Lincoln 731 

Chessman, Geo. P 398 

Child, E. T 891 

Chindgren, P. 380 

Christie, J. W 1117 

Church. Philander 383 

Clark. Liberty 594 

Clark, S. B 695 

Cline, Samuel 1052 

Cobb, Clinton C 397 

Codding, Anson B 645 

Colby, Philander M 442 

Coleman, Jacob H 382 

Colsman, William H 689 

CoUier, William A 755 

Conant, Reuben H 999 

Conaway, Hon. John B., M. 

D 281 

Cook, Richard J 1115 

C'oon, Geo 952 

Corwin, .James P 435 

Cor.V. J. B 1112 

Courtright. Abram 519 

Cox, C. W 821 

Cox. Jefferson s^^% 

Cox, William W 749 

Craig, Henry Runyon... .1057 

Craig, Hiram S 906 

Crisp, William 657 

('rownover, Franklin L 354 

Cummins. Dr. H. B 596 

Cunningham, James D....1045 

Dahlgreen. John 728 

Dalton, John 923 

Dankers. Dietrich 864 

Darling. David 262 

Darnell, Sumner 902 

Darnell, William C 862 

Davidson, James H 425 

Davis, Dr. John N 321 

Davis, Geo. W 10.35 

Davis, Hon. W. R 925 

Day. Andrew J 789 

Dayton, Wm.E 288 

Dayton, William 646 

Deal, Fletcher 748 

Dean, Nathaniel A 593 

Deden, John 511 

Delaney, Hon. M. C 259 

Denman, Francis M 751 

Derby. Charles W 1047 

Deremer, William 1013 



PAGE 

Dey, John B 388 

Dice, Thomas M 979 

Dickinson, Wm. Q 410 

Diemer, Hiram Y 562 

Dietrick, Joseph C 700 

DiUenbeck, John S 950 

Dimick, Geo. E 1074 

Disney, Grove 888 

Divan, Alpha 581 

Dixon, N- J 1093 

Doan, T. E 754 

Dobson, Robert J 1103 

Domeier, Wm. F 973 

Dorsey, John L 636 

Doubleday, George 1055 

Downing, John K 479 

Doyle, Peter 953 

Dunn, Charles 861 

Dunphy, Hon. Roderick E. 844 

Durham, Frank 889 

Durland, -John A 558 

Eager, Hon. DeWitt 339 

East, Dr. John H 402 

Eastwood, Isaac 997 

Eberly.John 280 

Edwards, .\manda N 3.35 

Ehlers. Peter 743 

Ellis, William 564 

Emerson, .James L 444 

Emery, William C 559 

Enderle. Christian 683 

Endicott, Hon. John J .501 

Englehaupt, (ieorge 1021 

Erb, Henry Q 920 

Evans, Ellsworth N 802 

Evans, Robert J 913 

Everts, Adam 766 

Ewing, William 1001 

Fairmont Tribune 891 

Farley, Dr. Benj. F 887 

Farley. Isaac J 1111 

Faustman, Gustav 527 

Fellows, Nathan 387 

Fenton, Frank H 572 

Ferguson, N. M . . ._ 293 

Field, William 1104 

Fillmore Chronicle, The.... 895 

Finecy. Joshua 488 

Fisher, Geo. C 469 

Fisher, OHver P 1056 

Fitzsimons. .John 738 

Flansburg, Wellington 801 

Flick, Samuel B 325 

B'^loren, John A 648 

Foley, John 566 

Ford. Jerome C 872 

Forster. Wm. C 914 

Foster, John W 799 

Fox, Edgar 1067 

France. Geo. B 259 

Francis, Wm. B 999 

Frank.CUfE 523 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART II. 



PAGE 

Franklin. Elias 353 

Frazier. Joseph 895 

Friesen, Jacob 434 

From, James 847 

Funk. Mrs. Anna 2t;0 

Fusby. John F 546 

Galaway, Joseph S 227 

Garfield, Horace 713 

Garfield. Philo P 242 

Garrison. M. F 7lia 

(Jarrison. William H 968 

lieorge. Daniel tiOO 

Gerard, Henry S 346 

Gerlits, Valentine 351 

Gilliland, Elwood C 547 

Gilmore. James J 671 

Goudy, Henry 647 

Gould, George S 505 

Gould, R.C 384 

Gould, William H 641 

Graves, Daniel 988 

Gray. James 556 

Gregg, George W 232 

(iribble, George W 894 

(irobe. Henry 643 

Groves, John 370 

Grubb. Erasmus 514 

Gubser. Fred 540 

Gunlach, Chris. F 487 

Gushee. L. A 843 

Gwaltney, Dr. J. S 361 

Hater, Levi 890 

Hafer, John W 472 

Hager, John 943 

Hager, John C 362 

Hager. Oliver P 992 

Hager, William P 1086 

Hague. William A 730 

Hahn. George 573 

Hainey. William G 1073 

Hale, Judge Edwin W 246 

Hall, Adam 427 

Hamilton, John B 365 

Haney, Mrs. Mary 520 

Harlan. Hon. N. V 2.V2 

Harling. William E 771 

Harman, David 607 

Harriger. Dr. Wm. G 933 

Harrington. Henry 466 

Harrison, Rev. C. S 391 

Hartraan, Frederick C 564 

Hartman. WiUiam C 491 

Hasbrouck. Isaiah 832 

Hastings, Delos A 977 

Hatfield. Dr. Thomas J 650 

Hathaway. Wm. A. . . 469 

Hawley. Frank P 405 

Haynes. William 921 

Hay worth, George 663 

Healey, Hon. Thomas A. . . 811 

Hemenover. M 352 

Henahan. Thomas 513 

Henderson. Samuel A 820 

Henton, George 370 

Herdman, Thomas A 676 

Herrington, John B 975 

Hickman, Erastus M 903 

Hilger, John 927 

Hill, Chas 231 

Hill, James M 914 

Hiner, Jacob L 576 

Hoeppner, Joseph 727 

Hofer, Gottlob 638 

Hoilmaster, John W 394 

Hofmann, Karl J. G 871 

Hokom. John 925 

Holdeman. Geo. H 826 

Holderness. Thos. N 961 

Holland, Hon. C. E 358 

Holoch, Christian 883 

Honess, J 339 

Hookstra. Gayette 294 

Hookstra, Tennis 295 

Hoops, W. W 612 

Hoover. Joseph E 552 

Hopper. Robert W 429 

Horner. A. M 982 

Horton. Jonathan A 907 

Housel, Josiah V 553 

Houston, James D 1047 



PAGE 

Howell, Hon. Matthew 285 

Howie. Thomas M 1018 

Hubbell, Seneca 604 

Huff. Philip B 624 

Hughes, Lieut. H. C 827 

HuU. Peter S 715 

Hult, N. P 778 

Hunkins. Benjamin 1101 

Huston, Armstrong 365 

Huston, Thomas A 549 

Hymas. D. J 627 

Jackson, Joseph 726 

Jackson, Oliver C 864 

Jacobs, Erick 737 

Jacobson, Thomas 816 

Jenkins, Hon. John D 1058 

Johnson, AU.G 455 

Johnson, August 518 

Johnson, Benjamin A. . . 1088 

Johnson, Charles H 673 

Johnson, Frederick C 750 

Johnson, Harmon 1004 

Johnson, Jesse K 977 

Johnson, Leonard A 461 

Johnson, Leonard M 716 

Johnson, Mrs. Isabell 377 

Johnson. Swan A 1091 

Jones, Claudius 22;J 

Jones, Peter J 678 

Jorgenson, Lars 684 

Judevine, Josiah J 767 

Junge, August C 328 

Kaempfer, Albert J. T 795 

Kalift, August 509 

Kapke. Wm. F 667 

Kastner, William C 1061 

Kauffman, John B 1000 

Keefe. John 791 

Keegan. James A 1046 

Keeler. Oscar D 870 

Keim, Geo. W 628 

Keller. Peter 665 

Kerby. Thomas 385 

King, Andrew 747 

King. Hon. E. L 250 

Kingsley. J. C 1108 

Kingsley, Mrs. Fannie 1108 

Kingston, John W 380 

Kinney, Elisha 1034 

Kirkpatrick, Wm. L 412 

Klein, Rev. Alois J 1076 

Klinznian, Lewis C 607 

Klump, Henry P 508 

Knepper, Andrew J 288 

Knight, Jesse 699 

Koch, Carl 1054 

Kosch, Louis 756 

Koza, Frank 331K 

Kreh, Karl . 796 

Kron, Peter 1068 

Kruhm, Ernest 852 

Krombach, Erasmus 994 

Krumbach, ,John 776 

KuUman, Martin 592 

Kuns, David 590 

Labart, Jacob 939 

Laird, Frank 439 

Lamdin, Frank A 551 

LaMunyon,W.W 331 

Lancaster. Edward 530 

Lancaster. Warren 1 460 

Lang, Dr. B. F 700 

Langhorst, Henry C. .. ....1116 

Langworthy, Elizabeth C 311 

Langworthy, S. C .310 

Lanphere. Henry C 896 

Lanyon. Wm. J 374 

Larkin, Patrick 730 

Larson, Swan 929 

Lauer, Henry 818 

Lawyer, John R 555 

Learning, J. F 808 

Leatherbury, S 467 

Lefever, D. M 878 

Lemmon, Wm. E 941 

Lichliter. John J 698 

Lichtenberger, Samuel R. . . 688 

Lincoln, Erwin K 926 

Lindeblad, Emanuel 587 



PAG£ 

Lindgrem. John 1068 

Lindquist, John 338 

Lindstrom, Swan 1007 

Lingenfelter, Peter 819 

Lloyd. Jacob M 1003 

Locke, Josiah 874 

Lockwood, Robert 585 

Logan. H. N 565 

Loghry, James 733 

Long, Mrs. Permelia 454 

Long, William 884 

Lonsdale, Ellis 669 

Loomis, Hon. Frank F. . . . 263 
Loughridge, Dr. Wm. K.... 970 

Lowley, Hon. Geo. W 283 

Luebker. G. F 447 

Lundeen, CoL N. P 299 

Lytle, Robt. M 873 

Madison. Martin 765 

Mahoney, Michael W 854 

Maine, Albert \A^ 407 

Malmquist, Gustaf 640 

Mansfield. John 968 

Mapps, Levi H 852 

Mapps, John T .. 835 

Mapps. Samuel T 621 

Mapps, William 336 

Markwarth, August 426 

Marquis, Joseph E 286 

Marsh, Dr. Franklin A 539 

Marsh, Geo. F 1062 

Marshall, .James S 670 

Martin, E. L 882 

Martin, John, Jr 1075 

Martin, Jonathan F 851 

Martin, Henry H 701 

Mathews, Samuel G 825 

Matousek, Joseph 639 

Matson, J.W 691 

Matthews, Richard 666 

Mauk, John A 503 

Maxwell, Prof. J. EUis.. . .10.38 

Maxwell, W. W, 892 

Mayland, Henry C" 905 

McBetb, William 477 

McCarthy, Dennis 946 

McCashland. Benjamin C. . 390 

McCloud, Charles A 9it2 

Mcl.;ioud, William E 676 

McConaughy, Dr. Robert.. 613 

McCoy, Rev, James P 668 

McCoy, Wm. S 1085 

McCurdy. William 957 

McDonald. Edward € 350 

McFadden. Hon. Wm. . .. 291 

McFadden, Joseph 936 

McGaflin, Hugh M 486 

McGinnis, Robert N 329 

McGowen, John 718 

McKelhps, Darwin 667 

McKnight, George W 381 

McKnight, John T 787 

Meinberg, Henry 458 

Merchant, Clement E 727 

Merriam, George A 715 

Meyer, Herman 918 

Meysenburg, John 492 

Meysenburg, P. N 626 

Mickey, Hon. John H 480 

Mickey, John G 632 

Miller, Amos 449 

Miller, B 898 

Miller. Charles S 942 

Miller. (Jeorge H 398 

Miller. (Jeorge W 777 

Miller. Hon. James P 245 

Miller, Hon. Matt 296 

Miller, Joseph M 521 

Miller, Lieut. Joseph ..... 432 

Miller, Lyman 535 

Miller, Nicholas 717 

Miller, Wm. M 509 

MiUer, Wm. P 962 

Mills, Dr. Holly M 583 

Mills, Hon. Milton A 228 

Minney, Charles 965 

Mitchell, Hon. J. B 330 

Jlitchell, M. H 899 

Mitchell. William 355 

Monson. N. P 542 

Moor, Joseph P 744 



PAGE 

Moore, Dr. Orville M 374 

Moore, Hon. S. V.. M. D. . . 264 

Moore, Judge David T 1092 

Moore, Thomas A 1 086 

Morford, William 389 

Morgan, Charles A 441 

Morris, Dr. Frank S 793 

Morrison. William F 725 

Mosher, Jeptha 496 

Mother's Jewels' Home . . . 274 

Moul. Lewis C. 786 

Mounts, Henry C 872 

Mozee, Dr. Geo 645 

Muir, Andrew S 571 

Mulfinger, John C 695 

Mnndhenke, Harrison 515 

Murphy, Rev. W 692 

Meyers, Solomon A 693 

Myrick, Myron N 326 

Naber, J. H 505 

Nelson, Peder 712 

Nelson, Peter 563 

Nelson, John 400 

Newcomer, Wm. H 879 

Newman. Andrew J 582 

Newton, Chas. S 289 

Neville, Joseph 432 

Nichols, Geo. N 475 

Nippert. Henry W 735 

Nobes. Chas. J 498 

Norton, Chas. 457 

Norton. Francis W 969 

Nerval, Hon. R. S 319 

Norval. Judge T. L 266 

Gates, Henry E 984 

Ocken, J. W 994 

Oehme. Ferdinand A 998 

Ogg, Bright B 267 

Ohlwiler, John Q 590 

Opitz, Edward C 1026 

Osterhout, Judge George. . . 537 

Overstreet, Horace S 436 

Overstreet, Robert J 843 

Owen, Prof. J. £ 1002 

Paisley. Isaiah 408 

Palmer. James M 413 

Pardue. L. F 1118 

Parker. John II 416 

Parker, Wm. J 386 

Patterson. Fred C 10.33 

Perdue. Thomas 1005 

Perkins, Hon. J. M 1029 

Perkins. Judge Benj. O 236 

Peterson, Albert A 341 

Peterson, A. W 987 

Peterson. Cieorge 521 

Peterson, Nels 607 

Pettis, Sedgwick W 702 

Pheasant, Samuel G 739 

Phillips, Charles N 935 

Phillips, Stephen R 681 

Pickrel, Harvey 772 

Pierson, John R 535 

Piper, Charles W 347 

Piper, John 973 

Plambeck, Ferdinand F. F.llH 

Plumb, Dr. James N 1051 

Pointer, B. F 348 

Pool, EzraP 791 

Post, Clarence H 736 

Post, Hon. George W 268 

Post, Warren J 845 

Post, Wm. Du Bois 618 

Potter, Dr. D. D 835 

Potter, Dr. J. T 642 

Powell. Wm. V 395 

Power. Frederick C 444 

Prather, Thomas C 301 

Preuit, Wm. M 757 

Price. David 431 

Price, Richard B 750 

Price, Thomas 308 

Price, William 749 

Priday, Philip 619 

Probst, Dr. Morgan 534 

Prohaska, Anthony 568 

Putlitz. Helmuth F 238 

Rann. John F 966 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— PART II. 



PAGE 

Eea, Patrick 934 

Read, Alfred M 820 

Read. Robert W T35 

Redtord. Wm. M 230 

Reel, John M 1023 

Reiehenbach, J. A I03T 

Reiclienbacb. S. A 103T 

Remington. Hon. B. D 22B 

Ren. Louis C 524 

Reynolds. Foster M 1084 

Rhoades. Charles 362 

Rhoads. Henry 958 

Rich. Frederick 803 

Richardson. George E Sfi5 

Kipiie, Ernst 976 

Rising. Albert W 9T4 

Rising. Samuel W 644 

Ritchie. Hon. Wm. E 345 

Robbins. F. F 1065 

Robbins, John 625 

Roberts. Col. Aurelius 248 

Roberts, Jasper 1003 

Roberts, John 295 

Roberts, John N 62T 

Robson, Arthur M 561 

Robsou, Augustus F 470 

Rochan. William B 1099 

Roche. Father 8.37 840 

Rodman. Hiram 734 

Rodman, Smith 940 

Rogers. L. H 850 

Rolf snieier. Frederick 504 

Romsdal. -lohn 541 

Rositer. George 1044 

Royce. Philander B 1023 

Runnalls. Joseph 586 

Rushton. J. H 1020 

Rusler, Charles J 810 

Rusler, Michael A 814 

Russell, Edward D 582 

Rutan. L. A 8.37 

Sample. Dr. Martin V 1065 

Sandberg. Charles 806 

Saunders. JudgeT. H 420 

Sawyer. Simeon 980 

Schaal. Christian 829 

Scharfenberg. Frederich . . 495 

Schmidt. Henry 588 

Schmidt, John 960 

Schneringer. Fred ..... 758 

Schott, Emil 924 

Schwarz. Rev. Frederick... 965 

Seaver. Henry A 343 

Sedgwick, Hon. V>. E.. M.D 698 
Sedgwick. Judge S. H .. . 247 
Sedgwick. Theron E. ... 539 

Seeley. James P 1027 

Senil. Elizabeth Williams .1097 

Seng, Walter W 675 

Shafer, Ezra B 610 

Shambaugh, Andrew J. .. . 711 
Shambaugh. Michael L.... 812 

Shajiland. John 990 

Shaw. Dr. Lawrence M . , . 807 
Sheldon. Charles M 943 



PAGE 

Sheldon. Henry S 815 

Shepherd. Geo 516 

Sherbondy. J. W 858 

Shields. Wm. T 817 

Shidler. Ur. Geo. W 242 

Shiley. Samuel L 476 

Shipp. James 654 

Shostrom. Andrew 944 

Shotwell. Eli L 430 

Shrader. Solomon 6.53 

Shretller. Edmund 577 

Shurlock. Parkhurst 557 

Sidwell, Levi M 474 

Simmons, Frank G 237 

Simpson, Thomas 699 

Sisty, James H 900 

Skinner, John 399 

Skipton, Franklin.. 306 

Sloan, Frank W 813 

Sloan, Hon, Chas, H 376 

Small, .Joshua D. P 672 

Smith. Abraham 903 

Smith, Charles M 916 

Smith, Geo. W 614 

Smith, Hon. H. L., M.J).. 270 

Smith. John .$63 

Smith. .Morace F 1040 

Smith. Peter 954 

Smith. Samuel L 495 

Smith. Thomas W 446 

Smith. William E 1025 

Smith. Wm. H 548 

Smith. W. T 792 

Smrha, Charles HOT 

Snyder, Carl 465 

Sorrill, William 497 

Sovereign, Milton, .... 290 

Sowers. Lafayette 1070 

Sparling. Christ 639 

Sperry. A. D 603 

Spring. William M 605 

Sprout. William F 664 

Spurlock. Burwell and Isa- 
bella 275 

Stafford. Willard P 636 

Stahr. Carston 637 

Stanton. Jeremiah 705 

Stapf. Rev. Carl 62.3 

Stark, Charles H 661 

State Bank of Nebraska, 

Seward 644 

Steffen, Ferdinand 48.^ 

Steiner, Frank 485 

Stephenson. Charles P . 745 

.Steward. Hon. John B 1109 

Steward. Thomas 1117 

Stewart. William 373 

Stines. Hal. P 1100 

Stines. Shelly 1036 

St. Mary's Catholic Church 
(Butler Co.). Luxemburg 

Settlement ... 622 

St. Mary's Catholic Church, 

David City 840 

StoUar, John 1081 

Stolldorf , August 898 



PAGE 

Stout, J. M 308 

Stover, Calvin S 1005 

Stowell, Ralph W 945 

Straight, Dr. John W 612 

Strickland. Alvin N 290 

Strickler. Joseph W 490 

Strickler, Wm. .M 337 

Stubbs, Dennis A 418 

Stuhr, Henry 344 

Stui;, Morris C 971 

Suppiger, Chas. B 255 

Swanson, Andrew J ...... . 849 

Swanson. Nils B 489 

Swanson. Oscar 564 

Swarts. Geo. W 1088 

Swarts. J A 1101 

Swearingen, Joseph 855 

Talbot, Charles W 908 

Talbott, Joe 1091 

Talmage. -Joseph W 1053 

Tarble, John K 300 

Taylor, Albert B 533 

Taylor, Prof Chas, W 1017 

Taylor. W. A 838 

Tavlor. W. H 655 

Taylor. William ,.., 610 

TerwiUiger, Geo. H 606 

Theobald. Genrge 1083 

Thomas. Evan K 367 

Thomas. Hon. J.J 262 

Thompson. Cyrus B 928 

Thompson. EUwood 428 

Thompson. James D 753 

Thompson. Noah M 1069 

Tilden. Norman F 679 

Timm. Lewis 708 

Tindall. Cieo. E 1024 

Tomlin, Edward A 836 

Topham. Daniel . . .985 

Towle. John 1030 

Towner. Abraham 981 

Tracy. Mrs. Maria A. B . . . . 800 

Trollop, Wesley 473 

Troutman, William P 862 

Trowbridge, A. H 523 

Turner. Charles M 629 

Turpening. Alfred F 985 

Tutty. Kirkman 915 

L'ffelmann. William 409 

Valentine, Miller 920 

Van ..\llen, L. C 866 

Vanderkolk,Sipke 859 

Vanderkolk. Tabitha . . 860 

Van VIeet. Martin 923 

\'arner. John F 638 

Venell. N. J 904 

Vilriuain, Victor E„ Jr.. 1103 

Vincent. Allen 950 

\'olzke, William 476 

Walden. Nathaniel J 8'26 

Waldman, August 784 



PAGE 

Walker. Hiram P 602 

Walker. John J 740 

Walkup. David 456 

Walkup. John 710 

Walrath. Eugene A 269 

Walrod, Wm. M 693 

Walsh. D. P 529 

Walters, William 680 

Wamsley, Chris. C . 531 

Wanke. John 699 

Ward. John M 450 

Warner, ^avid 323 

Warner, George U 719 

Warner, Hon, Charles A-- 224 

Warner. L. H 677 

Warner. Charles Y 332 

Warren. Lucius A 392 

Warthen, W. E 785 

Watt, Isaiah W 589 

Watts, George 848 

Weis, Jacob 284 

Weis, Peter D 406 

Weiser, Peter 1012 

Welch, Hon, William 314 

Weller, Henry H 561 

Wellman, Henry 910 

Wells, Edgar A 313 

Wells, Oliver C 763 

W^estberg, Oliver 517 

Westerhoff, John 788 

Wheeler, Lyman S 774 

Wheeler, Wallace 1094 

White, Charles D 312 

White, James D 1049 

White, Wilton A 822 

Wholstenholm, James 669 

Wholstenholm, John 931 

Wiens, Dr. Peter 593 

Wildman. Milton M 961 

WiU. Norman B 599 

Williams. Joseph K 630 

WiUiams. Wilton K 361 

Wilson. Gapt. J. L 276 

Wilson. Owen D., Jr. 257 

Wirt. Thomas L> 648 

Wise, Birney S 415 

Wise, Joseph H 309 

Wilter, Jacob M 909 

Wolfe, Hon, Thomas 326 

Wolvin, Horace 440 

Wood, Henry 611 

Wood, James V, 696 

Woodard, Warren 1007 

Woodward, Dr, James H... 244 

Wright, Hon. C. J 462 

Wright. James H 1009 

WuUbrandt. Charles C... 620 

Zahler, George 442 

Zeman. Frank J 269 

Zimmerman. Hon. David S. 249 
Zimmermann. Dietrich. . . . 804 
Zimmermann. John . . 831 
Zion's Congregation — Luth- 
eran Church 619 

Zwieg, W illiam 768 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Blair, Mr. and Mrs.Wm. J.. 

and Son 1015 

Brabham, Henry H 579 

Buckley. P. T 722 

Buckley, Mrs. Tillie C 723 

Casey. Mr. and .Mrs. Corne- 
lius 797 

Cummins. Dr. II. B 697 

East. Dr. John 11 403 

Field, Mr. and Mrs. Will- 
iam 1 105 

Graves, Daniel, Residence 
o£ 989 



PAGE 

Harlan, Hon. N. V 253 

Hatfield. Dr. Thomas i ... 651 

Holland, Hon. C. E 359 

Hull, Mr. and Mrs. N. P... 779 

Jenkins. Hon. John D 1059 

Jones, Claudius 222 

-Jorgenson, Lars 685 

Klein. Rev. Alois J .......1077 

Long. William, and Family. 885 
McFadden. Mr. and Mrs 

-Joseph, and Son 937 

Mickey. Hon. -John H 481 

Mickey. John G 633 



PAGE 

Miller. Hon. Matt 297 

Miller. William P 963 

Monson, N. P 543 

Nobes. Chas J 499 

Pettis. Mr. and .Mrs S. W. 

and Daughter 703 

Prohaska. Anthony 569 

Ren. Louis C 525 

Roche. Kev. Father J, T. . 841 

Saunders. Hon. T. H 421 

Schneringer. Carl B 761 

Schneringer. Fred 760 

Sloan, Hon, Chas. H 377 



PAGE 

Smith. Geo. W 615 

Smith. Hon. H. L.. M. D. . 271 
Smith. Mr. and Mrs. M. F..10J1 

Smith. Thomas W 446 

Van Allen. L. C 867 

Walker. John J 741 

Warren. Charles Y . 333 

Welch. Hon William 315 

Wellman. Henry 911 

Wheeler. Wallace 1095 

White. Mr. and Mrs. Wilton 

J^ Bg« 

Wright. Hon. C. J ........ ! 463 



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HE greatest of English historians, Macaulay, and one of the most 
briUiant writers and profound thinkers of the present century, has 
said: "The history of a country is best told in a record of the 
lives of its people." This is a fact which is becoming more and 
more recognized as our f)eople advance in education and intelli- 
gence, and our own great Emerson, whose name stands at the 
head of American writers of his day, in carrying forward and 
emphasizing the great fact expressed by Macaulay, says: "Biog- 
raphy is the only true history." It was for the purpose of gathering and preserving 
this biographical matter in enduring form that the design for this volume originated. 

COMPENDIUM OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. 

Regarding the fore part of this volume, "Part I," which is devoted to a "Com- 
pendium OF National Biography," but little need be said. The lives of the great 
men and celebrities of America are so inaccessible to the general public, and are so 
often in demand without being accessible, that it has been deemed wise to gather 
together a vast number of the biographies of our nation's greatest men and include 
them in this work as a fitting preface to the life histories and biographies of the 
local parties which follow and embrace the latter part of the volume. It is not 
given to all men to become great in a national sense, but the life history of those 
who do, makes up the history of our nation, and as such the history of their lives 
should be in every home and library as a means of reference and education. 

COMPENDIUM OF LOCAL BIOGRAPHY. 

That portion of the volume devoted to a "Compendium of Local Biography," 
or "Part II," is of the greatest value, and its value will increase as the years go by. 
In this department of local biography is carried out the object which led to the com- 
pilation of this work, in gathering together and placing in enduring form, before it 
becomes too late, the life history of those who have helped to build up this region 
and who have taken part in the progress and development in business, political, 
social, and agricultural affairs. The rank that any county holds among its sister 
counties depends largely upon the achievements of its citizens. Some add to its rep- 
utation by efficient public service, some by increasing its manufacturing or commercial 



12 INTRODUCTORY. 



interests, and some by adding to the general wealth and prosperity in cultivating and 
improving its lands. To give a faithful account of the lives of old settlers and rep- 
resentative citizens of this region is to write its history in the truest sense. Each 
year, as it rolls its endless way along the mighty pathway of time, is thinning the 
ranks of those hardy pioneers and old settlers whose lives are so thoroughly identi- 
fied with this region. The relentless hand of death, pursuing its remorseless and 
unceasing avocation, is cutting down, one by one, those whose life histories should 
be preserved as a part of the history of the growth and development of this region. 
The necessity for the collection and preservation of this matter, before it becomes 
too late, is the object of this work. 

Instead of going to musty records and taking therefrom dry statistical matter and 
official generalities, which can be appreciated by but few, our corps of writers have 
gone direct to the people, to the men and women who have by their enterprise and 
industry, brought about the development found in this region, and from their lips 
have written the story of their life struggles. No more interesting or instructive mat- 
ter could be presented to an intelligent public. In this department, devoted to Local 
Biography, will be found a record of many whose lives are worthy the imitation of 
coming generations. It tells how some, commencing life in poverty, by industry and 
economy have accumulated wealth. It tells how others, with limited advantages for 
securing an education, have become learned men and women, with an influence 
widely extended. It tells of men who have risen from the lower walks of life to 
eminence, and whose names have become famous. It tells of those in every walk in 
life who have striven to succeed, and records how success has usually crowned their 
efforts. It tells, also, of many, very many, who, not seeking the applause of the 
world, have pursued "the even tenor of their way," content to have it said of them 
as Christ said of the woman performing a deed of mercy, — "they have done what 
they could." It tells how many, in the pride and strength of young manhood, left 
the plow and the anvil, the lawyer's office and the counting room, left every trade 
and profession, and at their country's call went forth valiantly "to do or die," for 
the cause and principles they held so dear. In the life of every man and of every 
woman is a lesson that should not be lost upon those who follow after. 

Coming generations will appreciate this volume and preserve it as a sacred treas- 
ure, from the fact that it contains so much that would never find its way into pub- 
lic records, and which would otherwise be inaccessible and lost forever. Great care 
has been taken in the compilation of this work, and every opportunity for revision 
possible given to those represented to insure correctness in what has been written, 
and the publishers feel warranted in saying that they give to their readers a work 
with very few, if any, errors of consequence. 

In closing this brief introductory the memorable words of Carlyle fittingly express 
the hope, aim, and desire of the publishers in the compilation of this volume: "Let 
the record be made of the men and things of to-day, lest they pass out of memory 
to-morrow and are lost. Then perpetuate them, not upon wood or stone that crum- 
bles to dust, but chronicled in picture and in words that endure forever." 



I .. Fart I . . | 

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I t 



I - "W^ t 

I i 

4t ....o:p.... •>?• 

I t 

I *-- NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY --^^ | 

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*^ Copyright 189T, by Om. A. 0«le ft Co. '^ 



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_^^^^^^^^ 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



OF 



Celebrated Americans 



'm"mf'^"m' 



.-^^-. 







t"® ^ ■ *^' * 

|EORGE WASHINGTON, 

% the first president of the Unit- 
ed States, called the "Father 
of his Country," was one of 
the most celebrated characters 
in history. He was born Feb- 
ruary 22, 1732, in Washing- 
ton Parish, Westmoreland county, Virginia. 
His father, Augustine Washington, first 
married Jane Butler, who bore him four 
children, and March 6, 1730, he married 
Mary Ball. Of six children by his second 
marriage, George was the eldest. 

Little is known of the early years of 
Washington, beyond the fact that the house 
in which he was born was burned during his 
early childhood, and that his father there- 
upon moved to another farm, inherited from 
hit paternal ancestors, situated in Stafford 
county, on the north bank of the Rappahan- 
nock, and died there in 1743. From earliest 
childhood George developed a noble charac- 
ter. His education was somewhat defective, 
being confined to the elementary branches 
taught him by his mother and at a neighbor- 
ing school. On leaving school he resided 
some time at Mount Vernon with his half 




brother, Lawrence, who acted as his guar- 
dian. George's inclinations were for a sea- 
faring career, and a midshipman's warrant 
was procured for him; but through the oppo- 
sition of his mother the project was aban- 
doned, and at the age of sixteen he was 
appointed surveyor to the immense estates 
of the eccentric Lord Fairfax. Three years 
were passed by Washington in a rough fron- 
tier life, gaining experience which afterwards 
proved very essential to him. In 175 1, 
when the Virginia militia were put under 
training with a view to active service against 
France, Washington, though only nineteen 
years of age, was appointed adjutant, with 
the rank of major. In 1752 Lawrence 
Washington died, leaving his large property 
to an infant daughter. In his will George 
was named one of the executors and as an 
eventual heir to Mount Vernon, and by the 
death of the infant niece, soon succeeded to 
that estate. In 1753 George was commis- 
sioned adjutant-general of the Virginia 
militia, and performed important work at 
the outbreak of the French and Indian 
war, was rapidly promoted, and at the close of 
that war we find him commander-in-chief of 



Copyright 1807, by Geo. A. Oglo * Co. 



18 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



all the forces raised in Virginia. A cessation 
of Indian hostilities on the frontier having 
followed the expulsion of the French from 
the Ohio, he resigned his commission as 
commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, 
and then proceeded to Williamsburg to take 
his seat in the Virginia Assembly, of which 
he had been elected a member. 

January 17, 1759, Washington married 
Mrs. Martha (Dandridge) Curtis, a young 
and beautiful widow of great wealth, and 
devoted himself for the ensuing fifteen years 
to the quiet pursuits of agriculture, inter- 
rupted only by the annual attendance in 
winter upon the colonial legislature at 
Williamsburg, until summoned by his coun- 
try to enter upon that other arena in which 
his fame was to become world-wide. The 
war for independence called Washington 
into service again, and he was made com- 
mander-in-chief of the colonial forces, and 
was the most gallant and conspicuous figure 
in that bloody struggle, serving until Eng- 
land acknowledged the independence of 
each of the thirteen States, and negotiated 
with them jointly, as separate sovereignties. 
December 4, 1783, the great commander 
took leave of his officers in most affection- 
ate and patriotic terms, and went to An- 
napolis, Maryland, where the congress of 
the States was in session, and to that body, 
when peace and order prevailed everywhere, 
resigned his commission and retired to 
Mount Vernon. 

It was in 1789 that Washington was 
called to the chief magistracy of the na- 
tion. The inauguration took place April 
30, in the presence of an immense multi- 
tude which had assembled to witness the new 
and imposing ceremony. In the manifold de- 
tails of his civil administration Washington 
proved himself fully equal to the requirements 
of his position. In 1792, at the second presi- 



dential election, Washington was desirous 
to retire; but he yielded to the general wish 
of the country, and was again chosen presi- 
dent. At the third election, in 1796, he 
was again most urgently entreated to con- 
sent to remain in the executive chair. This 
he positively refused, and after March 4, 
1797, he again retired to Mount Vernon 
for peace, quiet, and repose. 

Of the call again made on this illustrious 
chief to quit his repose at Mount Ver- 
non and take command of all the United 
States forces, with rank of lieutenant-gen- 
eral, when war was threatened with France 
in 179S, nothing need here be stated, ex- 
cept to note the fact as an unmistakable 
testimonial of the high regard in which he 
was still held by his countrymen of all 
shades of political opinion. He patriotic- 
ally accepted this trust, but a treaty of 
peace put a stop to all action under it. He 
again retired to Mount Vernon, where he 
died December 14, 1799, in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age. His remains were depos- 
ited in a family vault on the banks of the 
Potomac, at Mount Vernon, where they still 
lie entombed. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, an eminent 
American statesman and scientist, was 
born of poor parentage, January 17, 1706, 
in Boston, Massachusetts. He was appren- 
ticed to his brother James to learn the print- 
er's trade to prevent his running away and 
going to sea, and also because of the numer- 
ous family his parents had to support (there 
being seventeen children, Benjamin being 
the fifteenth). He was a great reader, and 
soon developed a taste for writing, and pre- 
pared a number of articles and had them 
published in the paper without his brother's 
knowledge, and when the authorship be- 
came known it resulted in difficulty for the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



;o 



young apprentice, although his articles had 
been received with favor by the public. 
James was afterwards thrown into prison for 
political reasons, and young Benjamin con- 
ducted the paper alone during the time. In 
1823, however, he determined to endure his 
bonds no longer, and ran away, going to 
Philadelphia, where he arrived with only 
three pence as his store of wealth. With 
these he purchased three rolls, and ate them 
as he walked along the streets. He soon 
found employment as a journeyman printer. 
Two years later he was sent to England by 
the governor of Pennsylvania, and was 
promised the public printing, but did not get 
it. On his return to Philadelphia he estab- 
lished the "Pennsylvania Gazette," and 
soon found himself a person of great popu- 
larity in the province, his ability as a writer, 
philosopher, and politician having reached 
the neighboring colonies. He rapidly grew 
in prominence, founded the Philadelphia Li- 
brary in 1842, and two years later the 
American Philosophical Society and the 
University of Pennsylvania. He was made 
Fellow of the Royal Society in London in 
1775. His world-famous investigations in 
electricity and lightning began in 1746. He 
became postmaster-general of the colonies 
in 1753, having devised an inter-colonial 
postal system. He advocated the rights of 
the colonies at all times, and procured the 
repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. He was 
elected to the Continental congress of 1775, 
and in 1776 was a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, being one of the commit- 
tee appointed to draft that paper. He rep- 
resented the new nation in the courts of 
Europe, especially at Paris, where his simple 
dignity and homely wisdom won him the 
admiration of the court and the favor of the 
people. He was governor of Pennsylvania 
four years; was also a member of the con- 



vention in 1787 that drafted the constitution 
of the United States. 

His writings upon political topics, anti- 
slavery, finance, and economics, stamp him 
as one of the greatest statesmen of his time, 
while his "Autobiography" and "Poor 
Richard's Almanac " give him precedence in 
the Uterary field. In early life he was an 
avowed skeptic in religious matters, but 
later in life his utterances on this subject 
were less extreme, though he never ex- 
pressed approval of any sect or creed. He 
died in Philadelphia April 17, 1790. 



DANIEL WEBSTER.— Of world wide 
reputation for statesmanship, diplo- 
macy, and oratory, there is perhaps no more 
prominent figure in the history of our coun- 
try in the interval between 1 81 5 and 1 86 1, 
than Daniel Webster. He was born at 
Salisbury (now Franklin), New Hampshire, 
January 18, 1782, and was the second son 
of Ebenezer and Abigail (Eastman) Webster. 
He enjoyed but limited educational advan- 
tages in childhood, but spent a few months 
in 1797, at Phillip Exeter Academy. He 
completed his preparation for college in the 
family of Rev. Samuel Wood, at Boscawen, 
and entered Dartmouth College in the fall 
of 1797. He supported himself most of the 
time during these years by teaching school 
and graduated in 1801, having the credit of 
being the foremost scholar of his class. He 
entered the law office of Hon. Thomas W. 
Thompson, at Salisbury. In 1802 he con- 
tinued his legal studies at Fryeburg, Maine, 
where he was principal of the academy and 
copyist in ahe office of the register of 
deeds. In the office of Christopher Gore, 
at Boston, he completed his studies in 
1804-5, ^"d was admitted to the bar in the 
latter year, and at Boscawen and at Ports- 
mouth soon rose to eminence in his profes- 



20 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



sion. He became known as a federalist 
but did not court political honors; but, at- 
tracting attention by his eloquence in oppos- 
ing the war with England, he was elected 
to congress in 1812. During the special 
session of May, 181 3, he was appointed on 
the committee on foreign affairs and made 
his maiden speech June 10, 181 3. Through- 
out this session (as afterwards) he showed 
his mastery of the great economic questions 
of the day. He was re-elected in 1814. In 
1 8 16 he removed to Boston and for seven 
years devoted himself to his profession, 
earning by his arguments in the celebrated 
"Dartmouth College Case" rank among 
the most distinguished jurists of the country. 
In 1820 Mr. Webster was chosen a member 
of the state convention of Massachusetts, to 
revise the constitution. The same year he 
delivered the famous discourse on the " Pil- 
grim fathers," which laid the foundation for 
his fame as an orator. Declining a nomi- 
nation for United States senator, in 1822 he 
was elected to the lower house of congress 
and was re-elected in 1824 and 1826, but in 
1827 was transferred to the senate. He 
retained his seat in the latter chamber until 
1 841. During this time his voice was ever 
lifted in defence of the national life and 
honor and although politically opposed to 
him he gave his support to the administra- 
tion of President Jackson in the latter's con- 
test with nullification. Through all these 
years he was ever found upon the side of 
right and justice and his speeches upon all 
the great questions of the day have be- 
come household words in almost every 
family. In 1841 Mr. Webster was appointed 
secretary of state by President Harrison 
and was continued in the same office by 
President Tyler. While an incumbent of 
this office he showed consummate ability as 
a diplomat in the negotiation of the " Ash- 



burton treaty " of August 9, 1849, which 
settled many points of dispute between the 
United States and England. In May, 1S43, 
he resigned his post and resumed his pro- 
fession, and in December, 1845, took his 
place again in the senate. He contributed 
in an unofficial way to the solution of the 
Oregon question with Great Britain in 1847. 
He was disappointed in 1848 in not receiv- 
ing the nomination for the presidency. He 
became secretary of state under President 
Fillmore in 1850 and in dealing with all the 
complicated questions of the day showed a 
wonderful mastery of the arts of diplomacy. 
Being hurt in an accident he retired to his 
home at Marshfield, where he died Octo- 
ber 24, 1852. 

HORACE GREELEY. —As journalist, 
author, statesman and political leader, 
there is none more widely known than the 
man whose name heads this article. He 
was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, Feb- 
ruary 3, 181 1; and was reared upon a farm. 
At an early age he evinced a remarkable 
intelligence and love of learning, and at 
the age of ten had read every book he could 
borrow for miles around. About 1821 the 
family removed to Westhaven, Vermont, 
and for some years young Greeley assisted 
in carrying on the farm. In 1826 he entered 
the office of a weekly newspaper at East 
Poultney, Vermont, where he remained 
about four years. On the discontinuance 
of this paper he followed his father's 
family to Erie county, Pennsylvania, 
whither they had moved, and for a time 
worked at the printer's trade in that neigh- 
borhood. In 183 1 Horace went to New 
York City, and for a time found employ- 
ment as journeyman printer. January, 
1833, in partnership with Francis Story, he 
published the Morning Post, the first penny 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



21 



paper ever printed. This proved a failure 
and was discontinued after three weeks. 
The business of job printing was carried on, 
however, until the death of Mr. Story in 
July following. In company with Jonas 
Winchester, March 22, 1834, Mr. Greeley 
commenced the publication of the New 
Yorker, a weekly paper of a high character. 
For financial reasons, at the same time, 
Greeley wrote leaders for other papers, and, 
in 1838, took editorial charge of the Jeffcr- 
sonian, a Whig paper published at Albany. 
In 1840, on the discontinuance of that sheet, 
he devoted his energies to the Log Cabin, a 
campaign paper in the interests of the Whig 
party. In the fall of 1841 the latter paper 
was consolidated with the New Yorker, un- 
der the name of the Tribune, the first num- 
ber of which was issued April 10, 1841. At 
the head of this paper Mr. Greeley remained 
until the day of his death. 

In 1848 Horace Greeley was elected to 
the national house of representatives to 
fill a vacancy, and was a member of that 
body until March 4, 1849. In 185 1 he went 
to Europe and served as a juror at the 
World's Fair at the Crystal Palace, Lon- 
don. In 1855, he made a second visit to 
the old world. In 1859 he crossed the 
plains and received a public reception at 
San Francisco and Sacramento. He was a 
member of the Republican national con- 
vention, at Chicago in i860, and assisted in 
the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for 
President. The same year he was a presi- 
dential elector for the state of New York, 
and a delegate to the Loyalist convention 
at Philadelphia. 

At the close of the war, in 1865, Mr. 
Greeley became a strong advocate of uni- 
versal amnesty and complete pacification, 
and in pursuance of this consented to be- 
come one of the bondsmen for Jefferson 



Davis, who was imprisoned for treason. In 
1867 he was a delegate to the New York 
state convention for the revision of the 
constitution. In 1870 he was defeated for 
congress in the Sixth New York district. 
At the Liberal convention, which met in 
Cincinnati, in May, 1872, on the fifth ballot 
Horace Greeley was nominated for presi- 
dent and July following was nominated for 
the same office by the Democratic conven- 
tion at Baltimore. He was defeated by a 
large majority. The large amount of work 
done by him during the campaign, together 
with the loss of his wife about the same 
time, undermined his strong constitution, 
and he was seized with inflammation of the 
brain, and died November 29, 1872. 

In addition to his journalistic work, Mr. 
Greeley was the author of several meritori- 
ous works, among which were: " HinU 
toward reform," "Glances at Europe," 
' ' History of the struggle for slavery exten 
sion," "Overland journey to San Francis- 
co," "The American conflict," and " Rec 
oUections of a busy life." 



HENRY CLAY.— In writing of this em- 
inent American, Horace Greeley once 
said: "He was a matchless party chief, an 
admirable orator, a skillful legislator, wield- 
ing unequaled influence, not only over his 
friends, but even over those of his political 
antagonists who were subjected to the magic 
of his conversation and manners. " A law- 
yer, legislator, orator, and statesman, few 
men in history have wielded greater influ- 
ence, or occupied so prominent a place in 
the hearts of the generation in which they 
lived. 

Henry Clay was born near Richmond, 
in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 
1777, the son of a poor Baptist preacher 
who died when Henry was but five years 



22 



C OMPENDl L'M OF BJ O GRA PUT. 



old. The mother married again about ten 
years later and removed to Kentucky leav- 
ing Henry a clerk in a store at Richmond. 
Soon afterward Henry Clay secured a posi- 
tion as copyist in the office of the clerk of the 
high court of chancery, and four years later 
entered the law office of Robert Brooke, 
then attorney general and later governor of 
his native state. In 1797 Henry Clay was 
licensed as a lawyer and followed his mother 
to Kentucky, opening an office at Lexington 
and soon built up a profitable practice. 
Soon afterward Kentucky, in separating from 
Virginia, called a state convention for the 
purpose of framing a constitution, and Clay 
at that time took a prominent part, publicly 
urging the adoption of a clause providing 
for the abolition of slavery, but in this he 
was overruled, as he was fifty years later, 
when in the height of his fame he again ad- 
vised the same course when the state con- 
stitution was revised in 1S50. Young Clay 
took a very active and conspicuous part in 
the presidential campaign in 1800, favoring 
the election of Jefferson; and in 1803 was 
chosen to represent Fayette county in the 
state legislature. In 1806 General John 
Adair, then United States senator from 
Kentucky, resigned and Henry Clay was 
elected to fill the vacancy by the legislature 
and served through one session in which he 
at once assumed a prominent place. In 
1807 he was again a representative in the 
legislature and was elected speaker of the 
house. At this time originated his trouble 
with Humphrey Marshall. Clay proposed 
that each member clothe himself and family 
wholly in American fabrics, which Marshall 
characterized as the " language of a dema- 
gogue." This led to a duel in which both 
parties were slightly injured. In 1809 
Henry Clay was again elected to fill a va- 
cancy in the United States senate, and two 



years later elected representative intne low- 
er house of congress, being chosen speaker 
of the house. About this time war was de- 
clared against Great Britain, and Clay took 
a prominent public place during this strug- 
gle and was later one of the commissioners 
sent to Europe by President Madison to ne- 
gotiate peace, returning in September, 181 5, 
having been re-elected speaker of the 
house during his absence, and was re-elect- 
ed unanimously. He was afterward re- 
elected to congress and then became secre- 
tary of state under John Quincy Adams. 
In 1 83 I he was again elected senator from 
Kentucky and remained in the senate most 
of the time until his death. 

Henry Clay was three times a candidate 
for the presidency, and once very nearly 
elected. He was the unanimous choice of 
the Whig party in 1844 for the presidency, 
and a great effort was made to elect him 
but without success, his opponent, James K. 
Polk, carrying both Pennsylvania and New 
York by a very slender margin, while either 
of them alone would have elected Clay. 
Henry Clay died at Washington June 29, 
1S52. 

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE was one 
of the most distinguished of American 
statesmen and legislators. He was born 
January 31, 1830, in Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, and received a thorough edu- 
cation, graduating at Washington College in 
1847. In early life he removed to Maine 
and engaged in newspaper work, becoming 
editor of the Portland ' 'Advertiser. " While 
yet a young man he gained distinction as a 
debater and became a conspicuous figure in 
political and public affairs. In 1862 he was 
elected to congress on the Republican ticket 
in Maine and was re-elected five times. In 
March, 1869, he was chosen speaker of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



23 



house of representatives and was re-elected 
in 1871 and again in 1873. In 1876 he was 
a representative in the lower house of con- 
gress and during that year was appointed 
United States senator by the Governor to 
fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of 
Senator Morrill, who had been appointed 
secretary of the treasury. Mr. Blaine 
served in the senate until March 5, 1881, 
when President Garfield appointed him sec- 
retary of state, which position he resigned 
in December, 1881. Mr. Blaine was nom- 
inated for the presidency by the Republic- 
ans, at Chicago in June, 1884, but was de- 
feated by Grover Cleveland after an exciting 
and spirited campaign. During the later 
years of his life Mr. Blaine devoted most of 
his time to the completion of his work 
"Twenty Years in Congress," which had a 
remarkably large sale throughout the United 
States. Blaine was a man of great mental 
ability and force of character and during the 
latter part of his life was one of the most 
noted men of his time. He was the origina- 
tor of what is termed the " reciprocity idea" 
in tariff matters, and outlined the plan of 
carrying it into practical effect. In 1876 
Robert G. Ingersoll in making a nominating 
speech placing Blaine's name as a candidate 
for president before the national Republican 
convention at Cincinnati, referred to Blaine 
as the " Plumed Knight " and this title clung 
to him during the remainder of his life. His 
death occurred at Washington, January 27, 
1893- 

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN, a dis- 
<j tinguished American statesman, was a 
native of South Carolina, born in Abbeville 
district, March 18, 1782. He was given 
the advantages of a thorough education, 
graduating at Yale College in 1804, and 
adopted the calling of a lawyer. A Demo- 



crat politically, at that time, he took a fore- 
most part in the councils of his party and 
was elected to congress in 181 1, supporting 
the tariff of 1 8 16 and the establishing of 
the United States Bank. In 18 17 he be- 
came secretary of war in President Monroe's 
cabinet, and in 1824 was elected vice-president 
of the United States, on the ticket with John 
Quincy Adams, and re-elected in 1 828, on the 
ticket with General Jackson. Shortly after 
this Mr. Calhoun became one of the strongest 
advocates of free trade and the principle of 
sovereignty of the states and was one of 
the originators of the doctrine that "any 
state could nullify unconstitutional laws of 
congress." Meanwhile Calhoun had be- 
come an aspirant for the presidency, and 
the fact that General Jackson advanced the 
interests of his opponent, Van Buren, led 
to a quarrel, and Calhoun resigned the vice- 
presidency in 1832 and was elected United 
States senator from South Carolina. It was 
during the same year that a convention was 
held in South Carolina at which the " Nul- 
lification ordinance " was adopted, the ob- 
ject of which was to test the constitution- 
ality of the protective tariff measures, and 
to prevent if possible the collection of im- 
port duties in that state which had been 
levied more for the purpose of ' ' protection " 
than revenue. This ordinance was to go 
into effect in February, 1833, and created a 
great deal of uneasiness throughout the 
country as it was feared there would be a 
clash between the state and federal authori- 
ties. It was in this serious condition of 
public affairs that Henry Clay came forward 
with the the famous "tariff compromise" 
of 1833, to which measure Calhoun and 
most of his followers gave their support and 
the crisis was averted. In 1843 Mr. Cal- 
houn was appointed secretary of state in 
President Tyler's cabinet, and it was under 



24 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



his administration that the treaty concern- 
ing the annexation of Texas was negotiated. 
In 1845 he was re-elected to the United 
States senate and continued in the senate 
until his death, which occurred in March, 
1850. He occupied a high rank as a scholar, 
student and orator, and it is conceded that 
he was one of the greatest debaters America 
has produced. The famous debate between 
Calhoun and Webster, in 1833, is regarded 
as the most noted for ability and eloquence 
in the history of the country. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER, one 
of America's most brilliant and pro- 
found lawyers and noted public men, was 
a native of New England, born at Deer- 
field, New Hampshire, November 5, 1818. 
His father. Captain John Butler, was a 
prominent man in his day, commanded a 
company during the war of 1812, and 
served under Jackson at New Orleans. 
Benjamin F. Butler was given an excellent 
education, graduated at Waterville College, 
Maine, studied law, was admitted to the 
bar in 1840, at Lowell, Massachusetts, 
where he commenced the practice of his 
profession and gained a wide reputation for 
his ability at the bar, acquiring an extensive 
practice and a fortune. Early in life he 
began taking an active interest in military 
affairs and served in the state militia through 
all grades from private to brigadier-general. 
In 1853 he was elected to the state legisla- 
ture on the Democratic ticket in Lowell, 
and took a prominent part in the passage of 
legislation in the interests of labor. Dur- 
ing the same year he was a member of the 
constitutional convention, and in 1859 rep- 
resented his district in the Massachusetts 
senate. When the Civil war broke out 
General Butler took the field and remained 
at the front most of the time during that 



bloody struggle. Part of the time he had 
charge of Fortress Monroe, and in Febru- 
ary, 1862, took command of troops forming 
part of the expedition against New Orleans, 
and later had charge of the department of 
the Gulf. He was a conspicuous figure dur- 
ing the continuance of the war. After the 
close of hostilities General Butler resumed 
his law practice in Massachusetts and in 
1866 was elected to congress from the Es- 
sex district. In 1882 he was elected gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, and in 1884 was the 
nominee of the " Greenback" party for 
president of the United States. He con- 
tinued his legal practice, and maintained his 
place as one of the most prominent men in 
New England until the time of his death, 
which occurred January 10, 1893. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS, an officer, states- 
man and legislator of prominence in 
America, gained the greater part of his fame 
from the fact that he was president of the 
southern confederacy. Mr. Davis was born 
in Christian county. Kentucky, June 3, 
1808, and his early education and surround- 
ings were such that his sympathies and in- 
clinations were wholly with the southern 
people. He received a thorough education, 
graduated at West Point in 1828, and for a 
number of years served in the army at west- 
ern posts and in frontier service, first as 
lieutenant and later as adjutant. In 1835 
he resigned and became a cotton planter in 
Warren county, Mississippi, where he took 
an active interest in public affairs and be- 
came a conspicuous figure in politics. In 
1844 he was a presidential elector from 
Mississippi and during the two following 
years served as congressman from his dis- 
trict. He then became colonel of a Missis- 
sippi regiment in the war with Mexico ana 
participated in some of the most severe va\.- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



25 



ties, being seriously wounded at Buena 
Vista. Upon his return to private life he 
again took a prominent part in political af- 
fairs and represented his state in the United 
States senate from 184710 185 1. He then 
entered President Pierce's cabinet as secre- 
tary of war, after which he again entered 
the United States senate, remaining until 
the outbreak of the Civil war. He then be- 
came president of the southern confederacy 
and served as such until captured in May, 
1865, at Irwinville, Georgia. He was held 
as prisoner of war at Fortress Monroe, until 
1867, when he was released on bail and 
finally set free in 1868. His death occurred 
December 6, 1889. 

Jefferson Davis was a man of excellent 
abilities and was recognized as one of the 
best organizers of his day. He was a 
forceful and fluent speaker and a ready 
writer. He wrote and published the " Rise 
and Fall of the Southern Confederacy," a 
work which is considered as authority by 
the southern people. 



JOHN ADAMS, the second president of 
the United States, and one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the early struggles of 
his country for independence, was born in 
the present town of Quincy, then a portion 
of Braintree, Massachusetts, October 30, 
1735. He received a thorough education, 
graduating at Harvard College in 1755, 
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 
1758. He was well adapted for this profes- 
sion and after opening an ofBce in his native 
town rapidly grew in prominence and public 
favor and soon was regarded as one of the 
leading lawyers of the country. His atten- 
tion was called to political affairs by the 
passage of the Stamp Act, in 1765, and he 
drew up a set of resolutions on the subject 
which were very popular. In 1768 he re- 



moved to Boston and became one of the 
most courageous and prominent advocates 
of the popular cause and was chosen a 
member of the Colonial legislature from 
Boston. He was one of the delegates that 
represented Massachusetts in the first Con- 
tinental congress, which met in September, 
1774. In a letter written at this crisis he 
uttered the famous words: "The die is now 
cast; I have passed the Rubicon. Sink or 
swim, live or die, survive or perish with my 
country, is my unalterable determination." 
He was a prominent figure in congress and 
advocated the movement for independence 
when a majority of the members were in- 
clined to temporize and to petition the King. 
In May, 1776, he presented a resolution in 
congress that the colonies should assume 
the duty of self-government, which was 
passed. In June, of the same year, a reso- 
lution that the United States "are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent," 
was moved by Richard H. Lee, seconded by 
Mr. Adams and adopted by a small majority. 
Mr. Adams was a member of the committee 
of five appointed June 1 1 to prepare a 
declaration of independence, in support of 
which he made an eloquent speech. He was 
chairman of the Board of War in 1776 and 
in 1 778 was sent as commissioner to France, 
but returned the following year. In 1780 
he went to Europe, having been appointed 
as minister to negotiate a treaty of peace 
and commerce with Great Britain. Con- 
jointly with Franklin and Jay he negotiated 
a treaty in 1782. He was employed as a 
minister to the Court of St. James from 
1785 to 1788, and during that period wrote 
his famous "Defence of the American Con- 
stitutions." In 1789 he became vice-presi- 
dent of the United States and was re-elected 
in 1792. 

In 1796 Mr. Adams was chosen presi- 



20 



COMPENDILM OF BIOGRAPIIV. 



dent of the United States, his competitor 
being Thomas Jefferson, who became vice- 
president. In 1800 he was the Federal 
candidate for president, but he was not 
cordially supported by Gen. Hamilton, the 
favorite leader of his party, and was de- 
feated by Thomas Jefferson. 

Mr. Adams then retired from public life 
to his large estate at Quincy, Mass., where 
he died July 4, 1826, on the same day that 
witnessed the death of Thomas Jefferson. 
Though his physical frame began to give way 
many years before his death, his mental 
powers retained their strength and vigor to 
the last. In his ninetieth year he was glad- 
dened by .the elevation of his son, John 
Quincy Adams, to the presidential office. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER, one of the 
most celebrated American preachers 
and authors, was born at Litchfield, Connec- 
ticut, June 24, 1813. His father was Dr. Ly- 
man Beecher, also an eminent divine. At 
an early age Henry Ward Beecher had a 
strong predilection for a sea-faring life, and 
it was practically decided that he would fol- 
low this inclination, but about this time, in 
consequence of deep religious impressions 
which he experienced during a revival, he 
renounced his former intention and decided 
to enter the ministry. After having grad- 
uated at Amherst College, in 1834, he stud- 
ied theology at Lane Seminary under the 
tuition of his father, who was then president 
of that institution. In 1847 he became pas- 
tor of the Plymouth Congregational church 
in Brooklyn, where his oratorical ability and 
original eloquence attracted one of the larg- 
est congregations in the country. He con- 
tinued to served this church until the time 
of his death, March 8, 1887. Mr. Beecher 
also found time for a great amount of liter- 
ary work For a number of years he was 



editor of the "Independent" and also the 
"Christian Union." He also produced many 
works which are widely known. Among his 
principal productions are "Lectures to Young 
Men," " Star Papers, " "Life of Christ," 
"Life Tiioughts," "Royal Truths" (a 
novel), "Norwood," " Evolution and Rev- 
olution," and "Sermons on Evolution and 
Religion. " Mr. Beecher was also long a 
prominent advocate of anti-slavery princi- 
ples and temperance reform, and, at a later 
period, of the rights of women. 



JOHN A. LOGAN, the illustrious states- 
man and general, was born in Jackson 
county, Illinois, February 9, 1824. In his 
boyhood days he received but a limited edu- 
cation in the schools of his native county. 
On the breaking out of the war with Mexico 
he enlisted in the First Illinois Volunteers 
and became its quartermaster. At the close 
of hostilities he returned home and was 
elected clerk of the courts of Jackson county 
in 1849. Determining to supplement his 
education Logan entered the Louisville Uni- 
versity, from which he graduated in 1852 
and taking up the study of law was admitted 
to the bar. He attained popularity and suc- 
cess in his chosen profession and was elected 
to the legislature in 1852, 1853, 1856 and 
1857. He was prosecuting attorney from 
1853 to 1857. He was elected to congress 
in 1858 to hll a vacancy and again in i860. 
At the outbreak of the Rebellion, Logan re- 
signed his office and entered the army, and 
in September, 1861, was appointed colonel 
of the Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, which he 
led in the battles of Belmont and Fort Don- 
elson. In the latter engagement he was 
wounded. In March, 1862, he was pro- 
moted to be brigadier-general and in the 
following month participated in the battles 
of Pittsburg Landing. In November, 1862, 



COM/'ENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



29 



for gallant conduct he was made major-gen- 
eral. Throughout the Vicksburg campaign 
he was in command of a division of the Sev- 
enteenth Corps and was distinguished at 
Port Gibson, Champion Hills and in the 
siege and capture of Vicksburg. In October, 
1863, he was placed in command of the 
Fifteenth Corps, which he led with great 
credit. During the terrible conflict before 
Atlanta, July 22, 1864, on the death of 
General McPherson, Logan, assuming com- 
mand of the Army of the Tennessee, led it 
on to victory, saving the day by his energy 
and ability. He was shortly after succeeded 
by General O. O. Howard and returned to 
the command of his corps. He remained 
in command until the presidential election, 
when, feeling that his influence was needed 
at home he returned thither and there re- 
mained until the arrival of Sherman at Sa- 
vannah, when General Logan rejoined his 
command. In May, 1865, he succeeded 
General Howard at the head of the Army of 
the Tennessee. He resigned from the army 
in August, the same year, and in November 
was appointed minister to Mexico, but de- 
clined the honor. He served in the lower 
house of the fortieth and forty-first con- 
gresses, and was elected United States sena- 
tor from his native state in 1870, 1S78 and 
1885. He was nominated for the vice-presi- 
dency in 1884 on the ticket with Blaine, but 
was defeated. General Logan was the 
author of "The Great Conspiracy, its origin 
and history," published in 1885. He died 
at Washington, December 26, 1886. 



JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, the first 
Republican candidate for president, was 
born in Savannah, Georgia, January 21, 
18 1 3. He graduated from Charleston Col- 
lege (South Carolina) in 1830, and turned his 

attention to civil engineering. He was shortly 
2 



afterward employed in the department of 
government surveys on the Mississippi, and 
constructing maps of that region. He was 
made lieutenant of engineers, and laid be- 
fore the war department a plan for pene- 
trating the Rocky Mountain regions, which 
was accepted, and in 1842 he set out upon 
his first famous exploring expedition and ex- 
plored the South Pass. He also planned an 
expedition to Oregon by a new route further 
south, but afterward joined his expedition 
with that of Wilkes in the region of the 
Great Salt Lake. He made a later expedi- 
tion which penetrated the Sierra Nevadas, 
and the San Joaquin and Sacramento river 
valleys, making maps of all regions explored. 
In 1845 he conducted the great expedi- 
tion which resulted in the acquisition of 
California, which it was believed the Mexi- 
can government was about to dispose of to 
England. Learning that the Mexican gov- 
ernor was preparing to attack the American 
settlements in his dominion, Fremont deter- 
mined to forestall him. The settlers rallied 
to his camp, and in June, 1846, he defeated 
the Mexican forces at Sonoma Pass, and a 
month later completely routed the governor 
and his entire army. The Americans at 
once declared their independence of Mexico, 
and Fremont was elected governor of Cali- 
fornia. By this time Commodore Stockton 
had reached the coast with instructions from 
Washington to conquer California. Fre- 
mont at once joined him in that effort, which 
resulted in the annexation of California with 
its untold mineral wealth. Later Fremont 
became involved in a difficulty with fellow 
officers which resulted in a court martial, 
and the surrender of his commission. He 
declined to accept reinstatement. He af- 
terward laid out a great road from the Mis- 
sissippi river to San Francisco, and became 
the first United States senator from Califor- 



80 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



nia, in 1849. In 1856 he was nominated 
by the new Republican party as its first can- 
didate for president against Buchanan, and 
received 114 electoral votes, out of 296. 

In 1 86 1 he was made major-general and 
placed in charge of the western department. 
He planned the reclaiming of the entire 
Mississippi valley, and gathered an army of 
thirty thousand men, with plenty of artil- 
lery, and was ready to move upon the con- 
federate General Price, when he was de- 
prived of his command. He was nominated 
for the presidency at Cincinnati in 1864, but 
withdrew. He was governor of Arizona in 
1878, holding the position four years. He 
was interested in an engineering enterprise 
looking toward a great southern trans-con- 
tinental railroad, and in his later years also 
practiced law in New York. He died July 1 3, 
1890. 

WENDELL PHILLIPS, the orator and 
abolitionist, and a conspicuous figure 
in American history, was born November 
29, 181 1, at Boston, Massachusetts. He 
received a good education at Harvard 
College, from which he graduated in 1831, 
and then entered the Cambridge Law School. 
After completing his course in that institu- 
tion, in 1833, he was admitted to the bar, 
in 1834, at Suffolk. He entered the arena 
of life at the time when the forces of lib- 
erty and slavery had already begun their 
struggle that was to culminate in the Civil 
war. William Lloyd Garrison, by his clear- 
headed, courageous declarations of the anti- 
slavery principles, had done much to bring 
about this struggle. Mr. Phillips was not a 
man that could stand aside and see a great 
struggle being carried on in the interest of 
humanity and look passively on. He first 
attracted attention as an orator in 1837, at 
a meeting that was called to protest against 



the murder of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. 
The meeting would have ended in a few 
perfunctory resolutions had not Mr. Phillips 
by his manly eloquence taken the meeting 
out of the hands of the few that were in- 
clined to temporize and avoid radical utter- 
ances. Having once started out in this ca- 
reer as an abolitionist Phillips never swerved 
from what he deemed his duty, and never 
turned back. He gave up his legal practice 
and launched himself heart and soul in the 
movement for the liberation of the slaves. 
He was an orator of very great ability and 
by his earnest efforts and eloquence he did 
much in arousing public sentiment in behalf 
of the anti-slavery cause — possibly more 
than any one man of his time. After the 
abolition of slavery Mr. Phillips was, if pos- 
sible, even busier than before m the literary 
and lecture field. Besides temperance and 
women's rights, he lectured often and wrote 
much on finance, and the relations of labor 
and capital, and his utterances on whatever 
subject always bore the stamp of having 
emanated from a master mind. Eminent 
critics have stated that it might fairly be 
questioned whether there has ever spoken 
in America an orator superior to Phillips. 
The death of this great man occurred Feb- 
ruary 4, 1884. 



WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN 
was one of the greatest generals that 
the world has ever produced and won im- 
mortal fame by that strategic and famous 
" march to the sea," in the war of the Re- 
bellion. He was born February 8, 1820, at 
Lancaster, Ohio, and was reared in the 
family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, as his 
father died when he was but nine years of 
age. He entered West Point in 1836, wa? 
graduated from the same in 1840, and ap- 
pointed a second lieutenant in the Third 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



31 



Artillery. He passed through the various 
grades of the service and at the outbreak of 
the Civil war was appointed colonel of the 
Thirteenth Regular Infantry. A full history 
of General Sherman's conspicuous services 
would be to repeat a history of the army. 
He commanded a division at Shiloh, and 
was instrumental in the winning of that bat- 
tle, and was also present at the siege of Vicks- 
burg. On July 4, 1863, he was appointed 
brigadier-general of the regular army, and 
shared with Hooker the victory of Mission- 
ary Ridge. He was commander of the De- 
partment of the Tennessee from October 
27th until the appointment of General 
Grant as lieutenant-general, by whom he 
was appointed to the command of the De- 
partment of the Mississippi, which he as- 
sumed in March, 1864. He at once began 
organizing the army and enlarging his com- 
munications preparatory to his march upon 
Atlanta, which he started the same time of 
the beginning of the Richmond campaign by 
Grant. He started on May 6, and was op- 
posed by Johnston, who had fifty thousand 
men, but by consummate generalship, he 
captured Atlanta, on September 2, after 
several months of hard fighting and a severe 
loss of men. General Sherman started on 
his famous march to the sea November 15, 
1864, and by December 10 he was before 
Savannah, which he took on December 23. 
This campaign is a monument to the genius 
of General Sherman as he only lost 567 
men from Atlanta to the sea. After rest- 
ing his army he moved northward and occu- 
pied the following places: Columbia, 
Cheravv, Fayetteville, Ayersboro, Benton- 
ville, Goldsboro, Raleigh, and' April 18, he 
accepted the surrender of Johnston's army 
on a basis of agreement that was not re- 
ceived by the Government with favor, but 
finally accorded Johnston the same terms as 



Lee was given by General Grant. He was 
present at the grand review at Washington, 
and after the close of the war was appointed 
to the command of the military division of 
the Mississippi; later was appointed lieu- 
tenant-general, and assigned to the military 
division of the Missouri. When General 
Grant was elected president Sherman became 
general, March 4, 1869, and succeeded to 
the command of the army. His death oc- 
curred February 14, 1891, at Washington. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON, one of the 
most prominent of the early American 
statesmen and financiers, was born in Nevis, 
an island of the West Indies, January 11, 
1757, his father being a Scotchman and his 
mother of Huguenot descent. Owing to the 
death of his mother and business reverses 
which came to his father, young Hamilton 
was sent to his mother's relatives in Santa 
Cruz; a few years later was sent to a gram- 
mar school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
and in 1773 entered what is now known as 
Columbia College. Even at that time he 
began taking an active part in public affairs 
and his speeches, pamphlets, and newspaper 
articles on political affairs of the day at- 
tracted considerable attention. In 1776 he 
received a captain's commission and served 
in Washington's army with credit, becoming 
aide-de-camp to Washington with rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. In 1 781 he resigned his 
commission because of a rebuke from Gen- 
eral Washington. He next received com- 
mand of a New York battalion and partici- 
pated in the battle of Yorktown. After 
this Hamilton studied law, served several 
terms in congress and was a member of the 
convention at which the Federal Constitu- 
tion was drawn up. His work connected 
with " The Federalist " at about this time 
attracted much attention. Mr. Hamilton 



32 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



was chosen as the first secretary of the 
United States treasury and as such was the 
author of the funding system and founder of 
the United States Bank. In 1798 he was 
made inspector-general of the army with the 
rank of major-general and was also for a 
short time commander-in-chief. In 1804 
Aaron Burr, then candidate for governor of 
New York, challenged Alexander Hamilton 
to fight a duel, Burr attributing his defeat 
to Hamilton's opposition, and Hamilton, 
though declaring the code as a relic of bar- 
barism, accepted the challenge. They met 
at Weehawken, New Jersey, July 11, 1804. 
Hamilton declined to fire at his adversary, 
but at Burr's first fire was fatally wounded 
and died July 12, 1804. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPH- 
ENS, vice-president of the southern 
confederacy, a former United States senator 
and governor of Georgia, ranks among the 
great menof American history. He was born 
February 11, 18 12, near Crawfordsville, 
Georgia. He was a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Georgia, and admitted to the bar 
in 1834. In 1837 he made his debut in 
political life as a member of the state house 
of representatives, and in 1 841 declined the 
nomination for the same office; but in 1842 
he was chosen by the same constituency as 
state senator. Mr. Stephens was one of 
the promoters of the Western and Atlantic 
Railroad. In 1843 he was sent by his dis- 
trict to the national house of representatives, 
which office he held for sixteen consec- 
utive years. He was a member of the 
house during the passing of the Compromise 
Bill, and was one of its ablest and most 
active supporters. The same year (1850) 
Mr. Stephens was a delegate to the state 
convention that framed the celebrated 
" Georgia Platform," and was also a dele- 



gate to the convention that passed the ordi- 
nance of secession, though he bitterly op- 
posed that bill by voice and vote, yet he 
readily acquiesced in their decision after 
it received the votes of the majority of the 
convention. He was chosen vice-president 
of the confederacy without opposition, and 
in 1865 he was the head of the commis- 
sion sent by the south to the Hampton 
Roads conference. He was arrested after 
the fall of the confederacy and was con- 
fined in Fort Warren as a prisoner of state 
but was released on his own parole. Mr. 
Stephens was elected to the forty-third, 
forty-fourth, forty-fifth, forty-sixth and for- 
ty-seventh congresses, with hardly more than 
nominal opposition. He was one of the 
Jeffersonian school of American politics. 
He wrote a number of works, principal 
among which are: "Constitutional View 
of the War between the States," and a 
' ' Compendium of the History of the United 
States." He was inaugurated as governor 
of Georgia November 4th, 1882, but died 
March 4, 1883, before the completion of 
his term. 

ROSCOE CONKLING was one of the 
most noted and famous of American 
statesmen. He was among the most fin- 
ished, fluent and eloquent orators that have 
ever graced the halls of the American con- 
gress; ever ready, witty and bitter in de- 
bate he was at once admired and feared by 
his political opponents and revered by his 
followers. True to his friends, loyal to the 
last degree to those with whom his inter- 
ests were associated, he was unsparing to his 
foes and it is said "never forgot an injury." 
Roscoe Conkling was born at Albany, 
New York, on the 30th of October, 1829, 
being a son of Alfred Conkling. Alfred 
Conkhng was also a native of New York, 



COMPENDIUM OF RIOGRAPHT. 



S3 



born at East Hampton, October 12, 1789, 
and became one of the most eminent law- 
yers in the Empire state; published several 
legal works; served a term in congress; aft- 
erward as United States district judge for 
Northern New York, and in 1852 was min- 
ister to Mexico. Alfred Conkling died in 

1874- 

Roscoe Conkling, whose name heads 
this article, at an early age took up the 
study of law and soon became successful and 
prominent at the bar. About 1846 he re- 
moved to Utica and in 1S58 was elected 
mayor of that city. He was elected repre- 
sentative in congress from this district and 
was re-elected three times. In 1867 he was 
elected United States senator from the state 
of New York and was re-elected in 1873 
and 1879. In May, 1881, he resigned on 
account of differences with the president. 
In March, 1882, he was appointed and con- 
firmed as associate justice of the United 
States supreme court but declined to serve. 
His death occurred April 18, 1888. 



WASHINGTON IRVING, one of the 
most eminent, talented and popu- 
lar of American authors, was born in New 
York City, April 3, 1783. His father was 
William Irving, a merchant and a native of 
Scotland, who had married an English lady 
and emigrated to America some twenty 
years prior to the birth of Washington. 
Two of the older sons, William and Peter, 
were partially occupied with newspaper 
work and literary pursuits, and this fact 
naturally inclined Washington to follow 
their example. Washington Irving was given 
the advantages afforded by the common 
schools until about sixteen years of age 
when he began studying law, but continued 
to acquire his literary training by diligent 
perusal at home of the older English writers. 



When nineteen he made his first literary 
venture by printing in the ' ' Morning Chroni- 
cle," then edited by his brother. Dr. Peter 
Irving, a series of local sketches under the 
noui-dc-pluinc oi " Jonathan Oldstyle." In 
1804 he began an extensive trip through 
Europe, returned in 1806, quickly com- 
pleted his legal studies and was admitted to 
the bar, but never practiced the profession. 
In 1807 he began the amusing serial "Sal- 
magundi," which had an immediate suc- 
cess, and not only decided his future 
career but long determined the charac- 
ter of his writings. In 1808, assisted by 
his brother Peter, he wrote " Knickerbock- 
er's History of New York," and in 1 810 an 
excellent biography of Campbell, the poet. 
After this, for some time, Irving's attention 
was occupied by mercantile interests, but 
the commercial house in which he was a 
partner failed in 18 17. In 18 14 he was 
editor of the Philadelphia "Analectic Maga- 
zine." About 181 8 appeared his "Sketch- 
Book," over the noni-de-plume of ' 'Geoffrey 
Crayon," which laid the foundation of Ir- 
ving's fortune and permanent fame. This 
was soon followed by the legends of 
"Sleepy Hollow," and " Rip Van Winkle," 
which at once took high rank as literary 
productions, and Irving's reputation was 
firmly established in both the old and new 
worlds. After this the path of Irving was 
smooth, and his subsequent writings ap- 
peared with rapidity, including "Brace- 
bridge Hall," "The Tales of a Traveler," 
" History of the Life and Voj'ages of Chris- 
topher Columbus," "The Conquest of 
Granada," "The Alhambra," "Tour on 
the Prairies," "Astoria," "Adventures of 
Captain Bonneville," " Wolfert's Roost," 
" Mahomet and his Successors," and "Life 
of Washington," besides other works. 

Washington Irving was never married. 



34 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He resided during the closing years of his 
Hfe at Sunnyside (Tarrytown) on the Hud- 
son, where he died November 28, 1859. 



CHARLES SUMNER.— Boldly outlined 
on the pages of our history stands out 
the rugged figure of Charles Sumner, states- 
man, lawyer and writer. A man of unim- 
peachable integrity, indomitable will and 
with the power of tireless toil, he was a fit 
leader in troublous times. First in rank as 
an anti-slavery leader in the halls of con- 
gress, he has stamped his image upon the 
annals of his time. As an orator he took 
front rank and, in wealth of illustration, 
rhetoric and lofty tone his eloquence equals 
anything to be found in history. 

Charles Sumner was born in Boston, 
Massachusetts, January 6, 181 1, and was 
the son of Charles P. and Relief J. Sumner. 
The family had long been prominent in that 
state. Charles was educated at the Boston 
Public Latin School; entered Harvard Col- 
lege in 1826, and graduated therefrom in 
1830. In 1 83 1 he joined the Harvard Law 
School, then under charge of Judge Story, 
and gave himself up to the study of law 
with enthusiasm. His leisure was devoted 
to contributing to the American Jurist. Ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1834 he was appointed 
reporter to the circuit court by Judge Story. 
He published several works about this time, 
and from 1835 to 1837 and again in 1843 
was lecturer in the law school. He had 
planned a lawyer's life, but in 1845 he gave 
his attention to politics, speaking and working 
against the admission of Texas to the Union 
and subsequently against the Mexican war. 
In 1848 he was defeated for congress on the 
Free Soil ticket. His stand on the anti- 
slavery question at that time alienated both 
friends and clients, but he never swerved 
from his convictions. In 1 85 1 he was elected 



to the United States senate and took his 
seat therein December i of that year. From 
this time his life became the history of the 
anti-slavery cause in congress. In August, 
1852, he began his attacks on slavery by a 
masterly argument for the repeal of the 
fugitive slave law. On May 22, 1856, Pres- 
ton Brooks, nephew of Senator Butler, of 
South Carolina, made an attack upon Mr. 
Sumner, at his desk in the senate, striking 
him over the head with a heavy cane. The 
attack was quite serious in its effects and 
kept Mr. Sumner absent from, his seat in the 
senate for about four years. In 1857, 1863 
and 1 869 he was re-elected to the office of 
senator, passing some twenty-three years in 
that position, always advocating the rights 
of freedom and equity. He died March 11, 
'874- 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, the third pres- 
ident of the United States, was born 
near Charlottesville, Albemarle county, Vir- 
ginia, April 13, 1743, and was the son of 
Peter and Jane (Randolph) Jefferson. He 
received the elements of a good education, 
and in 1760 entered William and Mary Col- 
lege. After remaining in that institution for 
two years he took up the study of law with 
George Wythe, of Williamsburg, Virginia, 
one of the foremost lawyers of his day, and 
was admitted to practice in 1767. He ob- 
tained a large and profitable practice, which 
he held for eight years. The conflict be- 
tween Great Britain and the Colonies then 
drew him into public life, he having for 
some time given his attention to the study 
of the sources of law, the origin of liberty 
and equal rights. 

Mr. Jefferson was elected to the Virginia 
house of burgesses in 1769, and served in 
that body several years, a firm supporter of 
liberal measures, and, although a slave- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



35 



holder himself, an opponent of slavery. 
With others, he was a leader among the op- 
position to the king. He took his place as 
a member of the Continental congress June 
21, 177s, and after serving on several com- 
mittees was appointed to draught a Declara- 
tion of Independence, which he did, some 
corrections being suggested by Dr. Franklin 
and John Adams. This document was pre- 
sented to congress June 28, 1776, and after 
six days' debate was passed and was signed. 
In the following September Mr. Jefferson 
resumed his seat in the Virginia legislature, 
and gave much time to the adapting of laws 
of that state to the new condition of things. 
He drew up the law, the first ever passed by 
a legislature or adopted by a government, 
which secured perfect religious freedom. 
June I, 1779, he succeeded Patrick Henry 
as governor of Virginia, an office which, 
after co-operating with Washington in de- 
fending the country, he resigned two years 
later. One of his own estates was ravaged 
by the British, and his house at Monticello 
was held by Tarleton for several days, and 
Jefferson narrowly escaped capture. After 
the death of his wife, in 1782, he accepted 
the position of plenipotentiary to France, 
which he had declined in 1776. Before 
leaving he served a short time in congress 
at Annapolis, and succeeded in carrying a 
bill for establishing our present decimal sys- 
tem of currency, one of his most useful pub- 
lic services. He remained in an official ca- 
pacity until October, 1789, and was a most 
active and vigilant minister. Besides the 
onerous duties of his office, during this time, 
he published "Notes on Virginia," sent to 
the United States seeds, shrubs and plants, 
forwarded literary and scientific news and 
gave useful advice to some of the' leaders of 
the French Revolution. 

Mr. Jefferson landed in Virginia Novem- 



ber 18, 1789, having obtained a leave of 
absence from his post, and shortly after ac- 
cepted Washington's offer of the portfolio 
of the department of state in his cabinet. 
He entered upon the duties of his office in 
March, 1791, and held it until January i, 
1794, when he tendered his resignation. 
About this time he and Alexander Hamilton 
became decided and aggressive political op- 
ponents, JefTerson being in warm sympathy 
with the people in the French revolution 
and strongly democratic in his feelings, 
while Hamilton took the opposite side. In 
1796 Jefferson was elected vice-president of 
the United States. In 1800 he was elected 
to the presidency and was inaugurated 
March 4, 1801. During his administration, 
which lasted for eight years, he having been 
re-elected in 1804, he waged a successful 
war against the Tripolitan pirates; purchased 
Louisiana of Napoleon; reduced the public 
debt, and was the originator of many wise 
measures. Declining a nomination for a 
third term he returned to Monticello, where 
he died July 4, 1826, but a few hours before 
the death of his friend, John Adams. 

Mr. Jefferson was married January i, 
1772, to Mrs. Martha Skelton, a young, 
beautiful, and wealthy widow, who died 
September 6, 1782, leaving three children, 
three more having died previous to her 
demise. 

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, known as 
"Commodore" Vanderbilt, was the 
founder of what constitutes the present im- 
mense fortune of the Vanderbilt family. He 
was born May 27, 1794, at Port Richmond, 
Staten Island, Richmond county, New 
York, and we find him at sixteen years run- 
ning a small vessel between his home and 
New York City. The fortifications of Sta- 
ten and Long Islands were just in course of 



86 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



construction, and he carried the laborers 
from New York to the fortifications in his 
"perianger, " as it was called, in the day, 
and at night carried supplies to the fort on 
the Hudson. Later he removed to New 
York, where he added to his little fleet. At 
the age of twenty-three he was free from 
debt and was worth $9,000, and in 1817, 
with a partner he built the first steamboat 
that was run between New York and New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, and became her 
captain at a salary of $[,000 a year. The 
next year he took coinniand of a larger and 
better boat and by 1S24 he was in complete 
control of the Gibbon's Line, as it was 
called, which he had brought up to a point 
where it paid $40,000 a year. Commodore 
Vanderbilt acquired the ferry between New 
York and Elizabethport, New Jersey, on a 
fourteen years' lease and conducted this on 
a paying basis. He severed his connections 
with Gibbons in 1829 and engaged in 
business alone and for twenty years he was 
the leading steamboat man in the country, 
building and operating steamboats on the 
Hudson River, Long Island Sound, on the 
Delaware River and the route to Boston, 
and he had the monopoly of trade on these 
routes. In 1850 he determined to broaden 
his field of operation and accordingly built 
the steamship Prometheus and sailed for 
the Isthmus of Darien, where he desired to 
make a personal investigation of the pros- 
pects of the American Atlantic and Pacific 
Ship Canal Company, in which he had pur- 
chased a controlling interest. Commodore 
Vanderbilt planned, as a result of this visit, 
a transit route from Greytown on the At- 
lantic coast to San Juan del Sud on the Pa- 
cific coast, which was a saving of 700 miles 
over the old route. In 185 1 he placed three 
steamers on the Atlantic side and four on 
the Pacific side to accommodate the enor- 



mous traffic occasioned by the discovery of 
gold in California. The following year 
three more vessels were added to his fleet 
and a branch line established from New 
Orleans to Greytown. In 1853 the Com- 
modore sold out hisNicarauguaTransit Com- 
pany, which had netted him $1,000,000 
and built the renowned steam yacht, the 
"North Star." He continued in the ship- 
ping business nine years longer and accu- 
mulated some $10,000,000. In 1861 he 
presented to the government his magnifi- 
cent steamer " Vanderbilt, " which had cost 
him $800,000 and for which he received the 
thanks of congress. In 1844 he became 
interested in the railroad business which he 
followed in later years and became one of 
the greatest railroad magnates of his time. 
He founded the Vanderbilt University at a 
cost of $1,000,000. He died January 4, 
1877, leaving a fortune estimated at over 
$100,000,000 to his children. 



DANIEL BOONE was one of the most 
famous of the many American scouts, 
pioneers and hunters which the early settle- 
ment of the western states brought into 
prominence. Daniel Boone was born Feb- 
ruary II, 1735, in Bucks county, Pennsyl- 
vania, but while yet a young man removed 
to North Carolina, where he was married. 
In 1769, with five companions, he pene- 
trated into the forests and wilds of Kentucky 
— then uninhabited by white men. He had 
frequent conflicts with the Indians and was 
captured by them but escaped and continued 
to hunt in and explore that region for over 
a year, when, in 1771, he returned to his 
home. In the summer of 1773, he removed 
with his own and five other families into 
what was then the wilderness of Kentucky, 
and to defend his colony against the savages, 
he built, in 1775, a fort at Boonesborough, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



37 



on the Kentucky river. This fort was at- 
tacked by the Indians several times in 1777, 
but they were repulsed. The following 
year, however, Boone was surprised and 
captured by them. They took him to De- 
troit and treated him with leniency, but he 
soon escaped and returned to his fort which 
he defended with success against four hun- 
dred and fifty Indians in August, 1778. His 
son, Enoch Boone, was the first white male 
child born in the state of Kentucky. In 
1795 Daniel Boone removed with his family 
to Missouri, locating about forty-five miles 
west of the present site of St. Louis, where 
he found fresh fields for his favorite pursuits 
— adventure, hunting, and pioneer life. His 
death occurred September 20, 1820. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFEL- 
LOW, said to have been America's 
greatest " poet of the people," was born at 
Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807. He 
entered Bowdoin College at the age of four- 
teen, and graduated in 1825. During his 
college days he distinguished himself in mod- 
ern languages, and wrote several short 
poems, one of the best known of which was 
the "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns. " After 
his graduation he entered the law office of 
his father, but the following year was offered 
the professorship of modern languages at 
Bowdoin, with the privilege of three years 
study in Europe to perfect himself in French, 
Spanish, Italian and German. After the 
three years were passed he returned to the 
United States and entered upon his profes- 
sorship in 1829. His first volume was a 
small essay on the "Moral and Devotional 
Poetry of Spain" in 1833. In 1835 he pub- 
lished some prose sketches of travel under 
the title of " Outre Mer, a Pilgrimage be- 
yond the Sea." In 1835 he was elected to 
the chair of modern languages and literature 



at Harvard University and spent a year in 
Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, culti- 
vating a knowledge of early Scandinavian 
literature and entered upon his professor- 
ship in 1836. Mr. Longfellow published in 
1839 " Hyperion, a Romance," and "Voices 
of the Night, " and his first volume of original 
verse comprising the selected poems of 
twenty years work, procured him immediate 
recognition as a poet. " Ballads and other 
poems" appeared in 1842, the "Spanish 
Student " a drama in three acts, in 1843, 
"The Belfry of Bruges " in 1846, "Evan- 
geline, a Tale of Acadia," in 1847, which 
was considered his master piece. In 1845 
he published a large volume of the "Poets 
and Poetry of Europe," 1849 " Kavanagh, 
a Tale," "The Seaside and Fireside " in 
1850, "The Golden Legend " in 185 1, "The 
Song of Hiawatha " in 1855, " The Court- 
ship of Miles Standish " in 1858, " Tales of 
a Wayside Inn " in 1863; " Flower de Luce" 
in 1866;" "New England Tragedies" in 
1869; "The Divine Tragedy" in 1871; 
"Three Books of Song" in 1872; "The 
Hanging of the Crane " in 1874. He also 
published a masterly translation of Dante 
in 1867-70 and the " Morituri Salutamus," 
a poem read at the fiftieth anniversary of 
his class at Bowdoin College. Prof. Long- 
fellow resigned his chair at Harvard Univer- 
sity in 1854, but continued to reside at Cam- 
bridge. Some of his poetical works have 
been translated into many languages, and 
their popularity rivals that of the best mod- 
ern English poetry. He died March 24, 
1882, but has left an imperishable fame as 
one of the foremost of American poets. 



PETER COOPER was in three partic- 
ulars — as a capitalist and manufacturer, 
as an inventor, and as a philanthropist — 
connected intimately with some of the most 



88 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



important and useful accessions to the in- 
dustrial arts of America, its progress in in- 
vention and the promotion of educational 
and benevolent institutions intended for the 
benefit of people at large. He was born 
in New York city, February 12, 1791. His 
life was one of labor and struggle, as it was 
with most of America's successful men. In 
early boyhood he commenced to help his 
father as a manufacturer of hats. He at- 
tended school only for half of each day for 
a single year, and beyond this his acquisi- 
tions were all his own. When seventeen 
years old he was placed with John Wood- 
ward to learn the trade of coach-making and 
served his apprenticeship so satisfactorily 
that his master oPered to set him up in busi- 
ness, but this he declined because of the 
debt and obligation it would iavolve. 

The foundation of Mr. Cooper's fortune 
was laid in the invention of an improvement 
in machines for shearing cloth. This was 
largely called into use during the war of 
1812 with England when all importations 
of cloth from that country were stopped. 
The machines lost their value, however, on 
the declaration of peace. Mr. Cooper then 
turned his shop into the manufacture of 
cabinet ware. He afterwards went into the 
grocery business in New York and finally he 
engaged in the manufacture of glue and isin- 
glass which he carried on for more than 
fifty years. In 1830 he erected iron works 
in Canton, near Baltimore. Subsequently 
he erected a rolling and a wire mill in the 
city of New York, in which he first success- 
fully applied anthracite to the puddling of 
iron. In these works, he was the first to 
roll wrought-iron beams for fire-proof build- 
ings. These works grew to be very exten- 
sive, including mines, blast furnaces, etc. 
While in Baltimore Mr. Cooper built in 
1830, after his own designs, the first loco- 



motive engine ever constructed on this con- 
tinent and it was successfully operated on 
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He also 
took a great interest and invested large cap- 
ital in the extension of the electric telegraph, 
also in the laying of the first Atlantic cable; 
besides interesting himself largely in the 
New York state canals. But the most 
cherished object of Mr. Cooper's life was 
the establishment of an institution for the 
instruction of the industrial classes, which 
he carried out on a magnificent scale in New 
York city, where the "Cooper Union"' 
ranks among the most important institu- 
tions. 

In May, 1876, the Independent party 
nominated Mr. Cooper for president of the 
United States, and at the election following 
he received nearly 100,000 votes. His 
death occurred April 4, 1883. 



GENERAL ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 
one of the most conspicuous Confeder- 
ate generals during the Civil war, and one 
of the ablest military commanders of mod- 
ern times, was born at Stratford House, 
Westmoreland county, Virginia, January 19, 
1807. In 1825 he entered the West Point 
academy and was graduated second in his 
class in 1829, and attached to the army as 
second lieutenant of engineers. For a 
number of years he was thus engaged in en- 
gineering work, aiding in establishing the 
boundary line between Ohio and Michigan, 
and superintended various river and harbor 
improvements, becoming captain of engi- 
neers in 1838. ' He first saw field service in 
the Mexican war, and under General Scott 
performed valuable and efficient service. 
In that brilliant campaign he was conspicu- 
ous for professional ability as well as gallant 
and meritorious conduct, winning in quick 
succession the brevets of major, lieutenant- 



COMTENDILM OF BIOGRAPJIT 



39 



colonel, and colonel for his part in the bat- 
tles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, 
Chapultepec, and in the capture of the city 
Mexico. At the close of that war he re- 
sumed his engineering work in connection 
with defences along the Atlantic coast, and 
from 1852 to 1855 was superintendent of 
the Military Academy, a position which he 
gave up to become lieutenant-colonel of the 
Second Cavalry. For several years there- 
after he served on the Te.xas border, but 
happening to be near Washington at the 
time of John Brown's raid, October 17 to 
25, 1859, Colonel Lee was placed in com- 
mand of the Federal forces employed in its 
repression. He soon returned to his regi- 
ment in Texas where he remained the 
greater part of i860, and March 16, 1861, 
became colonel of his regiment by regular 
promotion. Three weeks later, April 25, he 
resigned upon the secession of Virginia, 
went at once to Richmond and tendered his 
services to the governor of that state, being 
by acclamation appointed commander-in- 
chief of its military and naval forces, with 
the rank of major-general. 

He at once set to work to organize and 
develop the defensive resources of his state 
and within a month directed the occupation 
in force of Manassas Junction. Meanwhile 
Virginia having entered the confederacy and 
Richmond become the capitol, Lee became 
one of the foremost of its military officers 
and was closely connected with Jefferson 
Davis in planning the moves of that tragic 
time. Lee participated in many of the 
hardest fought battles of the war among 
which were Fair Oaks, White Lake Swamps, 
Cold Harbor, and the Chickahominy, Ma- 
nassas, Cedar Run, Antietam, Fredericks- 
burg, Chancellorsville, Malvern Hill, Get- 
tysburg, the battles of the Wilderness cam- 
paign, all the campaigns about Richmond, 



Petersburg, Five Forks, and others. Lee's 
surrender at Appomatox brought the war to 
a close. It is said of General Lee that but 
few commanders in history have been so 
quick to detect the purposes of an opponent 
or so quick to act upon it. Never surpassed, 
if ever equaled, in the art of winning the 
passionate, personal love and admiration of 
his troops, he acquired and held an influ- 
ence over his army to the very last, founded 
upon a supreme trust in his judgment, pre- 
science and skill, coupled with his cool, 
stable, equable courage. A great writer has 
said of him: "As regards the proper meas- 
ure of General Lee's rank among the sol- 
diers of history, seeing what he wrought 
with such resources as he had, under all the 
disadvantages that ever attended his oper- 
ations, it is impossible to measure what he 
might have achieved in campaigns and bat- 
tles with resources at his own disposition 
equal to those against which he invariably 
contended." 

Left at the close of the war without es- 
tate or profession, he accepted the presi- 
dency of Washington College at Lexington, 
Virginia, where he died October 12, 1870. 



JOHN JAY, first chief-justice of the 
United States, was born in New York, 
December 12, 1745- He took up the study 
of law, graduated from King's College 
(Columbia College), and was admitted to 
the bar in 1768. He was chosen a member 
of the committee of New York citizens to 
protest against the enforcement by the 
British government of the Boston Port Bill, 
was elected to the Continental congress 
which met in 1774, and was author of the 
addresses to the people of Great Britian and 
of Canada adopted by that and the suc- 
ceeding congress. He was chosen to the 
provincial assembly of his own state, and 



40 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



resigned from the Continental congress to 
serve in that body, wrote most of its public 
papers, including the constitution of the new 
state, and was then made chief-justice. He 
was again chosen as a member of the Con- 
tinental congress in 1778, and became presi- 
dent of that body. He was sent to Spain 
as minister in 1780, and his services there 
resulted in substantial and moral aid for the 
struggling colonists. Jay, Franklin, and 
Adams negotiated the treaty of peace with 
Great Britain in 1782, and Jay was ap- 
pointed secretary of foreign affairs in 1784, 
and held the position until the adoption of 
the Federal constitution. During this time 
he had contributed strong articles to the 
"Federalist" in favor of the adoption of 
the constitution, and was largely instru- 
mental in securing the ratification of that 
instrument by his state. He was appointed 
by Washington as first chief-justice of the 
United States in 1789. In this high capac- 
ity the great interstate and international 
questions that arose for immediate settle- 
ment came before him for treatment. 

In 1794, at a time when the people in 
gratitude for the aid that France had ex- 
tended to us, were clamoring for the privilege 
of going to the aid of that nation in her 
struggle with Great Britain and her own op- 
pressors, John Jay was sent to England as 
special envoy to negotiate a treaty with 
that power. The instrument known as 
"Jay's Treaty " was the result, and while 
in many of its features it favored our nation, 
yet the neutrality clause in it so angered the 
masses that it was denounced throughout 
the entire country, and John Jay was burned 
in effigy in the city of New York. The 
treaty was finally ratified by Washington, 
and approved, in August, 1795. Having 
been elected governor of his state for three 
consecutive terms, he then retired from 



active life, declining an appointment as 
chief-justice of the supreme court, made by 
John Adams and confirmed by the senate. 
He died in New York in 1829. 



PHILLIP HENRY SHERIDAN was 
one of the greatest American cavalry 
generals. He was born March 6, 1831, at 
Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, and was ap- 
pointed to the United States Military Acad- 
emy at West Point, from which he graduat- 
ed and was assigned to the First Infantry as 
brevet second lieutenant July i, 1853. 
After serving in Te.xas, on the Pacific coast, 
in Washington and Oregon territories until 
the fall of 1 86 1, he was recalled to the 
states and assigned to the army of south- 
west Missouri as chief quartermaster from 
the duties of which he was soon relieved. 
After the battle of Pea Ridge, he was quar- 
termaster in the Corinth campaign, and on 
May 25 he was appointed colonel of the 
Second Michigan Cavalry. On July i, in 
command of a cavalry brigade, he defeated 
a superior force of the enemy and was com- 
missioned brigadier-general of volunteers. 
General Sheridan was then transferred to 
the army of the Ohio, and commanded a 
division in the battle of Perrysville and also 
did good service at the battle of Murfrees- 
boro, where he was commissioned major- 
general of volunteers. He fought with 
great gallantry at Chickamauga, after which 
Rosecrans was succeeded by General Grant, 
under whom Sheridan fought the battle of 
Chattanooga and won additional renown. 
Upon the promotion of Grant to lieutenant- 
general, he applied for the transfer of Gen- 
eral Sheridan to the east, and appointed 
him chief of cavalry in the army of the 
Potomac. During the campaign of 1864 
the cavalry covered the front and flank.? of 
the infantry until May 8, when it was \vin> 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHV. 



41 



drawn and General Sheridan started on a 
raid against the Confederate lines of com- 
munication with Richmond and on May 25 
he rejoined the army, having destroyed con- 
siderable of the confederate stores and de- 
feated their cavalry under General Stuart at 
Yellow Tavern. The outer line of defences 
around Richmond were taken, but the sec- 
ond line was too strong to be taken by as- 
sault, and accordingly Sheridan crossed the 
Chickahominy at Meadow Bridge, reaching 
James River May 14, and thence by White 
House and Hanover Court House back to 
the army. The cavalry occupied Cold 
Harbor May 31, which they held until the 
arrival of the infantry. On General Sheri- 
dan's next raid he routed Wade Hampton's 
cavalry, and August 7 was assigned to the 
command of the Middle Military division, 
and during the campaign of the Shenan- 
doah Valley he performed the unheard of 
feat of " destroying an entire army." He 
was appointed brigadier-general of the reg- 
ular army and for his victory at Cedar Creek 
he was promoted to the rank of major-gen- 
eral. General Sheridan started out Febru- 
ary 27, 1865, with ten thousand cavalry 
and destroyed the Virginia Central Railroad 
and the James River Canal and joined the 
army again at Petersburg March 27. He 
commanded at the battle of Five Forks, the 
decisive victory which compelled Lee to 
evacuate Petersburg. On April 9, Lee tried 
to break through Sheridan's dismounted 
command but when the General drew aside 
his cavalry and disclosed the deep lines of 
infantry the attempt was abandoned. Gen- 
eral Sheridan mounted his men and was about 
to charge when a white flag was flown at the 
head of Lee's column which betokened the 
surrender of the army. After the war Gen- 
eral Sheridan had command of the army of 
the southwest, of the gulf and the depart- 



ment of Missouri until he was appointed 
lieutenant-general and assigned to the di- 
vision of Missouri with headquarters at Chi- 
cago, and assumed supreme command of 
the army November i, 1883, which post he 
held until his death, August 5, 1888. 



PHINEAS T. BARNUM, the greatest 
showman the world has ever seen, was 
born at Danbury, Connecticut, July 5, 18 10. 
At the age of eighteen years he began busi- 
ness on his own account. He opened a re- 
tail fruit and confectionery house, including 
a barrel of ale, in one part of an old car- 
riage house. He spent fifty dollars in fitting 
up the store and the stock cost him seventy 
dollars. Three years later he put in a full 
stock, such as is generally carried in a 
country store, and the same year he started 
a Democratic newspaper, known as the 
"Herald of Freedom." He soon found 
himself in jail under a sixty days' sentence 
for libel. During the winter of 1834-5 he 
went to New York and began soliciting busi- 
ness for several Chatham street houses. In 

1835 he embarked in the show business at 
Niblo's Garden, having purchased the cele- 
brated " Joice Heth" for one thousand dol- 
lars. He afterward engaged the celebrated 
athlete, Sig. Vivalia, and Barnum made his 
' ' first appearance on any stage, " acting as a 
"super" to Sig. Vivalia on his opening 
night. He became ticket seller, secretary 
and treasurer of Aaron Turner's circus in 

1836 and traveled with it about the country. 
His next venture was the purchase of a 
steamboat on the Mississippi, and engaged 
a theatrical company to show in the princi- 
pal towns along that river. In 1840 he 
opened Vaux Hall Garden, New York, with 
variety performances, and introduced the 
celebrated jig dancer, John Diamond, to the 
public. The next year he quit the show 



42 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



business and settled down in New York as 
agent of Sear's Pictorial Illustration of the 
Bible, but a few months later again leased 
Vaux Hall. In September of the same year 
he again left the business, and became 
' ' puff " writer for the Bowery Amphitheater. 
In December he bought the Scudder Museum, 
and a year later introduced the celebrated 
Tom Thumb to the world, taking him to 
England in 1844, and remaining there three 
years. He then returned to New York, and 
in 1849, through James Hall Wilson, he en- 
gaged the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny 
Lind, to come to this country and make a 
tour under his management. He also had 
sent the Swiss Bell Ringers to America in 
1844. He became owner of the Baltimore 
Museum and the Lyceum and Museum at 
Philadelphia. In 1850 he brought a dozen 
elephants from Ceylon to make a tour of this 
country, and in 1851 sent the " Bateman 
Children" to London. During 185 1 and 
1852 he traveled as a temperance lecturer, 
and became president of a bank at Pequon- 
nock, Connecticut. In 1852 he started a 
weekly pictorial paper known as the " Illus- 
trated News." In 1865 his Museum was 
destroyed by fire, and he immediately leased 
the Winter Garden Theatre, where he played 
his company until he opened his own 
Museum. This was destroyed by fire in 
1868, and he then purchased an interest in 
the George Wood Museum. 

After dipping into politics to some ex- 
tent, he began his career as a really great 
showman in 1871. Three years later he 
erected an immense circular building in New 
York, in which he produced his panoramas. 
He has frequently appeared as a lecturer, 
some times on temperance, and some times 
on other topics, among which were "Hum- 
bugs of the World," "Struggles and 
Triumphs," etc. He was owner of the im- 



mense menagerie and circus known as the 
"Greatest Show on Earth," and his fame 
extended throughout Europe and America. 
He died in 1891. 



JAMES MADISON, the fourth president 
of the United States, 1S09-17, was 
born at Port Conway, Prince George coun- 
ty, Virginia, March 16, 1751. He was the 
son of a wealthy planter, who lived on a fine 
estate called " Montpelier," which was but 
twenty-five miles from Monticello, the home 
of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Madison was the 
eldest of a family of seven children, all of 
whom attained maturity. He received his 
early education at home under a private 
tutor, and consecrated himself with unusual 
vigor to study. At a very early age he was 
a proficient scholar in Latin, Greek, French 
and Spanish, and in 1769 he entered Prince- 
ton College, New Jersey. He graduated in 
1 77 1, but remained for several months after 
his graduation to pursue a course of study 
under the guidance of Dr. Witherspoon. 
He permanently injured his health at this 
time and returned to Virginia in 1772, and 
for two years he was immersed in the study 
of law, and at the same time made extend- 
ed researches in theology, general literature, 
and philosophical studies. He then directed 
his full attention to the impending struggle 
of the colonies for independence, and also 
took a prominent part in the religious con- 
troversy at that time regarding so called 
persecution of other religious denominations 
by the Church of England. Mr. Madison 
was elected to the Virginia assembly in 1776 
and in November, 1777, he was chosen 
a member of the council of state. He took 
his seat in the continental congress in 
March, 1780. He was made chairman of 
the committee on foreign relations, and 
drafted an able memoranda for the use of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



43 



the American ministers to the French and 
Spanish governments, that established the 
claims of the republic to the territories be- 
tween the Alleghany Mountains and the 
Mississippi River. He acted as chairman of 
the ways and means committee in 1783 and 
as a member of the Virginia legislature in 
1784-86 he rendered important services to 
the state. Mr. Madison represented Vir- 
giana in the national constitutional conven- 
tion at Philadelphia in 1787, and was one of 
the chief framers of the constitution. He 
was a member of the first four congresses, 
1789-97, and gradually became identified 
with the anti-federalist or republican party 
of which he eventually became the leader. 
He remained in private life during the ad- 
ministration of John Adams, and was secre- 
tary of state under President Jefferson. Mr. 
Madison administered the affairs of that 
post with such great ability that he was the 
natural successor of the chief magistrate 
and was chosen president by an electoral 
vote of 122 to 53. He was inaugurated 
March 4, 1809, at that critical period in our 
history when the feelings of the people were 
embittered with those of England, and his 
first term was passed in diplomatic quarrels, 
which finally resulted in the declaration of 
war, June 18, 1812. In the autumn of that 
year President Madison was re-elected by a 
vote of 128 to 89, and conducted the war 
for three years with varying success and 
defeat in Canada, by glorious victories at 
sea, and by the battle of New Orleans that 
was fought after the treaty of peace had 
been signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. 
During this war the national capitol at 
Washington was burned, and many valuable 
papers were destroyed, but the declaration 
of independence was saved to the country 
by the bravery and courage of Mr. Madi- 
son's illustrious wife. A commercial treaty 



was negotiated with Great Britain in 181 5, 
and in April, 1816, a national bank was in- 
corporated by congress. Mr. Madison was 
succeeded, March 4, 1817, by James Monroe, 
and retired into private life on his estate at 
Montpelier, where he died June 28, 1836. 



FREDERICK DOUGLASS, a noted 
American character, was a protege of 
the great abolitionist, William Lloyd Garri- 
son, by whom he was aided in gaining his 
education. Mr. Douglass was born in Tuck- 
ahoe county, Maryland, in February, 1817, 
his mother being a negro woman and his 
father a white man. He was born in slav- 
ery and belonged to a man by the name of 
Lloyd, under which name he went until he 
ran away from his master and changed it to 
Douglass. At the age of ten years he was 
sent to Baltimore where he learned to read 
and write, and later his owner allowed him 
to hire out his own time for three dollars a 
week in a shipyard. In September, 1838, 
he fied from Baltimore and made his way to 
New York, and from thence went to New 
Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he was mar- 
ried and supported himself and family by 
working at the wharves and in various work- 
shops. In the summer of 1841 he attended 
an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, 
and made a speech which was so well re- 
ceived that he was offered the agency of the 
Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. In this 
capacity he traveled through the New En- 
gland states, and about the same time he 
published his first book called ' ' Narrative 
of my Experience in Slavery." Mr. Doug- 
lass went to England in 1845 and lectured 
on slavery to large and enthusiastic audi- 
ences in all the large towns of the country, 
and his friends made up a purse of seven 
hundred and fifty dollars and purchased his 
freedom in due form of law. 



44 



COMPENDIUM OF DIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Douglass applied himself to the de- 
livery of lyceum lectures after the abolition 
of slavery, and in 1870 he became the editor 
of the " New National Era " in Washington. 
In 1 87 1 he was appointed assistant secretary 
of the commission to San Domingo and on 
his return he was appointed one of the ter- 
ritorial council for the District of Colorado 
by President Grant. He was elected presi- 
dential elector-at-large for the state of New 
York and was appointed to carry the elect- 
oral vote to Washington. He was also 
United States marshal for the District of 
Columbia in 1876, and later was recorder 
of deeds for the same, from which position 
he was removed by President Cleveland in 
1886. In the fall of that year he visited 
England to inform the friends that he had 
made while there, of the progress of the 
colored race in America, and on his return 
he was appointed minister to Hayti, by 
President Harrison in 1889. His career as 
a benefactor of his race was closed by his 
death in February, 1895, near Washington. 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.— The 
ear for rhythm and the talent for 
graceful expression are the gifts of nature, 
and they were plentifully endowed on the 
above named poet. The principal charac- 
teristic of his poetry is the thoughtfulness 
and intellectual process by which his ideas 
ripened in his mind, as all his poems are 
bright, clear and sweet. Mr. Bryant was 
born November 3, 1794, at Cummington, 
Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and was 
educated at Williams College, from which 
he graduated, having entered it in 18 10. 
He took up the study of law, and in 18 15 
was admitted to the bar, but after practicing 
successfully for ten years at Plainfield and 
Great Barrington, he removed to New York 
in 1825. The following year he became 



the editor of the "Evening Post," which 
he edited until his death, and under his di- 
rection this paper maintained, through a 
long series of years, a high standing by the 
boldness of its protests against slavery be- 
fore the war, by its vigorous support of the 
government during the war, and by the 
fidelity and ability of its advocacy of the 
Democratic freedom in trade. Mr. Bry- 
ant visited Europe in 1834, 1845, 1849 and 
1857, and presented to the literary world 
the fruit of his travels in the series of "Let- 
ters of a Traveler," and "Letters from 
Spain and Other Countries." In the world 
of literature he is known chiefly as a poet, 
and here Mr. Bryant's name is illustrious, 
both at home and abroad. He contributed 
verses to the "Country Gazette " before he 
was ten years of age, and at the age of nine- 
teen he wrote " Thanatopsis," the most im- 
pressive and widely known of his poems. 
The later outgrowth of his genius was his 
translation of Homer's "Iliad" in 1870 
and the "Odyssey" in 1871. He also 
made several speeches and addresses which 
have been collected in a comprehensive vol- 
ume called " Orations and Addresses." He 
was honored in many ways by his fellow 
citizens, who delighted to pay tributes of 
respect to his literary eminence, the breadth 
of his public spirit, the faithfulness of his 
service, and the worth of his private char- 
acter. Mr. Bryant died in New York City 
June 12, 1878. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD, the 
secretary of state during one of the 
most critical times in the history of our 
country, and the right hand man of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, ranks among the greatest 
statesmen America has produced. Mr. 
Seward was born May 16, 1 801, at Florida, 
Orange county, New York, and with such 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7'. 



47 



facilities as the place afforded he fitted him- 
self for a college course. He attended 
Union College at Schenectady, New York, 
at the age of fifteen, and took his degree in 
the regular course, with signs of promise in 
1S20, after which he diligently addressed 
himself to the study of law under competent 
instructors, and started in the practice of 
his profession in 1823. 

Mr. Seward entered the political arena 
and in 1828 we find him presiding over a 
convention in New York, its purpose being 
the nomination of John Quincy Adams for a 
second term. He was married in 1824 and 
in 1830 was elected to the state senate. 
From 1838 to 1842 he was governor of the 
state of New York. Mr. Seward's next im- 
portant position was that of United States 
senator from New York. 

W. H. Seward was chosen by President 
Lincoln to fill the important office of the 
secretary of state, and by his firmness and 
diplomacy in the face of difficulties, he aided 
in piloting the Union through that period of 
strife, and won an everlasting fame. This 
great statesman died at Auburn, New York, 
October 10, 1872, in the seventy-second 
year of his eventful life. 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON, a name as dear 
as it is familiar to the theater-going 
world in America, suggests first of all a fun- 
loving, drink-loving, mellow voiced, good- 
natured Dutchman, and the name of "Rip 
Van Winkle " suggests the pleasant features 
of Joe Jefferson, so intimately are play and 
player associated in the minds of those who 
have had the good fortune to shed tears of 
laughter and sympathy as a tribute to the 
greatness of his art. Joseph Jefferson was 
born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1829. 
His genius was an inheritance, if there be 
such, as his great-grandfather, Thomas 



Jefferson, was a manager and actor in Eng- 
land. His grandfather, Joseph Jefferson, 
was the most popular comedian of the New 
York stage in his time, and his father, Jos- 
eph Jefferson, the second, was a good actor 
also, but the third Joseph Jefferson out- 
shone them all. 

At the age of three years Joseph Jeffer- 
son came on the stage as the child in "Pi- 
zarro," and his training was upon the stage 
from childhood. Later on he lived and 
acted in Chicago, Mobile, and Texas. After 
repeated misfortunes he returned to New 
Orleans from Texas, and his brother-in-law, 
Charles Burke, gave him money to reach 
Philadelphia, where he joined the Burton 
theater company. Here his genius soon as- 
serted itself, and his future became promis- 
ing and brilliant. His engagements through- 
out the United States and Australia were 
generally successful, and when he went to 
England in 1865 Mr. Boucicault consented 
to make some important changes in his 
dramatization of Irving's story of Rip Van 
Winkle, and Mr. Jefferson at once placed 
it in the front rank as a comedy. He made 
a fortune out of it, and played nothing else 
for many years. In later years, however, 
Mr. Jefferson acquitted himself of the charge 
of being a one-part actor, and the parts of 
"Bob Acres," "Caleb Plummer" and 
"Golightly " all testify to the versatility of 
his genius. 

GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN, 
a noted American general, was born 
in Philadelphia, December 3, 1826. He 
graduated from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and in 1846 from West Point, and 
was breveted second lieutenant of engineers. 
He was with Scott in the Mexican war, 
taking part in all the engagements from 
Vera Cruz to the final capture of the Mexi- 



48 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



can capital, and was breveted first lieuten- 
ant and captain for gallantry displayed on 
various occasions. In 1857 he resigned his 
commission and accepted the position of 
chief engineer in the construction of the 
Illinois Central Railroad, and became presi- 
dent of the St. Louis & Cincinnati Railroad 
Company. He was commissioned major- 
general by the state of Ohio in 1861, 
placed in command of the department of 
the Ohio, and organized the first volunteers 
called for from that state. In May he was 
appointed major-general in the United 
States army, and ordered to disperse the 
confederates overrunning West Virginia. 
He accomplished this task promptly, and 
received the thanks of congress. After the 
first disaster at Bull Run he was placed 
in command of the department of Wash- 
ington, and a few weeks later of the 
Army of the Potomac. Upon retirement 
of General Scott the command of the en- 
tire United States army devolved upon Mc- 
Clellan, but he was relieved of it within a 
few months. In March, 1862, after elabor- 
ate preparation, he moved upon Manassas, 
only to find it deserted by the Confederate 
army, which had been withdrawn to im- 
pregnable defenses prepared nearer Rich- 
mond. He then embarked his armies for 
Fortress Monroe and after a long delay at 
Yorktown, began the disastrous Peninsular 
campaign, which resulted in the Army of the 
Potomac being cooped up on the James 
River below Richmond. His forces were 
then called to the support of General Pope, 
near Washington, and he was left without an 
army. After Pope's defeat McClellan was 
placed in command of the troops for the de- 
fense of the capital, and after a thorough or- 
ganization he followed Lee into Maryland 
and the battles of Antietam and South Moun- 
tain ensued. The delay which followed 



caused general dissatisfaction, and he was re- 
lieved of his command, and retired from active 
service. 

In 1864 McClellan was nominated for 
the presidency by the Democrats, and over- 
whelmingly defeated by Lincoln, three 
states only casting their electoral votes for 
McClellan. On election day he resigned 
his commission and a few months later went 
to Europe where he spent several years. 
He wrote a number of military text- books 
and reports. His death occurred October 
29. 1885. 

SAMUEL J. TILDEN.— Among the great 
statesmen whose names adorn the pages 
of American history may be found that of 
the subject of this sketch. Known as a 
lawyer of highest ability, his greatest claim 
to immortality will ever lie in his successful 
battle against the corrupt rings of his native 
state and the elevation of the standard of 
official life. 

Samuel J. Tilden was born in New Leb- 
anon, New York, February 9, 18 14. He 
pursued his academic studies at Yale Col- 
lege and the University of New York, tak- 
ing the course of law at the latter. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1841. His rare 
ability as a thinker and writer upon public 
topics attracted the attention of President 
Van Buren, of whose policy and adminis- 
tration he became an active and efficient 
champion. He made for himself a high 
place in his profession and amassed quite a 
fortune as the result of his industry and 
judgment. During the days of his greatest 
professional labor he was ever one of the 
leaders and trusted counsellors of the Demo- 
cratic party. He was a member of the 
conventions to revise the state constitution, 
both in 1846 and 1867, and served two 
terms in the lower branch of the state leg- 



COMPMNDIUM of HlOGRArHT. 



49 



islature. He was one of the controlling 
spirits in the overthrow of the notorious 
" Tweed rinf;" and the reformation of the 
government of the city of New York. In 
1874 he was elected governor of the state 
of New York. While in this position he 
assailed corruption in high places, success- 
fully battling with the iniquitous "canal 
ring " and crushed its sway over all depart- 
ments of the government. Recognizing his 
character and executive ability Mr. Tilden 
was nominated for president by the na- 
tional Democratic convention in 1876. At 
the election he received a much larger popu- 
lar vote than his opponent, and 184 uncon- 
tested electoral votes. There being some 
electoral votes contested, a commission ap- 
pointed by congress decided in favor of the 
Republican electors and Mr. Hayes, the can- 
didate of that party was declared elected. 
In 1S80, the Democratic party, feeling that 
Mr. Tilden had been lawfully elected to the 
presidency tendered the nomination for the 
same office to Mr. Tilden, but he declined, 
retiring from all public functions, owing to 
failing health. He died August 4, 18S6. 
By will he bequeathed several millions of 
dollars toward the founding of public libra- 
ries in New York City, Yonkers, etc. 



NOAH WEBSTER.— As a scholar, law- 
yer, author and journalist, there is no 
one who stands on a higher plane, or whose 
reputation is better established than the 
honored gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch. He was a native of West Hartford, 
Connecticut, and was born October 17, 
1758. He came of an old New England 
family, his mother being a descendant of 
Governor William Bradford, of the Ply- 
mouth colony. After acquiring a solid edu- 
cation in early life Dr. Webster entered 
Yale College, from which he graduated in 



1778. For a while he taught school in 
Hartford, at the same time studying law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 178 1. He 
taught a classical school at Goshen, Orange 
county. New York, in 1782-83, and while 
there prepared his spelling book, grammar 
and reader, which was issued under the title 
of "A Grammatical Institute of the English 
Language ," in three parts, — so successful a 
work that up to 1876 something like forty 
million of the spelling books had been 
sold. In 1786 he delivered a course of lec- 
tures on the English language in the seaboard 
cities and the following year taught an 
academy at Philadelphia. From December 
17, 1787, until November, 1788, he edited 
the "American Magazine, "a periodical that 
proved unsuccessful. In 1789-93 he prac- 
ticed law in Hartford having in the former 
year married the daughter of William Green- 
leaf, of Boston. He returned to New York 
and November, 1793, founded a daily paper, 
the "Minerva," to which was soon added a 
semi-weekly edition under the name of the 
" Herald. " The former is still in existence 
under the name of the "Commercial Adver- 
tiser." In this paper, over the signature of 
' ' Curtius , " he published a lengthy and schol- 
arly defense of " John Jay's treaty." 

In 1798, Dr. Webster moved to New 
Haven and in 1807 commenced the prepar- 
ation of his great work, the ' ' American Dic- 
tionary of the English Language," which 
was not completed and published until 1828. 
He made his home in Amherst, Massachu- 
setts, for the ten years succeeding 181 2, and 
was instrumental in the establishment of 
Amherst College, of which institution he was 
the first president of the board of trustees. 
During 1824-5 he resided in Europe, pursu- 
ing his philological studies in Paris. He 
completed his dictionary from the libraries 
of Cambridge University in 1825, and de- 



50 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



voted his leisure for the remainder of his 
Hfe to the revision of that and his school 
books. 

Dr. Webster was a member of the legis- 
latures of both Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, was judge of one of the courts of the 
former state and was identified with nearly 
all the literary and scientific societies in the 
neighborhood of Amherst College. He died 
in New Haven, May 28, 1843. 

Among the more prominent works ema- 
nating from the fecund pen of Dr. Noah 
Webster besides those mentioned above are 
the following: "Sketches of American 
Policy," "Winthrop's Journal," " A Brief 
History of Epidemics," " Rights of Neutral 
Nations in time of War," "A Philosophical 
and Practical Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage," "Dissertations on the English 
Language," "A Collection of Essays," 
"The Revolution in France," "Political 
Progress of Britain," "Origin, History, and 
Connection of the Languages of Western 
Asia and of Europe," and many others. 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, the 
great anti-slavery pioneer and leader, 
was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 
December 12, 1804. He was apprenticed 
to the printing business, and in 1828 was in- 
duced to take charge of the "Journal of the 
Times" at Bennington, Vermont. While 
supporting John Quincy Adams for the presi- 
dency he took occasion in that paper to give 
expression of his views on slavery. These 
articles attracted notice, and a Quaker 
named Lundy, editor of the "Genius of 
Emancipation," published in Baltimore, in- 
duced him to enter a partnership with him 
for the conduct of his paper. It soon 
transpired that the views of the partners 
were not in harmony, Lundy favoring grad- 
ual emancipation, while Garrison favored 



immediate freedom. In 1850 Mr. Garrison 
was thrown into prison for libel, not being 
able to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs. 
In his cell he wrote a number of poems 
which stirred the entire north, and a mer- 
chant, Mr. Tappan, of New York, paid his 
fine and liberated him, after seven weeks of 
confinement. He at once began a lecture 
tour of the northern cities, denouncing 
slavery as a sin before God, and demanding 
its immediate abolition in the name of re- 
ligion and humanity. He opposed the col- 
onization scheme of President Monroe and 
other leaders, and declared the right of 
every slave to immediate freedom. 

In 1 83 1 he formed a partnership with 
Isaac Knapp, and began the publication of 
the "Liberator" at Boston. The "imme- 
diate abolition " idea began to gather power 
in the north, while the south became 
alarmed at the bold utterance of this jour- 
nal. The mayor of Boston was besought 
by southern influence to interfere, and upon 
investigation, reported upon the insignifi- 
cance, obscurity, and poverty of the editor 
and his staff, which report was widely 
published throughout the country. Re- 
wards were offered by the southern states 
for his arrest and conviction. Later Garri- 
son brought from England, where an eman- 
cipation measure had just been passed, 
some of the great advocates to work for the 
cause in this country. In 1835 a mob 
broke into his office, broke up a meeting of 
women, dragged Garrison through the street 
with a rope around his body, and his life 
was saved only by the interference of the 
police, who lodged him in jail. Garrison 
declined to sit in the World's Anti-Slavery 
convention at London in 1840, because 
that body had refused women representa- 
tion. He opposed the formation of a po- 
litical party with emancipation as its basis. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



51 



He favored a dissolution of the union, and 
declared the constitution which bound the 
free states to the slave states " A covenant 
with death and an agreement with hell." 
In 1 843 he became president of the Amer- 
ican Anti-Slavery society, which position he 
held until 1865, when slavery was no more. 
During all this time the " Liberator "' had 
continued to promulgate anti-slavery doc- 
trines, but in 1865 Garrison resigned his 
position, and declared his work was com- 
pleted. He died May 24, 1879. 



JOHN BROWN ("Brown of Ossawato- 
niie"), a noted character in American 
history, wasbornatTorrington, Connecticut, 
May 9, 1800. In his childhood he removed 
to Ohio, where he learned the tanner's 
trade. He married there, and in 1855 set- 
tled in Kansas. He lived at the village of 
Ossawatomie in that state, and there began 
his fight against slavery. He advocated im- 
mediate emancipation, and held that the 
negroes of the slave states merely waited 
for a leader in an insurrection that would re- 
sult in their freedom. He attended the 
convention called at Chatham, Canada, in 
1859, and was the leading spirit in organiz- 
ing a raid upon the United States arsenal at 
Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plans were 
well laid, and carried out in great secrecy. 
He rented a farm house near Harper's Ferry 
in the summer of 1859, and on October 
i6th of that year, with about twenty follow- 
ers, he surprised and captured the United 
States arsenal, with all its supplies and 
arms. To his surprise, the negroes did not 
come to his support, and the next day he 
was attacked by the Virginia state militia, 
wounded and captured. He was tried in 
the courts of the state, convicted, and was 
hanged at Charlestown, December 2, 1859. 
The raid and its results had a tremendous 



effect, and hastened the culmination of the 
troubles between the north and south. The 
south had the advantage in discussing this 
event, claiming that the sentiment which 
inspired this act of violence was shared by 
the anti-slavery element of the country. 



EDWIN BOOTH had no peer upon the 
American stage during his long career 
as a star actor. He was the son of a famous 
actor, Junius Brutus Booth, and was born 
in 1833 at his father's home at Belair, near 
Balti more . At the age of sixteen he made his 
first appearance on the stage, at the Boston 
Museum, in a minor part in " Richard III." 
It was while playing in California in 1851 
that an eminent critic called general atten- 
tion to the young actor's unusual talent. 
However, it was not until 1863, at the great 
Shakspearian revival at the Winter Garden 
Theatre, New York, that the brilliancy of 
his career began. His Hamlet held the 
boards for 100 nights in succession, and 
from that time forth Booth's reputation was 
established. In 1868 he opened his own 
theatre (Booth's Theater) in New York. 
Mr. Booth never succeeded as a manager, 
however, but as an actor he was undoubted- 
ly the most popular man on the American 
stage, and perhaps the most eminent one in 
the world. In England he also won the 
greatest applause. 

Mr. Booth's work was confined mostly 
to Shakspearean roles, and his art was 
characterized by intellectual acuteness, 
fervor, and poetic feeling. His Hamlet, 
Richard II, Richard III, and Richelieu gave 
play to his greatest powers. In 1865, 
when his brother, John Wilkes Booth, 
enacted his great crime, Edwin Booth re- 
solved to retire from the stage, but was pur- 
suaded to reconsider that decision. The 
odium did not in any way attach to the 



52 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



great actor, and his popularity was not 
affected. In all his work Mr. Booth clung 
closely to the legitimate and the traditional 
in drama, making no experiments, and offer- 
ing little encouragement to new dramatic 
authors. His death occurred in New York, 
June 7, 1894. 



JOSEPH HOOKER, a noted American 
officer, was born at Hadley, Massachu- 
setts, November 13, 1814. He graduated 
from West Point Military Academy in 1837, 
and was appointed lieutenant of artillery. 
He served in Florida in the Seminole war, 
and in garrison until the outbreak of the 
Mexican war. During the latter he saw 
service as a staff officer and was breveted 
captain, major and lieutenant-colonel for 
gallantry at Monterey, National Bridge and 
Chapultepec. Resigning his commission in 
1833 he took up farming in California, which 
he followed until 1861. During this time 
he acted as superintendent of military roads 
in Oregon. At the outbreak of the Rebel- 
lion Hooker tendered his services to the 
government, and, May 17, 1861, was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He 
served in the defence of Washington and on 
the lower Potomac until his appointment to 
the command of a division in the Third 
Corps, in March, 1862. For gallant con- 
duct at the siege of Yorktown and in the 
battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Fra- 
zier's Farm and Malvern Hill he was made 
major-general. At the head of his division 
he participated in the battles of Manassas 
and Chantilly. September 6, 1862, he was 
placed at the head of the First Corps, and 
in the battles of South Mountain and An- 
tietam acted with his usual gallantry, being 
wounded in the latter engagement. On re- 
joining the army in November he was made 
brigadier-general in the regular army. On 



General Burnside attaining the command of 
the Army of the Potomac General Hooker 
was placed in command of the center grand 
division, consisting of the Second and Fifth 
Corps. At the head of these gallant men 
he participated in the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, December 13, 1862. In Janu- 
ary, 1863, General Hooker assumed com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac, and in 
May following fought the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville. At the time of the invasion of 
Pennsylvania, owing to a dispute with Gen- 
eral Halleck, Hooker requested to be re- 
lieved of his command, and June 28 was 
succeeded by George G. Meade. In Sep- 
tember, 1863, General Hooker was given 
command of the Twentieth Corps and trans- 
ferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and 
distinguished himself at the battles of Look- 
out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Ring- 
gold. In the Atlanta campaign he saw 
almost daily service and merited his well- 
known nickname of "Fighting Joe." July 
30, 1864, at his own request, he was re- 
lieved of his command. He subsequently 
was in command of several military depart- 
ments in the north, and in October, 1868, 
was retired with the full rank of major-gen- 
eral. He died October 31, 1879. 



JAY GOULD, one of the greatest finan- 
ciers that the world has ever produced> 
was born May 27, 1836, at Ro.xbury, Dela- 
ware county. New York. He spent his early 
years on his father's farm and at the age of 
fourteen entered Hobart Academy, New 
York, and kept books for the village black- 
smith. He acquired a taste for mathematics 
and surveying and on leaving school found 
employment in making the surveyor's map 
of Ulster county. He surveyed very exten- 
sively in the state and accumulated five thou- 
sand dollars as the fruits of his labor. He 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



53 



was then stricken with typhoid fever but re- 
covered and made the acquaintance of one 
Zadock Pratt, who sent him into the west- 
ern part of the state to locate a site for a 
tannery. He chose a fine hemlock grove, 
built a sawmill and blacksmith shop and 
was soon doing a large lumber business with 
Mr. Pratt. Mr. Gould soon secured control 
of the entire plant, which he sold out just 
before the panic of 1857 and in this year he 
became the largest stockholderinthe Strouds- 
burg, Pennsylvania, bank. Shortly after the 
crisis he bought the bonds of the Rutland 
& Washington Railroad at ten cents on the 
dollar, and put all his money into railroad 
securities. For a long time he conducted 
this road which he consolidated with the 
Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad. In 1859 
he removed to New York and became a 
heavy investor in Erie Railroad stocks, en- 
tered that company and was president until 
its reorganization in 1872. In December, 
1880, Mr. Gould was in control of ten thou- 
sand miles of railroad. In 1887 he pur- 
chased the controlling interest in the St. 
Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., and 
was a joint owner with the Atchison, Topeka 
& Santa Fe Railroad Co. of the western 
portion of the Southern Pacific line. Other 
lines soon came under his control, aggregat- 
ing thousand of miles, and he soon was rec- 
ognized as one of the world's greatest rail- 
road magnates. He continued to hold his 
place as one of the master financiers of the 
century until the time of his death which 
occurred December 2, 1892. 



THOMAS HART BENTON, a very 
prominent United States senator and 
statesman, was born at Hillsborough, North 
Carolina, March 14, 1782. He removed to 
Tennessee in early life, studied law, and be- 
gan to practice at Nashville about 18 10. 



During the war of 1812-1815 he served as 
colonel of a Tennessee regiment under Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson. In 18 15 he removed 
to St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1820 was 
chosen United States senator for that state. 
Having been re-elected in 1826, he sup- 
ported President Jackson in his opposition 
to the United States bank and advocated a 
gold and silver currency, thus gaining the 
name of " Old Bullion," by which he was 
familiarly known. For many years he was 
the most prominent man in Missouri, and 
took rank among the greatest statesmen of 
his day. He was a member of the senate 
for thirty years and opposed the extreme 
states' rights policy of John C. Calhoun. 
In 1852 he was elected to the house of rep- 
resentatives in which he opposed the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise. He was op- 
posed by a powerful party of States' Rights 
Democrats in Missouri, who defeated him as a 
candidate for governor of that state in 1856. 
Colonel Benton published a considerable 
work in two volumes in 1854-56, entitled 
"Thirty Years' View, or a History of the 
Working of the American Government for 
Thirty Years, 1820-50." He died April 10, 
185S. 

STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS.— One 
of the most prominent figures in politic- 
al circles during the intensely exciting days 
that preceded the war, and a leader of the 
Union branch of the Democratic party was 
the gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch. 

He was born at Brandon, Rutland coun- 
ty, Vermont, April 23, 181 3, of poor but 
respectable parentage. His father, a prac- 
ticing physician, died while our subject was 
but an infant, and his mother, with two 
small children and but small means, could 
give him but the rudiments of an education. 



54 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



At the age of fifteen young Douglas engaged 
at work in the cabinet making business to 
raise funds to carry him through college. 
After a few years of labor he was enabled to 
pursue an academical course, first at Bran- 
don, and later at Canandaigua, New York. 
In the latter place he remained until 1833, 
taking up the study of law. Before he was 
twenty, however, his funds running low, he 
abandoned all further attempts at educa- 
tion, determining to enter at once the battle 
of life. After some wanderings through the 
western states he took up his residence at 
Jacksonville, Illinois, where, after teaching 
school for three months, he was admitted to 
the bar, and opened an office in 1834. 
Within a year from that time, so rapidly had 
he risen in his profession, he was chosen 
attorney general of the state, and warmly 
espoused the principles of the Democratic 
party. He soon became one of the most 
popular orators in Illinois. It was at this 
time he gained the name of the "Little 
Giant." In 1835 he resigned the position 
of attorney general having been elected to 
the legislature. In 1841 he was chosen 
judge of the supreme court of Illinois which 
he resigned two years later to take a seat in 
congress. It was during this period of his 
life, while a member of the lower house, 
that he established his reputation and took 
the side of those who contended that con- 
gress had no constitutional right to restrict 
the extension of slavery further than the 
agreement between the states made in 1820. 
This, in spite of his being opposed to slav- 
ery, and only on grounds which he believed 
to be right, favored what was called the 
Missouri compromise. In 1847 Mr. Doug- 
las was chosen United States senator for 
six years, and greatly distinguished himself. 
In 1S52 he was re-elected to the same office. 
During this latter term, under his leader- 



ship, the " Kansas-Nebraska bill " was car- 
ried in the senate. In 185?, nothwith- 
standing the fierce contest made by his able 
competitor for the position, Abraham Lin- 
coln, and with the administration of Bu- 
chanan arrayed against him, Mr. Douglas 
was re-elected senator. After the trouble 
in the Charleston convention, when by the 
withdrawal of several state delegates with- 
out a nomination, the Union Democrats, 
in convention at Baltimore, in i860, nomi- 
nated Mr. Douglas as their candidate for 
presidency. The results of this election are 
well known and the great events of 1861 
coming on, Mr. Douglas was spared their 
full development, dying at Chicago, Illinois, 
June 3, 1861, after a short illness. His 
last words to his children were, " to obey 
the laws and support the constitution of the 
United States." 



JAMES MONROE, fifth president of the 
United States, was born in Westmore- 
land county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. At 
the age of sixteen he entered William and 
Mary College, but two years later the 
Declaration of Independence having been 
adopted, he left college and hastened to New 
York where he joined Washington's army as 
a military cadet. 

At the battle of Trenton Monroe per- 
formed gallant service and received a wound 
in the shoulder, and was promoted to a 
captaincy. He acted as aide to Lord Ster- 
ling at the battles of Brandywine, German- 
town and Monmouth. Washington then 
sent him to Virginia to raise a new regiment 
of which he was to be colonel. The ex- 
hausted condition of Virginia made this im- 
possible, but he received his commission. 
He next entered the law office of Thomas 
Jefferson to study law, as there was no open- 
ing for him as an officer in the army. In 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



55 



1782 he was elected to the Virginia assem- 
bly, and the next year he was elected to the 
Continental congress. Realizing the inade- 
quacy of the old articles of confederation, 
he advocated the calling of a convention to 
consider their revision, and introduced in 
congress a resolution empowering congress 
to regulate trade, lay import duties, etc. 
This resolution was referred to a committee, 
of which he was chairman, and the report 
led to the Annapolis convention, which 
called a general convention to meet at Phila- 
delphia in 1787, when the constitution was 
drafted. Mr. Monroe began the practice of 
law at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was 
soon after elected to the legislature, and ap- 
pointed as one of the committee to pass 
upon the adoption of the constitution. He 
opposed it, as giving too much power to the 
central government. He was elected to the 
United States senate in 1789, where he 
allied himself with the Anti-Federalists or 
"Republicans," as they were sometimes 
called. Although his views as to neutrality 
between France and England were directly 
opposed to those of the president, yet Wash- 
ington appointed him minister to France. 
His popularity in France was so great that 
the antagonism of England and her friends 
in this country brought about his recall. He 
then became governor of Virginia. He was 
sent as envoy to France in 1802; minister 
to England in 1803; and envoy to Spam in 
1805. The next year he returned to his 
estate in Virginia, and with an ample in- 
heritance enjoyed a few years of repose. He 
was again called to be governor of Virginia, 
and was then appointed secretary of state 
by President Madison. The war with Eng- 
land soon resulted, and when the capital 
was burned by the British, Mr. Monroe be- 
came secretary of war also, and planned the 
measures for the defense of New Orleans. 



The treasury being exhausted and credit 
gone, he pledged his own estate, and thereby 
made possible the victory of Jackson at New 
Orleans. 

In 1 817 Mr. Monroe became president 
of the United States, having been a candi- 
date of the "Republican" party, which at 
that time had begun to be called the ' ' Demo- 
cratic" party. In 1820 he was re-elected, 
having two hundred and thirty-one electoral 
votes out of two hundred and thirty-two. 
His administration is known as the "Era of 
good-feeling, " and party lines were almost 
wiped out. The slavery question began to 
assume importance at this time, and the 
Missouri Compromise was passed. The 
famous "Monroe Doctrine" originated in a 
great state paper of President Monroe upon 
the rumored interference of the Holy Alli- 
ance to prevent the formation of free repub- 
lics in South America. President Monroe 
acknowledged their independence, and pro- 
mulgated his great "Doctrine," which has 
been held in reverence since. Mr. Monroe's 
death occurred in New York on July 4, 1831. 



THOMAS ALVA EDISON, the master 
wizard of electrical science and whose 
name is synonymous with the subjugation 
of electricity to the service of man, was 
born in 1847 at Milan, Ohio, and it was at 
Port Huron, Michigan, whither his parents 
had moved in 1854, that his self-education 
began — for he never attended school for 
more than two months. He eagerly de- 
voured every book he could lay his hands on 
and is said to have read through an encyclo- 
pedia without missing a word. At thirteen he 
began his working life as a trainboy upon the 
Grand Trunk Railway between Port Huron 
and Detroit. Much of his time was now 
spent in Detroit, where he found increased 
facilities for reading at the public libraries. 



56 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



He was not content to be a newsboy, so he 
got together three hundred pounds of type 
and started the issue of the " Grand Trunk 
Herald." It was only a small amateur 
weekly, printed on one side, the impression 
being made from the type by hand. Chemi- 
cal research was his next undertaking and 
a laboratory was added to his movable pub- 
lishing house, which, by the way, was an 
old freight car. One day, however, as he 
was experimenting with some phosphorus, 
it ignited and the irate conductor threw the 
young seeker after the truth, chemicals and 
all, from the train. His of^ce and laboratory 
were then removed to the cellar of his fa- 
ther's house. As he grew to manhood he 
decided to become an operator. He won 
his opportunity by saving the life of a child, 
whose father was an old operator, and out of 
gratitude he gave Mr. Edison lessons in teleg- 
raphy. Five months later he was compe- 
tent to fill a position in the railroad office 
at Port Huron. Hence he peregrinated to 
Stratford, Ontario, and thence successively 
to Adrian, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Cin- 
cmnati, Memphis, Louisville and Boston, 
gradually becoming an expert operator and 
gaming experience that enabled him to 
evolve many ingenious ideas for the im- 
provement of telegraphic appliances. At 
Memphis he constructed an automatic re- 
peater, which enabled Louisville and New 
Orleans to communicate direct, and received 
nothing more than the thanks of his em- 
ployers. Mr. Edison came to New York in 
1870 in search of an opening more suitable 
to his capabilities and ambitions. He hap- 
pened to be in the office of the Laws Gold 
Reporting Company when one of the in- 
struments got out of order, and even the 
inventor of the system could not make it 
work. Edison requested to be allowed to 
attempt the task, and in a few minutes he 



had overcome the difficulty and secured an 
advantageous engagement. For several 
years he had a contract with the Western 
Union and the Gold Stock companies, 
whereby he received a large salary, besides 
a special price for all telegraphic improve- 
ments he could suggest. Later, as the 
head of the Edison General Electric com- 
pany, with its numerous subordinate organ- 
izations and connections all over the civil- 
ized world, he became several times a 
millionaire. Mr. Edison invented the pho- 
nograph and kinetograph which bear his 
name, the carbon telephone, the tasimeter, 
and the duplex and quadruplex systems of 
telegraphy. 

JAMES LONGSTREET, one of the most 
conspicuous of the Confederate generals 
during the Civil war, was born in 1820, in 
South Carolina, but was early taken by his 
parents to Alabama where he grew to man- 
hood and received his early education. He 
graduated at the United States military 
academy in 1842, entering the army as 
lieutenant and spent a few years in the fron- 
tier service. When the Mexican war broke 
out he was called to the front and partici- 
pated in all the principal battles of that war 
up to the storming of Chapultepec, where 
he received severe wounds. For gallant 
conduct at Contreras, Cherubusco, and Mo- 
lino del Rey he received the brevets of cap- 
tain and major. After the close of the 
Mexican war Longstreet served as adjutant 
and captain on frontier service in Texas un- 
til 1858 when he was transferred to the staff 
as paymaster with rank of major. In June, 
1 86 1, he resigned to join the Confederacy 
and immediately went to the front, com- 
manding a brigade at Bull Run the follow- 
ing month. Promoted to be major-general 
in 1862 he thereafter bore a conspicuous 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



57 



part and rendered valuable service to the 
Confederate cause. He participated in 
many of the most severe battles of the Civil 
war including Bull Run (first and second), 
Seven Pines, Gaines,' Mill, Fraziers Farm, 
Malvern Hill, Antietam, Frederickburg, 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, 
the Wilderness, Petersburg and most of the 
fighting about Richmond. 

When the war closed General Long- 
street accepted the result, renewed his alle- 
giance to the government, and thereafter 
labored earnestly to obliterate all traces of 
war and promote an era of good feeling be- 
tween all sections of the country. He took 
up his residence in New Orleans, and took 
an active interest and prominent part in 
public affairs, served as surveyor of that 
port for several years; was commissioner of 
engineers for Louisiana, served four years 
as school commissioner, etc. In 1875 he 
was appointed supervisor of internal revenue 
and settled in Georgia. After that time he 
served four years as United States minister 
to Turkey, and also for a number of years 
was United States marshal of Georgia, be- 
sides having held other important official 
positions. 

JOHN RUTLEDGE, the second chief- 
justice of the United States, was born 
at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1739. 
He was a son of John Rutledge, who had 
left Ireland for America about five years 
prior to the birth of our subject, and a 
brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. John Rut- 
ledge received his legal education at the 
Temple, London, after which he returned 
to Charleston and soon won distinction at 
the bar. He was elected to the old Colonial 
congress in 1765 to protest against the 
"Stamp Act," and was a member of the 



South Carolina convention of 1774, and of 
the Continental congress of that and the 
succeeding year. In 1776 he was chairman 
of the committee that draughted the con- 
stitution of his state, and was president of 
the congress of that state. He was not 
pleased with the state constitution, how- 
ever, and resigned. In 1779 he was again 
chosen governor of the state, and granted 
extraordinary powers, and he at once took 
the field to repel the British. He joined 
the army of General Gates in 1782, and the 
same year was elected to congress. He 
was a member of the constitutional con- 
vention which framed our present constitu- 
tion. In 1789 he was appointed an associate 
justice of the first supreme court of the 
United States. He resigned to accept the 
position of chief-justice of his own state. 
Upon the resignation of Judge Jay, he was 
appointed chief-justice of the United States 
in 1795. The appointment was never con- 
firmed, for, after presiding at one session, 
his mind became deranged, and he was suc- 
ceeded by Judge Ellsworth. He died at 
Charleston, July 23, 1800. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON was one 
of the most noted literary men of his 
time. He was born in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, May 25, 1803. He had a minister for 
an ancestor, either on the paternal or ma- 
ternal side, in every generation for eight 
generations back. His father. Rev. Will- 
iam Emerson, was a native of Concord, 
Massachusetts, born May 6, 1769, graduated 
at Harvard, in 17S9, became a Unitarian 
minister; was a line writer and one of the 
best orators of his day; died in 181 1. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was fitted for 
college at the public schools of Boston, and 
graduated at Harvard College in 1821, win- 
ning about this time several prizes for es- 



58 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7'. 



says. For five years he taught school in 
Boston; in 1826 was licensed to preach, and 
in 1829 was ordained as a colleague to Rev. 
Henry Ware of the Second Unitarian church 
in Boston. In 1832 he resigned, making 
the announcement in a sermon of his un- 
willingness longer to administer the rite of 
the Lord's Supper, after which he spent 
about a year in Europe. Upon his return 
he began his career as a lecturer before the 
Boston Mechanics Institute, his subject be- 
ing "Water." His early lectures on " Italy" 
and "Relation of Man to the Globe" also 
attracted considerable attention; as did also 
his biographical lectures on Michael Angelo, 
Milton, Luther, George Fox, and Edmund 
Burke. After that time he gave many 
courses of lectures in Boston and became 
one of the best known lecturers in America. 
But very few men have rendered such con- 
tinued service in this field. He lectured for 
forty successive seasons before the Salem, 
Massachusetts, Lyceum and also made re- 
peated lecturing tours in this country and in 
England. In 1835 Mr. Emerson took up 
his residence at Concord, Massachusetts, 
where he continued to make his home until 
his death which occurred April 27, 1882. 

Mr. Emerson's literary work covered a 
wide scope. He wrote and published many 
works, essays and poems, which rank high 
among the works of American literary men. 
A few of the many which he produced are 
the following: "Nature;" "The Method 
of Nature;" " Man Thinking;" "The Dial;" 
"Essays;" "Poems;" "English Traits;" 
"The Conduct of Life;" "May-Day and 
other Poems " and " Society and Solitude;" 
besides many others. He was a prominent 
member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, of the American Philosophical 
Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society 
and other kindred associations. 



ALEXANDER T. STEWART, one of 
the famous merchant princes of New 
York, was born near the city of Belfast, Ire- 
land, in 1803, and before he was eight years 
of age was left an orphan without any near 
relatives, save an aged grandfather. The 
grandfather being a pious Methodist wanted 
to make a minister of young Stewart, and 
accordingly put him in a school with that 
end in view and he graduated at Trinity Col- 
lege, in Dublin. When scarcely twenty 
years of age he came to New York. His 
first employment was that of a teacher, but 
accident soon made him a merchant. En- 
tering into business relations with an ex- 
perienced man of his acquaintance he soon 
found himself with the rent of a store on 
his hands and alone in a new enterprise. 
Mr. Stewart's business grew rapidly in all 
directions, but its founder had executive 
ability sufficient for any and all emergencies, 
and in time his house became one of the 
greatest mercantile establishments of mod- 
ern times, and the name of Stewart famous. 
Mr. Stewart's death occurred April 10, 
1876. 

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. — In 
speaking of this noted American nov- 
elist, William Cullen Bryant said: " He 
wrote for mankind at large, hence it is that 
he has earned a fame wider than any Amer- 
ican author of modern times. The crea- 
tions of his genius shall survive through 
centuries to come, and only perish with our 
language." Another eminent writer (Pres- 
cott) said of Cooper: " In his productions 
every American must take an honest pride; 
for surely no one has succeeded like Coopier 
in the portraiture of American character, or 
has given such glowing and eminently truth- 
ful pictures of American scenery." 

James Fenimore Cooper was born Sep- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



59 



tember 15, 1789, at Burlington, New Jer- 
sey, and was a son of Judge William Cooper. 
About a year after the birth of our subject 
the family removed to Otsego county, New 
York, and founded the town called " Coop- 
erstown." James Fenimore Cooper spent 
his childhood there and in 1802 entered 
Yale College, and four years later became a 
midshipman in the United States navy. In 
181 1 he was married, quit the seafaring life, 
and began devoting more or less time to lit- 
erary pursuits. His first work was "Pre- 
caution," a novel published in 1819, and 
three years later he produced "The Spy, a 
Tale of Neutral Ground," which met with 
great favor and was a universal success. 
This was followed by many other works, 
among which may be mentioned the follow- 
ing: "The Pioneers," "The Pilot," "Last 
of the Mohicans," "The Prairie," "The 
Red Rover," "The Manikins," "Home- 
ward Bound," "Home as Found," "History 
of the United States Navy," "The Path- 
finder," "Wing and Wing," "Afloat and 
Ashore," "The Chain-Bearer," "Oak- 
Openings," etc. J. Fenimore Cooper died 
at Cooperstown, New York, September 14, 
1851. 



M 



ARSHALL FIELD, one of the mer- 
chant princes of America, ranks among 
the most successful business men of the cen- 
tury. He was born in 1835 s-t Conway, 
Massachusetts. He spent his early life on 
a farm and secured a fair education in the 
common schools, supplementing this with a 
course at the Conway Academy. His 
natural bent ran in the channels of commer- 
cial life, and at the age of seventeen he was 
given a position in a store at Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts. Mr. Field remained there 
four years and removed to Chicago in 1856. 
He began his career in Chicago as a clerk 



in the wholesale dry goods house of Cooley, 
Wadsworth & Company, which later be- 
came Cooley, Farwell & Company, and still 
later John V. Farwell & Company. He 
remained with them four years and exhibit- 
ed marked ability, in recognition of which 
he was given a partnership. In 1865 Mr. 
Field and L. Z. Leiter, who was also a 
member of the firm, withdrew and formed 
the firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter, the 
third partner being Potter Palmer, and they 
continued in business until 1867, when Mr. 
Palmer retired and the firm became Field, 
Leiter & Company. They ran under the 
latter name until 1881, when Mr. Leiter re- 
tired and the house has since continued un- 
der the name of Marshall Field & Company. 
The phenomenal success accredited to the 
house is largely due to the marked ability 
of Mr. Field, the house had become one of 
the foremost in the west, with an annual 
sale of $8,000,000 in 1870. The total loss 
of the firm during the Chicago fire was 
$3,500,000 of which $2,500,000 was re- 
covered through the insurance companies. 
It rapidly recovered from the effects of this 
and to-day the annual sales amount to over 
$40,000,000. Mr. Field's real estate hold- 
ings amounted to $10,000,000. He was 
one of the heaviest subscribers to the Bap- 
tist University fund although he is a Presby- 
terian, and gave $1,000,000 for the endow- 
ment of the Field Columbian Museum — 
one of the greatest institutions of the kind 
in the world. 

EDGAR WILSON NYE, who won an im- 
mense popularity under the pen name 
of " Bill Nye," was one of the most eccen- 
tric humorists of his day. He was born Au- 
gust 25, 1850, at Shirley, Piscataqua coun- 
ty, Maine, "at a very early age" as he ex- 
presses it. He took an academic course in 



60 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



River Falls, Wisconsin, from whence, after 
his graduation, he removed to Wyoming 
Territor}'. He studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1876. He began when 
quite young to contribute humorous sketches 
to the newspapers, became connected with 
various western journals and achieved a 
brilliant success as a humorist. Mr. Nye 
settled later in New York City where he 
devoted his time to writing funny articles for 
the big newspaper syndicates. He wrote for 
publication in book form the following : 
"Bill Nye and the Boomerang," "The 
Forty Liars," "Baled Hay," "Bill Nye's 
Blossom Rock," "Remarks," etc. His 
death occurred February 21, 1896, at Ashe- 
ville, North Carolina. 



THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGE, one of 
the most celebrated American preach- 
ers, was born January 7, 1832, and was the 
youngest of twelve children. He made his 
preliminary studies at the grammar school 
in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At the age 
of eighteen he joined the church and entered 
the University of the City of New York, and 
graduated in May, 1853. The exercises 
were held in Niblo's Garden and his speech 
aroused the audience to a high pitch of en- 
thusiasm. At the close of his college duties 
he imagined himself interested in the law 
and for three years studied law. Dr. Tal- 
mage then perceived his mistake and pre- 
pared himself for the ministry at the 
Reformed Dutch Church Theological Semi- 
nary at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Just 
after his ordination the young minister re- 
ceived two calls, one from Piermont, New 
York, and the other from Belleville, New 
Jersey. Dr. Talmage Accepted the latter 
and for three years filled that charge, when 
he was called to Syracuse, New York. Here 
it was that his sermons first drew large 



crowds of people to his church, and from 
thence dates his popularity. Afterward he 
became the pastor of the Second Reformed 
Dutch church, of Philadelphia, remaining 
seven years, during which period he first 
entered upon the lecture platform and laid 
the foundation for his future reputation. At 
the end of this time he received three calls, 
one from Chicago, one from San Francisco, 
and one from the Central Presbyterian 
church of Brooklyn, which latter at that 
time consisted of only nineteen members 
with a congregation of about thirty-five. 
This church offered him a salary of seven 
thousand dollars and he accepted the call. 
He soon induced the trustees to sell the old 
church and build a new one. They did so 
and erected the Brooklyn Tabernacle, but 
it burned down shortly after it was finished. 
By prompt sympathy and general liberality 
a new church was built and formally opened 
in February, 1874. It contained seats for 
four thousand, six hundred and fifty, but if 
necessary seven thousand could be accom- 
modated. In October, 1878, his salary was 
raised from seven thousand dollars to twelve 
thousand dollars, and in the autumn of 1889 
the second tabernacle was destroyed by fire. 
A third tabernacle was built and it was for- 
mally dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1891. 



JOHN PHILIP SOUSA, conceded as 
being one of the greatest band leaders 
in the world, won his fame while leader of 
the United States Marine Band at Washing- 
ton, District of Columbia. He was not 
originally a band player but was a violinist, 
and at the age of seventeen he was conduc- 
tor of an opera company, a profession which 
he followed for several years, until he was 
offered the leadership of the Marine Band 
at Washington. The proposition was re- 
pugnant to him at first but he accepted the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



61 



offer and then ensued ten years of brilliant 
success with that organization. When he 
first took the Marine Band he began to 
gather the national airs of all the nations 
that have representatives in Washington, 
and compiled a comprehensive volume in- 
cluding nearly all the national songs of the 
different nations. He composed a number 
of marches, waltzes and two-steps, promi- 
nent among which are the "Washington 
Post," "Directorate," "King Cotton," 
"High School Cadets," "Belle of Chica- 
go," "Liberty Bell March," "Manhattan 
Beach," "On Parade March," " Thunderer 
March," "Gladiator March," " El Capitan 
March," etc. He became a very extensive 
composer of this class of music. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, sixth president 
of the United States, was born in 
Braintree, Massachusetts, July ii, 1767, 
the son of John Adams. At the age of 
eleven he was sent to school at Paris, and 
two years later to Leyden, where he entered 
that great university. He returned to the 
United States in 1785, and graduated from 
Harvard in 1788. He then studied law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1791. His 
practice brought no income the first two 
years, but he won distinction in literary 
fields, and was appointed minister to The 
Hague in 1794. He married in 1797, and 
went as minister to Berlin the same year, 
serving until 1801, when Jefferson became 
president. He was elected to the senate in 
1803 by the Federalists, but was condemned 
by that party for advocating the Embargo 
Act and other Anti-Federalist measures. He 
was appointed as professor of rhetoric at 
Harvard in 1805, and in 1809 was sent as 
minister to Russia. He assisted in negotiat- 
ing the treaty of peace with England in 
1 8 14, and became minister to that power 



the next year. He served during Monroe's 
administration two terms as secretary of 
state, during which time party lines were 
obliterated, and in 1824 four candidates for 
president appeared, all of whom were iden- 
tified to some extent with the new " Demo- 
cratic" party. Mr. Adams received 84 elec- 
toral votes, Jackson 99, Crawford 41, and 
Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority 
of all votes, the election went to the house 
of representatives, which elected Mr. Adams. 
As Clay had thrown his influence to Mr. 
Adams, Clay became secretary of state, and 
this caused bitter feeling on the part of the 
Jackson Democrats, who were joined by 
Mr. Crawford and his following, and op- 
posed every measure of the administration. 
In the election of 1828 Jackson was elected 
over Mr. Adams by a great majority. 

Mr. Adams entered the lower house of 
congress in 1830, elected from the district 
in which he was born and continued to rep- 
resent it for seventeen years. He was 
known as " the old man eloquent," and his 
work in congress was independent of party. 
He opposed slavery extension and insisted 
upon presenting to congress, one at a time, 
the hundreds of petitions against the slave 
power. One of these petitions, presented in 
1842, was signed by forty-live citizens of 
Massachusetts, and prayed congress for a 
peaceful dissolution of the Union. His 
enemies seized upon this as an opportunity 
to crush their powerful foe, and in a caucus 
meeting determined upon his expulsion from 
congress. Finding they would not be able 
to command enough votes for this, they de- 
cided upon a course that would bring equal 
disgrace. They formulated a resolution to 
the effect that while he merited expulsion, 
the house would, in great mercy, substitute 
its severest censure. When it was read in the 
house the old man, then in his seventy-fifth 



62 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



year, arose and demanded that the first para- 
graph of the Declaration of Independence 
be read as his defense. It embraced the 
famous sentence, "that whenever any form 
of government becomes destructive to those 
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
abolish it, and to institute new government, 
etc., etc." After eleven days of hard fight- 
ing his opponents were defeated. On Febru- 
ary 21, 1S48, he rose to address the speaker 
on the Oregon question, when he suddenly 
fell from a stroke of paralysis. He died 
soon after in the rotunda of the capitol, 
where he had been conveyed by his col- 
leagues. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY was one of the 
most famous women of America. She 
was born at South Adams, Massachusetts, 
February 15, 1820, the daughter of a 
Quaker. She received a good education 
and became a school teacher, following that 
profession for fifteen years in New York. 
Beginning with about 1852 she became the 
active leader of the woman's rights move- 
ment and won a wide reputation for her 
zeal and ability. She also distinguished 
herself for her zeal and eloquence in the 
temperance, and anti-slavery causes, and 
became a conspicuous figure during the war. 
After the close of the war she gave most of 
her labors to the cause of woman's suffrage. 



PHILIP D. ARMOUR, one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the mercantile 
history of America, was born May 16, 1832, 
on a farm at Stockbridge, Madison county. 
New York, and received his early education 
in the common schools of that county. He 
was apprenticed to a farmer and worked 
faithfully and well, being very ambitious and 
desiring to start out for himself. At the 
age of twenty he secured a release from his 



indentures and set out overland for the 
gold fields of California. After a great 
deal of hard work he accumulated a little 
money and then came east and settled 
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went into 
the grain receiving and warehouse busi- 
ness and was fairly successful, and later on 
he formed a partnership with John Plankin- 
ton in the pork packing line, the style of the 
firm being Plankinton & Armour. Mr. Ar- 
mour made his first great "deal" in selling 
pork "short" on the New York market in 
the anticipation of the fall of the Confed- 
eracy, and Mr. Armour is said to have made 
through this deal a million dollars. He then 
established packing houses in Chicago and 
Kansas City, and in 1875 he removed to 
Chicago. He increased his business by add- 
ing to it the shipment of dressed beef to 
the European markets, and many other lines 
of trade and manufacturing, and it rapidly 
assumed vast proportions, employing an 
army of men in different lines of the busi- 
ness. Mr. Armour successfully conducted a 
great many speculative deals in pork and 
grain of immense proportions and also erected 
many large warehouses for the storage of 
grain. He became one of the representative 
business men of Chicago, where he became 
closely identified with all enterprises of a 
public nature, but his fame as a great busi- 
ness man extended to all parts of the world. 
He founded the "Armour Institute " at Chi- 
cago and also contributed largely to benevo- 
lent and charitable institutions. 



ROBERT FULTON.— Although Fulton 
is best known as the inventor of the 
first successful steamboat, yet his claims to 
distinction do not rest alone upon that, for 
he was an inventor along other lines, a 
painter and an author. He was born at 
Little Britain, Lancaster county, Pennsyl- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



65 



vania, in 1765, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. 
At the age of seventeen he removed to Phila- 
delphia, and there and in New York en- 
gaged in miniature painting with success 
both from a pecuniary and artistic point of 
view. With the results of his labors he pur- 
chased a farm for the support of his mother. 
He went to London and studied under the 
great painter, Benjamin West, and all 
through life retained his fondness for art 
and gave evidence of much ability in that 
line. While in England he was brought in 
contact with the Duke of Bridgewater, the 
father of the English canal system; Lord 
Stanhope, an eminent mechanician, and 
James \\'att, the inventor of the steam en- 
gine. Their influence turned his mind to its 
true field of labor, that of mechanical in- 
vention. Machines for tiax spinning, 
marble sawing, rope making, and for remov- 
ing earth from excavations, are among his 
earliest ventures. His "Treatise on the 
Improvement of Canal Navigation," issued 
in 1796, and a series of essays on canals 
were soon followed by an English patent 
for canal improvements. In 1797 he went 
to Paris, where he resided until 1806, and 
there invented a submarine torpedo boat for 
maritime defense, but which was rejected 
by the governments of France, England and 
the United States. In 1803 he offered to con- 
struct for the Emperor Napoleon a steam- 
boat that would assist in carrying out the 
plan of invading Great Britain then medi- 
tated by that great captain. In pursuance 
he constructed his first steamboat on the 
Seine, but it did not prove a full success 
and the idea was abandoned by the French 
government. By the aid of Livingston, 
then -United States minister to France, 
Fulton purchased, in 1806, an engine which 
he brought to this country. After studying 

the defects of his own and other attempts in 
4 



this line he built and launched in 1807 the 
Clermont, the first successful steamboat. 
This craft only attained a speed of five 
miles an hour while going up North river. 
His first patent not fully covering his in- 
vention, Fulton was engaged in many law 
suits for infringement. He constructed 
many steamboats, ferryboats, etc. , among 
these being the United States steamer 
" Fulton the First," built in 1814, the first 
war steamer ever built. This craft never 
attained any great speed owing to some de- 
fects in construction and accidentally blew 
up in 1829. Fulton died in New York, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1815. 



SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, sixth 
chief-justice of the United States, and 
one of the most eminent of American jurists, 
was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, Jan- 
uary 13, 1808. At the age of nine he was 
left in poverty by the death of his father, 
but means were found to educate him. He 
was sent to his uncle, a bishop, who con- 
ducted an academy near Columbus, Ohio, 
and here young Chase worked on the farm 
and attended school. At the age of fifteen 
he returned to his native state and entered 
Dartmouth College, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1 826. He then went to Washington, 
and engaged in teaching school, and study- 
ing law under the instruction of William 
Wirt. He was licensed to practice in 1829, 
and went to Cincinnati, where he had a 
hard struggle for several years following. 
He had in the meantime prepared notes on 
the statutes of Ohio, which, when published, 
brought him into prominence locally. He 
was soon after appointed solicitor of the 
United States Bank. In 1837 he appeared 
as counsel for a fugitive slave woman, Ma- 
tilda, and sought by all the powers of his 
learning and eloquence to prevent her owner 



66 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



from reclaiming her. He acted in many 
other cases, and devolved the trite expres- 
sion, "Slavery is sectional, freedom is na- 
tional. " He was employed to defend Van 
Zandt before the supreme court of the United 
States in 1846, which was one of the most 
noted cases connected with the great strug- 
gle against slavery. By this time Mr. Chase 
had become the recognized leader of that 
element known as " free-soilers." He was 
elected to the United States senate in 1849, 
and was chosen governor of Ohio in 1855 
and re-elected in 1857. He was chosen to 
the United States senate from Ohio in 1861, 
but was made secretary of the treasury by 
Lincoln and accepted. He inaugurated a 
financial system to replenish the exhausted 
treasury and meet the demands of the great- 
est war in history and at the same time to 
revive the industries of the country. One 
of the measures which afterward called for 
his judicial attention was the issuance of 
currency notes which were made a legal 
tender in payment of debts. When this 
question came before him as chief-justice 
of the United States he reversed his former 
action and declared the measure unconstitu- 
tional. The national banking system, by 
which all notes issued were to be based on 
funded government bonds of equal or greater 
amounts, had its direct origin with Mr. Chase. 
Mr. Chase resigned the treasury port- 
folio in 1864, and was appointed the same 
year as chief-justice of the United States 
supreme court. The great questions that 
came up before him at this crisis in the life 
of the nation were no less than those which 
confronted the first chief-justice at the for- 
mation of our government. Reconstruction, 
private, state and national interests, the 
constitutionality of the acts of congress 
passed in times of great excitement, the 
construction and interpretation to be placed 



upon the several amendments to the national 
constitution, — these were among the vital 
questions requiring prompt decision. He 
received a paralytic stroke in 1870, which 
impaired his health, though his mental 
powers were not affected. He continued to 
preside at the opening terms for two years 
following and died May 7, 1873. 



HARRIET ELIZABETH BEECHER 
STOWE, a celebrated American writ- 
er, was born June 14, 1812, at Litchfield, 
Connecticut. She was a daughter of Lyman 
Beecher and a sister of Henry Ward Beecher, 
two noted divines; was carefully educated, 
and taught school for several years at Hart- 
ford, Connecticut. In 1832 Miss Beecher 
married Professor Stowe, then of Lane Semi- 
nary, Cincinnati, Ohio, and afterwards at 
Bowdoin College and Andover Seminary. 
Mrs. Stowe published in 1849 "The May- 
flower, or sketches of the descendants of the 
Pilgrims, " and in 1851 commenced in the 
' ' National Era " of Washington, a serial story 
which was published separately in 1852 under 
the title of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This 
book attained almost unparalleled success 
both at home and abroad, and within ten years 
it had been translated in almost every lan- 
guage of the civilized world. Mrs. Stowe pub- 
lished in 1853 a "Key toUncleTom's Cabin" 
in which the data that she used was published 
and its truthfulness was corroborated. In 
1853 she accompanied her husband and 
brother to Europe, and on her return pub- 
lished "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands" 
in 1854. Mrs. Stowe was for some time 
one of the editors of the " Atlantic Monthly " 
and the " Hearth and Home," for which 
she had written a number of articles. 
Among these, also published separately, are 
" Dred, a tale of the Great Dismal Swamp " 
(later published under the title of "Nina 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



67 



Gordon"); "The Minister's Wooing;" "The 
Pearl of Orr's Island;" "Agnes of Sorrento;" 
"Oldtovvn Folks;" " My Wife and I;" "Bible 
Heroines," and "A Dog's Mission." Mrs. 
Stowe's death occurred July i, 1896, at 
Hartford, Connecticut. 



THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON, bet- 
ter known as "Stonewall" Jackson, 
was one of the most noted of the Confeder- 
ate generals of the Civil war. He was a 
soldier by nature, an incomparable lieuten- 
ant, sure to execute any operation entrusted 
to him with marvellous precision, judgment 
and courage, and all his individual cam- 
paigns and combats bore the stamp of a 
masterly capacity for war. He was born 
January 2i, 1824, at Clarksburg, Harrison 
county, West "Virginia. He was early in 
life imbued with the desire to be a soldier 
and it is said walked from the mountains of 
Virginia to Washington, secured the aid of 
his congressman, and was appointed cadet 
at the United States Military Academy at 
West Point from which he was graduated in 

1846. Attached to the army as brevet sec- 
ond lieutenant of the First Artillery, his first 
service was as a subaltern with Magruder's 
battery of light artillery in the Mexican war. 
He participated at the reduction of Vera 
Cruz, and was noticed for gallantry in the 
battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Moline 
del Rey, Chapultepec, and the capture of 
the city of Mexico, receiving the brevets of 
captain for conduct at Contreras and Cher- 
ubusco and of major at Chapultepec. In 
the meantime he had been advanced by 
regular promotion to be first lieutenant in 

1847. In 1852, the war having closed, he 
resigned and became professor of natural 
and experimental philosophy and artillery 
instructor at the Virginia State Military 
Institute at Lexington, Virginia, where he 



remained until Virginia declared for seces- 
sion, he becoming chiefly noted for intense 
religious sentiment coupled with personal 
eccentricities. Upon the breaking out of 
the war he was made colonel and placed in 
command of a force sent to sieze Harper's 
Ferry, which he accomplished May 3, 1861. 
Relieved by General J. E. Johnston, May 
23, he took command of the brigade of 
Valley Virginians, whom he moulded into 
that brave corps, baptized at the first 
Manassas, and ever after famous as the 
"Stonewall Brigade." After this "Stone- 
wall " Jackson was made a major-general, 
in 1861, and participated until his death in 
all the famous campaigns about Richmond 
and in Virginia, and was a conspicuous fig- 
ure in the memorable battles of that time. 
May 2, 1863, at Chancellorsville, he was 
wounded severely by his own troops, two 
balls shattering his left arm and another 
passing through the palm of his right hand. 
The left arm was amputated, but pneumonia 
intervened, and, weakened by the great loss 
of blood, he died May 10, 1863. The more 
his operations in the Shenandoah valley in 
1862 are studied the more striking must the 
merits of this great soldier appear. 



TOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.— 
vJ Near to the heart of the people of the 
Anglo-Saxon race will ever lie the verses of 
this, the "Quaker Poet." The author of 
"Barclay of Ury," "Maud Muller" and 
"Barbara Frietchie," always pure, fervid 
and direct, will be remembered when many 
a more ambitious writer has been forgotten. 
John G. Whittier was born at Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts, December 7, 1807, of 
Quaker parentage. He had but a common- 
school education and passed his boyhood 
days upon a farm. In early life he learned 
the trade of shoemaker. At the age of 



6S 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



eighteen he began to write verses for the 
Haverhill '' Gazette." He spent two years 
after that at the Haverhill academy, after 
which, in 1829, he became editor of the 
"American Manufacturer," at Boston. In 
1830 he succeeded George D. Prentice as 
editor of the "New England Weekly Re- 
view," but the following year returned to 
Haverhill and engaged in farming. In 1832 
and in 1836 he edited the " Gazette." In 
1835 he was elected a member of the legis- 
lature, serving two years. In 1 836 he became 
secretary of the Anti-slavery Society of Phil- 
adelphia. In 1 838 and 1839 he edited the 
" Pennsylvania Freeman," but in the latter 
year the office was sacked and burned by a 
mob. In 1840 Whittier settled at Ames- 
bury, Massachusetts. In 1847 he became 
corresponding editor of the " National Era," 
an anti-slavery paper published at Washing- 
ton, and contributed to its columns many of 
his anti-slavery and other favorite lyrics. 
Mr. Whittier lived for many years in retire- 
ment of Quaker simplicity, publishing several 
volumes of poetry which have raised him to 
a high place among American authors and 
brought to him the love and admiration of 
his countrymen. In the electoral colleges 
of i860 and 1864 Whittier was a member. 
Much of his time after 1876 was spent at 
Oak Knoll, Danvers, Massachusetts, but 
still retained his residence at Amesbury. 
He never married. His death occurred Sep- 
tember 7, 1892. 

The more prominent prose writings of 
John G. Whittier are as follows: "Legends 
of New England," " Justice and Expediency, 
or Slavery Considered with a View to Its Abo- 
lition," " The Stranger in Lowell," "Super- 
naturalism in New England," " Leaves from 
Margaret Smith's Journal," "Old Portraits 
and Modern Sketches" and "Literary 
Sketches." 



DAVID DIXON PORTER, illustrious as 
admiral of the United States navy, and 
famous as one of the most able naval offi- 
cers of America, was born in Pennsylvania, 
June 8, 1 8 14. His father was also a naval 
officer of distinction, who left the service of 
the United States to become commander of 
the naval forces of Mexico during the war 
between that country and Spain, and 
through this fact David Di.xon Porter was 
appointed a midshipman in the Mexican 
navy. Two years later David D. Porter 
joined the United States navy as midship- 
man, rose in rank and eighteen years later 
as a lieutenant he is found actively engaged 
in all the operations of our navy along the 
east coast of Mexico. When the Civil war 
broke out Porter, then a commander, was 
dispatched in the Powhattan to the relief of 
Fort Pickens, Florida. This duty accom- 
plished, he fitted out a mortar flotilla for 
the reduction of the forts guarding the ap- 
proaches to New Orleans, which it was con- 
sidered of vital importance for the govern- 
ment to get possession of. After the fall of 
New Orleans the mortar flotilla was actively 
engaged at Vicksburg, and in the fall of 
1862 Porter was made a rear-admiral and 
placed in command of all the naval forces 
on the western rivers above New -Orleans. 
The ability of the man was now con- 
spicuously manifested, not only in the bat- 
tles in which he was engaged, but also in 
the creation of a formidable fleet out of 
river steamboats, which he covered with 
such plating as they would bear. In 1864 
he was transferred to the Atlantic coast to 
command the naval forces destined to oper- 
ate against the defences of Wilmington, 
North Carolina, and on Jan. 15, 1865, the 
fall of Fort Fisher was hailed by the country 
as a glorious termination of his arduous war 
service. In 1866 he was made vice-admiral 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHIC 



69 



and appointed superintendent of the Naval 
Academy. On the death of Farragut, in 
1870, he succeeded that able man as ad- 
miral of the navy. His death occurred at 
Washington, February 13, 1891. 



NATHANIEL GREENE was one of the 
best known of the distinguished gen- 
erals who led the Continental soldiery 
against the hosts of Great Britain during 
the Revolutionary war. He was the son 
of Quaker parents, and was born at War- 
wick, Rhode Island, May 27, 1742. In 
youth he acquired a good education, chiefly 
by his own efforts, as he was a tireless 
reader. In 1770 he was elected a member 
of the Assembly of his native state. The 
news of the battle of Lexington stirred 
his blood, and he offered his services to 
the government of the colonies, receiving 
the rank of brigadier-general and the com- 
mand of the troops from Rhode Island. 
He led them to the camp at Cambridge, 
and for thus violating the tenets of their 
faith, he was cast out of the Society of 
Friends, or Quakers. He soon won the es- 
teem of General W^ashington. In August, 

1776, Congress promoted Greene to the 
rank of major-general, and in the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton he led a division. 
At the battle of Brandy wine, September 1 1, 

1777, he greatly distinguished himself, pro- 
tecting the retreat of the Continentals by 
his firm stand. At the battle of German- 
town, October 4, the same year, he com- 
manded the left wing of the army with 
credit. In March, 1778, he reluctantly ac- 
cepted the office of quartermaster-general, 
but only with the understanding that his 
rank in the army would not be affected and 
that in action he should retain his command. 
On the bloody field of Monmouth, June 28, 
177S, he commanded the right wing, as he 



did at the battle of Tiverton Heights. He 
was in command of the army in 1780, dur- 
ing the absence of Washington, and was 
president of the court-martial that tried and 
condemned Major Andre. After General 
Gates' defeat at Camden, North Carolina, in 
the summer of 1780, General Greene was ap- 
pointed to the command of the southern army. 
He sent out a force under General Morgan 
who defeated General Tarleton at Cowpens, 
January 17, 1781. On joining his lieuten- 
ant, in February, he found himself out num- 
bered by the British and retreated in good 
order to Virginia, but being reinforced re- 
turned to North Carolina where he fought 
the battle of Guilford, and a few days later 
compelled the retreat of Lord Cornwallis. 
The British were followed by Greene part 
of the way, when the American army 
marched into South Carolina. After vary- 
ing success he fought the battle of Eutaw 
Springs, September 8, 1781. For the latter 
battle and its glorious consequences, which 
virtually closed the war in the Carolinas, 
Greene received a medal from Congress and 
many valuable grants of land from the 
colonies of North and South Carolina and 
Georgia. On the return of peace, after a 
year spent in Rhode Island, General Greene 
took up his residence on his estate near 
Savannah, Georgia, where he died June 19, 
1786. 

EDGAR ALLEN POE.— Among the 
many great literary men whom this 
country has produced, there is perhaps no 
name more widely known than that of Ed- 
gar Allen Poe. He was born at Boston, 
Massachusetts, February 19, 1809. His 
parents were David and Elizabeth (Arnold) 
Poe, both actors, the mother said to have 
been the natural daughter of Benedict Ar- 
nold. The parents died while Edgar was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



still a child and he was adopted by John 
Allen, a wealthy and influential resident of 
Richmond, Virginia. Edgar was sent to 
school at Stoke, Newington, England, 
where he remained until he was thirteen 
years old; was prepared for college by pri- 
vate tutors, and in 1826 entered the Virginia 
University at Charlottesville. He made 
rapid progress in his studies, and was dis- 
tinguished for his scholarship, but was ex- 
pelled within a year for gambling, after 
which for several years he resided with his 
benefactor at Richmond. He then went to 
Baltimore, and in 1829 published a 71 -page 
pamphlet called "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane 
and Minor Poems," which, however, at- 
tracted no attention and contained nothing 
of particular merit. In 1830 he was ad- 
mitted as a cadet at West Point, but was 
expelled about a year later for irregulari- 
ties. Returning to the home of Mr. Allen 
he remained for some time, and finally 
quarrelled with his benefactor and enlisted 
as a private soldier in the U. S. army, but 
remained only a short time. Soon after 
this, in 1833, Poe won several prizes for 
literary work, and as a result secured the 
position of editor of ^\\e. ' ' Southern Liter- 
ary Messenger," at Richmond, Virginia. 
Here he married his cousin, Virginia 
Clemm, who clung to him with fond devo- 
tion through all the many trials that came 
to them until her death in January, 1848. 
Poe remained with the "Messenger" for 
several years, writing meanwhile many 
tales, reviews, essays and poems. He aft- 
erward earned a precarious living by his 
pen in New York for a time; in 1839 be- 
came editor of "Burton's Gentleman's 
Magazine" ; in 1840 to 1842 was editor of 
" Graham's Magazine," and drifted around 
from one place to another, returning to 
New York in 1844. In 1845 his best 



known production, "The Raven," appeared 
in the "Whig Review," and gained him a 
reputation which is now almost world-wide. 
He then acted "as editor and contributor on 
various magazines and periodicals until the 
death of his faithful wife in 1848. In the 
summer of 1849 he was engaged to be mar- 
ried to a lady of fortune in Richmond, Vir- 
ginia, and the day set for the wedding. 
He started for New York to make prepara- 
tions for the event, but, it is said, began 
drinking, was attacked with dilirium tre- 
mens in Baltimore and was removed to a 
hospital, where he died, October 7, 1849. 
The works of Edgar Allen Poe have been 
repeatedly published since his death, both 
in Europe and America, and have attained 
an immense popularity. 



HORATIO GATES, one of the prom- 
inent figures in the American war for 
Independence, was not a native of the col- 
onies but was born in England in 1728. In 
early life he entered the British army and 
attained the rank of major. At the capture 
of Martinico he was aide to General Monk- 
ton and after the peace of Aix la Chapelle, 
in 1748, he was among the first troops that 
landed at Halifax. He was with Braddock 
at his defeat in 1755, and was there severe- 
ly wounded. At the conclusion of the 
French and Indian war Gates purchased an 
estate in Virginia, and, resigning from the 
British army, settled down to life as a 
planter. On the breaking out of the Rev- 
olutionary svar he entered the service of the 
colonies and was made adjutant-general of 
the Continental forces with the rank of 
brigadier-general. He accompanied Wash- 
ington when he assumed the command of 
the army. In June, 1776, he was appoint- 
ed to the command of the army of Canada, 
but was superseded in May of the following 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



71 



year by General Schuyler. In August, 
1777, however, the command of that army 
was restored to General Gates and Septem- 
ber 19 he fought the battle of Bemis 
Heights. October 7, the same year, he 
won the battle of Stillwater, or Saratoga, 
and October 17 received the surrender of 
General Burgoyne and his army, the pivotal 
point of the war. This gave him a brilliant 
reputation. June 13, 1780, General Gates 
was appointed to the command of the 
southern military division, and August 16 of 
that year suffered defeat at the hands of 
Lord Cornwallis, at Camden, North Car- 
olina. In December following he was 
superseded in the command by General 
Nathaniel Greene. 

On the signing of the peace treaty Gen- 
eral Gates retired to his plantation in 
Berkeley county, Virginia, where he lived 
until 1790, when, emancipating all his 
slaves, he removed to New York City, where 
he resided until his death, April 10, 1S06. 



LYMAN J. GAGE.— When President Mc- 
Kinley selected Lyman J. Gage as sec- 
retary of the treasury he chose one of the 
most eminent financiers of the century. Mr. 
Gage was born June 28, 1836, at De Ruy- 
ter, Madison county. New York, and was of 
English descent. He went to Rome, New 
York, with his parents when he was ten 
years old, and received his early education 
in the Rome Academy. Mr. Gage gradu- 
ated from the same, and his first position 
was that of a clerk in the post office. When 
he was fifteen years of age he was detailed 
as mail agent on the Rome & Watertown 
R. R. until the postmaster-general appointed 
regular agents for the route. In 1854, when 
he was in his eighteenth year, he entered 
the Oneida Central Bank at Rome as a 
junior clerk at a salary of one hundred dol- 



lars per year. Being unable at the end of 
one year and a half's service to obtain an 
increase in salary he determined to seek a 
wider field of labor. Mr. Gage set out in 
the fall of 1855 and arrived in Chicago, 
Illinois, on October 3, and soon obtained a 
situation in Nathan Cobb's lumber yard and 
planing mill. He remained there three years 
as a bookkeeper, teamster, etc., and left on 
account of change in the management. But 
not being able to find anything else to do he 
accepted the position of night watchman in 
the place for a period of si.x weeks. He 
then became a bookkeeper for the Mer- 
chants Saving, Loan and Trust Company at 
a salary of five hundred dollars per year. 
He rapidly advanced in the service of this 
company and in 1868 he was made cashier. 
Mr. Gage was next offered the position of 
cashier of the First National Bank and ac- 
cepted the offer. He became the president 
of the First National Bank of Chicago Jaai- 
uary 24, 1891, and in 1897 he was appointed 
secretary of the treasury. His ability as a 
financier and the prominent part he took in 
the discussion of financial affairs while presi- 
dent of the great Chicago bank gave him a 
national reputation. 



ANDREW JACKSON, the seventh pres- 
ident of the United States, was born 
at the Waxhaw settlement. Union county. 
North Carolina, March 15, 1767. His 
Darents were Scotch-Irish, natives of Carr- 
ickfergus, who came to this country in 1665 
and settled on Twelve-Mile creek, a trib- 
utary of the Catawba. His father, who 
was a poor farm laborer, died shortly be- 
fore Andrew's birth, when the mother re- 
moved to Waxhaw, where some relatives 
lived. Andrew's education was very limited, 
he showing no aptitude for study. In 1780 
when but thirteen years of age, he and his 



COMI^ENDIUM OF BlOGRAl'Iir. 



brother Robert volunteered to serve in the 
American partisan troops under General 
Sumter, and witnessed the defeat at Hang- 
ing Rock. The following year the boys 
were both taken prisoners by the enemy 
and endured brutal treatment from the 
British officers while confined at Camden. 
They both took the small pox, when the 
mother procured their exchange but Robert 
died shortly after. The mother died in 
Charleston of ship fever, the same year. 

Young Jackson, now in destitute cir- 
cumstances, worked for about six months in 
a saddler's shop, and then turned school 
master, although but little fitted for the 
position. He now began to think of a pro- 
fession and at Salisbury, North Carolina, 
entered upon the study of law, but from all 
accounts gave but little attention to his 
books, being one of the most roistering, 
rollicking fellows in that town, indulging in 
many of the vices of his time. In 1786 he 
was admitted to the bar and in 1788 re- 
moved to Nashville, then in North Carolina, 
with the appointment of public prosecutor, 
then an office of little honor or emolument, 
but requiring much nerve, for which young 
Jackson was already noted. Two years 
later, when Tennessee became a territory 
he was appointed by Washington to the 
position of United States attorney for that 
district. In 1791 he married Mrs. Rachel 
Robards, a daughter of Colonel John Don- 
elson, who was supposed at the time to 
have been divorced from her former hus- 
band .that year by act of legislature of Vir- 
ginia, but two 3'ears later, on finding that 
this divorce was not legal, and a new bill of 
separation being granted by the courts of 
Kentucky, they were remarried in 1793. 
This was used as a handle by his oppo- 
nents in the political campaign afterwards. 
Jackson was untiring in his efforts as United 



States attorney and obtained much influence. 
He was chosen a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1796, when Tennessee 
became a state and was its first represent- 
ative in congress. In 1797 he was chosen 
United States senator, but resigned the fol- 
lowing year to accept a seat on the supreme 
court of Tennessee which he held until 
1804. He was elected major-general of 
the militia of that state in 1801. In 1804, 
being unsuccessful in obtaining the govern- 
orship of Louisiana, the new territory, he 
retired from public life to the Hermitage, 
his plantation. On the outbreak of the 
war with Great Britain in 18 12 he tendered 
his services to the government and went to 
New Orleans with the Tennessee troops in 
January, 181 3. In March of that year he 
was ordered to disband his troops, but later 
marched against the Cherokee Indians, de- 
feating them at Talladega, Emuckfaw 
and Tallapoosa. Having now a national 
reputation, he was appointed major-general 
in the United States army and was sent 
against the British in Florida. He con- 
ducted the defence of Mobile and seized 
Pensacola. He then went with his troops 
to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he gained 
the famous victory of January 8, 18 15. In 
1817-18 he conducted a war against the 
Seminoles, and in 1821 was made governor 
of the new territory of Florida. In 1823 
he was elected United States senator, but 
in 1 824 was the contestant with J. Q. Adams 
for the presidency. Four years later he 
was elected president, and served two terms. 
In 1832 he took vigorous action against the 
nullifiers of South Carolina, and the next 
year removed the public money from the 
United States bank. During his second 
term the national debt was extinguished. At 
the close of his administration he retired to 
the Hermitage, where he died June 8, 1845. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



73 



ANDREW CARNEGIE.the largest manu- 
facturer of pig-iron, steel rails and 
coke in the world, well deserves a place 
among America's celebrated men. He was 
born November 25, 1835. at Dunfermline, 
Scotland, and emigrated to the United States 
with his father in 1845, settling in Pittsburg. 
Two years later Mr. Carnegie began his 
business career by attending a small station- 
ary engine. This work did not suit him and 
he became a telegraph messenger with the 
Atlantic and Ohio Co., and later he became 
an operator, and was one of the first to read 
telegraphic signals by sound. Mr. Carnegie 
was afterward sent to the Pittsburg office 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., as clerk 
to the superintendent and manager of the 
telegraph lines. While in this position he 
made the acquaintance of Mr. Woodruff, the 
inventor of the sleeping-car. Mr. Carnegie 
immediately became interested and was one 
of the organizers of the company for its con- 
struction after the railroad had adopted it, 
and the success of this venture. gave him the 
nucleus of his wealth. He was promoted 
to the superintendency of the Pittsburg 
division of the Pennsylvania Railroad and 
about this time was one of the syndicate 
that purchased the Storey farm on Oil Creek 
which cost forty thousand dollars and in one 
year it yielded over one million dollars in 
cash dividends. Mr. Carnegie later was as- 
sociated with others in establishing a rolling- 
mill, and from this has grown the most ex- 
tensive and complete system of iron and 
steel industries ever controlled by one indi- 
vidual, embracing the Edgar Thomson 
Steel Works; Pittsburg Bessemer Steel 
Works; Lucy Furnaces; Union Iron Mills; 
Union Mill; Keystone Bridge Works; Hart- 
man Steel Works; Prick Coke Co.; Scotia 
Ore Mines. Besides directing his immense 
iron industries he owned eighteen English 



newspapers which he ran in the interest of 
the Radicals. He has also devoted large 
sums of money to benevolent and educational 
purposes. In 1879 he erected commodious 
swimming baths for the people of Dunferm- 
line, Scotland, and in the following year 
gave forty thousand dollars for a free library. 
Mr. Carnegie gave fifty thousand dollars to 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1884 
to found what is now called "Carnegie Lab- 
oratory, " and in 1885 gave five hundred 
thousand dollars to Pittsburg for a public 
library. He also gave two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars for a music hall and library 
in Allegheny City in 1886, and two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars to Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, for a free library. He also established 
free libraries at Braddock, Pennsylvania, 
and other places for the benefit of his em- 
ployes. He also published the following 
works, "An American Four-in-hand in 
Britain;" " Round the World;" "Trium- 
phant Democracy; or Fifty Years' March of 
the Republic." 



GEORGE H. THOMAS, the " Rock of 
Chickamauga," one of the besi known 
commanders during the late Civil war, was 
born in Southampton county, Virginia, July 
31, 1 8 16, his parents being of Welsh and 
French origin respectively. In 1836 young 
Thomas was appointed a cadet at the Mili- 
tary Academy, at West Point, from which 
he graduated in 1840, and was promoted to 
the office of second lieutenant in the Third 
Artillery. Shortly after, with his company, 
he went to Florida, where he served for two 
years against the Seminole Indians. In 
1 84 1 he was brevetted first lieutenant for 
gallant conduct. He remained in garrison 
in the south and southwest until 1845, ^t 
which date with the regiment he joined the 
army under General Taylor, and participat- 



74 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ed in the defense of Fort Brown, the storm- 
ing of Monterey and the battle of Buena 
Vista. After the latter event he remained 
in garrison, now brevetted major, until the 
close of the Mexican war. After a year 
spent in Florida, Captain Thomas was or- 
dered to West Point, where he served as in- 
structor until 1854. He then was trans- 
ferred to California. In May, 1S55, Thom- 
as was appointed major of the Second Cav- 
alry, with whom he spent five years in Texas. 
Although a southern man, and surrounded 
by brother officers who all were afterwards 
in the Confederate service. Major Thomas 
never swerved from his allegiance to the 
government. A. S. Johnston was the col- 
onel of the regiment, R. E. Lee the lieuten- 
ant-colonel, and W. J. Hardee, senior ma- 
jor, while among the younger officers were 
Hood, Fitz Hugh Lee, Van Dorn and Kirby 
Smith. When these officers left the regi- 
ment to take up arms for the Confederate 
cause he remained with it, and April 17th, 
1 86 1, crossed the Potomac into his native 
state, at its head. After taking an active part 
in the opening scenes of the war on the Poto- 
mac and Shenandoah, in August, 1861, he 
was promoted to be brigadier-general and 
transferred to the Army of the Cumberland. 
January 19-20, 1862, Thomas defeated 
Crittenden at Mill Springs, and this brought 
him into notice and laid the foundation of 
his fame. He continued in command of his 
division until September 20, 1862, except 
during the Corinth campaign when he com- 
manded the right wing of the Army of the 
Tennessee. He was in command of the 
latter at the battle of Perryville, also, Octo- 
ber 8, 1862. 

On the division of the Army of the Cum- 
berland into corps, January 9, 1863, Gen- 
eral Thomas was assigned to the command 
of the Fourteenth, and at the battle of Chick- 



amauga, after the retreat of Rosecrans, 
firmly held his own against the hosts of Gen- 
eral Bragg. A history of his services from 
that on would be a history of the war in the 
southwest. On September 27, 1864, Gen- 
eral Thomas was given command in Ten- 
nessee, and after organizing his army, de- 
feated General Hood in the battle of Nash- 
ville, December 15 and 16, 1864. Much 
complaint was made before this on account 
of what they termed Thomas' slowness, and 
he was about to be superseded because he 
would not strike until he got ready, but 
when the blow was struck General Grant 
was the first to place on record this vindica- 
tion of Thomas' judgment. He received a 
vote of thanks from Congress, and from the 
legislature of Tennessee a gold medal. Af- 
ter the close of the war General Thomas 
had command of several of the military di- 
visions, and died at San Francisco, Cali- 
fornia, March 28, 1870. 



GEORGE BANCROFT, one of the most 
eminent American historians, was a 
nativeof Massachusetts, born at Worcester, 
October 3, iSoo, and a son of Aaron 
Bancroft, D. D. The father, Aaron Ban- 
croft, was born at Reading, Massachusetts, 
November 10, 1755. He graduated at 
Harvard in 1778, became a minister, and for 
half a century was rated as one of the ablest 
preachers in New England. He was also a 
prolific writer and published a number of 
works among which was ' ' Life of George 
Washington." Aaron Bancroft died August 
19, 1839. 

The subject of our present biography, 
George Bancroft, graduated at Harvard in 
1817, and the following year entered the 
University of Gottingen, where he studied 
history and philology under the most emi- 
nent teachers, and in 1820 received the de- 



COMPENDIUxM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



75 



^ree of doctor of philosophy at Gottingen. 
Upon his return home he pubhshed a volume 
of poems, and later a translation of Heeren's 
" Reflections on the Politics of Ancient 
Greece." In 1834 he produced the first 
volume of his " History of the United 
States," this being followed by other vol- 
umes at different intervals later. This was 
his greatest work and ranks as the highest 
authority, taking its place among the great- 
est of American productions. 

George Bancroft was appointed secretary 
of the navy by President Polk in 1S45, but 
resigned in 1846 and became minister pleni- 
potentiary to England. In 1849 he retired 
from public life and took up his residence at 
Washington, D. C. In 1867 he was ap- 
pointed United States minister to the court of 
Berlin and negotiated the treaty by which Ger- 
mans coming to the United States were re- 
leased from their allegiance to the govern- 
ment of their native land. In 1871 he was 
minister plenipotentiary to the German em- 
pire and served until 1874. The death of 
George Bancroft occurred January 17, 1891. 



GEORGE GORDON MEADE, a fa- 
mous Union general, was born at 
Cadiz, Spain, December 30, 181 5, his father 
being United States naval agent at that 
port. After receiving a good education he 
entered the West Point Military Academy 
in 1 83 1. From here he was graduated 
June 30, 1835, and received the rank of 
second lieutenant of artillery. He par- 
ticipated in the Seminole war, but resigned 
from the army in October, 1836. He en- 
tered upon the profession of civil engineer, 
which he followed for several years, part of 
the time in the service of the government in 
making surveys of the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi river. His report and results of some 
experiments made by him in this service 



gained Meade much credit. He alsu was 
employed in surveying the boundary line of 
Texas and the northeastern boundary line 
between the United States and Canada. 
In 1842 he was reappointed in the army to 
the position of second lieutenant of engineers. 
During the Mexican war he served with dis- 
tinction on the staff of General Taylor in 
the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma 
and the storming of Monterey. He received 
his brevet of first lieutenant for the latter 
action. In 1851 he was made full first 
lieutenant in his corps; a captain in 1856, 
and major soon after. At the close of the 
war with Mexico he was employed in light- 
house construction and in geodetic surveys 
until the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 
which he gained great reputation. In 
August, 1 86 1, he was made Brigadier-general 
of volunteers and placed in command of the 
second brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves, 
a division of the First Corps in the Army of 
the Potomac. In the campaign of 1862, 
under McClellan, Meade took an active 
part, being present at the battles of Mechan- 
icsville, Gaines' Mill and Glendale, in the 
latter of which he was severely wounded. 
On rejoining his command he was given a 
division and distinguished himself at its head 
in the battles of South Mountain and Antie- 
tam. During the latter, on the wounding 
of General Hooker, Meade was placed in 
command of the corps and was himself 
slightly wounded. For services he was 
promoted, November, 1862, to the rank 
of major-general of volunteers. On the 
recovery of General Hooker General Meade 
returned to his division and in December, 
1862, at Fredericksburg, led an attack 
which penetrated Lee's right line and swept 
to his rear. Being outnumbered and un- 
supported, he finally was driven back. The 
same month Meade was assigned to the 



76 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



command of the Fifth Corps, and at Chan- 
cellorsville in May, 1863, his sagacity and 
ability so struck General Hooker that when 
the latter asked to be relieved of the com- 
mand, in June of the same year, he nomi- 
nated Meade as his successor. June 28, 
1863, President Lincoln commissioned Gen- 
eral Meade commander-in-chief of the Army 
of the Potomac, then scattered and moving 
hastily through Pennsylvania to the great 
and decisive battlefield at Gettysburg, at 
which he was in full command. With the 
victory on those July days the name of 
Meade will ever be associated. From that 
time until the close of the war he com- 
manded the Army of the Potomac. In 
1864 General Grant, being placed at the 
head of all the armies, took up his quarters 
with the Army of the Potomac. From that 
time until the surrender of Lee at Appo- 
matox Meade's ability shone conspicuously, 
and his tact in the delicate position in lead- 
ing his army under the eye of his superior 
officer commanded the respect and esteem 
of General Grant. For services Meade was 
promoted to the rank of major-general, and 
on the close of hostilities, in July, 1865, 
was assigned to the command of the military 
division of the Atlantic, with headquarters 
at Philadelphia. This post he held, with 
the exception of a short period on detached 
duty in Georgia, until his death, which took 
place November 6, 1872. 



DAVID CROCKETT was a noted hunter 
and scout, and also one of the earliest 
of American humorists. He was born Au- 
gust 17, 17S6, in Tennessee, and was one 
of the most prominent men of his locality, 
serving as representative in congress from 
1827 until 1831. He attracted consider- 
able notice while a member of congress and 
was closely associated with General Jack- 



son, of whom he was a personal friend. Ht; 
went to Texas and enlisted in the Texan 
army at the time of the revolt of Texas 
against Mexico and gained a wide reputa- 
tion as a scout. He was one of the famous 
one hundred and forty men under Colonel 
W. B. Travis who were besieged in Fort 
Alamo, near San Antonio, Texas, by Gen- 
eral Santa Anna with some five thousand 
Mexicans on February 23, 1836. The fort 
was defended for ten days, frequent assaults 
being repelled with great slaughter, over 
one thousand Mexicans being killed or 
wounded, while not a man in the fort was 
injured. Finally, on March 6, three as- 
saults were made, and in the hand-to-hand 
fight that followed the last, the Texans were 
wofully outnumbered and overpowered. 
They fought desperately with clubbed mus- 
kets till only six were left alive, including 
W. B. Travis, David Crockett and James 
Bowie. These surrendered under promise 
of protection; but when they were brought 
before Santa Anna he ordered them all to 
be cut to pieces. 



HENRY WATTERSON, one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the history of 
American journalism, was born at Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, February 16, 
1840. His boyhood days were mostly spent 
in the city of his birth, where his father, 
Harvey M. Watterson, was editor of the 
"Union," a well known journal. 

Owing to a weakness of the eyes, which 
interfered with a systematic course of study, 
young Watterson was educated almost en- 
tirely at home. A successful college career 
was out of the question, but he acquired a 
good knowledge of music, literature and art 
from private tutors, but the most valuable 
part of the training he received was by as- 
sociating with his father and the throng 01 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



i i 



public men whom he met in Washington 
in the stirring days immediately preceding 
the Civil war. He began his journalistic 
career at an early age as dramatic and 
musical critic, and in 1858, became editor 
of the "Democratic Review" and at the 
same time contributed to the "States," 
a journal of liberal opinions published in 
Washington. In this he remained until 
the breaking out of the war, when the 
"States," opposing the administration, was 
suppressed, and young Watterson removed 
to Tennessee. He next appears as editor 
of the Nashville "Republican Banner," the 
most influential paper in the state at that 
time. After the occupation of Nashville by 
the Federal troops, Watterson served as a 
volunteer staff officer in the Confederate 
service until the close of the war, with the 
exception of a year spent in editing the 
Chattanooga "Rebel." On the close of 
the war he returned to Nashville and re- 
sumed his connection with the "Banner." 
After a trip to Europe he assumed control 
of the Louisville "Journal," which he soon 
combined with the "Courier" and the 
"Democrat" of that place, founding the 
well-known "Courier-Journal," the first 
number of which appeared November 8, 
1868. Mr. Watterson also represented his 
district in congress for several years. 



PATRICK SARSFIELD GILMORE, 
one of the most successful and widely 
known bandmasters and musicians of the 
last half century in America, was born in 
Ballygar, Ireland, on Christmas day, 1829. 
He attended a public school until appren- 
ticed to a wholesale merchant at Athlone, 
of the brass band of which town he soon 
became a member. His passion for music 
conflicting with the duties of a mercantile 
life, his position as clerk was exchanged for 



that of musical instructor to the young sons 
of his employer. At the age of nineteen he 
sailed for America and two days after his 
arrival in Boston was put in charge of the 
band instrument department of a prominent 
music house. In the interests of the pub- 
lications of this house he organized a minstrel 
company known as "Ord way's Eolians," 
with which he first achieved success as a 
cornet soloist. Later on he was called the 
best E-flat cornetist in the United States. 
He became leader, successively, of the Suf- 
folk, Boston Brigade and Salem bands. 
During his connection with the latter he 
inaugurated the famous Fourth of July con- 
certs on Boston Common, since adopted as 
a regular programme for the celebration of 
Independence Day. In 1S58 Mr. Gilmore 
founded the organization famous thereafter 
as Gilmore's Band. At the outbreak of the 
Civil war this band was attached to the 
Twenty-Fourth , Massachusetts Infantry. 
Later, when the economical policy of dis- 
pensing with music had proved a mistake, 
Gilmore was entrusted with the re-organiza- 
tion of state military bands, and upon his 
arrival at New Orleans with his own band 
was made bandmaster-general by General 
Banks. On the inauguration of Governor 
Hahn, later on, in Lafayette square, New 
Orleans, ten thousand children, mostly of 
Confederate parents, rose to the baton of 
Gilmore and, accompanied by six hundred 
instruments, thirty-six guns and the united 
fire of three regiments of infantry, sang the 
Star-Spangled Banner, America and other 
patriotic Union airs. In June, 1867, Mr. 
Gilmore conceived a national musical festi- 
val, which was denounced as a chimerical 
undertaking, but he succeeded and June 15, 
1869, stepped upon the stage of the Boston 
Colosseum, a vast structure erected for the 
occasion, and in the presence of over fifty 



78 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl' 



thousand people lifted his baton over an 
orchestra of one thousand and a chorus of 
ten thousand. On the 17th of June, 1872, 
he opened a still greater festival in Boston, 
when, in addition to an orchestra of two 
thousand and a chorus of twenty thousand, 
were present the Band of the Grenadier 
Guards, of London, of the Garde Repub- 
licaine, of Paris, of Kaiser Franz, of Berlin, 
and one from Dublin, Ireland, together with 
Johann Strauss, Franz Abt and many other 
soloists, vocal and instrumental. Gilmore's 
death occurred September 24, 1892. 



M 



ARTIN VAN BUREN was the eighth 
president of the United States, 1837 
to 1 84 1. He was of Dutch extraction, and 
his ancestors were among the earliest set- 
tlers on the banks of the Hudson. He was 
born December 5, 17S2, at Kinderhook, 
New York. Mr. Van Buren took up the 
study of law at the age of fourteen and took 
an active part in political matters before he 
had attained his majority. He commenced 
the practice of law in 1803 at his native 
town, and in 1809 he removed to Hudson, 
Columbia county, New Yotk, where he 
spent seven years gaining strength and wis- 
dom from his contentions at the bar with 
some of the ablest men of the profession. 
Mr. Van Buren was elected to the state 
senate, and from 1S15 until 18 19 he was at- 
torney-general of the state. He was re- 
elected to the senate in 1816, and in 1818 
he was one of the famous clique of politi- 
cians known as the "Albany regency." 
Mr. Van Buren was a member of the con- 
vention for the revision of the state consti- 
tution, in 1821. In the same year he was 
elected to the United States senate and 
served his term in a manner that caused his 
re-election to that body in 1827, but re- 
signed the following year as he had been 



elected governor of New York. Mr. Van 
Buren was appointed by President Jackson as 
secretary of state in March, 1829, but resigned 
in 1 83 1, and during the recess of congress 
he was appointed minister to England. 
The senate, however, when it convened in 
December refused to ratify the appointment. 
In May, 1832, he was nominated by the 
Democrats as their candidate for vice-presi- 
dent on the ticket with Andrew Jackson, 
and he was elected in the following Novem- 
ber. He received the nomination to suc- 
ceed President Jackson in 1836, as the 
Democratic candidate, and in the electoral 
college he received one hundred and seventy 
votes out of two hundred and eighty-three, 
and was inaugurated March 4, 1837. His 
administration was begun at a time of great 
business depression, and unparalled financial 
distress, which caused the suspension of 
specie payments by the banks. Nearly 
every bank in the country was forced to 
suspend specie payment, and no less than 
two hundred and fifty-four business houses 
failed in New York in one week. The 
President urged the adoption of the inde- 
pendent treasury idea, which passed through 
the senate twice but each time it was de- 
feated in the house. However the measure 
ultimately became a law near the close of 
President Van Buren's term of office. An- 
other important measure that was passed 
was the pre-emption law that gave the act- 
ual settlers preference in the purchase of 
public lands. The question of slavery had 
begun to assume great preponderance dur- 
ing this administration, and a great conflict 
was tided over by the passage of a resolu- 
tion that prohibited petitions or papers that 
in any way related to slavery to be acted 
upon. In the Democratic convention of 
1840 President Van Buren secured the 
nomination for re-election on that ticket 



co^fPEXDTu^^ or biographt. 



79 



without opposition, but in the election he 
only received the votes of seven states, his 
opponent, W. H. Harrison, being elected 
president. In 1848 Mr. Van Buren was 
the candidate of the " Free-Soilers," but 
was unsuccessful. After this he retired 
from public life and spent the remainder of 
his hfe on his estate at Kinderhook, where 
he died July 24, 1862. 



W INFIELD SCOTT, a distinguished 
American general, was born June 13, 
1786, near Petersburg, Dinwiddie county, 
Virginia, and was educated at the William 
and Mary College. He studied law and was 
admitted to the bar, and in 1808 he accepted 
an appointment as captain of light artillery, 
and was ordered to New Orleans. In June, 

1 81 2, he was promoted to be lieutenant- 
colonel, and on application was sent to the 
frontier, and reported to General Smyth, 
near Buffalo. He was made adjutant-gen- 
eral with the rank of a colonel, in March, 

1 8 1 3, and the same month attained the colo- 
nelcy of his regiment. He participated in 
the principal battles of the war and was 
wounded many times, and at the close of 
the war he was voted a gold medal by con- 
gress for his services. He was a writer of 
considerable merit on military topics, and 
he gave to the military science, "General 
Regulations of the Army " and " System of 
Infantry and Rifle Practice. " He took a 
prominent part in the Black Hawk war, 
and at the beginning of the Mexican war he 
was appointed to take the command of the 
army. Gen. Scott immediately assembled 
his troops at Lobos Island from which he 
moved by transports to Vera Cruz, which 
he took March 29, 1847, and rapidly fol- 
lowed up his first success. He fought the 
battles of Cerro Gordo and Jalapa, both of 
which he won, and proceeded to Pueblo 



where he was preceded by Worth's division 
which had taken the town and waited for the 
coming of Scott. The army was forced to 
wait here for supplies, and August 7th, 
General Scott started on his victorious 
march to the city of Mexico with ten thou- 
sand, seven hundred and thirty-eight men. 
The battles of Contreras, Cherubusco and 
San Antonio were fought August 19-20, 
and on the 24th an armistice was agreed 
upon, but as the commissioners could not 
agree on the terms of settlement, the fight- 
ing was renewed at Molino Del Rey, and 
the Heights of Chapultepec were carried 
by the victorious army of General Scott. 
He gave the enemy no respite, however, 
and vigorously followed up his advantages. 
On September 14, he entered the City of 
Mexico and dictated the terms of surrender 
in the very heart of the Mexican Republic. 
General Scott was offered the presidency of 
the Mexican Republic, but declined. Con- 
gress extended him a vote of thanks and 
ordered a gold medal be struck in honor of 
his generalship and bravery. He was can- 
didate for the presidency on the Whig plat 
form but was defeated. He was honored by 
having the title of lieutenant-general con- 
ferred upon him in 1855. At the beginning of 
the Civil war he was too infirm to take charge 
of the army, but did signal service in be- 
half of the government. He retired from 
the service November i, 1861, and in 1864 
he published his "Autobiography." Gen- 
eral Scott died at West Point, May 29, 1866 



EDWARD EVERETT HALE for many 
years occupied a high place among the 
most honored of America's citizens. As 
a preacher he ranks among the foremost 
in the New England states, but to the gen- 
eral public he is best known through his 
writings. Born in Boston, Mass., April 3, 



80 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1822, a descendant of one of the most 
prominent New England families, he enjoyed 
in his youth many of the advantages denied 
the majority of boys. He received his pre- 
paratory schooling at the Boston Latin 
School, after which he finished his studies at 
Harvard where he was graduated with high 
honors in 1839. Having studied theology 
at home, Mr. Hale embraced the ministry 
and in 1846 became pastor of a Unitarian 
church in Worcester, Massachusetts, a post 
which he occupied about ten years. He 
then, in 1856, became pastor of the South 
Congregational church in Boston, over which 
he presided many years. 

Mr. Hale also found time to write a 
great many literary works of a high class. 
,\mong many other well-known productions 
:!f his are " The Rosary," " Margaret Per- 
cival in America." "Sketches of Christian 
iistory," "Kansas and Nebraska," "Let- 
ters on Irish Emigration," " Ninety Days' 
Worth of Europe," " If, Yes, and Perhaps," 
■•'Ingham Papers," "Reformation," "Level 
Best and Other Stories, " ' ' Ups and Downs, " 
"Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," " In 
His Name," "Our New Crusade," "Work- 
ingmen's Homes," " Boys' Heroes," etc., 
etc., besides many others which might be 
mentioned. One of his works, " In His 
Name," has earned itself enduring fame by 
the good deeds it has called forth. The 
numerous associations known as ' 'The King's 
Daughters," which has accomplished much 
good, owe their existence to the story men- 
tioned. 

DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT stands 
pre-eminent as one of the greatest na- 
val officers of the world. He was born at 
Campbell's Station, East Tennessee, July 
5, 1 801, and entered the navy of the United 
States as a midshipman. He had the good 



fortune to serve under Captain David Por- 
ter, who commanded the " Essex," and by 
whom he was taught the ideas of devotion 
to duty from which he never swerved dur- 
ing all his career. In 1823 Mr. Farragut 
took part in a severe fight, the result of 
which was the suppression of piracy in the 
West Indies. He then entered upon the 
regular duties of his profession which was 
only broken into by a year's residence with 
Charles Folsom, our consul at Tunis, who 
was afterwards a distinguished professor at 
Harvard. Mr. Farragut was one of the best 
linguists in the navy. He had risen through 
the different grades of the service until the 
war of 1861-65 found him a captain resid- 
ing at Norfolk, Virginia. He removed with 
his family to Hastings, on the Hudson, and 
hastened to offer his services to the Federal 
government, and as the capture of New 
Orleans had been resolved upon, Farragut 
was chosen to command the expedition. 
His force consisted of the West Gulf block- 
ading squadron and Porter's mortar flotilla. 
In January, 1862, he hoisted his pennant at 
the mizzen peak of the "Hartford" at 
Hampton roads, set sail from thence on the 
3rd of February and reached Ship Island on 
the 20th of the same month. A council of 
war was held on the 20th of April, in which 
it was decided that whatever was to be done 
must be done quickly. The signal was made 
from the flagship and accordingly the fleet 
weighed anchor at 1:55 on the morning of 
April 24th, and at 3 130 the whole force was 
under way. The history of this brilliant strug- 
gle is well known, and the glory of it made Far- 
ragut a hero and also made him rear admir- 
al. In the summer of 1 862 he ran the batteries 
at Vicksburg, and on March 14, 1863, he 
passed through the fearful and destructive 
fire from Port Hudson, and opened up com- 
munication with Flag-officer Porter, who 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ga 



had control of the upper Mississippi. On 
May 24th he commenced active operations 
against that fort in conjunction with the army 
and it fell on July 9th. Mr. Farragut filled 
the measure of his fame on the 5th of Au- 
gust, 1864, by his great victory, the capture 
of Mobile Bay and the destruction of the 
Confederate fleet, including the formidable 
ram Tennessee. For this victory the rank 
of admiral was given to Mr. Farragut. He 
died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Au- 
gust 4, 1870. 

GEORGE W. CHILDS, a philanthropist 
whose remari<able personality stood 
for the best and highest type of American 
citizenship, and whose whole life was an 
object lesson in noble living, was born in 
1829 at Baltimore, Maryland, of humble 
parents, and spent his early life in unremit- 
ting toil. He was a self-m^de man in the 
fullest sense of the word, and gained his 
great wealth by his own efforts. He was a 
man of very great influence, and this, in 
conjunction with his wealth, would have 
been, in the hands of other men, a means of 
getting them political preferment, but Mr. 
Childs steadily declined any suggestions that 
would bring him to figure prominently in 
public affairs. He did not choose to found 
a financial dynasty, but devoted all his 
powers to the helping of others, with the 
most enlightened beneficence and broadest 
sympathy. Mr. Childs once remarked that 
his greatest pleasure in life was in doing 
good to others. He always despised mean- 
ness, and one of his objects of life was to 
prove that a man could be liberal and suc- 
cessful at the same time. Upon these lines 
Mr. Childs made a name for himself as the 
director of one of the representative news- 
papers of America, "The Philadelphia Pub- 
lic Ledger," which was owned jointly by 
5 



himself and the Drexel estate, and which he 
edited for thirty years. He acquired con- 
trol of the paper at a time when it was be- 
ing published at a heavy loss, set it upon a 
firm basis of prosperity, and he made it 
more than a money-making machine — he 
made it respected as an exponent of the 
best side of journalism, and it stands as a 
monument to his sound judgment and up- 
right business principles. Mr. Childs' char- 
itable repute brought him many applications 
for assistance, and he never refused to help 
any one that was deserving of aid; and not 
only did he help those who asked, but he 
would by careful inquiry find those who 
needed aid but were too proud to solicit it. 
He was a considerable employer of labor 
and his liberality was almost unparalleled. 
The death of this great and good man oc- 
curred February 3d, 1894. 



PATRICK HENRY won his way to un 
dying fame in the annals of the early 
history of the United States by introducing 
into the house of burgesses his famous reso- 
lution against the Stamp Act, which he car- 
ried through, after a stormy debate, by a 
majority of one. At this time he exclaimed 
' ' Cgesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Crom- 
well and George HI " (here he was inter- 
rupted by cries of " treason ") " may profit 
by their example. If this be treason make 
the most of it." 

Patrick Henry was born at Studley, 
Hanover county, Virginia, May 29, 1736, 
and was a son of Colonel John Henry, a 
magistrate and school teacher of Aberdeen, 
Scotland, and a nephew of Robertson, the 
historian. He received his education from 
his father, and was married at the age of 
eighteen. He was twice bankrupted before 
he had reached his twenty-fourth year, when 
after six weeks of study he was admitted to 



84 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the bar. He worked for three years with- 
out a case and finally was applauded for his 
plea lor the people's rights and gained im- 
mense popularity. After his famous Stamp 
Act resolution he was the leader of the pa- 
triots in Virginia. In 1769 he was admitted 
to practice in the general courts and speed- 
ily won a fortune by his distinguished ability 
as a speaker. He was the first speaker of 
the General Congress at Philadelphia in 
1774. He was for a time a colonel of 
militia in 1775, and from 1776 to 1779 and 
1 78 1 to 1786 he was governor of Virginia. 
For a number of years he retired from pub- 
lic life and was tendered and declined a 
number of important political offices, and in 
March, 1789, he was elected state senator 
but aid not take his seat on account of his 
death which occurred at Red Hill, Charlotte 
, county, Virginia, June 6, 1799. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD, an American 
general and traitor of the Revolution- 
ary war, is one of the noted characters in 
American history. He was born in Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, January 3, 1740. He 
ran away and enlisted in the army when 
young, but deserted in a short time. He 
then became a merchant at New Haven, 
Connecticut, but failed. In 1775 he was 
commissioned colonel in the Massachusetts 
militia, and in the autumn of that year was 
placed in command of one thousand men 
for the invasion of Canada. He marched 
his army through the forests of Maine and 
joined General Montgomery before Quebec. 
Their combined forces attacked that city on 
December 31, 177S, and Montgomery was 
killed, and Arnold, severely wounded, was 
compelled to retreat and endure a rigorous 
winter a few miles from the city, where they 
were at the mercy of the Canadian troops 
had they cared to attack them. On his re- 



turn he was raised to the rank of brigadier- 
general. He was given command of a small 
flotilla on Lake Champlain, with which he 
encountered an immense force, and though 
defeated, performed many deeds of valor. 
He resented the action of congress in pro- 
moting a number of his fellow officers and 
neglecting himself. In 1777 he was made 
major-general, and under General Gates at 
Bemis Heights fought valiantly. For some 
reason General Gates found fault with his 
conduct and ordered him under arrest, and 
he was kept in his tent until the battle of 
Stillwater was waxing hot, when Arnold 
mounted his horse and rode to the front of 
his old troop, gave command to charge, and 
rode like a mad man into the thickest of 
the fight and was not overtaken by Gates' 
courier until he had routed the enemy and 
fell wounded. Upon his recovery he was 
made general, and was placed in command 
at Philadelphia. Here he married, and his 
acts of rapacity soon resulted in a court- 
martial. He was sentenced to be repri- 
manded by the commander-in-chief, and 
though Washington performed this duty 
with utmost delicacy and consideration, it 
was never forgiven. Arnold obtained com- 
mand at West Point, the most important 
post held by the Americans, in 1780, and 
immediately offered to surrender it to Sir 
Henry Clinton, British commander at New 
York. Major Andre was sent to arrange 
details with Arnold, but on his return trip 
to New York he was captured by Americans, 
the plot was detected, and Andre suffered 
the death penalty as a spy. Arnold es- 
caped, and was paid about $40,000 by the 
British for his treason and was made briga- 
dier-general. He afterward commanded an 
expedition that plundered a portion of Vir- 
ginia, and another that burned New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, and captured Fort Trum- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



85 



bull, the commandant of which Arnold mur- 
dered with the sword he had just surren- 
dered. He passed the latter part of his life 
in England, universally despised, and died 
in London June 14, 1801. 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, one of the 
most brilliant orators that America has 
produced, also a lawyer of considerable 
merit, won most of his fame as a lecturer. 
Mr. Ingersoll was born August 24, 1833, 
at Dryden, Gates county, New York, and 
received his education in the common schools. 
He went west at the age of twelve, and for 
a short time he attended an academy in 
Tennessee, and also taught school in that 
state. He began the practice of law in the 
southern part of Illinois in 1S54. Colonel 
Ingersoll's principal fame was made in 
the lecture room by his lectures in which he 
ridiculed religious faith and creeds and criti- 
cised the Bible and the Christian religion. 
He was the orator of the day in the Decora- 
tion Day celebration in the city of New York 
in 1882 and his oration was widely com- 
mended. He first attracted political notice 
in the convention at Cincinnati in 1876 by 
his brilliant eulogy on James G. Blaine. He 
practiced law in Peoria, Illinois, for a num- 
ber of years, but later located in the city of 
New York. He published the follow- 
ing: "The Gods and other Lectures;" "The 
Ghosts;" "Some Mistakes of Moses;" 
"What Shall I Do To Be Saved;" "Inter- 
views on Talmage and Presbyterian Cate- 
chism;" The "North American Review 
Controversy;" "Prose Poems;" "A Vision 
of War;" etc. 



TOSEPH ECCLESTON JOHNSTON, 
<J a noted general in the Confederate army, 
was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, 
in 1807. He graduated from West Point 



and entered the army in 1829. For a num- 
ber of years his chief service was garrison 
duty. He saw active service, however, in 
the Seminole war in Florida, part of the 
time as a staff officer of General Scott. He 
resigned his commission in 1837, but re- 
turned to the army a year later, and was 
brevetted captain for gallant services in 
Florida. He was made first lieutenant of 
topographical engineers, and was engaged 
in river and harbor improvements and also 
in the survey of the Texas boundary and 
the northern boundary of the United 
States until the beginning of the war 
with Mexico. He was at the siege of Vera 
Cruz, and at the battle of Cerro Gordo was 
wounded while reconnoitering the enemy's 
position, after which he was brevetted major 
and colonel. He was in all the battles about 
the city of Mexico, and was again wounded 
in the final assault upon that city. After 
the Mexican war closed he returned to duty 
as captain of topographical engineers, but 
in 1855 he was made lieutenant-colonel of 
cavalry and did frontier duty, and was ap- 
pointed inspector-general of the expedition 
to Utah. In i860 he was appointed quar- 
termaster-general with rank of brigadier- 
general. At the outbreak of hostilities in 
1 86 1 he resigned his commission and re- 
ceived the appointment of major-general of 
the Confederate army. He held Harper's 
Ferry, and later fought General Patterson 
about Winchester. At the battle of Bull 
Run he declined command in favor of Beau- 
regard, and acted under that general's direc- 
tions. He commanded the Confederates in 
the famous Peninsular campaign, and was 
severely wounded at Fair Oaks and was 
succeeded in command by General Lee. 
Upon his recovery he was made lieutenant- 
general and assigned to the command of the 
southwestern department. He attempted 



86 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl^. 



to raise the siege of Vicksburg, and was 
finally defeated at Jackson, Mississippi. 
Having been made a general he succeeded 
General Bragg in command of the army of 
Tennessee and was ordered to check General 
Sherman's advance upon Atlanta. Not 
daring to risk a battle with the overwhelm- 
ing forces of Sherman, he slowly retreated 
toward Atlanta, and was relieved of com- 
mand by President Davis and succeeded by 
General Hood. Hood utterly destroyed his 
own army by three furious attacks upon 
Sherman. Johnston was restored to com- 
mand in the Carolinas, and again faced 
Sherman, but was defeated in several en- 
gagements and continued a slow retreat 
toward Richmond. Hearing of Lee's sur- 
render, he communicated with General 
Sherman, and finally surrendered his army 
at Durham, North Carolina, April 26, 1865. 
General Johnston was elected a member 
of the forty-si.xth congress and was ap- 
pointed United States railroad commis- 
sioner in 1885. His death occurred March 
21, 1891. 

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS, 
known throughout the civilized world 
as "Mark Twain," is recognized as one of 
the greatest humorists America has pro- 
duced. He was born in Monroe county, 
Missouri, November 30, 1835. Hespenthis 
boyhood days in his native state and many 
of his earlier experiences are related in vari- 
ous forms in his later writings. One of his 
early acquaintances, Capt. Isaiah Sellers, 
at an early day furnished river news for the 
New Orleans " Picayune," using the non- 
de-pluine of "Mark Twain." Sellers died 
in 1863 and Clemens took up his nom-de- 
pliime and made it famous throughout the 
world by his literary work. In 1862 Mr. 
Clemens became a journalist at Virginia, 



Nevada, and afterward followed the same pro- 
fession at San Francisco and Buffalo, New 
York. He accumulated a fortune from the 
sale of his many publications, but in later 
years engaged in business enterprises, partic- 
ularly the manufacture of a typesetting ma- 
chine, which dissipated his fortune and re- 
duced him almost to poverty , but with resolute 
heart he at once again took up his pen and 
engaged in literary work in the effort to 
regain his lost ground. Among the best 
known of his works may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing : ' ' The Jumping Frog, " " Tom Saw- 
yer," " Roughing it," " Innocents Abroad," 
"Huckleberry Finn," "Gilded Age," 
"Prince and Pauper," "Million Pound 
Bank Note," "A Yankee in King Arthur's 
Court," etc. 



CHRISTOPHER CARSON, better 
known as "Kit Carson;" was an Amer- 
ican trapper and scout who gained a wide 
reputation for his frontier work. He was a 
native of Kentucky, born December 24th, 
1809. He grew to manhood there, devel- 
oping a natural inclination for adventure in 
the pioneer experiences in his native state. 
When yet a young man he became quite 
well known on the frontier. He served as 
a guide to Gen. Fremont in his Rocky 
Mountain explorations and enlisted in the 
army. He was an officer in the United 
States service in both the Mexican war and 
the great Civil war, and in the latter received 
a brevet of brigadier-general for meritorious 
service. His death occurred May 23, 
1868. 

JOHN SHERMAN.— Statesman, politi- 
cian, cabinet officer and senator, the name 
of the gentleman who heads this sketch is al- 
most a household word throughout this 
country. Identified with some of the most 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



87 



important measures adopted by our Govern- 
ment since the close of the Civil war, he may 
well be called one of the leading men of his 
day. 

John Sherman was born at Lancaster, 
Fairfield county, Ohio, May loth, 1823, 
the son of Charles R. Sherman, an emi- 
nent lawyer and judge of the supreme court 
of Ohio and who died in 1829. The subject 
of this article received an academic educa- 
tion and was admitted to the bar in 1844. 
In the Whig conventions of 1844 and 1848 
he sat as a delegate. He was a member of 
the National house of representatives, 
from 1855 to 1861. In i860 he was re- 
elected to the same position but was chosen 
United States senator before he took his 
seat in the lower house. He was re-elected 
senator in 1866 and 1872 and was long 
chairman of the committee on finance and 
on agriculture. He took a prominent part 
in debates on finance and on the conduct of 
the war, and was one of the authors of the 
reconstruction measures in 1S66 and 1867, 
and was appointed secretary of the treas- 
ury March 7th, 1877. 

Mr. Sherman was re-elected United States 
senator from Ohio January iSth, 1881, and 
again in 1886 and 1892, during which time 
he was regarded as one of the most promi- 
nent leaders of the Republican party, both 
in the senate and in the country. He was 
several times the favorite of his state for the 
nomination for president. 

On the formation of his cabinet in March, 
1897, President McKinley tendered the posi- 
tion of secretary of state to Mr. Sherman, 
which was accepted. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth 
president of the United States, was 
born in Charles county, Virginia, February 
9' 1773. the son of Governor Benjamin 



Harrison. He took a course in Hampden- 
Sidney College with a view to the practice 
of medicine, and then went to Philadelphia 
to study under Dr. Rush, but in 1791 he 
entered the army, and obtained the commis- 
sion of ensign, was soon promoted to the 
lieutenancy, and was with General Wayne 
in his war against the Indians. For his 
valuable service he was promoted to the 
rank of captain and given command of Fort 
Washington, now Cincinnati. He was ap- 
pointofd secretary of the Northwest Territory 
in 1797, and in 1799 became its representa- 
tive in congress. In 1801 he was appointed 
governor of Indiana Territory, and held the 
position for twelve years, during which time 
he negotiated important treaties with the In- 
dians, causing them to relinquish millions of 
acres of land, and also won the battle of 
Tippecanoe in 181 1. He succeeded in 
obtaining a change in the law which did not 
permit purchase of public lands in less tracts 
than four thousand acres, reducing the limit 
to three hundred and twenty acres. He 
became major-general of Kentucky militia 
and brigadier-general in the United States 
army in 1812, and won great renown in 
the defense of Fort Meigs, and his victory 
over the British and Indians under Proctor 
and Tecumseh at the Thames river, October 
5. 1813. 

In 1 8 16 General Harrison was elected to 
congress from Ohio, and during the canvass 
was accused of corrupt methods in regard to 
the commissariat of the army. He demanded 
an investigation after the election and was 
exonerated. In 1819 he was elected to 
the Ohio state senate, and in 1824 he gave 
his vote as a presidential elector to Henry 
Clay. He became a member of the United 
States senate the same year. During the 
last year of Adams' administration he was 
sent as minister to Colombia, but was re- 



88 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



called by President Jackson the following 
year. He then retired to his estate at North 
Bend, Ohio, a few miles below Cincinnati. In 
1836 he was a candidate for the presidency, 
but as there were three other candidates 
the votes were divided, he receiving seventy- 
three electoral votes, a majority going to 
Mr. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate. 
Four years later General Harrison was again 
nominated by the Whigs, and elected by a 
tremendous majority. The campaign was 
noted for its novel features, many of which 
have found a permanent place in subsequent 
campaigns. Those peculiar to that cam- 
paign, however, were the " log-cabin " and 
" hard cider" watchwords, which produced 
great enthusiasm among his followers. One 
month after his inauguration he died from 
an attack of pleurisy, April 4, 1841. 



CHARLES A. DANA, the well-known 
and widely-read journalist of New York 
City, a native of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, 
was born August 8, 18 19. He received 
the elements of a good education in his 
youth and studied for two years at Harvard 
University. Owing to some disease of the 
eyes he was unable to complete his course 
and graduate, but was granted the degree of 
A. M. notwithstanding. For some time he 
was editor of the " Harbinger," and was a 
regular contributor to the Boston " Chrono- 
type." In 1847 he became connected with 
the New York " Tribune," and continued on 
the staff of that journal until 1858. In the 
latter year he edited and compiled "The 
Household Book of Poetry," and later, in 
connection with George Ripley, edited the 
"New American Cyclopedia." 

Mr. Dana, on severing his connection 
with the " Tribune " in 1867, became editor 
of the New York "Sun," a paper with 
which he was identified for many years, and 



which he made one of the leaders of thought 
in the eastern part of the United States. 
He wielded a forceful pen and fearlessly 
attacked whatever was corrupt and unworthy 
in politics, state or national. The same 
year, 1867, Mr. Dana organized the New 
York " Sun " Company. 

During the troublous days of the war, 
when the fate of the Nation depended upon 
the armies in the field, Mr. Dana accepted 
the arduous and responsible position of 
assistant secretary of war, and held the 
position during the greater part of 1863 
and 1864. He died October 17, 1897. 



ASA GRAY was recognized throughout the 
scientific world as one of the ablest 
and most eminent of botanists. He was 
born at Paris, Oneida county. New York, 
November 18, 1810. He received his medi- 
cal degree at the Fairfield College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, in Herkimer county. 
New York, and studied botany with the late 
Professor Torrey, of New York. He was 
appointed botanist to the Wilkes expedition 
in 1834, but declined the offer and becaine 
professor of natural history in Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1842. He retired from the active 
duties of this post in 1873, and in 1874 he 
was the regent of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion at Washington, District of Columbia. 
Dr. Gray wrote several books on the sub- 
ject of the many sciences of which he was 
master. In 1836 he published his "Ele- 
ments of Botany," "Manual of Botany" in 
1848; the unfinished "Flora of North 
America," by himself and Dr. Torrey, the 
publication of which commenced in 1838. 
There is another of his unfinished works 
called "Genera Boreali-Americana, " pub- 
lished in 1S48, and the "Botany of the 
United States Pacific Exploring Expedition 
in 1854." He wrote many elaborate papers 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



89 



on the botany of the west and southwest 
that were published in the Smithsonian Con- 
tributions, Memoirs, etc., of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which in- 
stitution he was president for ten years. 
He was also the author of many of the 
government reports. ' ' How Plants Grow, " 
" Lessons in Botany," " Structural and Sys- 
tematic Botany," are also works from his 
ready pen. 

Dr. Gray published in 1861 his "Free 
Examination of Darwin's Treatise" and his 
" Darwiniana," in 1876. Mr. Gray was 
elected July 29, 1878, to a membership in 
the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences. 
His death occurred at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, January 30, 1889. 



WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS was 
one of the greatest leaders of the 
American bar. He was born in Boston, 
Massachusetts, February 6, 1818, and grad- 
uated from Yale College in 1837. He took 
up the study of law, which he practiced in 
the city of New York and won great renown 
as an orator and advocate. He affiliated 
with the Republican party, which he joined 
soon after its organization. He was the 
leading counsel employed for the defense of 
President Johnson in his trial for impeach- 
ment before the senate in April and May of 
1868. 

In July, 1868, Mr. Evarts was appointed 
attorney-general of the United States, and 
served until March 4, 1869. He was one 
of the three lawyers who were selected by 
President Grant in 1 871 to defend the inter- 
ests of the citizens of the United States be- 
fore the tribunal of arbitration which met 
at Geneva in Switzerland to settle the con- 
troversy over the " Alabama Claims." 

He was one of the most eloquent advo- 
cates in the United States, and many of his [ 



public addresses have been preserved and 
published. He was appointed secretary of 
state March 7, 1877, by President Hayes, 
and served during the Hayes administration. 
He was elected senator from the state of 
New York January 21, 1885, and at once 
took rank among the ablest statesmen in 
Congress, and the prominent part he took 
in the discussion of public questions gave 
him a national reputation. 



JOHN WANAMAKER.— The life of this 
<J great merchant demonstrates the fact 
that the great secret of rising from the ranks 
is, to-day, as in the past ages, not so much the 
ability to make money, as to save it, or in 
other words, the ability to live well within 
one's income. Mr. Wanamaker was born in 
Philadelphia in 1838. He started out in 
life working in a brickyard for a mere pit- 
tance, and left that position to work in a 
book store as a clerk, where he earned 
the sum of $5.00 per month, and later on 
was in the employ of a clothier where he 
received twenty-five cents a week more. 
He was only fifteen years of age at that 
time, but was a " money-getter " by instinct, 
and laid by a small sum for a possible rainy 
day. By strict attention to business, com- 
bined with natural ability, he was promoted 
many times, and at the age of twenty he 
had saved $2,000. After several months 
vacation in the south, he returned to Phila- 
delphia and became a master brick mason, 
but this was too tiresome totheyoung man, 
and he opened up the " Oak Hall " clothing 
store in April, 1861, at Philadelphia. The 
capital of the firm was rather limited, but 
finally, after many discouragements, they 
laid the foundations of one of the largest 
business houses in the world. The estab- 
lishment covers at the present writing some 
fourteen acres of floor space, and furnishes 



90 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



employment for five thousand persons. Mr. 
Wanamaker was also a great church worker, 
and built a church that cost him $60,000, 
and he was superintendent of the Sunday- 
school, which had a membership of over 
three thousand children. He steadily re- 
fused to run for mayor or congress and the 
only public office that he ever held was that 
of postmaster-general, under the Harrison 
administration, and here he exhibited his 
extraordinary aptitude for comprehending 
the details of public business. 



DAVID BENNETT HILL, a Demo- 
cratic politician who gained a na- 
tional reputation, was born August 29, 
1843, at Havana, New York. He was 
educated at the academy of his native town, 
and removed to Elmira, New York, in 1862, 
where he studied law. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1864, in which year he was ap- 
pointed city attorney. Mr. Hill soon gained 
a considerable practice, becoming prominent 
in his profession. He developed a taste for 
politics in which he began to take an active 
part in the different campaigns and became 
the recognized leader of the local Democ- 
racy. In 1870 he was elected a member of 
the assembly and was re-elected in 1872. 
While a member of this assembly he formed 
the acquaintance of Samuel J. Tilden, after- 
ward governor of the state, who appointed 
Mr. Hill, W. M. Evarts and Judge Hand 
as a committee to provide a uniform charter 
for the different cities of the state. The 
pressure of professional engagements com- 
pelled him to decline to serve. In 1877 
Mr. Hill was made chairman of the Demo- 
cratic state convention at Albany, his elec- 
tion being due to the Tilden wing of the 
party, and he held the same position again 
in 1 88 1. He served one term as alderman 
in Elmira, at the expiration of which term, 



in 1882, he was elected mayor of Elmira, 
and in September of the same year was 
nominated for lieutenant-governor on the 
Democratic state ticket. He was success- 
ful in the campaign and two years later, 
when Grover Cleveland was elected to the 
presidency, Mr. Hill succeeded to the gov- 
ernorship for the unexpired term. In 1885 
he was elected governor for a full term of 
three years, at the end of which he was re- 
elected, his term expiring in 1891, in which 
year he was elected United States senator. 
In the senate he became a conspicuous 
figure and gained a national reputation. 



ALLEN G. THURMAN. — " The noblest 
Roman of them all" was the title by 
which Mr. Thurman was called by his com- 
patriots of the Democracy. He was the 
greatest leader of the Democratic party in 
his day and held the esteem of all the 
people, regardless of their political creeds. 
Mr. Thurman was born November 13, 18 13, 
at Lynchburg, Virginia, where he remained 
until he had attained the age of six years, 
when he moved to Ohio. He received an 
academic education and after graduating, 
took up the study of law, was admitted to 
the bar in 1835, and achieved a brilliant 
success in that line. In political life he was 
very successful, and his first office was that 
of representative of the state of Ohio in the 
twenty-ninth congress. He was elected 
judge of the supreme court of Ohio in 185 1, 
and was chief justice of the same from 1S54 
to 1856. In 1867 he was the choice of the 
Democratic party of his state for governor, 
and was elected to the United States senate 
in 1869 to succeed Benjamin F. Wade, 
and was re-elected to the same position in 
1874. He was a prominent figure in the 
senate, until the expiration of his service in 
1 88 1. Mr. Thurman was also one of the 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPJIY 



91 



principal presidental possibilities in the 
Democratic convention held at St. Louis in 
1876. In 1 888 he was the Democratic 
nominee for vice-president on the ticket 
with Grover Cleveland, but was defeated. 
Allen Cranberry Tharman died December 
12, 1895, at Columbus, Ohio. 



CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE, better 
known as " Artemus Ward," was born 
April 26, 1834, in the village of Waterford, 
Maine. He was thirteen years old at the 
time of his father's death, and about a year 
later he was apprenticed to John M. Rix, 
who published the "Coos County Dem- 
ocrat " at Lancaster, New Hampshire. Mr. 
Browne remained with him one year, when, 
hearing that his brother Cyrus was starting 
a paper at Norway, Maine, he left Mr. Rix 
and determined to get work on the new 
paper. He worked for his brother until the 
failure of the newspaper, and then went to 
Augusta, Maine, where he remained a few 
weeks and then removed to Skowhegan, 
and secured a position on the "Clarion." 
But either the climate or the work was not 
satisfactory to him, for one night he silently 
left the town and astonished his good mother 
by appearing unexpectedly at home. Mr. 
Browne then received some letters of recom- 
mendation to Messrs. Snow and Wilder, of 
Boston, at whose office Mrs. Partington's 
(B. P. Shillaber) ' ' Carpet Bag " was printed, 
and he was engaged and remained there for 
three years. He then traveled westward in 
search of employment and got as far as Tif- 
fin, Ohio, where he found employment in the 
office of the "Advertiser," and remained 
there some months when he proceeded to 
Toledo, Ohio, where he became one of the 
staff of the "Commercial," which position 
he held until 1857. Mr. Browne next went 
CO Cleveland, Ohio, and became the local 



editor of the "Plain Dealer," and it was in 
the columns of this paper that he published 
his first articles and signed them "Artemus 
Ward." In i860 he went to New York and 
became the editor of " Vanity Fair," but 
the idea of lecturing here seized him, and he 
was fully determined to make the trial. 
Mr. Browne brought out his lecture, "Babes 
in the Woods" at Clinton Hall, December 
23, 1861, and in 1862 he published his first 
book entitled, " Artemus Ward; His Book." 
He attained great fame as a lecturer and his 
lectures were not confined to America, for 
he went to England in 1866, and became 
exceedingly popular, both as a lecturer and 
a contributor to "Punch." Mr. Browne 
lectured for the last time January 23, 1867. 
He died in Southampton, England, March 
6, 1867. 

THURLOW WEED, a noted journalist 
and politician, was born in Cairo, New 
York, November 15, 1797. He learned the 
printer's trade at the age of twelve years, 
and worked at this calling for several years 
in various villages in centra! New York. He 
served as quartermaster-sergeant during the 
war of 18 1 2. In 18 18 he established the 
"Agriculturist," at Norwich, New York, 
and became editor of the "Anti-Masonic 
Enquirer," at Rochester, in 1826. In the 
same year he was elected to the legislature 
and re-elected in 1830, when he located in 
Albany, New York, and there started the 
" Evening Journal," and conducted it in op- 
position to the Jackson administration and 
the nullification doctrines of Calhoun. He 
became an adroit party manager, and was 
instrumental in promoting the nominations 
of Harrison, Taylor and Scott for the pres- 
idency. In 1856 and in i860 he threw his 
support to W. H. Seward, but when defeat- 
ed in his object, he gave cordial support to 



92 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Fremont and Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln pre- 
vailed upon him to visit the various capitals 
of Europe, where he proved a valuable aid 
tc the administration in moulding the opin- 
ions of the statesmen of that continent 
favorable to the cause of the Union. 

Mr. Weed's connection with the ' ' Even- 
ing Journal" was severed in 1862, when he 
settled in New York, and for a time edited 
the " Commercial Advertiser." In 1868 he 
retired from active hfe. His " Letters from 
Europe and the West Indies," published in 
1 866, together with some interesting * ' Rem- 
iniscences, " published in the "Atlantic 
Monthly," in 1870, an autobiography, and 
portions of an extensive correspondence will 
be of great value to writers of the political 
history of the United States. Mr. Weed 
died in New York, November 22, 1882. 



WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY, 
one of the prominent Democratic 
politicians of the country and ex-secretary of 
the navy, was born July 5th, 1841, at Con- 
way, Massachusetts, and received his edu- 
cation at Williston Seminary, East Hamp- 
ton, Massachusetts. Later he attended 
Yale College, where he graduated in 1863, 
and entered the Harvard Law School, which 
he left in 1864. Beginning practice in New 
York city, he soon gained a reputation as 
an able lawyer. He made his first appear- 
ance in public affairs in 1871, when he was 
active in organizing a young men's Demo- 
cratic club. In 1872 he was the recognized 
leader ol the county Democracy and in 1875 
was appointed corporation counsel for the 
city of New York. He resigned the office, 
1882, to attend to personal interests and on 
March 5, 1885, he was appointed secretary 
of the navy by President Cleveland. Under 
his administration the navy of the United 
States rapidly rose in rank among the navies 



of the world. When he retired from office 
in 1889, the vessels of the United States 
navy designed and contracted for by him 
were five double-turreted monitors, two 
new armor-clads, the dynamite cruiser "Ve- 
suvius," and five unarmored steel and iron 
cruisers. 

Mr. Whitney was the leader of the 
Cleveland forces in the national Democratic 
convention of 1892. 



EDWIN FORREST, the first and great- 
est American tragedian, was born in 
Philadelphia in 1 806. His father was a 
tradesman, and some accounts state that he 
had marked out a mercantile career for his 
son, Edwin, while others claim that he had 
intended him for the ministry. His wonder- 
ful memory, his powers of mimicry and his 
strong musical voice, however, attracted at- 
tention before he was eleven years old, and 
at that age he made his first appearance on 
the stage. The costume in which heappeared 
was so ridiculous that he left the stage in a 
fit of anger amid a roar of laughter from 
the audience. This did not discourage him, 
however, and at the age of fourteen, after 
some preliminary training in elocution, he 
appeared again, this time as Young Norvel, 
and gave indications of future greatness. 
Up to 1826 he played entirely with strolling 
companies through the south and west, but 
at that time he obtained an engagement at 
the Bowery Theater in New York. From 
that time his fortune was made. His man- 
ager paid him $40 per night, and it is stated 
that he loaned Forrest to other houses from 
time to time at $200 per night. His great 
successes were Virginius, Damon, Othello, 
Coriolanus, William Tell, Spartacus and 
Lear. He made his first appearance in 
London in 1836, and his success was un- 
questioned from the start. In 1845, on his 



COMPENDIUM OF B/OCIiAPHT. 



second appearance in London, he became 
involved in a bitter rivalry with the great 
English actor, Macready, who had visited 
America two years before. The result was 
that Forrest was hissed from the stage, and 
it was charged that Macready had instigated 
the plot. Forrest's resentment was so bitter 
that he himself openly hissed Macready 
from his box a few nights later. In 1848 
Macready again visited America at a time 
when American admiration and enthusiasm 
for Forrest had reached its height. Macready 
undertook to play at Astor Place Opera 
House in May, 1849, but was hooted off the 
stage. A few nights later Macready made a 
second attempt to play at the same house, 
this time under police protection. The house 
was filled with Macready 's friends, but the vio- 
olence of the mob outside stopped the play, 
and the actor barely escaped with his life. 
Upon reading the riot act the police and 
troops were assaulted with stones. The 
troops replied, first with blank cartridges, 
and then a volley of lead dispersed the 
mob, leaving thirty men dead or seriously 
wounded. 

After this incident Forrest's popularity 
waned, until in 1855 he retired from the 
stage. He re-appeared in i860, however, 
and probably the most remunerative period 
of his life was between that date and the 
close of the Civil war. His last appearance 
on the stage was at the Globe Theatre, 
Boston, in Richelieu, in April, 1872, his 
death occurring December 12 of that year. 



NOAH PORTER, D. D., LL. D., was 
one of the most noted educators, au- 
thors and scientific writers of the United 
States. He was born December 14, 181 1, 
at Farmington, Connecticut, graduated at 
Yale College in 1831, and was master of 
Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven in 



i83'-33- During 1833-35 he was a tutor 
at Yale, and at the same time was pursuing 
his theological studies, and became pastor 
of the Congregational church at New Mil- 
ford, Connecticut, in April, 1836. Dr. 
Porter removed to Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, in 1843, and was chosen professor of 
metaphysics and moral philosophy at Yale 
in 1846. He spent a year in Germany in 
the study of modern metaphysics in 1853- 
54, and in 1871 he was elected president of 
Yale College. He resigned the presidency 
in 1885, but still remained professor of met- 
aphysics and moral philosophy. He was 
the author of a number of works, among 
which are the following: " Historical Es- 
say," written in commemorationofthe200th 
aniversary of the settlement of the town of 
Farmington; " Educational System of the 
Jesuits Compared;" " The Human Intel- 
lect," with an introduction upon psychology 
and 'the soul; " Books and Reading;" 
"American Colleges and the American Pub- 
lic;" " Elementsof Intellectual Philosophy;" 
" The Science of Nature versus the Science 
of Man;" "Science and Sentiment;" "Ele- 
ments of Moral Science." Dr. Porter was 
the principal editor of the revised edition of 
Webster's Dictionary in 1864, and con- 
tributed largely to religious reviews and 
periodicals. Dr. Porter's death occurred 
March 4, 1892, at New Haven, Connecticut. 



JOHN TYLER, tenth president of the 
United States, was born in Charles City 
county, Virginia, March 29, 1790, and was 
the son of Judge John Tyler, one of the 
most distinguished men of his day. 

When but twelve years of age young 
John Tyler entered William and Mary Col- 
lege, graduating from there in 1806. He 
took up the study of law and was admitted 
to the bar in 1809, when but nineteen years 



94 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



of age. On attaining his majority in iSii 
he was elected a member of the state legis- 
lature, and for five years held that position 
by the almost unanimous vote of his county. 
He was elected to congress in 1816, and 
served in that body for four years, after 
which for two years he represented his dis- 
trict again in the legislature of the state. 
"While in congress, he opposed the United 
States bank, the protective policy and in- 
terna] improvements by the United States 
government. 1825 saw Mr. Tyler governor 
of Virginia, but in 1S27 he was chosen 
membef of the United States senate, and 
held that office for nine years. He therein 
opposed the administration of Adams and 
the tariff bill of 1828, sympathized with the 
nullifiers of South Carolina and was the 
only senator who voted against the Force 
bill lor the suppression of that state's insip- 
ient rebellion. He resigned his position as 
senator on account of a disagreement with 
the legislature of his state in relation to his 
censuring President Jackson. He retired to 
Williamsburg, Virginia, but being regarded 
as a martyr by the Whigs, whom, hereto- 
fore, he had always opposed, was supported 
by many of that party for the vice-presi- 
dency in 1836. He sat in the Virginia leg- 
islature as a Whig in 1839-40, and was a 
del.'^gate to the convention of that party in 

1839. This national convention nominated 
him for the second place on the ticket with 
General William H. H. Harrison, and he 
was elected vice-president in November, 

1840. President Harrison dying one month 
after his inauguration, he was succeeded by 
John Tyler. He retained the cabinet chosen 
by his predecessor, and for a time moved in 
harmony with the Whig party. He finally 
instructed the secretary of the treasury, 
Thomas Ewing, to submit to congress a bill 
for the incorporation of a fiscal bank of the 



United States, which was passed by con- 
gress, but vetoed by the president on ac- 
count of some amendments he considered 
unconstitutional. For this and other meas- 
ures he was accused of treachery to his 
party, and deserted by his whole cabinet, 
except Daniel Webster. Things grew worse 
until he was abandoned by the Whig party 
formally, when Mr. Webster resigned. He 
was nominated at Baltimore, in May, 1844, 
at the Democratic convention, as their pres- 
idential candidate, but withdrew from the 
canvass, as he saw he had not succeed- 
ed in gaining the confidence of his old 
party. He then retired from politics until 
February, 1861, when he was made presi- 
dent of the abortive peace congress, which 
met in Washington. He shortly after re- 
nounced his allegiance to the United States 
and was elected a member of the Confeder- 
ate congress. He died at Richmond, Janu- 
ary 17. 1862. 

Mr. Tyler married, in 181 3, Miss Letitia 
Christian, who died in 1842 at Washington. 
June 26, 1844, he contracted a second mar- 
riage, with Miss Julia Gardner, of New York. 



COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON, 
one of the great men of his time and 
who has left his impress upon the history of 
our national development, was born October 
22, 1 82 1, at Harwinton, Connecticut. 
He received a common-school education 
and at the age of fourteen his spirit of get- 
ting along in the world mastered his educa- 
tional propensities and his father's objec- 
tions and he left school. He went to Cali- 
fornia in the early days and had opportunities 
which he handled masterfully. Others had 
the same opportunities but they did not have 
his brains nor his energy, and it was he who 
overcame obstacles and reaped the reward 
of his genius. Transcontinental railways 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl'. 



95 



were inevitable, but the realization of this 
masterful achievement would have been de- 
layed to a much later day if there had been 
no Huntington. He associated himself with 
Messrs. Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, 
and Charles Crocker, and they furnished the 
money necessary for a survey across the 
Sierra Nevadas, secured a charter for the 
road, and raised, with the government's aid, 
money enough to construct and equip that 
railway, which at the time of its completion 
was a marvel of engineering and one of the 
wonders of the world. Mr. Huntington be- 
came president of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road, vice-president of the Central Pacific; 
trustee of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph 
Company, and a director of the Occidental 
and Oriental Steamship Company, besides 
being identified with many other business 
enterprises of vast importance. 



GEORGE A. CUSTER, a famous In- 
dian fighter, was born in Ohio in 1840. 
He graduated at West Point in 1861, an- 
served in the Civil war; was at Bull Run id 
1861, and was in the Peninsular campaign, 
being one of General McClellan's aides-de, 
camp. He fought in the battles of South 
Mountain and Antietam in 1863, and was 
with General Stoneman on his famous 
cavalry raid. He was engaged in the battle 
of Gettysburg, and was there made brevet- 
major. In 1863 was appointed brigadier- 
general of volunteers. General Custer was 
in many skirmishes in central Virginia in 
1863-64, and was present at the following 
battles of the Richmond campaign: Wil- 
derness, Todd's Tavern, Yellow Tavern, where 
hewasbrevetted lieutenant-colonel; Meadow 
Bridge, Haw's Shop, Cold Harbor, Trevil- 
lian Station. In the Shenandoah Valley 
1864-65 he was brevetted colonel at Opequan 
Creek, and at Cedar Creek he was made 



brevet major-general for gallant conduct 
during the engagement. General Custer 
was in command of a cavalry division in the 
pursuit of Lee's army in 1865, and fought 
at Dinwiddle Court House, Five Forks, 
where he was made brevet brigadier-general; 
Sailors Creek and Appomattox, where he 
gained additional honors and was made 
brevet major-general, and was given the 
command of the cavalry in the military 
division of the southwest and Gulf, in 1865. 
After the establishment of peace he went 
west on frontier duty and performed gallant 
and valuable service in the troubles with the 
Indians. He was killed in the massacre on 
the Little Big Horn river. South Dakota, 
June 25, 1876. 



DANIEL WOLSEY VOORHEES, cel- 
brated as ' ' The Tall Sycamore of the 
Wabash," was born September 26, 1827, 
in Butler county, Ohio. When he was two 
months old his parents removed to Fount- 
ain county, Indiana. He grew to manhood 
on a farm, engaged in all the arduous work 
pertaining to rural life. In 1845 he entered 
the Indiana Asbury University, now the De 
Pauw, from which he graduated in 1849. 
He took up the study of law at Crawfords- 
ville, and in 1851 began the practice of his 
profession at Covington, Fountain county, 
Indiana. He became a law partner of 
United States Senator Hannegan, of Indi- 
ana, in 1852, and in 1856 he was an unsuc- 
cessful candidate for congress. In the fol- 
lowing year he took up his residence in Terre 
Haute, Indiana. He was United States 
district attorney for Indiana from 1857 until 
1 86 1, and he had during this period been 
elected to congress, in i860. Mr. Voorhees 
was re-elected to congress in 1862 and 1864, 
but he was unsuccessful in the election of 
1866. However, he was returned to con- 



96 



COMPENDIL'M OF BlOGRAPHr 



gress in 1868, where he remained until 1874, 
having been re-elected twice. In 1877 he 
was appointed United States senator from 
Indiana to fill a vacancy caused by the death 
of O. P. Morton, and at the end of the term 
was elected for the ensuing term, being re- 
elected in 18S5 and in 1891 to the same of- 
fice. He served with distinction on many 
of the committees, and took a very prom- 
inent part in the discussion of all the im- 
portant legislation of his time. His death 
occurred in August, 189 . 



ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, fa- 
mous as one of the inventors of the tele- 
phone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
March 3rd, 1847. He received his early 
education in the high school and later he 
attended the university, and was specially 
trained to follow his grandfather's profes- 
sion, that of removing impediments of 
speech. He emigrated to the United States 
in 1872, and introduced into this country 
his father's invention of visible speech in the 
institutions for deaf-mutes. Later he was 
appointed professor of vocal physiology in 
the Boston University. He worked for 
many years during his leisure hours on his 
telephonic discovery, and finally perfected 
it and exhibited it publicly, before it had 
reached the high state of perfection to which 
he brought it. His first exhibition of it was 
at the Centennial Exhibition that was held 
in Philadelphia in 1876. Its success is now 
established throughout the civilized world. 
In 1882 Prof. Bell received a diploma and 
the decoration of the Legion of Honor from 
the Academy of Sciences of France. 



WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, 
the justly celebrated historian and 
author, was a native of Salem, Massachu- 
setts, and was born May 4, 1796. He was 



the son of Judge William Prescott and the 
grandson of the hero of Bunker Hill, Colonel 
William Prescott. 

Our subject in 1808 removed with the 
family to Boston, in the schools of which 
city he received his early education. He 
entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 
181 1, having been prepared at the private 
classical college of Rev. Dr. J. S. J. Gardi- 
jner. The following year he received an in- 
ury in his left eye which made study 
through life a matter of difSculty. He 
graduated in 18 14 with high honors in the 
classics and belle lettres. He spent several ' 
months on the Azores Islands, and later 
visited England, France and Italy, return- 
ing home in 18 17. In June, 18 18, he 
founded a social and literary club at Boston 
for which he edited "The Club Room," a 
periodical doomed to but a short life. May 
4, 1820, he married Miss Susan Amory. 
He devoted several years after that event to 
a thorough study of ancient and modern 
history and literature. As the fruits of his 
labors he published several well written 
essays upon French and Italian poetry and 
romance in the " North American Review." 
January 19, 1826, he decided to take up his 
first great historical work, the " History of 
the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella." To 
this he gave the labor of ten years, publish- 
ing the same December 25, 1837. Although 
placed at the head of all American authors, 
so diffident was Prescott of his literary merit 
that although he had four copies of this 
work printed for his own convenience, he 
hesitated a long time before giving it to the 
public, and it was only by the solicitation of 
friends, especially of that talented Spanish 
scholar, George Ticknor, that he was in- 
duced to do so. Soon the volumes were 
translated into French, Italian, Dutch and 
German, and the work was recognized 



COMPENDIUM OF B /0 GB A PHI'. 



97 



throughout the world as one of the most 
meritorious of historical compositions. In 
1843 he published the "Conquest of Mexi- 
co," and in 1847 the "Conquest of Peru." 
Two years later there came from his pen a 
volume of " Biographical and Critical Mis- 
cellanies." Going abroad in the summer of 
1 8 50, he was received with great distinction 
in the literary circles of London, Edinburgh, 
Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. Oxford Uni- 
versity conferred the degree of D. C. L. 
upon him. In 1855 he issued two volumes 
of his "History of the Reign of Philip the 
Second," and a third in 1858. In the 
meantime he edited Robertson's "Charles 
the Fifth," adding a history of the life of 
that monarch after his abdication. Death 
cut short his work on the remaining volumes 
oi' "Philip the Second," coming to him at 
Boston, Massachusetts, May 28, 1859. 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, a noted 
American commodore, was born in 
South Kingston, Rhode Island, August 23, 
1785. He saw his first service as a mid- 
shipman in the United States navy in April, 
1799. He cruised with his father. Captain 
Christopher Raymond Perry, in the West In- 
dies for about two years. In 1804 he was 
in the war against Tripoli, and was made 
lieutenant in 1 807. At the opening of hostili- 
ties with Great Britain in 18 12 he was given 
command of a fleet of gunboats on the At- 
lantic coast. At his request he was trans- 
ferred, a year later, to Lake Ontario, where 
he served under Commodore Chauncey, and 
took an active part in the attack on Fort 
George. He was ordered to fit out a squad- 
ron on Lake Erie, which he did, building 
most of his vessels from the forests along 
the shore, and "by the summer of 1 8 1 3 he had 
a fleet of nine vessels at Presque Isle, now 
Erie,^ Pennsylvania. September loth he 



attacked and captured the British fleet near 
Put-in-Bay, thus clearing the lake of hostile 
ships. His famous dispatch is part of his 
fame, " We have met the enemy, and they 
are ours." He co-operated with Gen. Har- 
rison, and the success of the campaign in 
the northwest was largely due to his victory. 
The next year he was transferred to the Po- 
tomac, and assisted in the defense of Balti- 
more. After the war he was in constant 
service with the various squadrons in cruising 
in all parts of the world. He died of yellow 
fever on the Island of Trinidad, August 23, 
1 8 19. His remains were conveyed to New- 
port, and buried there, and an imposing 
obelisk was erected to his memory by the 
State of Rhode Island. A bronze statue 
was also erected in his honor, the unveiling 
taking place in 1885. 



JOHN PAUL JONES, though a native 
of Scotland, was one of America's most 
noted fighters during the Revolutionary war. 
He was born July 6, 1747. His father was 
a gardener, but the young man soon be- 
came interested in a seafaring life and at 
the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a 
sea captain engaged in the American trade. 
His first voyage landed him in Virginia, 
where he had a brother who had settled 
there several years prior. The failure of 
the captain released young Jones from his 
apprenticeship bonds, and he was engaged 
as third mate of a vessel engaged in the 
slave trade. He abandoned this trade after 
a few years, from his own sense of disgrace. 
He took passage from Jamaica for Scotland 
in 1768, and on the voyage both the captain 
and the mate died and he was compelled to 
take command of the vessel for the re- 
mainder of the voyage. He soon after 
became master of the vessel. He returned 
to Virginia about 1773 to settle up the estate 



D8 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of his brother, and at this time added the 
name "Jones," having previously been 
known as John Paul. He settled down in 
Virginia, but when the war broke out in 
1775 he offered his services to congress and 
was appointed senior lieutenant of the flag- 
ship "Alfred," on which he hoisted the 
American flag with his own hands, the first 
vessel that had ever carried a flag of the 
new nation. He was afterward appointed 
to the command of the "Alfred," and later 
of the "Providence," in each of which ves- 
sels he did good service, as also in the 
" Ranger," to the command of which he 
was later appointed. The fight that made 
him famous, however, was that in which he 
captured the " Serapis," off the coast of 
Scotland. He was then in command of the 
"Bon Homme Richard," which had been 
fitted out for him by the French government 
and named by Jones in honor of Benjamin 
Franklin, or "Good Man Richard," Frank- 
lin being author of the publication known 
as " Poor Richard's Almanac." The fight 
between the " Richard" and the "Serapis" 
lasted three hours, all of which time the 
vessels were at close range, and most of the 
time in actual contact. Jones' vessel was 
on fire several times, and early in the en- 
gagement two of his guns bursted, rendering 
the battery useless. Also an envious officer 
of the Alliance, one of Jones' own fleet, 
opened fire upon the "Richard." at a crit- 
ical time, completely disabling the vessel. 
Jones continued the fight, in spite of coun- 
sels to surrender, and after dark the " Ser- 
apis "struck her colors, and was hastily 
boarded by Jones and his crew, while the 
"Richard" sank, bows first, after the 
wounded had been taken on board the 
"Serapis." Most of the other vessels of 
the fleet of which the " Serapis" was con- 
voy, surrendered, and were taken with the 



"Serapis" to France, where Jones was 
received with greatest honors, and the king 
presented him with an elegant sword and 
the cross of the Order of Military Merit. 
Congress gave him a vote of thanks and 
made him commander of a new ship, the 
"America," but the vessel was afterward 
given to France and Jones never saw active 
sea service again. He came to America again, 
in 1787, after the close of the war, and was 
voted a gold medal by congress. He went to 
Russia and was appointed rear-admiral and 
rendered service of value against the Turks, 
but on account of personal enmity of the fav- 
orites of the emperor he was retired on a pen- 
sion. Failing to collect this, he returned to 
France, where he died, July 18, 1792. 



THOMAS MORAN, the well-known 
painter of Rocky Mountain scenery, 
was born in Lancashire, England, in 1837. 
He came to America when a child, and 
showing artistic tastes, he was apprenticed 
to a wood engraver in Philadelphia. Three 
years later he began landscape painting, and 
his style soon began to exhibit signs of genius. 
His first works were water-colors, and 
though without an instructor he began the 
use of oils, he soon found it necessary to 
visit Europe, where he gave particular at- 
tention to the works of Turner. He joined 
the Yellowstone Park exploring expedition 
and visited the Rocky Mountains in 1871 
and again in 1873, making numerous 
sketches of the scenery. The most note- 
worthy results were his "Grand Canon of 
the Yellowstone," and " The Chasm of the 
Colorado," which were purchased by con- 
gress at $10,000 each, the first of which is 
undoubtedly the finest landscape painting 
produced in this country. Mr. Moran has 
subordinated art to nature, and the subjects 
he has chosen leave little ground for fault 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



101 



finding on that account. "The Mountain 
of the Holy Cross," "The Groves Were 
God's First Temples," " The Cliffs of Green 
River," "The Children of the Mountain," 
" The Ripening of the Leaf," and others 
have given him additional fame, and while 
they do not equal in grandeur the first 
mentioned, in many respects from an artis- 
tic standpoint they are superior. 



L ELAND STANFORD was one of the 
greatest men of the Pacific coast and 
also had a national reputation. He was 
born March 9, 1824, in Albany county, New 
York, and passed his early life on his 
father's farm. He attended the local 
schools of the county and at the age of 
twenty began the study of law. He 
entered the law office of Wheaton, Doolittle 
and Hadley, at Albany, in 1845, and a few 
years later he moved to Port Washington, 
Wisconsin, where he practiced law four 
years with moderate success. In 1852 Mr. 
Stanford determined to push further west, 
and, accordingly went to California, where 
three of his brothers were established in 
business in the mining towns. They took 
Leland into partnership, giving him charge 
of a branch store at Michigan Bluff, in 
Placer county. There he developed great 
business ability and four years later started 
a mercantile house of his own in San Fran- 
cisco, which soon became one of the most 
substantial houses on the coast. On the 
formation of the Republican party he inter- 
ested himself in politics, and in i860 was 
sent as a delegate to the convention that 
nominated Abraham Lincoln. In the 
autumn of 1861 he was elected, by an im- 
mense majority, governor of California. 
Prior to his election as governor he had 
been chosen president of the newly-orga- 
nized Central Pacific Railroad Company, 

6 



and after leaving the executive chair he de- 
voted all of his time to the construction of 
the Pacific end of the transcontinental rail- 
way. May 10, 1869, Mr. Stanford drove 
the last spike of the Central Pacific road, 
thus completing the route across the conti- 
nent. He was also president of the Occi- 
dental and Oriental Steamship Company. 
He had but one son, who died of typhoid 
fever, and as a monument to his child he 
founded the university which bears his son's 
name, Leland Stanford, Junior, University. 
Mr. Stanford gave to this university eighty- 
three thousand acres of land, the estimated 
value of which is $8,000,000, and the entire 
endowment is $20,000,000. In 18S5 Mr. 
Stanford was elected United States senator 
as a Republican, to succeed J. T. Farley, a 
Democrat, and was re-elected in 1 89 1. His 
death occurred June 20, 1894, at Palo Alto, 
California. 



STEPHEN DECATUR, a famous com- 
modore in the United States navy, was 
born in Maryland in 1779. He entered the 
naval service in 1798. In 1804, when the 
American vessel Philadelphia had been run 
aground and captured in the harbor of Trip- 
oli, Decatur, at the head of a few men, 
boarded her and burned her in the face of 
the guns from the city defenses. For this 
daring deed he was made captain. He was 
given command of the frigate United States 
at the breaking out of the war of 1812, and 
in October of that year he captured the 
British frigate Macedonian, and was re- 
warded with a gold medal by congress. Af- 
ter the close of the war he was sent as com- 
mander of a fleet of ten vessels to chastise 
the dey of Algiers, who was preying upon 
American commerce with impunity and de- 
manding tribute and ransom for the release 
of American citizens captured. Decatur 



102 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



captured a number of Algerian vessels, and 
compelled the dey to sue for peace. He 
was noted for his daring and intrepidity, 
and his coolness in the face of danger, and 
helped to bring the United States navy into 
favor with the people and congress as a 
means of defense and offense in time of 
war. He was killed in a duel by Commo- 
dore Barron, March 12, 1820. 



JAMES IvNOX POLK, the eleventh 
president of the United States, 1845 to 
1849, was born November 2, 1/95, in Meck- 
lenburg county, North Carolina, and was 
the eldest child of a family of six sons. He 
removed with his father to the Valley of the 
Duck River, in Tennessee, in 1806. He 
attended the common schools and became 
very proficient in the lower branches of 
education, and supplemented this with 
a course in the Murfreesboro Academy, 
which he entered in 18 13 and in the autumn 
of 18 1 5 he became a student in the sopho- 
more class of the University of North Caro- 
lina, at Chapel Hill, and was graduated in 
1818. He then spent a short time in re- 
cuperating his health and then proceeded to 
Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up the 
study of law in the office of Felix Grundy. 
After the completion of his law studies he 
was admitted to the bar and removed to 
Columbia, Maury county, Tennessee, and 
started in the active practice of his profes- 
sion. Mr. Polk was a Jeffersonian " Re- 
publican " and in 1823 he was elected to the 
legislature of Tennessee. He was a strict 
constructionist and did not believe that the 
general government had the power to carry 
on internal improvements in the states, but 
deemed it important that it should have that 
power, and wanted the constitution amended 
to that effect. But later on he became 
alarmed lest the general government might 



become strong enough to abolish slavery 
and therefore gave his whole support to the 
" State's Rights" movement, and endeavored 
to check the centralization of power in the 
general government. Mr. Polk was chosen 
a member of congress in 1825, and held that 
office until 1839. He then withdrew, as he 
was the successful gubernatorial candidate 
of his state. He had become a man of 
great influence in the house, and, as the 
leader of the Jackson party in that body, 
weilded great influence in the election of 
General Jackson to the presidency. He 
sustained the president in all his measures 
and still remained in the house after Gen- 
eral Jackson had been succeeded by Martin 
Van Buren. He was speaker of the house 
during five sessions of congress. He was 
elected governor of Tennessee by a large 
majority and took the oath of office at Nash- 
ville, October 4, 1839. He was a candidate 
for re-election but was defeated by Governor 
Jones, the Whig candidate. In 1844 the 
most prominent question in the election was 
the annexation of Texas, and as Mr. Polk 
was the avowed champion of this cause he 
was nominated for president by the pro- 
slavery wing of the democratic party, was 
elected by a large majority, and was inaug- 
urated March 4, 1845. President Polk 
formed a very able cabinet, consisting of 
James Buchanan, Robert J. V^alker, Will- 
iam L. Marcy, George Bancroft, Cave John- 
son, and John Y. Mason. The dispute re- 
garding the Oregon boundary was settled 
during his term of office and a new depart- 
ment was added to the list of cabinet po- 
sitions, that of the Interior. The low tariff 
bill of 1846 was carried and the financial 
system of the country was reorganized. It 
was also during President Polk's term that 
the Mexican war was successfully conducted, 
which resulted in the acquisition of Califor- 



Compendium of biography. 



103 



nia and New Mexico. Mr. Polk retired from 
the presidency March 4, 1849, after having 
declined a re-nomination, and was succeeded 
by General Zachary Taylor, the hero of the 
Mexican war. Mr. Polk retired to private 
life, to his home in Nashville, where he died 
at the age of fifty-four on June 9, 1849. 



ANNA DICKINSON (Anna Elizabeth 
Dickinson), a noted lecturer and pub- 
lic speaker, was born at Philadelphia, Oc- 
tober 28, 1842. Her parents were Quakers, 
and she was educated at the Friends' free 
schools in her native city. She early man- 
ifested an inclination toward elocution and 
public speaking, and when, at the age of 18, 
she found an opportunity to appear before 
a natiorial assemblage for the discussion of 
woman's rights, she at once established her 
reputation as a public speaker. From i860 
to the close of the war and during the ex- 
citing period of reconstruction, she was one 
of the most noted and influential speakers 
before the American public, and her popu- 
larity was unequaled by that of any of her 
sex. A few weeks after the defeat and 
death of Colonel Baker at Ball's Bluff, Anna 
Dickinson, lecturing in New York, made 
the remarkable assertion, " Not the incom- 
petency of Colonel Baker, but the treachery 
of General McClellan caused the disaster at 
Ball's Bluff." She was hissed and hooted 
off the stage. A year later, at the same 
hall and with much the same class of audi- 
tors, she repeated the identical words, and 
the applause was so great and so long con- 
tinued that it was impossible to go on with 
her lecture for more than half an hour. The 
change of sentiment had been wrought by 
the reverses and dismissal of McClellan and 
his ambition to succeed Mr. Lincoln as presi- 
dent. 

Ten years after the close of the war, Anna 



Dickinson was not heard of on the lec- 
ture platform, and about that time she made 
an attempt to enter the dramatic profession, 
but after appearing a number of times in dif- 
ferent plays she was pronounced a failure. 



ROBERT J. BURDETTE.— Some per- 
sonal characteristics of Mr. Burdette 
were quaintly given by himself in the follow- 
ing words: "Politics.'' Republican after 
the strictest sect. Religion > Baptist. Per- 
sonal appearance .' Below medium height, 
and weigh one hundred and thirty-five 
pounds, no shillings and no pence. Rich } 
Not enough to own a yacht. Favorite read- 
ing.? Poetry and history — know Longfellow 
by heart, almost. Write for magizines .' 
Have more ' declined with thanks ' letters 
than would fill a trunk. Never able to get 
into a magazine with a line. Care about it.? 
Mad as thunder. Think about starting a 
magazine and rejecting everbody's articles 
except my own." Mr. Burdette was born 
at Greensborough, Pennsylvania, in 1844. 
He served through the war of the rebellion 
under General Banks "on an excursion 
ticket" as he felicitously described it, "good 
both ways, conquering in one direction and 
running in the other, pay going on just the 
same." He entered into journalism by the 
gateway of New York correspondence for 
the "Peoria Transcript," and in 1874 went 
on the " Burlington Hawkeye" of which he 
became the managing editor, and the work 
that he did on this paper made both him- 
self and the paper famous in the world of 
humor. Mr. Burdette married in 1870, 
and his wife, whom he called " Her Little 
Serene Highness," was to him a guiding 
light until the day of her death, and it was 
probably the unconscious pathos with which 
he described her in his work that broke the 
barriers that had kept him out of the maga- 



104 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



zines and secured him the acceptance of his 
"Confessions" by Lippincott some years 
ago, and brought him substantial fame and 
recognition in the literary world. 



WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, one 
of the leading novelists of the present 
century and author of a number of works 
that gained for him a place in the hearts of 
the people, was born March i, 1837, at 
Martinsville, Belmont county, Ohio. At 
the age of three years he accompanied his 
father, who was a printer, to Hamilton, 
Ohio, where he learned the printer's trade. 
Later he was engaged on the editorial staff 
of the ' ' Cincinnati Gazette " and the " Ohio 
State Journal." During 1861-65 he was 
the United States consul at Venice, and 
from 1 87 1 to 1878 he was the editor-in- 
chief of the "Atlantic Monthly." As a 
writer he became one of the most fertile 
and readable of authors and a pleasing poet. 
In 1885 he became connected with "Har- 
per's Magazine." Mr. Howells was author 
of the list of books that we give below: 
"Venetian Life," " Italian Journeys," "No 
Love Lost," " Suburban Sketches," "Their 
Wedding Journey," "A Chance Acquaint- 
ance," "A Foregone Conclusion," "Dr. 
Breen's Practice," "A Modern Instance," 
"The Rise of Silas Lapham," "Tuscan 
Cities," "Indian Summer," besides many 
others. He also wrote the " Poem of Two 
Friends," with J. J. Piatt in i860, and 
some minor dramas: "The Drawing 
Room Car," "The Sleeping Car," etc., 
that are full of exqusite humor and elegant 
dialogue. 

TAMES RUSSELL LOWELL was a son 
<J of the Rev. Charles Lowell, and was born 
;it Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 22, 
1 8 1 9. He graduated at Harvard College in 



1838 as class poet, and went to Harvard 
Law School, from which he was graduated 
in 1840, and commenced the practice of his 
profession in Boston, but soon gave his un- 
divided attention to literary labors. Mr. 
Lowell printed, in 1841, a small volume of 
poems entitled ' ' A Year's Life, " edited with 
Robert Carter; in 1843, " The Pioneer, " a 
literary and critical magazine (monthly), and 
in 1848 another book of poems, that con- 
tained several directed against slavery. He 
published in 1844 a volume of "Poems" 
and in 1845 " Conversations on Some 
of the Old Poets," "The Vision of Sir 
Launfal," " A Fable for Critics, " and "The 
Bigelow Papers," the latter satirical es- 
says in dialect poetry directed against 
slavery and the war with Mexico. In 
1851-52 he traveled in Europe and re- 
sided in Italy for a considerable time, and 
delivered in 1854-55 a course of lectures on 
the British poets, before the Lowell Insti- 
tute, Boston. Mr. Lowell succeeded Long- 
fellow in January, 1855, as professor of 
modern languages and literature at Harvard 
College, and spent another year in Euiope 
qualifying himself for that post. He edited 
the "Atlantic Monthly" from 1857 to 1862, 
and the "North American Review" from 
1863 until 1872. From 1864 to 1870 he 
published the following works: " Fireside 
Travels," "Under the Willows," "The 
Commemoration Ode," in honor of the 
alumni of Harvard who had fallen in the 
Civil war; "The Cathedral," two volumes 
of essays; "Among My Books" and "My 
Study Windows," and in 1867 he published 
a new series of the " Bigelow Papers. " He 
traveled extensively in Europe in 1872-74, 
and received in person the degree of D. C. 
L. at Oxford and that of LL. D. at the 
University of Cambridge, England. He 
was also interested in political life and held 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



105 



many important offices. He was United 
States minister to Spain in 1877 and was 
also minister to England in 1880-85. On 
January 2, 1884, he was elected lord rector 
of St. Andrew University in Glasgow, Scot- 
land, but soon after he resigned the same. 
Mr. Lowell's works enjoy great popularity 
in the United States and England. He 
died August 12, 1891. 



JOSEPH HENRY, one of America's 
greatest scientists, was born at Albany, 
New York, December 17, 1797. He was 
educated in the common schools of the city 
and graduated from the Albany Academy, 
where he became a professor of mathemat- 
ics in 1826. In 1827 he commenced a 
course of investigation, which he continued 
for a number of years, and the results pro- 
duced had great effect on the scientific world. 
The first success was achieved by producing 
the electric magnet, and he next proved the 
possibility of exciting magnetic energy at a 
distance, and it was the invention of Pro- 
fessor Henry's intensity magnet that first 
made the invention of electric telegraph a 
possibility. He made a statement regarding 
the practicability of applying the intensity 
magnet to telegraphic uses, in his article to 
the "American Journal of Science " in 1831. 
During the same year he produced the first 
mechanical contrivance ever invented for 
maintaining continuous motion by means of 
electro-magnetism, and he also contrived a 
machine by which signals could be made at 
a distance by the use of his electro-magnet, 
the signals being produced by a lever strik- 
ing on a bell. Some of his electro-magnets 
were of great power, one carried over a ton 
and another not less than three thousand six 
hundred pounds. In 1832 he discovered 
that secondary currents could be produced 
it"' a lori'^ conductor by the induction of the 



primary current upon itself, and also in the 
same year he produced a spark by means of 
a purely magnetic induction. Professor 
Henry was elected, in 1832, professor of nat- 
ural philosophy in the College of New Jer- 
sey, and in his earliest lectures at Princeton, 
demonstrated the feasibility of the electric 
telegraph. He visited Europe in 1837, and 
while there he had an interview with Pro- 
fessor Wheatstone, the inventor of the 
needle magnetic telegraph. In 1846 he was 
elected secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, being the first incumbent in that office, 
which he held until his death. Professor 
Henry was elected president of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of 
Science, in 1849, and of the National 
Academy of Sciences. He was made chair- 
man of the lighthouse board of the United 
States in 1871 and held that position up to 
the time of his death. He received the 
honorary degree of doctor of laws from 
Union College in 1829, and from Harvard 
University in 185 1, and his death occurred 
May 13, 1878. Among his numerous works 
may be mentioned the following: "Contri- 
butions to Electricity and Magnetism," 
" American Philosophic Trans, " and many 
articles in the "American Journal of 
Science," the journal of the Franklin Insti- 
tute; the proceedings of the American As- 
sociation for the Advancement of Science, 
and in the annual reports of the Smith- 
sonian Institution from its foundation. 



FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, the famous 
rear-admiral of the Confederate navy 
during the rebellion, was bOrn in Baltimore, 
Maryland. He became a United States 
midshipman in 181 5 and was promoted 
through the various grades of the service 
and became a captain in 1855. Mr. Buch- 
anan resigned his captaincy in order to join 



106 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the Confederate service in iS6i and later he 
asked to be reinstated, but his request was 
refused and he then entered into the service 
of the Confederate government. He was 
placed in command of the frigate " Merri- 
mac " after she had been fitted up as an iron- 
clad, and had command of her at the time 
of the battle of Hampton Roads. It was 
he who had command when the " Merri- 
mac" sunk the two wooden frigates, " Con- 
gress" and "Cumberland," and was also 
in command during part of the historical 
battle of the " Merrimac " and the "Moni- 
tor," where he was wounded and the com- 
mand devolved upon Lieutenant Catesby 
Jones. He was created rear-admiral in the 
Confederate service and commanded the 
Confederate fleet in Mobile bay, which was 
defeated by Admiral Farragut, August 5, 
1864. Mr. Buchanan was in command of 
the "Tennessee," an ironclad, and during 
the engagement he lost one of his legs and 
was taken prisoner in the end by the Union 
fleet. After the war he settled in Talbot 
county, Maryland, where he died May 11, 
1874- 

RICHARD PARKS BLAND, a celebrated 
American statesman, frequently called 
"the father of the house," because of his 
many years of service in the lower house 
of congress, was born August 19, 1835, 
near Hartford, Kentucky, where he received 
a plain academic education. He moved, 
in 1855, to Missouri, from whence he went 
overland to California, afterward locating in 
Virginia City, now in the state of Nevada, 
but then part of the territory of Utah. 
While there he practiced law, dabbled in 
mines and mining in Nevada and California 
for several years, and served for a time as 
treasurer of Carson county, Nevada. Mr. 
Bland returned to Missouri in 1865, where 



he engaged in the practice ot law at Rolla, 
Missouri, and in 1869 removed to Lebanon, 
Missouri. He began his congressional career 
in 1873, when he was elected as a Demo- 
crat to the forty-third congress, and he was 
regularly re-elected to every congress after 
that time up to the fifty-fourth, when he was 
defeated for re-election, but was returned 
to the fifty-fifth congress as a Silver Demo- 
crat. During all his protracted service, 
while Mr. Bland was always steadfast in his 
support of democratic measures, yet he won 
his special renown as the great advocate of 
silver, being strongly in favor of the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver, and on ac- 
count of his pronounced views was one of 
the candidates for the presidential nomina- 
tion of the Democratic party at Chicago in 
1896. 

FANNY DAVENPORT (F. L. G. Daven- 
port) was of British birth, but she be- 
longs to the American stage. She was the 
daughter of the famous actor, E. L. Daven- 
port, and was born in London in 1850. 
She first went on the stage as a child at the 
Howard Athenaeum, Boston, and her entire 
life was spent upon the stage. She played 
children's parts at Burton's old theater in 
Chambers street, and then, in 1862, appeared 
as the King of Spain in " Faint Heart Never 
Won Fair Lady. " Here she attracted the 
notice of Augustin Daly, the noted mana- 
ger, then at the Fifth Avenue theater, who 
offered her a six weeks' engagement with 
her father in "London Assurance." She 
afterwards appeared at the same house in a 
variety of characters, and her versatility 
was favorably noticed by the critics. After 
the burning of the old Fifth Avenue, the 
present theater of that name was built at 
Twenty-eighth street, and here Miss Daven- 
port appeared in a play written for her by 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



107 



Mr. Daly. She scored a great success. 
She then starred in this play throughout the 
country, and was married to Mr. Edwin F. 
Price, an actor of her company, in 1880. 
In 1882 she went to Paris and purchased 
the right to produce in America Sardou's 
great emotional play, "Fedora." It was 
put on at the Fourteenth Street theater in 
New York, and in it she won popular favor 
and became one of the most famous actresses 
of her time. 



HORACE BRIGHAM CLAFLIN, one 
of the greatest merchants America has 
produced, was born in Milford, Massachu- 
setts, a son of John Claflin, also a mer- 
chant. Young Clafiin started his active life 
as a clerk in his father's store, after having 
been offered the opportunity of a college 
education, but with the characteristic 
promptness that was one of his virtues he 
exclaimed, "No law or medicine for me." 
He had set his heart on being a merchant, 
and when his father retired he and his 
brother Aaron, and his brother-in-law, Sam- 
uel Daniels, conducted the business. Mr. 
Clafiin was not content, however, to run a 
store in a town like Milford, and accordingly 
opened a dry goods store at Worcester, with 
his brother as a partner, but the partnership 
was dissolved a year later and H. B. Clafiin 
assumed complete control. The business 
in Worcester had been conducted on ortho- 
dox principles, and when Mr. Clafiin came 
there and introduced advertising as a means 
of drawing trade, he created considerable 
animosity among the older merchants. Ten 
years later he was one of the most prosper- 
ous merchants. He disposed of his busi- 
ness in Worcester for $30,000, and went to 
New York to search for a wider field than 
that of a shopkeeper. Mr. Clafiin and 
William M. Bulkley started in the dry goods 



business there under the firm name of Bulk- 
ley & Clafiin, in 1843, and Mr. Bulkley was 
connected with the firm until 185 1, when he 
retired. A new firm was then formed under 
the name of Clafiin, Mcllin & Co. This 
firm succeeded in founding the largest dry 
goods house in the world, and after weather- 
ing the dangers of the civil war, during 
which the house came very near going un- 
der, and was saved only by the superior 
business abilities of Mr. Clafiin, continued to 
grow. The sales of the firm amounted to 
over $72,000,000 a year after the close of 
the war. Mr. Clafli'n died November 14, 
1885. 

CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN (Charlotte 
Saunders Cushman), one of the most 
celebrated American actresses, was born in 
Boston, July 23, 1S16. She was descended 
from one of the, earliest Puritan families. 
Her first attempt at stage work was at the 
age of fourteen years in a charitable concert 
given by amateurs in Boston. From this 
time her advance to the first place on the 
American lyric stage was steady, until, in 
1835, while singing in New Orleans, she 
suddenly lost control of her voice so far as 
relates to singing, and was compelled to re- 
tire. She then took up the study for the 
dramatic stage under the direction of Mr, 
Barton, the tragedian. She soon after 
made her debut as " Lady Macbeth." She 
appeared in New York in September, 1836, 
and her success was immediate. Her 
"Romeo" was almost perfect, and she is 
the only woman that has ever appeared in 
the part of " Cardinal Wolsey." She at 
different times acted as support of Forrest 
'and Macready. Her London engagement, 
secured in 1845, after many and great dis- 
couragements, proved an unqualified suc- 
cess. 



108 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Her farewell appearance was at Booth's 
theater, New York, November 7, 1874, in 
the part of " Lady Macbeth," and after that 
performance an Ode by R. H. Stoddard 
was read, and a body of citizens went upon 
the stage, and in their name the venerable 
poet Longfellow presented her with a wreath 
of laurel with an inscription to the effect 
that "she who merits the palm should bear 
it." From the time of her appearance as a 
modest girl in a charitable entertainment 
down to the time of iinal triumph as a tragic 
queen, she bore herself with as much honor 
to womanhood as to the profession she rep- 
resented. Her death occurred in Boston, 
February 18, 1S76. By her profession she 
acquired a fortune of $600,000. 



NEAL DOW, one of the most prominent 
temperance reformers our country has 
known, was born in Portland, Me., March 20, 
1804. He received his education in the 
Friends Seminary, at New Bedford, Massa- 
chusetts, his parents being members of that 
sect. After leaving school he pursued a 
mecrantile and manufacturing career for a 
number of years. He was active in the 
affairs of his native city, and in 1839 be- 
came chief of the fire department, and in 
1851 was elected mayor. He was re-elected 
to the latter office in 1854. Being opposed 
to the liquor traffic he was a champion of 
the project of prohibition, first brought for- 
ward in 1839 by James Appleton. While 
serving his first term as mayor he drafted a 
bill for the "suppression of drinking houses 
and tippling shops," which he took to the 
legislature and which was passed without an 
alteration. In 1858 Mr. Dow was elected 
to the legislature. On the outbreak of the 
Civil war he was appointed colonel of the 
Thirteenth Maine Infantry and accompanied 
General Butler's expedition to New Orleans. 



In 1862 he was made brigadier-general. At 
the battle of Fort Hudson May 27, 1863, he 
was twice wounded, and taken prisoner. He 
was confined at Libby prison and Mobile 
nearly a year, when, being e.xchanged, he 
resigned, his health having given way under 
the rigors of his captivitj'. He made sev- 
eral trips to England in the interests of 
temperance organization, where he addressed 
large audiences. He was the candidate of 
the National Prohibition party for the presi- 
dency in 1880, receiving about ten thousand 
votes. In 1884 he was largely instrumental 
in the amendment of the constitution of 
Maine, adopted by an overwhelming popular 
vote, which forever forbade the manufacture 
or sale of any intoxicating beverages, and 
commanding the legislature to enforce the 
prohibition. He died October 2, 1897. 



ZACHARY TAYLOR, twelfth president 
of the United States, was born in 
Orange county, Virginia, September 24, 
1784. His boyhood was spent on his fath- 
er's plantation and his education was lim- 
ited. In 1808 he was made lieutenant of 
the Seventh Infantry, and joined his regi- 
ment at New Orleans. He was promoted 
to captain in 18 10, and commanded at Fort 
Harrison, near the present site of Terre 
Haute, in 181 2, where, for his gallant de- 
fense, he was brevetted major, attaining full 
rank in 18 14. In 181 5 he retired to an es- 
tate near Louisville. In 1816 here-entered 
the army as major, and was promoted to 
lieutenant-colonel and then to colonel. 
Having for many years been Indian agent 
over a large portion of the western country, 
he was often required in Washington to give 
advice and counsel in matters connected 
with the Indian bureau. He served through 
the Black Hawk Indian war of 1832, and in 
1837 was ordered to the command of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



109 



army in Florida, where he attacked the In- 
dians in the swamps and brakes, defeated 
them and ended the war. He was brevetted 
brigadier-general and made commander-in- 
chief of the army in Florida. He was as- 
signed to the command of the army of the 
southwest in 1840, but was soon after re- 
lieved of it at his request. He was then 
stationed at posts in Arkansas. In 1845 he 
was ordered to prepare to protect and de- 
fend Texas boundaries from invasion by 
Mexicans and Indians. On the annexation 
of Texas he proceeded with one thousand 
five hundred men to Corpus Christi, within 
the disputed territory. After reinforcement 
he was ordered by the Mexican General Am- 
pudia to retire beyond the Nueces river, 
with which order he declined to comply. 
The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Palma followed, and he crossed the Rio 
Grande and occupied Matamoras May iSth. 
He was commissioned major-general for this 
campaign, and in September he advanced 
upon the city of Monterey and captured it 
after a hard fight. Here he took up winter 
quarters, and when he was about to resume 
activity in the spring he was ordered to send 
the larger part of his army to reinforce 
General Scott at Vera Cruz. After leaving 
garrisons at various points his army was re- 
duced to about five thousand, mostly fresh 
recruits. He was attacked by the army of 
Santa Anna at Buena Vista, February 22, 
1847, and after a severe fight completely 
routed the Mexicans. He received the 
thanks of congress and a gold medal for 
this victory. He remained in command of 
the "army of occupation" until winter, 
when he returned to the United States. 

In 1848 General Taylor was nominated 
by the Whigs for president. He was elected 
over his two opponents, Cass and Van 
Buren. Great bitterness was developing in 



the struggle for and against the extension of 
slavery, and the newly acquired territorj' in 
the west, and the fact that the states were 
now equally divided on that question, tended 
to increase the feeling. President Taylor 
favored immediate admission of California 
with her constitution prohibiting slavery, 
and the admission of other states to be 
formed out of the new territory as they 
might elect as they adopted constitutions 
from time to time. This policy resulted in 
the " Omnibus Bill," which afterward passed 
congress, though in separate bills; not, how- 
ever, until after the death of the soldier- 
statesman, which occurred July 9, 1850. 
One of his daughters became the wife of 
Jefferson Davis. 



M 



ELVILLE D. LANDON, better known 

as " Eli Perkins, " author, lecturer and 
humorist, was born in Eaton, New York, 
September 7, 1839. He was the son of 
John Landon and grandson of Rufus Lan- 
don, a revolutionary soldier from Litchfield 
county, Connecticut. Melville was edu- 
cated at the district school and neighboring 
academy, where he was prepared for the 
sophomore class at Madison University. He 
passed two years at the latter, when he was 
admitted to Union College, and graduated 
in the class of 1861, receiving the degree of 
A. M., in 1862. He was, at once, ap- 
pointed to a position in the treasury depart- 
ment at Washington. This being about the 
time of the breaking out of the war, and 
before the appearance of any Union troops 
at the capital, he assisted in the organiza- 
tion of the " Clay Battalion," of Washing- 
ton. Leaving his clerkship some time later, 
he took up duties on the staff of General A. 
L. Chetlain, who was in command at Mem- 
phis. In 1864 he resigned from the army 
and engaged in cotton planting in Arkansas 



110 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and Louisiana. In 1867 he went abroad, 
making the tour of Europe, traversing Rus- 
sia. While in the latter country his old 
commander of the " Clay Battalion," Gen- 
eral Cassius M. Clay, then United States 
minister at St. Petersburg, made him secre- 
tary of legation. In 1871, on returning to 
America, he published a history of the 
Franco-Prussian war, and followed it with 
numerous humorous writings for the public 
press under the name of "Eli Perkins," 
which, with his regular contributions to the 
" Commercial Advertiser," brought him into 
notice, and spread his reputation as a hu- 
morist throughout the country. He also pub- 
lished "Saratoga in 1891," "Wit, Humor 
and Pathos," "Wit and Humor of the Age," 
" Kings of Platform and Pulpit," " Thirty 
Years of Wit and Humor," " Fun and Fact," 
and " China and Japan." 



LEWIS CASS, one of the most prom- 
inent statesman and party leaders of his 
day, was born at E.xeter, New Hampshire, 
October 9, 1782. He studied law, and hav- 
ing removed to Zanesville, Ohio, commenced 
the practice of that profession in 1802. He 
entered the service of the American govern- 
ment in 18 1 2 and was made a colonel in 
the army under General William Hull, and 
on the surrender of Fort Maiden by that 
officer was held as a prisoner. Being re- 
leased in 181 3, he was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general and in 18 14 ap- 
pointed governor of Michigan Territory. 
After he had held that office for some 
.sixteen years, negotiating, in the meantime, 
many treaties with the Indians, General 
Cass was made secretary of war in the cabi- 
net of President Jackson, in 1831. He was, 
in 1836, appointed minister to France, 
which office he held for six years. In 1844 
he was elected United States senator from 



Michigan. In 1846 General Cass opposed 
the Wilmot Proviso, which was an amend- 
ment to a bill for the purchase of land fron^ 
Mexico, which provided that in any of the 
territory acquired from that power slavery 
should not exist. For this and other reasons 
he was nominated as Democratic candidate 
for the presidency of the United States in 
1S48, but was defeated by General Zachary 
Taylor, the Whig candidate, having but 
one hundred and thirty-seven electoral votes 
to his opponent's one hundred and sixty- 
three. In 1849 General Cass was re-elected 
to the senate of the United States, and in 
1854 supported Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska 
bill. He became secretary of state in 
March, 1857, under President Buchanan, 
but resigned that office in December, i860. 
He died June 17, 1866. The published 
works of Lewis Cass, while not numerous, 
are well written and display much ability. 
He was one of the foremost men of his day 
in the political councils of the Democratic 
party, and left a reputation for high probity 
and honor behind him. 



DEWITT CLINTON.— Probably there 
were but few men who were so popular 
in their time, or who have had so much in- 
fluence in moulding events as the individual 
whose name honors the head of this article. 
De Witt Clinton was the son of General 
James Clinton, and a nephew of Governor 
George Clinton, who was the fourth vice- 
president of the United States. He was a 
native of Orange county. New York, born at 
Little Britain, March 2, 1769. He gradu- 
ated from Columbia College, in his native 
state, in 1796, and took up the study of law. 
In 1790 he became private secretary to his 
uncle, then governor of New York. He en- 
tered public life as a Republican or anti- 
Federalist, and was elected to the lower 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Ill 



house of the state assembly in 1797, and the 
senate of that body in 1798. At that time 
he was looked on as " the most rising man 
in the Union." In 1801 he was elected to 
the United States senate. In 1803 he was 
appointed by the governor and council 
mayor of the city of New York, then a 
very important and powerful office. Hav- 
ing been re-appointed, he held the office 
of mayor for nearly eleven years, and 
rendered great service to that city. Mr. 
Clinton served as lieutenant-governor of 
the state of New York, 1811-13, and 
was one of the commissioners appointed 
to examine and survey a route for a canal 
from the Hudson river to Lake Erie. Dif- 
fering with President Madison, in relation to 
the war, in 1S12, he was nominated for the 
presidency against that gentleman, by a 
coalition party called the Clintonians, many 
of whom were Federalists. Clinton received 
eight-nine electoral votes. His course at 
this time impaired his popularity for a time. 
He was removed from the mayoralty in 
1 8 14, and retired to private life. In 18 15 
he wrote a powerful airgument for the con- 
struction of the Erie canal, then a great and 
beneficent work of which he was the prin- 
cipal promoter. This was in the shape of 
a memorial to the legislature, which, in 
18 1 7, passed a bill authorizing the construc- 
tion of that canal. The same year he was 
elected governor of New York, almost unani- 
mously, notwithstanding the opposition of 
a few who pronounced the scheme of the 
canal visionary. He was re-elected governor 
in 1820. He was at this time, also, presi- 
dent of the canal commissioners. He de- 
clined a re-election to the gubernatorial 
chair in 1822 and was removed from his 
place on the canal board two years later. 
But he was triumphantly elected to the of- 
fice of governor that fall, and his pet project. 



the Erie canal, was finished the next year. 
He was re-elected governor in 1826, but 
died while holding that office, February 11, 

1828. 

AARON BURR, one of the many brilliant 
figures on the political stage in the early 
days of America, was born at Newark, New 
Jersey, February 6, 1756. He was the son 
of Aaron and Esther Burr, the former the 
president of the College of New Jersey, and 
the latter a daughter of Jonathan Edwards, 
who had been president of the same educa- 
tional institution. Young Burr graduated 
at Princeton in 1772. In 1775 he joined 
the provincial army at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts. For a time, he served as a private 
soldier, but later was made an aide on the 
staff of the unfortunate General Montgom- 
ery, in the Quebec expedition. Subse- 
quently he was on the staffs of Arnold, Put- 
nam and Washington, the latter of whom 
he disliked. He was promoted to the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel and commanded a 
brigade on Monmouth's bloody field. In 
1779, on account of feeble health. Colonel 
Burr resigned from the army. He took up 
the practice of law in Albany, New York, 
but subsequently removed to New York City. 
In 1789 he became attorney-general of that 
state. In 1791 he was chosen to represent 
the state of New York in the United States 
senate and held that position for six years. 
In 1800 he and Thomas Jefferson were both 
candidates for the presidency, and there 
being a tie in the electoral college, each 
having seventy-three votes, the choice was 
left to congress, who gave the first place to 
Jefferson and made Aaron Burr vice-presi- 
dent, as the method then was. In 1804 Mr. 
Burr and his great rival, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, met in a duel, which resulted in the 
death of the latter, Burr losing thereby con- 



112 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



siderable political and social influence. He 
soon embarked in a wild attempt upon 
Mexico, and as was asserted, upon the 
southwestern territories of the United 
States. He was tried for treason at 
Richmond, Virginia, in 1807, but acquitted, 
and to avoid importunate creditors, fled to 
Europe. Afteratime, in 1812, he returned 
to New York, where he practiced law, and 
where he died, September 14, 1836. A man 
of great ability, brilliant and popular talents, 
his influence was destroyed by his unscrupu- 
lous political actions and immoral private 
life. 

ALBERT GAELATIN, one of the most 
distinguished statesmen of the early 
days of the republic, was born at Geneva, 
Switzerland, January 29, 1761. He was 
the son of Jean de Gallatin and Sophia A. 
Rolaz du Rosey Gallatin, representatives of 
an old patrician family. Albert Gallatin 
was left an orphan at an early age, and was 
educated under the care of friends of his 
parents. He graduated from the University 
of Geneva in 1779, and declining employ- 
ment under one of the sovereigns of Ger- 
many, came to the struggling colonies, land- 
ing in Boston July 14, 1780. Shortly after 
his arrival he proceeded to Maine, where he 
served as a volunteer under Colonel Allen. 
He made advances to the government for 
the support of the American troops, and in 
November, 1780, was placed in command 
of a small fort at Passamaquoddy, defended 
by a force of militia, volunteers and Indians. 
In 1783 he was professor of the French 
language at Harvard University. A year 
later, having received his patrimony from 
Europe, he purchased large tracts of land 
in western Virginia, but was prevented by 
the Indians from forming the large settle- 
ment he proposed, and, in 1786, purchased 



a farm in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. 
In 1789 he was a member of the convention 
to amend the constitution of that state, and 
united himself with the Republican party, 
the head of which was Thomas Jefferson. 
The following year he was elected to the 
legislature of Pennsylvania, to which he was 
subsequently re-elected. In 1793 he was 
elected to the United States senate, but 
could not take his seat on account of not 
having been a citizen long enough. In 1794 
Mr. Gallatin was elected to the representa- 
tive branch of congress, in which he served 
three terms. He also took an important 
position in the suppression of the "whiskey 
insurrection." In 1801, on the accession of 
Jefferson to the presidency, Mr. Gallatin 
was appointed secretary of the treasury. 
In 1809 Mr. Madison offered him the posi- 
tion of secretary of state, but he declined, 
and continued at the head of the treasury 
until 18 12, a period of twelve years. He 
exercised a great influence on the other de- 
partments and in the general administration, 
especially in the matter of financial reform, 
and recommended measures for taxation, 
etc., which were passed by congress, and be- 
came laws May 24, 181 3. The same year he 
was sent as an envoy extraordinary to Rus- 
sia, which had offered to mediate between 
this country and Great Britain, but the lat- 
ter country refusing the interposition of 
another power, and agreeing to treat di- 
rectly with the United States, in 18 14, at 
Ghent, Mr. Gallatin, in connection with his 
distinguished colleagues, negotiated and 
signed the treaty of peace. In 181 5, in 
conjunction with Messrs. Adams and Clay, 
he signed, at London, a commercial treaty 
between the two countries. In 18 16, de- 
clining his old post at the head of the treas- 
ury, Mr. Gallatin was sent as minister to 
France, where he remained until 1823. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



113 



After a year spent in England as envoy ex- 
traordinary, he took up his residence in New 
York, and from that time held no public 
office. In 1830 he was chosen president of 
the council of the University of New York. 
He was, in 1831, made president of the 
National bank, which position he resigned 
in 1839. He died August 12, 1849. 



M 



ILLARD FILLMORE, the thirteenth 
president of the United States, was 
born of New England parentage in Summer 
Hill, Cayuga county. New York, January 7, 
1800. His school education was very lim- 
ited, but he occupied his leisure hours in 
study. He worked in youth upon his fa- 
ther's farm in his native county, and at the 
age of fifteen was apprenticed to a wool 
carder and cloth dresser. Four years later 
he was induced by Judge Wood to enter his 
office at MontviJle, New York, and take up 
the study of law. This warm friend, find- 
ing young Fillmore destitute of means, 
loaned him money, but the latter, not wish- 
ing to incur a heavy debt, taught school 
during part of the time and in this and other 
ways helped maintain himself. In 1822 he 
removed to Buffalo, New York, and the year 
following, being admitted to the bar, he 
commenced the practice of his profession 
at East Aurora, in the same state. Here 
he remained until 1830, having, in the 
meantime, been admitted to practice in the 
supreme court, when he returned to Buffalo, 
where he became the partner of S. G. 
Haven and N. K. Hall. He entered poli- 
tics and served in the state legislature from 
1829 to 1832. He was in congress in 1833- 
35 and in 1837-41, where he proved an 
active and useful member, favoring the 
views of John Quincy Adains, then battling 
almost alone the slave-holding party in na- 
tional politics, and in most of public ques- 



tions acted with the Whig party. While 
chairman of the committee of ways and 
means he took a leading part in draughting 
the tariff bill of 1842. In 1844 Mr. Fill- 
more was the Whig candidate for governor 
of New York. In 1847 he was chosen 
comptroller of the state, and abandoning 
his practice and profession removed to Al- 
bany. In 1848 he was elected vice presi- 
dent on the ticket with General Zachary 
Taylor, and they were inaugurated the fol- 
lowing March. On the death of the presi- 
dent, July 9, 1850, Mr. Fillmore was in- 
ducted into that office. The great events 
of his administration were the passage of 
the famous compromise acts of 1850, and 
the sending out of the Japan expedition of 
1852. 

March 4, 1853, having served one term, 
President Fillmore retired from office, and 
in 1855 went to Europe, where he received 
marked attention. On returning home, in 
1856, he was nominated for the presidency 
by the Native American or " Know-Noth- 
ing" party, but was defeated, James Buch- 
anan being the successful candidate. 

Mr. Fillmore ever afterward lived in re- 
tirement. During the conflict of Civil war 
he was mostly silent. It was generally sup- 
posed, however, that his sympathy was with 
the southern confederacy. He kept aloof 
from the conflict without any words of cheer 
to the one party or the other. For this rea- 
son he was forgotten by both. He died of 
paralysis, in Buffalo, New York, March 8, 
1874- 

PETER F. ROTHERMEL, one of Amer- 
ica's greatest and best-known historical 
painters, was born in Luzerne county, Penn- 
sylvania, July 8, 1817, and was of German 
ancestry. He received his earlier education 
in his native county, and in Philadelphia 



114 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



learned the profession of land surveying. 
But a strong bias toward art drew him away 
and he soon opened a studio where he did 
portrait painting. This soon gave place to 
historical painting, he having discovered the 
bent of his genius in that direction. Be- 
sides the two pictures in the Capitol at 
Washington — "DeSoto Discovering the Mis- 
sissippi" and "Patrick Henry Before the 
Virginia House of Burgesses" — Rothermel 
painted many others, chief among which 
are: "Columbus Before Queen Isabella," 
"Martyrs of the Colosseum," "Cromwell 
Breaking Up Service in an English Church," 
and the famous picture of the "Battle 
of Gettysburg." The last named was 
painted for the state of Pennsylvania, for 
which Rothermel received the sum of $25,- 
000, and which it took him four years to 
plan and to paint. It represents the portion 
of that historic field held by the First corps, 
an exclusively Pennsylvania body of men, 
and was selected by Rothermel for that 
reason. For many 3'ears most of his time 
was spent in Italy, only returning for short 
periods. He died at Philadelphia, August 
16. 1895. 

EDMUND KIRBY SMITH, one of the 
distinguished leaders upon the side of the 
south in the late Civil war, was born at St. 
Augustine, Florida, in 1824. After receiv- 
ing the usual education he was appointed to 
the United States Military Academy at West 
Point, from which he graduated in 1845 and 
entered the army as second lieutenant of 
infantry. During the Mexican war he was 
made first lieutenant and captain for gallant 
conduct at Cerro Gordo and Contreras. 
From 1849 to 1852 he was assistant pro- 
fessor of mathematics at West Point. He 
was transferred to the Second cavalry with 
the rank of captain in 1855, served on the 



frontier, and was wounded in a fight with 
Comanche Indians in Texas, May 13, 1859. 
In January, 1861, he became major of his 
regiment, but resigned April 9th to fol- 
low the fortunes of the southern cause. 
He was appointed brigadier-general in the 
Confederate army and served in Virginia. 
At the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 
he arrived on the field late in the day, but 
was soon disabled by a wound. He was 
made major-general in 1862, and being trans- 
ferred to East Tennessee, was given com- 
mand of that department. Under General 
Braxton Bragg he led the advance in the 
invasion of Kentucky and defeated the Union 
forces at Richmond, Kentucky, August 30, 

1862, and advanced to Frankfort. Pro- 
moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, he 
was engaged at the battle of Perryville, 
October 10, and in the battle of Murfrees- 
boro, December 31, 1862, and January 3, 

1863. He was soon made general, the 
highest rank in the service, and in com- 
mand of the trans-Mississippi department 
opposed General N. P. Banks in the famous 
Red River expedition, taking part in the 
battle of Jenkins Ferry, April 30, 1864, and 
other engagements of that eventful cam- 
paign. He was the last to surrender the 
forces under his command, which he did 
May 26, 1865. After the close of the war 
he located in Tennessee, where he died 
March 28, 1893. 



JOHN JAMES INGALLS, a famous 
American statesman, was born Decem- 
ber 29, 1833, at. Middleton, Massachusetts, 
where he was reared and received his early 
education. He went to Kansas in 1858 
and joined the free-soil army, and a year 
after his arrival he was a member of the his- 
torical Wyandotte convention, which drafted 
a free-state constitution. In i860 he was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



115 



made secretary of the territorial council, 
and in 1861 was secretary of the state sen- 
ate. The next year he jvas duly elected to 
the legitimate state senate from Atchison, 
where he had made his home. From that 
time he was the leader of the radical Re- 
publican element in the state. He became 
the editor of the " Atchison Champion " in 
1863, which was a "red-hot free-soil Re- 
publican organ." In 1862 he was the anti- 
Lane candidate for lieutenant-governor, but 
was defeated. He was elected to the Unit- 
ed States senate to succeed Senator Pom- 
eroy, and took his seat in the forty-third 
congress and served until the fiftieth. In 
the forty-ninth congress he succeeded Sen- 
ator Sherman as president pro tem., which 
position he held through the fiftieth con- 
gress. 

BENJAMIN WEST, the greatest of the 
early American painters, was of Eng- 
lish descent and Quaker parentage. He was 
born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in 1738. 
From what source he inherited his genius it 
is hard to imagine, since the tenets and 
tendencies of the Quaker faith were not cal- 
culated to encourage the genius of art, but 
at the age of nine years, with no suggestion 
except that of inspiration, we find him choos- 
ing his model from life, and laboring over 
his first work calculated to attract public 
notice. It was a representation of a sleep- 
ing child in its cradle. The brush with 
which he painted it was made of hairs 
which he plucked from the cat's tail, and 
the colors were obtained from the war paints 
of friendly Indians, his mother's indigo bag, 
and ground chalk and charcoal, and the juice 
of berries, but there were touches in the rude 
production that he declared in later days 
were a credit to his best works. The pic- 
ture attracted notice, for a council was 



called at once to pass upon the boy's con- 
duct in thus infringing the laws of the so- 
ciety. There were judges among them who 
saw in his genius a rare gift and their wis-' 
dom prevailed, and the child was given per- 
mission to follow his inclination. He studied 
under a painter named Williams, and then 
spent some years as a portrait painter with 
advancing success. At the age of twenty- 
two he went to Italy, and not until he had 
perfected himself by twenty-three years of 
labor in that paradise of art was he satisfied 
to turn his face toward home. However, he 
stopped at London, and decided to settle 
there, sending to America for his intended 
bride to join him. Though the Revolution- 
ary war was raging. King George III showed 
the American artist the highest considera- 
tion and regard. His remuneration from 
works for royalty amounted to five thou- 
sand dollars per year for thirty years. 

West's best known work in America is, 
perhaps, "The Death of General Wolf." 
West was one of the thirty-six original mem- 
bers of the Royal academy and succeeded 
Joshua Reynolds as president, which posi- 
tion he held until his death. His early 
works were his best, as he ceased to display 
originality in his later life, conventionality 
having seriously affected his efforts. He 
died in 1820. 



SAMUEL PORTER JONES, the famous 
Georgia evangelist, was born October 
16, 1847, in Chambers county, Alabama. 
He did not attend school regularly during 
his boyhood, but worked on a farm, and 
went to school at intervals, on account of 
ill health. His father removed to Carters- 
ville, Georgia, when Mr. Jones was a small 
boy. He quit school at the age of nineteen 
and never attended college. The war inter- 
fered with his education, which was intended 



116 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



to prepare him for the legal profession. 
After the war he renewed his preparation 
for college, but was compelled to desist from 
such a course, as his health failed him en- 
tirely. Later on, however, he still pursued 
his legal studies and was admitted to the 
bar. Soon after this event he went to Dal- 
las, Paulding county, Georgia, where he was 
engaged in the practice of his profession, 
and in a few months removed to Cherokee 
county, Alabama, where he taught school. 
In 1869 he returned to Cartersville, Georgia, 
and arrived in time to see his father die. 
Immediately after this event he applied for 
a license to preach, and went to Atlanta, 
Georgia, to the meeting of the North Geor- 
gia Conference of the M. E. church south, 
which received him on trial. He became 
an evangelist of great note, and traveled 
extensively, delivering his sermons in an 
inimitable style that made him very popular 
with the masses, his methods of conducting 
revivals being unique and original and his 
preaching practical and incisive. 



SHELBY MOORE CULLOM, a national 
character in political affairs and for 
many years United States senator from 
Illinois, was born November 22, 1829, at 
Monticello, Kentucky. He came with his 
parents to Illinois in 1 830 and spent his early 
yearson alarm, but havingformedthe purpose 
of devoting himself to the lawyer's profession 
he spent two years study at the Rock River 
seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois. In 1853 
Mr. Cullom entered the law office of Stuart 
and Edwards at Springfield, Illinois, and two 
years later he began the independent prac- 
tice of law in that city. He took an active 
interest in politics and was soon elected city 
attorney of Springfield. In 1856 he was 
elected a member of the Illinois house of 
representatives. He identified himself with 



the newly formed Republican party and in 
i860 was re-elected to the legislature of his 
state, in which he was chosen speaker of the 
house. In 1862 President Lincoln appoint- 
ed a commission to pass upon and examine 
the accounts of the United States quarter- 
masters and disbursing officers, composed 
as follows: Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; 
Charles A. Dana, of New York, and 
Gov. Boutwell, of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Cullom was nominated for congress in 
1864, and was elected by a majority of 
1,785. In the house of representatives he 
became an active and aggressive member, 
was chairman of the committee on territories 
and served in congress until 1868. Mr. 
Cullom was returned to the state legislature, 
of which he was chosen speaker in 1872, 
and was re-elected in 1874. In 1876 he 
was elected governor of Illinois and at the 
end of his term he was chosen for a second 
term. He was elected United States senator 
in 1883 and twice re-elected. 



RICHARD JORDAN CATLING, an 
American inventor of much note, was 
born in Hertford county. North Carolina, 
September 12, 1818. At an early age he 
gave promise of an inventive genius. The 
first emanation from his mind was the 
invention of a screv.' for the propulsion 01 
water craft, but on application for a 
patent, found that he was forestalled but 
a short time by John Ericsson. Subse- 
quently he invented a machine for sowing 
wheat in drills, which was used to a great 
extent throughout the west. He then stud- 
ied medicine, and in 1847-8 attended 
lectures at the Indiana Medical College 
at Laporte, and in 1848-9 at the Ohio 
Medical College at Cincinnati. He later 
discovered a method of transmitting power 
through the medium of compressed air. A 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



119 



double-acting hemp break was also invented 
by him. The invention, however, by which 
Dr. Catling became best known was the 
famous machine gun which bears his name. 
This he brought to light in 1861-62, and on 
the first trial of it, in the spring of the latter 
year, two hundred shots per minute were 
fired from it. After making some improve- 
ments which increased its efficiency, it was 
submitted to severe trials by our govern- 
ment at the arsenals at Frankfort, Wash- 
ington and Fortress Monroe, and at other 
points. The gun was finally adopted by 
our government, as well as by that of Great 
Britain, Russia and others. 



BENJAMIN RYAN TILLMAN, who won 
a national fame in politics, was born 
August II, 1847, in Edgefield county, South 
Carolina. He received his education in the 
Oldfield school, where he acquired the 
rudiments of Latin and Greek, in addition 
to a good English education. He left school 
in 1864 to join the Confederate army, but 
was prevented from doing so by a severe 
illness, which resulted in the loss of an eye. 
In 1867 he removed to Florida, but returned 
in 1868, when he was married and devoted 
himself to farming. He was chairman of 
the Democratic organization of his county, 
but except a few occasional services he took 
no active part in politics then. Gradually, 
however, his attention was directed to the 
depressed condition of the farming interests 
of his state, and in August, 1885, before a 
joint meeting of the agricultural society and 
state grange at Bennettsville, he made a 
speech in which he set forth the cause of 
agricultural depression and urged measures 
of relief. From his active interest in the 
farming class he was styled the " Agricult- 
ural Moses." He advocated an industrial 

school for women and for a separate agri- 
7 



cultural college, and in 1887 he secured a 
modification in the final draft of the will of 
Thomas G. Clemson, which resulted in the 
erection of the Clemson Agricultural Col- 
lege at Fort Hill. In 1890 he was chosen 
governor on the Democratic ticket, and 
carried the election by a large majority. 
Governor Tillman was inaugurated Decem- 
ber 4, 1890. Mr. Tillman was next elected 
to the United States senate from South 
Carolina, and gained a national reputation 
by his fervid oratory. 



GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE.— 
No journalist of America was so cele- 
brated in his time for the wit, spice, and 
vigor of his writing, as the gentleman whose 
name heads this sketch. From Atlantic to 
Pacific he was well known by his witticism 
as well as by strength and force of his edi- 
torials. He was a native of Preston, Con- 
necticut, born December 18, 1802. After 
laying the foundation of a liberal education 
in his youth, he entered Brown University, 
from which he was graduated in 1823. Tak- 
ing up the study of law, he was admitted to 
the bar in 1829. During part of his time 
he was editor of the " New England Weekly 
Review," a position which he relinquished 
to go south and was succeeded by John 
Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker poet. 

On 'arriving in Louisville, whither he 
had gone to gather items for his history of 
Henry Clay, Mr. Prentice became identified 
with the " Louisville Journal," which, under 
his hands, became one of the leading Whig 
newspapers of the country. At the head of 
this he remained until the day of his death. 
This latter event occurred January 22, 1870, 
and he was succeeded in the control of the 
" Journal " by Colonel Henry Watterson. 

Mr. Prentice was an author of consider- 
able celebrity, chief among his works being 



120 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



"The Life of Henry Clay," and "Prentice- 
ana," a collection of wit and humor, that 
passed through several large editions. 



SAM. HOUSTON, in the opinion-of some 
critics one of the most remarkable men 
who ever figured in American history, was a 
native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, born 
March 2, 1793. Early in life he was left in 
destitute circumstances by the death of his 
father, and, with his mother, removed to 
Tennessee, then almost a boundless wilder- 
ness. He received but little education, 
spending the most of his time among the 
Cherokee Indians. Part of the time of his 
residence there Houston acted as clerk for a 
trader and also taught one of the primitive 
schools of the day. In 181 3 he enlisted as 
private in the United States army and was 
engaged under General Jackson in the war 
with the Creek Indians. When peace was 
made Houston was a lieutenant, but he re- 
signed his commission and commenced the 
study of law at Nashville. After holding 
some minor offices he was elected member 
of congress from Tennessee. This was in 
1823. He retained this office until 1827, 
when he was chosen governor of the state. 
In 1829, resigning that office before the ex- 
piration of his term, Sam Houston removed 
to Arkansas, and made his home among the 
Cherokees, becoming the agent of that 
tribe and representing their interests at 
Washington. On a visit to Texas, just 
prior to the election of delegates to a con- 
vention called for the purpose of drawing 
up a constitution previous to the admission 
of the state into the Mexican union, he was 
unanimously chosen a delegate. The con- 
vention framed the constitution, but, it be- 
ing rejected by the government of Mexico, 
and the petition for admission to the Con- 
federacy denied and the Texans told by the 



president of the Mexican union to give up 
their arms, bred trouble. It was determined 
to resist this demand. A military force was 
soon organized, with General Houston at 
the head of it. War was prosecuted with 
great vigor, and with varying success, but 
at the battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, 
the Mexicans were defeated and their leader 
and president, Santa Anna, captured. Texas 
was then proclaimed an independent repub- 
lic, and in October of the same year Hous- 
ton was inaugurated president. On the ad- 
mission of Texas to the Federal Union, in 
1845, Houston was elected senator, and 
held that position for twelve years. Oppos- 
ing the idea of secession, he retired from 
political life in 1861, and died at Hunts- 
ville, Texas, July 25, 1863. 



ELI WHITNEY, the inventor of the cot- 
ton-gin, was born in Westborough, Mas- 
sachusetts, December 8, 1765. After his 
graduation from Yale College, he went to 
Georgia, where he studied law, and lived 
with the family of the widow of General 
Nathaniel Greene. At that time the only 
way known to separate the cotton seed from 
the fiber was by hand, making it extremely 
slow and expensive, and for this reason cot- 
ton was little cultivated in this country. 
Mrs. Greene urged the inventive Whitney 
to devise some means for accomplishing 
this work by machinery. This he finally 
succeeded in doing, but he was harassed by 
attempts to defraud him by those who had 
stolen his ideas. He at last formed a part- 
nership with a man named Miller, and they 
began the manufacture of the machines at 
Washington, Georgia, in 1795. The suc- 
cess of his invention was immediate, and the 
legislature of South Carolina voted the sum 
of $50,000 for his idea. This sum he had 
great difficulty in collecting, after years of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



121 



litigation and delay. North Carolina al- 
lowed him a royalty, and the same was 
agreed to by Tennessee, but was never paid. 

While his fame rests upon the invention 
of the cotton-gin, his fortune came from his 
improvements in the manufacture and con- 
struction of firearms. In 1798 the United 
States government gave him a contract for 
this purpose, and he accumulated a fortune 
from it. The town of Whitneyville, Con- 
necticut, was founded by this fortune. 
Whitney died at New Haven, Connecticut, 
January 8, 1825. 

The cotton-gin made the cultivation of 
cotton profitable, and this led to rapid in- 
troduction of slavery in the south. His in- 
vention thus affected our national history in 
a manner little dreamed of by the inventor. 



LESTER WALLACK (John Lester Wal- 
lack), for many years the leading light 
comedian upon the American stage, was 
the son of James W. Wallack, the " Brum- 
mell of the Stage." Both father and son 
were noted for their comeliness of feature 
and form. Lester Wallack was born in 
New York, January i, 18 19. He received 
his education in England, and made his first 
appearance on the stage in 1848 at the New 
Broadway theater, New York. He acted 
light comedy parts, and also occasion- 
ally in romantic plays like Monte Cristo, 
which play made him his fame. He went 
to England and played under management 
of such men as Hamblin and Burton, and then 
returned to New York with his father, who 
opened the first Wallack's theater, at the 
corner of Broome and Broadway, in 1852. 
The location was afterward changed to 
Thirteenth and Broadway, in 1861, and 
later to its present location, Broadway and 
Thirteenth, in 1882. The elder Wallack 
died in 1864, after which Lester assumed 



management, jointly with Theodore Moss. 
Lester Wallack was commissioned in the 
queen's service while in England, and there 
he also married a sister to the famous artist, 
the late John Everett Millais. While Les- 
ter Wallack never played in the interior 
cities, his name was as familiar to the public 
as that of our greatest stars. He died Sep- 
tember 6, 1888, at Stamford, Connecticut. 



GEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN, 
the palace car magnate, inventor, 
multi-millionaire and manufacturer, may 
well be classed among the remarkable 
self-made men of the century. He was 
born March 3, 1831, in Chautauqua county, 
New York. His parents were poor, and 
his education was limited to what he could 
learn of the rudimentary branches in the 
district school. At the age of fourteen he 
went to work as clerk for a country mer- 
chant. He kept this place three years, 
studying at night. When seventeen he 
went to Albion, New York, and worked for 
his brother, who kept a cabinet shop there. 
Five years later he went into business for 
himself as contractor for moving buildings 
along the line of the Erie canal, which was 
then being widened by the state, and was 
successful in this. In 1858 he removed to 
Chicago and engaged in the business of 
moving and raising houses. The work was 
novel there then and he was quite success- 
ful. About this time the discomfort attend- 
ant on traveling at night attracted his at- 
tention. He reasoned that the public would 
gladly pay for comfortable sleeping accom- 
modations. A few sleeping cars were in 
use at that time, but they were wretchedly 
crude, uncomfortable affairs. In 1859 he 
bought two old day coaches from the Chi- 
cago & Alton road and remodeled them some- 
thing like the general plan of the sleeping- 



122 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRAPHr. 



cars of the present day. They were put 
into service on the Chicago & Alton and 
became popular at once. In 1863 he built 
the first sleeping-car resembling the Pullman 
cars of to-day. It cost $18,000 and was 
the "Pioneer." After that the Pullman 
Palace Car Company prospered. It had 
shops at different cities. In 1880 the Town 
of Pullman was founded by Mr. Pullman 
and his company, and this model manufac- 
turing community is known all over the 
world. Mr. Pullman died October 19, 1897. 



JAMES E. B. STUART, the most famous 
cavalry leader of the Southern Confed- 
eracy during the Civil war, was born in 
Patrick county, Virginia, in 1833. On 
graduating from the United States Military 
Academy, West Point, in 1854, he was as- 
signed, as second lieutenant, to a regiment 
of mounted rifles, receiving his commission 
in October. In March, 1855, he was trans- 
ferred to the newly organized First cavalry, 
and was promoted to first lieutenant the 
following December, and to captain April 
22, 1861. Taking the side of the south. 
May 14, 1 86 1, he was made colonel of a 
Virginia cavalry regiment, and served as 
such at Bull Run. In September, 1861, he 
was promoted to the rank of brigadier-gen- 
eral, and major-general early in 1862. On 
the reorganization of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, in June of the latter year, when 
R. E. Lee assumed command. General Stu- 
art made a reconnoissance with one thou- 
sand five hundred cavalry and four guns, 
and in two days made the circuit of McClel- 
lan's army, producing much confusion and 
gathering useful information, and losing but 
one man. August 25, 1862, he captured 
part of Pope's headquarters' train, including 
that general's private baggage and official 
correspondence, and the next night, in a 



descent upon Manasses, capturing immense 
quantities of commissary and quartermaster 
store, eight guns, a number of locomotives 
and a few hundred prisoners. During the 
invasion of Maryland, in September, 1862, 
General Stuart acted as rearguard, resisting 
the advance of the Federal cavalry at South 
Mountain, and at Antietam commanded the 
Confederate left. Shortly after he crossed 
the Potomac, making a raid as far as Cham- 
bersburg, Pennsylvania. In the battle of 
Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, Gen- 
eral Stuart's command was on the extreme 
right of the Confederate line. At Chancel- 
lorsville, after "Stonewall " Jackson's death 
and the wounding of General A. P. Hill, 
General Stuart assumed command of Jack- 
son's corps, which he led in the severe con- 
test of May 3, 1863. Early in June, the 
same year, a large force of cavalry was 
gathered under Stuart, at Culpepper, Vir- 
ginia, which, advancing to join General Lee 
in his invasion of Pennsylvania, was met at 
Brandy Station, by two divisions of cavalry 
and two brigades of infantry, under General 
John I. Gregg, and driven back. During the 
movements of the Gettysburg campaign he 
rendered important services. In May, 1864, 
General Stuart succeeded, by a detour, in 
placing himself between Richmond and 
Sheridan's advancing column, and at Yellow 
Tavern was attacked in force. During the 
fierce conflict that ensued General Stuart 
was mortally wounded, and died at Rich- 
mond, May II, 1864. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE, the fourteenth 
president of the United States — from 
1853 until 1857 — was born November 23, 
1804, at Hillsboro, New Hampshire. He 
came of old revolutionary stock and his 
father was a governor of the state. Mr. 
Pierce entered Bowdoin College in 1820, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



128 



was graduated in 1824, and took up the 
study of law in the office of Judge Wood- 
bury, and later he was admitted to the bar. 
Mr. Pierce practiced his profession with 
varying successes in his native town and 
also in Concord. He was elected to the 
state legislature in 1833 and served in that 
body until 1S37, the last two years of his 
term serving as speaker of the house. He 
was elected to the United States senate in 
1837, just as President Van Buren began 
his term of office. Mr. Pierce served until 
1842, and many times during Polk's term he 
declined important public offices. During 
the war with Mexico Mr. Pierce was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general, and he embarked 
with a portion of his troops at Newport, 
Rhode Island, May 27, 1847, and went with 
them to the field of battle. He served 
through the war and distinguished himself 
by his skill, bravery and excellent judg- 
ment. When he reached his home in his 
native state he was received coldly by the 
opponents of the war, but the advocates of 
the war made up for his cold reception by 
the enthusiastic welcome which they ac- 
corded him. Mr. Pierce resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession, and in the political 
strife that followed he gave his support to 
the pro- slavery wing of the Democratic 
party. The Democratic convention met in 
Baltimore, June 12, 1852, to nominate a 
candidate for the presidency, and they con- 
tinued in session four days, and in thirty- 
five ballotings no one had secured the re- 
quisite two-thirds vote. Mr. Pierce had not 
received a vote as yet, until the Virginia 
delegation brought his name forward, and 
finally on the forty-ninth ballot Mr. Pierce 
received 282 votes and all the other candi- 
dates eleven. His opponent on the Whig 
ticket was General Winfield Scott, who 
only received the electoral votes of four 



states. Mr. Pierce was inaugurated presi- 
dent of the United States March 4, 1853, 
with W. R. King as vice president, and the 
following named gentlemen were afterward 
chosen to fill the positions in the cabinet: 
William S. Marcy, James Guthrie, Jeffer- 
son Davis, James C. Dobbin, Robert Mc- 
Clelland, James Campbell and Caleb Gush- 
ing. During the administration of President 
Pierce the Missouri compromise law was 
repealed, and all the territories of the Union 
were thrown open to slavery, and the dis- 
turbances in Kansas occurred. In 1857 he 
was succeeded in the presidency by James 
Buchanan, and retired to his home in Con- 
cord, New Hampshire. He always cherished 
his principles of slavery, and at the out- 
break of the rebellion he was an adherent of 
the cause of the Confederacy. He died at 
Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 1869. 



JAMES B. WEAVER, well known as a 
leader of the Greenback and later of the 
Populist party, was born at Dayton, Ohio, 
June 12, 1833. He received his earlier 
education in the schools of his native town, 
and entered the law department of the Ohio 
University, at Cincinnati, from which he 
graduated in 1S54. Removing to the grow- 
ing state of Iowa, he became connected 
with "The Iowa Tribune," at the state 
capital, Des Moines, as one of its editors. 
He afterward practiced law and was elected 
district attorney for the second judicial dis- 
trict of Iowa, on the Republican ticket in 
1 866, which office he held for a short time. 
In 1867 Mr. Weaver was appointed assessor 
of internal revenue for the first district of 
Iowa, and filled that position until some- 
time in 1873. He was elected and served 
in the forty-sixth congress. In 1880 the 
National or Greenback party in convention 
at Chicago, nominated James B. Weaver as 



124 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



its candidate for the presidency. By a 
union of the Democratic and National 
parties in his district, he was elected to the 
forty-ninth congress, and re-elected to the 
same office in the fall of 1886. Mr. Weaver 
was conceded to be a very fluent speaker, 
and quite active in all political work. On 
July 4, 1892, at the National convention 
of the People's party. General James B. 
Weaver was chosen as the candidate for 
president of that organization, and during 
the campaign that followed, gained a na- 
tional reputation. 



ANTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL, one 
of the leading bankers and financiers of 
the United States, was born in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, in 1826, and was the son of 
Francis M. Drexel, who had established 
the large banking institution of Drexel & 
Co., so well known. The latter was a native 
of Dornbirn, in the Austrian Tyrol. He 
studied languages and fine arts at Turin, 
Italy. On returning to his mountain home, 
in 1809, and finding it in the hands of the 
French, he went to Switzerland and later 
to Paris. In 18 12, after a short visit home, 
he went to Berlin, where he studied paint- 
ing until 1S17, in which year he emigrated 
io America, and settled in Philadelphia. A 
few years later he went to Chili and Peru, 
where he executed some fine portraits of 
notable people, including General Simon 
Bolivar. After spending some time in Mex- 
ico, he returned to Philadelphia, and en- 
gaged in the banking business. In 1837 he 
founded the house of Drexel & Co. He 
died in 1837, and was succeeded by his two 
sons, Anthony J. and Francis A. His son, 
Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. , entered the bank 
when he was thirteen \ears of age, before he 
was through with his schooling, and after 
that the history of the banking business of 



which he was the head, was the history of his 
life. The New York house of Drexel, Mor- 
gan & Co. was established in 1850; the 
Paris house, Drexel, Harjes & Co., in 1867. 
The Drexel banking houses have supplied 
iand placed hundreds of millions of dollars 
n government, corporation, railroad and 
other loans and securities. The reputation 
of the houses has always been held on the 
highest plane. Mr. Drexel founded and 
heavily endowed the Drexel Institute, in 
Philadelphia, an institution to furnish better 
and wider avenues of employment to young 
people of both sexes. It has departments 
of arts, science, mechanical arts and domes- 
tic economy. Mr. Drexel, Jr., departed this 
life June 30, 1893. 



SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE, 
inventor of the recording telegraph in- 
strument, was born in Charlestown, Massa- 
chusetts, April 27, 1791. He graduated 
from Yale College in 18 10, and took up art 
as his profession. He went to London with 
the great American painter, Washington 
Allston, and studied in the Royal Academy 
under Benjamin West. His "Dying Her- 
cules," his first effort in sculpture, took the 
gold medal in 1813. He returned to Amer- 
ica in 181 5 and continued to pursue his 
profession. He was greatly interested in 
scientific studies, which he carried on in 
connection with other labors. He founded 
the National Academy of Design and was 
many years its president. He returned to 
Europe and spent three years in study 
in the art centers, Rome, Florence, Venice 
and Paris. In 1832 he returned to America 
and while on the return voyage the idea of 
a recording telegraph apparatus occurred to 
him, and he made a drawing to represent his 
conception. He was the first to occupy the 
chair of fine arts in the University of New 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



125 



York City, and in 1835 he set up his rude 
instrument in his room in the university. 
But it was not until after many years of 
discouragement and reverses of fortune that 
he finally was successful in placing his inven- 
tion before the public. In 1844, by aid of 
the United States government, he had con- 
structed a telegraph line forty miles in length 
from Washington to Baltimore. Over this 
line the test was made, and the first tele- 
graphic message was flashed May 24, 1844, 
from the United States supreme court rooms 
to Baltimore. It read, "What hath God 
wrought!" His fame and fortune were es- 
tablished in an instant. Wealth and honors 
poured in upon him from that day. The 
nations of Europe vied with each other 
in honoring the great inventor with medals, 
titles and decorations, and the learned 
societies of Europe hastened to enroll his 
name upon their membership lists and confer 
degrees. In 1858 hewasthe recipient of an 
honor never accorded to an inventor before. 
The ten leading nations of Europe, at the 
suggestion of the Emporer Napoleon, ap- 
pointed representatives to an international 
congress, which convened at Paris for the 
special purpose of expressing gratitude of the 
nations, and they voted him a present of 
400,000 francs. 

Professor Morse was present at the unveil- 
ing of a bronze statue erected in his honor in 
Central Park, New York, in 1871. His last 
appearance in public was at the unveiling 
of the statue of Benjamin Franklin in New 
York in 1872, when he made the dedica- 
tory speech and unveiled the statue. He 
died April 2, 1872, in the city of New York. 



MORRISON REMICH WAITE, seventh 
chief justice of the United States, was 
born at Lyme, Connecticut, November .29, 
1816. He was a graduate from Yale Col- 



lege in 1837, in the class with William M. 
Evarts. His father was judge of the su- 
preme court of errors of the state of Con- 
necticut, and in his office young Waite 
studied law. He subsequently removed to 
Ohio, and was elected to the legislature of 
that state in 1849. He removed from 
Maumee City to Toledo and became a prom- 
inent legal light in that state. He was 
nominated as a candidate for congress re- 
peatedly but declined to run, and also de- 
clined a place on the supreme bench of the 
state. He won great distinction for his able 
handling of the Alabama claims at Geneva, 
before the arbitration tribunal in 1871, and 
was appointed chief justice of the supreme 
court of the United States in 1874 on the 
death of Judge Chase. When, in 1876, elec- 
toral commissioners were chosen to decide 
the presidential election controversy between 
Tilden and Hayes, Judge Waite refused to 
serve on that commission. 

His death occurred March 23, 1888. 



ELISHA KENT KANE was one of the 
distinguished American explorers of the 
unknown regions of the frozen north, and 
gave to the world a more accurate knowl- 
edge of the Arctic zone. Dr. Kane was 
born February 3, 1820, at Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of the 
universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
and took his medical degree in 1843. He 
entered the service of the United States 
navy, and was physician to the Chinese 
embassy. Dr. Kane traveled extensively 
in the Levant, Asia and Western Africa, 
and also served in the Mexican war, in 
which he was severely wounded. His 
first Arctic expedition was under Da Haven 
in the first Grinnell expedition in search 
of Sir John Franklin in 1S50. He com- 
manded the second Grinnell expedition 



126 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in 1853-55, and discovered an open polar 
sea. For this expedition he received a gold 
medal and other distinctions. He published 
a narrative of his first polar expedition in 
1853, and in 1856 published two volumes 
relating to his second polar expedition. He 
was a man of active, enterprising and cour- 
ageous spirit. His health, which was al- 
ways delicate, was impaired by the hard- 
ships of his Arctic expeditions, from which 
he never fully recovered and from which he 
died February 16, 1857, at Havana. 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON was a 
daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and 
Margaret Livingston, and was born Novem- 
ber 12, 181 5, at Johnstown, New York. She 
was educated at the Johnstown Academy, 
where she studied with a class of boys, and 
was fitted for college at the age of fifteen, 
after which she pursued her studies at Mrs. 
Willard's Seminary, at Troy. Her atten- 
tion was called to the disabilities of her sex 
by her own educational experiences, and 
through a study of Blackstone, Story, and 
Kent. Miss Cady was married to Henry B. 
Stanton in 1840, and accompanied him to 
the world's anti-slavery convention in Lon- 
don. While there she made the acquain- 
tance of Lucretia Mott. Mrs. Stanton 
resided at Boston until 1847, when the 
family moved to Seneca Falls, New York, 
and she and Lucretia Mott signed the first 
call for a woman's rights convention. The 
meeting was held at her place of residence 
July 19-20, 1848. This was the first oc- 
casion of a formal claim of suffrage for 
women that was made. Mrs. Stanton ad- 
dressed the New York legislature, in 1854, 
on the rights of married women, and in 
i860, in advocacy of the granting of di- 
vorce for drunkenness. She also addressed 
the legislature and the constitutional con- 



vention, and maintained that during the 
revision of the constitution the state was 
resolved into its original elements, and that 
all citizens had, therefore, a right to vote 
for the members of that convention. After 
1869 Mrs. Stanton frequently addressed 
congressional committees and state consti- 
tutional conventions, and she canvassed 
Kansas, Michigan, and other states when 
the question of woman suffrage was sub- 
mitted in those states. Mrs. Stanton was 
one of the editors of the " Revolution," and 
most of the calls and resolutions for con- 
ventions have come from her pen. She 
was president of the national committee, 
also of the Woman's Loyal League, and 
of the National Association, for many years. 



DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, a great 
American jurist, was born in Connecti- 
cut in 1805. He entered Williams College 
when sixteen years old, and commenced the 
study of law in 1825. In 1828 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and went to New York, 
where he soon came into prominence be- 
fore the bar of that state. He entered upon 
the labor of reforming the practice and 
procedure, which was then based upon the 
common law practice of England, and had 
become extremely complicated, difficult and 
uncertain in its application. His first paper 
on this subject was published in 1839, and 
after eight years of continuous efforts in this 
direction, he was appointed one of a com- 
mission by New York to reform the practice 
of that state. The result was embodied in 
the two codes of procedure, civil and crimi- 
nal, the first of which was adopted almost 
entire by the state of New York, and has 
since been adopted by more than half the 
states in the Union, and became the basis 
of the new practice and procedure in Eng- 
land, contained in the Judicature act. He 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArifT 



127 



\vas later appointed chairman of a new com- 
mission to codify the entire body of laws. 
This great work employed many years in its 
completion, but when finished it embraced 
a civil, penal, and political code, covering 
the entire field of American laws, statutory 
and common. This great body of law was 
adopted by California and Dakota territory 
in its entirety, and many other states have 
since adopted its substance. In 1867 the 
British Association for Social Science heard 
a proposition from Mr. Field to prepare an 
international code. This led to the prepara- 
tion of his " Draft Outlines of an Interna- 
tional Code," which was in fact a complete 
body of international laws, and introduced 
the principle of arbitration. Other of his 
codes of the state of New York have since 
been adopted by that state. 

In addition to his great works on law, 
Mr. Field indulged his literary tastes by fre- 
quent contributions to general literature, 
and his articles on travels, literature, and 
the political questions of the hour gave 
him rank with the best writers of his time. 
His father was the Rev. David Dudley Field, 
and his brothers were Cyrus W. Field, Rev. 
Henry Martin Field, and Justice Stephen 
J. Field of the United States supreme 
court. David Dudley Field died at New 
York, April 13, 1S94. 



HENRY M. TELLER, a celebrated 
American politician, and secretary of 
the interior under President Arthur, was born 
May 23, 1830, in Allegany county. New 
York. He was of Hollandish ancestry and 
received an excellent education, after which 
he took up the study of law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in the state of New York. 
Mr. Teller removed to Illinois in January, 
1858, and practiced for three years in that 
state. From thence he moved to Colorado 



in 1 86 1 and located at Central City, which 
was then one of the principal mining towns 
in the state. His e.xceptional abilities as 
a lawyer soon brought him into prominence 
and gained for him a numerous and profit- 
able clientage. In politics he affiliated with 
the Republican party, but declined to become 
a candidate for office until the admission of 
Colorado into the Union as a state, when 
he was elected to the United States senate. 
Mr. Teller drew the term ending March 
4, 1877, but was re-elected December 11, 
1876, and served until April 17, 1882, when 
he was appointed by President Arthur as 
secretary of the interior. He accepted a 
cabinet position with reluctance, and on 
March 3, 1885, he retired from the cabinet, 
having been elected to the senate a short 
time before to succeed Nathaniel P. Hill. 
Mr. Teller took his seat on March 4, 1885, 
in the senate, to which he was afterward 
re-elected. He served as chairman on the 
committee of pensions, patents, mines and 
mining, and was also a member of commit- 
tees on claims, railroads, privileges and 
elections and public lands. Mr. Teller came 
to be recognized as one of the ablest advo- 
cates of the silver cause. He was one of the 
delegates to the Republican National conven- 
tion at St. Louis in 1S96, in which he took 
an active part and tried to have a silver 
plank inserted in the platform of the party. 
Failing in this he felt impelled to bolt the 
convention, which he did and joined forces 
with the great silver movement in the cam- 
paign which followed, being recognized in 
that campaign as one of the most able and 
eminent advocates of "silver" in America. 



JOHN ERICSSON, an eminent inven- 
<J tor and machinist, who won fame in 
America, was born in Sweden, July 31,1 803. 
In early childhood he evinced a decided in- 



128 



COMPENDIUM or BIOGRAPHT. 



clination to mechanical pursuits, and at the 
age of eleven he was appointed to a cadet- 
ship in the engineer corps, and at the age of 
seventeen was promoted to a lieutenancy. 
In 1826 he introduced a "flame engine," 
■which he had invented, and offered it to 
English capitalists, but it was found that it 
could be operated only by the use of wood 
for fuel. Shortly after this he resigned his 
commission in the army of Sweden, and de- 
voted himself to mechanical pursuits. He 
discovered and introduced the principle of 
artificial draughts in steam boilers, and re- 
ceived a prize of two thousand five hundred 
dollars for his locomotive, the "Novelty," 
which attained a great speed, for that day. 
The artificial draught effected a great saving 
in fuel and made unnecessary the huge 
smoke-stacks formerly used, and the princi- 
ple is still applied, in modified form, in boil- 
ers. He also invented a steam fire-engine, 
and later a hot-air engine, which he at- 
tempted to apply in the operation of his 
ship, "Ericsson," but as it did not give the 
speed required, he abandoned it, but after- 
wards applied it to machinery for pumping, 
hoisting, etc. 

Ericsson was first to apply the screw 
propeller to navigation. The English peo- 
ple not receiving this new departure readily, 
Ericsson came to America in 1839, and 
built the United States steamer, "Prince- 
ton," in which the screw-propeller was util- 
ized, the first steamer ever built in which 
the propeller was under water, out of range 
of the enemy's shots. The achievement 
which gave him greatest renown, however, 
was the ironclad vessel, the "Monitor," an 
entirely new type of vessel, which, in March, 
1862, attacked the Confederate monster 
ironclad ram, "Virginia," and after a fierce 
struggle, compelled her to withdraw from 
Hampton Roads for repairs. After the war 



one of his most noted inventions was his 
vessel, " Destroyer," with a submarine gun, 
which carried a projectile torpedo. In 1886 
the king of Spain conferred on him the 
grand cross of the Order of Naval Merit. 
He died in March, 1889, and his body was 
transferred, with naval honors, to the country 
of his birth. 

JAMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth presi- 
dent of the United States, was a native 
of Pennsylvania, and was born in Franklin 
county, April 23, 1791. He was of Irish 
ancestry, his father having come to this 
country in 1783, in quite humble circum- 
stances, and settled in the western part of 
the Keystone state. 

James Buchanan remained in his se- 
cluded home for eight years, enjoying but 
few social or intellectual advantages. His 
parents were industrious and frugal, and 
prospered, and, in 1799, the family removed 
to Mercersbur Pennsylvania, where he 
was placed in school. His progress was 
rapid, and in 1801 he entered Dickinson 
College, at Carlisle, where he took his place 
among the best scholars in the institution. 
In 1809 he graduated with the highest hon- 
ors in his class. He was then eighteen, tall, 
graceful and in vigorous health. He com- 
menced the study of law at Lancaster, and 
was admitted to the bar in 18 12. He rose 
very rapidly in his profession and took a 
stand with the ablest of his fellow lawyers. 
When but twenty-six years old he success- 
fully defended, unaided by counsel, one of 
the judges of the state who was before the 
bar of the state senate under articles of im- 
peachment. 

During the war of 181 2-1 5, Mr. Buch- 
anan sustained the government with all his 
power, eloquently urging the vigorous prose- 
cution of the war, and enlisted as a private 



C OMPENDIUM OF BIO GRA PUT. 



129 



volunteer to assist in repelling the British 
who had sacked and burned the public 
buildings of Washington and threatened 
Baltimore. At that time Buchanan was 
a Federalist, but the opposition of that 
party to the war with Great Britain and the 
alien and sedition laws of John Adams, 
brought that party into disrepute, and drove 
many, among them Buchanan, into the Re- 
publican, or anti-Federalist ranks. He was 
elected to congress in 1828. In 1831 he 
was sent a:s minister to Russia, and upon 
his return to this country, in 1833, was ele- 
vated to the United States senate, and re- 
mained in that position for twelve years. 
Upon the accession of President Polk to 
office he made Mr. Buchanan secretary of 
state. Four years later he retired to pri- 
vate life, and in 1853 he was honored with 
the mission to England. In 1S56 the na- 
tional Democratic convention nominated 
him for the presidency and he was elected. 
It was during his administration that the 
rising tide of the secession movement over- 
took the country. Mr. Buchanan declared 
that the national constitution gave him no 
power to do anything against the movement 
to break up the Union. After his succession 
by Abraham Lincoln in i860, Mr. Buchanan 
retired to his home at Wheatland, Pennsyl- 
vania, where he died June i, 1868. 



JOHN HARVARD, the founder of the 
Harvard University, was born in Eng- 
land about the year 1608. He received his 
education at Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
and came to America in 1637, settling in 
Massachusetts. He was a non-conformist 
minister, and a tract of land was set aside 
for him in Charlestown, near Boston. He 
was at once appointed one of a committee to 
formulate a body of laws for the colony. 
One year before his arrival in the colony 



the general court had voted the sum of four 
hundred pounds toward the establishment of 
a school or college, half of which was to be 
paid the next year In 1637 preliminary 
plans were made for starting the school. In 
1638 John Harvard, who had shown great 
interest in the new institution of learning 
proposed, died, leaving his entire property, 
about twice the sum originally voted, to the 
school, together with three hundred volumes 
as a nucleus for a library. The institution 
was then given the name of Harvard, and 
established at Newton (now Cambridge), 
Massachusetts. It grew to be one of the two 
principal seats of learning in the new world, 
and has maintained its reputation since. It 
now consists of twenty-two separate build- 
ings, and its curriculum embraces over one 
hundred and seventy elective courses, and it 
ranks among the great universities of the 
world. 



ROGER BROOKE TANEY, a noted 
jurist and chief justice of the United 
States suprems court, was born in Calvert 
county, Maryland, March 17, 1777. He 
graduated from Dickinson College at the 
age of eighteen, took up the study of law, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He 
was chosen to the legislature from his county, 
and in 1 801 removed to Frederick, Mary- 
land. He became United States senator 
from Maryland in 18 16, and took up his 
permanent residence in Baltimore a few 
years later. In 1824 he became an ardent 
admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, 
and upon Jackson's election to the presi- 
dency, was appointed attorney general of 
the United States. Two years later he was 
appointed secretary of the treasury, and 
after serving in that capacity for nearly one 
year, the senate refused to confirm the ap- 
pointment. In 1835, upon the death of 



130 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



Chief-justice Marshall, he was appointed to 
that place, and a political change having 
occurred in the make up of the senate, he 
was confirmed in 1836. He presided at 
his first session in January of the following 
year. 

The case which suggests itself first to 
the average reader in connection with this 
jurist is the celebrated " Dred Scott " case, 
which came before the supreme court for 
decision in 1S56. In his opinion, delivered 
on behalf of a majority of the court, one 
remarkable statement occurs as a result of 
an exhaustive survey of the historical 
grounds, to the effect that ' ' for more than 
a century prior to the adoption of the con- 
stitution they (Africans) had been regarded 
so far inferior that they had no rights which 
a white man was bound to respect." Judge 
Taney retained the office of chief justice 
until f^is death, in 1864. 



JOHN LOTHI^OP MOTLEY.— This gen- 
tleman had a world-wide reputation as 
an historian, which placed him in the front 
rank of the great men of America. He was 
born April 15, 18 14, at Dorchester, Massa- 
chusetts, was given a thorough preparatory 
education and then attended Harvard, from 
which he was graduated in 1831. He also 
studied at Gottingen and Berlin, read law 
and in 1836 was admitted to the bar. In 
1 84 1 he was appointed secretary of the 
legation at St. Petersburg, and in 1866-67 
served as United Sta-es minister to Austria, 
serving in the same capacity during 1869 
and 187010 England. In 1856, after long 
and exhaustive research and preparation, he 
published in London "The Rise of the 
Dutch Republic." It embraced three vol- 
umes and immediately attracted great at- 
tention throughout Europe and America as 
a work of unusual merit. From i86i to 



1868 he produced "The History of the 
United Netherlands," in four volumes. 
Other works followed, with equal success, 
and his position as one of the foremost his- 
torians and writers of his day was firmly 
established. His death occured May 29, 
1877- 

ELIAS HOWE, the inventor of the sew- 
ing machine, well deserves to be classed 
among the great and noted men of Amer- 
ica. He was the son of a miller and farmer 
and was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, 
July 9, 1S19. In 1835 he went to Lowell 
and worked there, and later at Boston, in the 
machine shops. His first sewing machine 
was completed in 1845, and he patented it in 
1846, laboring with the greatest persistency 
in spite of poverty and hardships, working 
for a time as an engine driver on a railroad 
at pauper wages and with broken health. 
He then spent two years of unsuccessful ex- 
ertion in England, striving in vain to bring 
his invention into public notice and use. 
He returned to the United States in almost 
hopeless poverty, to find that his patent 
had been violated. At last, however, he 
found friends who assisted him financially, 
and after years of litigation he made good 
his claims in the courts in 1854. His inven- 
tion afterward brought him a large fortune. 
During the Civil war he volunteered as a 
private in the Seventeenth Connecticut Vol- 
unteers, and served for some time. During 
his life time he received the cross of the 
Legion of Honor and many other medals. 
His death occurred October 3, i'867, at 
Brooklyn, New York. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS, celebrated as an 
eloquent preacher and able pulpit ora- 
tor, was born in Boston on the 13th day of 
December, 1835. He received excellent 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



131 



educational advantages, and graduated at 
Harvard in 1855. Early in life he decided 
upon the ministry as his life work and 
studied theology in the Episcopal Theolog- 
ical Seminary, at Alexandria, Virginia. In 
1859 he was ordained and the same year 
became pastor of the Church of the Advent, 
in Philadelphia. Three years later he as- 
sumed the pastorate of the Church of the 
Holy Trinity, where he remained until 1870. 
At the expiration of that time he accepted 
the pastoral charge of Trinity Church in 
Boston, where his eloquence and ability at- 
tracted much attention and built up a pow- 
erful church organization. Dr. Brooks also 
devoted considerable time to lecturing and 
literary work and attained prominence in 
these lines. 

WILLIAM B. ALLISON, a statesman 
of national reputation and one of the 
leaders of the Republican party, was born 
March 2, 1829, at Perry, Ohio. He grew 
up on his father's farm, which he assisted 
in cultivating, and attended the district 
school. When sixteen years old he went 
to the academy at Wooster, and subse- 
quently spent a year at the Allegheny Col- 
lege, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He next 
taught school and spent another year at the 
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. 
Mr. Allison then took up the study of law 
at Wooster, where he was admitted to the 
barini85i, and soon obtained a position 
as deputy county clerk. His political lean- 
ings were toward the old line Whigs, who 
afterward laid the foundation of the Repub- 
lican party. He was a delegateto the state 
convention in 1856, in the campaign of 
which he supported Fremont for president. 
Mr Allison removed to Dubuque, Iowa, 
in the following year. He rapidly rose to 
prominence at the bar and in politics. In 



i860 he was chosen as a delegate to the 
Republican convention held in Chicago, of 
which he was elected one of the secretaries. 
At the outbreak of the civil war he was ap- 
pointed on the staf? of the governor. His 
congressional career opened in 1862, when 
he was elected to the thirty-eighth congress; 
he was re-elected three times, serving from 
March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1871. He was 
a member of the ways and means committee 
a good part of his term. His career in the 
United States senate began in 1873, and he 
rapidly rose to eminence in national affairs, 
his service of a quarter of a century in that 
body being marked by close fealty to the 
Republican party. He twice declined the 
portfolio of the treasury tendered him by 
Garfield and Harrison, and his name was 
prominently mentioned for the presidency 
at several national Republican conventions. 



mi 



ARY ASHTON LIVERMORE, lec- 
rer and writer, was born in Boston, 
December 19, 1821. She was the daughter 
of Timothy Rice, and married D. P. Liver- 
more, a preacher of the Universalist church. 
She contributed able articles to many of the 
most noted periodicals of this country and 
England. During the Civil war she labored 
zealously and with success on behalf of the 
sanitary commission which played so impor- 
tant a part during that great struggle. She 
became editor of the " Woman's Journal," 
published at Boston in 1870. 

She held a prominent place as a public 
speaker and writer on woman's suffrage, 
temperance, social and religious questions, 
and her influence was great in every cause 
she advocated. 



JOHN B. GOUGH, a noted temperance 
lecturer, who won his fame in America, 
was born in the village of Sandgate, Kent, 



132 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



England, August 22, 1817. He came to 
the United States at the age of twelve. 
He followed the trade of bookbinder, and 
lived in great poverty on account of the 
liquor habit. In 1843, however, he re- 
formed, and began his career as a temper- 
ance lecturer. He worked zealously in the 
cause of temperance, and his lectures and 
published articles revealed great earnestness. 
He formed temperance societies throughout 
the entire country, and labored with great 
success. He visited England in the same 
cause about the year 1853 and again in 
1878. He also lectured upon many other 
topics, in which he attained a wide reputa- 
tion. His death occurred February 18, 
1886. 

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, author, 
sculptor and painter, was born in Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822. 
He early evinced a taste for art, and began 
the study of sculpture in Cincinnati. Later 
he found painting more to his liking. He 
went to New York, where he followed this 
profession, and later to Boston. In 1846 
he located in Philadelphia. He visited 
Italy in 1850, and studied at Florence, 
where he resided almost continuously for 
twenty-two years. He returned to America 
in 1872, and died in New York May ii of 
the same year. 

He was the author of many heroic 
poems, but the one giving him the most re- 
nown is his famous "Sheridan's Ride," of 
which he has also left a representation in 
painting. 

EUGENE V. DEBS, the former famous 
president of the American Railway 
Union, and great labor leader, was born in 
the city of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855. 
He received his education in the public 



schools of that place and at the age of 
sixteen years began work as a painter in 
the Vandalia shops. After this, for some 
three years, he was employed as a loco- 
motive fireman on the same road. His 
first appearance in public life was in his 
canvass for the election to the office of city 
clerk of Terre Haute. In this capacity he 
served two terms, and when twenty six 
years of age was elected a member of the 
legislature of the state of Indiana. While 
a member of that body he secured the 
passage of several bills in the interest of 
organized labor, of which he was always 
a faithful champion. Mr. Debs' speech 
nominating Daniel Voorhees for the United 
States senate gave him a wide reputation for 
oratory. On the expiration of his term in 
the legislature, he was elected grand secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of 
Locomotive Fireman and filled that office 
for fourteen successive years. He was 
always an earnest advocate of confederation 
of railroad men and it was mainly through 
his efforts that the United Order of Railway 
Employes, composed of the Brotherhood 
of Railway Trainmen and Conductors, 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and 
the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association was 
formed, and he became a member of its 
supreme council. The order was dissolved 
by disagreement between two of its leading 
orders, and then Mr. Debs conceived the 
idea of the American Railway Union. He 
worked on the details and the union came 
into existence in Chicago, June 20, 1893. For 
a time it prospered and became one of the 
largest bodies of railway men in the world. 
It won in a contest with the Great Northern 
Railway. In the strike made by the union 
in sympathy with the Pullman employes 
inaugurated in Chicago June 25, 1894, and 
the consequent rioting, the Railway Union 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



183 



lost much prestige and Mr. Debs, in company 
with others of the officers, being held as in con- 
tempt of the United States courts, he suffered 
a sentence of six months in jail at Wood- 
stock, McHenry county, Illinois. In 1897 
Mr. Debs, on the demise of the American 
Railway Union, organized the Social 
Democracy, an institution founded on the 
best lines of the communistic idea, which 
was to provide homes and employment for 
its members. 



JOHN G. CARLISLE, famous as a law- 
yer, congressman, senator and cabinet 
officer, was born in Campbell (now Kenton) 
county, Kentucky, September 5, 1835, on a 
farm. He received the usual education oi 
the time and began at an early age to teach 
school and, at the same time, the study of 
law. Soon opportunity offered and he 
entered an office in Covington, Kentucky, 
and was admitted to practice at the bar in 
1858. Politics attracted his attention and 
in 1859 he was elected to the house of rep- 
resentatives in the legislature of his native 
state. On the outbreak of the war in 1861, 
he embraced the cause of the Union and was 
largely instrumental in preserving Kentucky 
to the federal cause. He resumed his legal 
practice for a time and declined a nomina- 
tion as presidential elector in 1864. In 
1866 and again in 1869 Mr. Carlisle was 
elected to the senate of Kentucky. He re- 
signed this position in 1871 and was chosen 
lieutenant governor of the state, which office 
he held until 1875. He was one of the 
presidential electors-at-large for Ken- 
tucky in 1876. He first entered congress in 
1877, and soon became a prominent leader 
on the Democratic side of the house of rep- 
resentatives, and continued a member of 
that body through the forty-sixth, forty- 
seventh, forty-eighth and forty-ninth con- 



gresses, and was speaker of the house during 
the two latter. He was elected to the 
United States senate to succeed Senator 
Blackburn, and remained a member of that 
branch of congress until March, 1893, when 
he was appointed secretary of the treasury. 
He performed the duties of that high office 
until March 4, 1897, throughout the en- 
tire second administration of President 
Cleveland. His ability and many years of 
public service gave him a national reputa- 
tion. 

FRANCES E. WILLARD, for many years 
president of the -Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, and a noted American 
lecturer and writer, was born in Rochester, 
New York, September 28, 1839. Graduating 
from the Northwestern Female College at the 
age of nineteen she began teaching and met 
with great success in many cities of the west. 
She was made directress of Genesee Wes- 
leyan Seminary at Lima, Ohio, in 1867, and 
four years later was elected president of the 
Evanston College for young ladies, a branch 
of the Northwestern University. 

During the two years succeeding 1869 
she traveled extensively in Europe and the 
east, visiting Egypt and Palestine, and 
gathering materials for a valuable course of 
lectures, which she delivered at Chicago on 
her return. She became very popular, and 
won great influence in the temperance 
cause. Her work as president of the Wo- 
man's Christian Temperance Union greatly 
strengthened that society, and she made 
frequent trips to Europe in the interest of 
that cause. 

RICHARD OLNEY.— Among the promi- 
nent men who were members of the 
cabinet of President Cleveland in his second 
administration, the gentleman whose name 



134 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT, 



heads this sketch held a leading place, oc- 
cupying the positions of attorney general 
and secretary of state. 

Mr. Olney came from one of the oldest 
and most honored New England families; 
the first of his ancestors to come from Eng- 
land settled in Massachusetts in 1635. This 
was Thomas Olney. He was a friend and 
co-religionist of Roger Williams, and when 
the latter moved to what is now Rhode 
I'sland, went with him and became one of 
the founders of Providence Plantations. 

Richard Olney was born in Oxford, 
Massachusetts, in 1835, and received the 
elements of his earlier education in the com- 
mon schools which New England is so proud 
of. He entered Brown University, from 
which he graduated in 1856, and passed the 
Harvard law school two years later. He 
began the practice of his profession with 
Judge B. F. Thomas, a prominent man of 
that locality. For years Richard Olney was 
regarded as one of the ablest and most 
learned lawyers in Massachusetts. Twice 
he was offered a place on the bench of the 
suDreme court of the state, but both times 
be declined. He was always a Democrat 
in his political tenets, and for many years 
was a trusted counsellor of members of that 
party. In 1874 Mr. Olney was elected a 
member of the legislature. In 1876, during 
the heated presidential campaign, to 
strengthen the cause of Mr. Tilden in the 
New England states, it was intimated that 
in the event of that gentleman's election to 
the presidency, Mr. Olney would be attor- 
ney (general. 

When Grover Cleveland was elected presi- 
'f'^nt of the United States, on his inaugura- 
tion in March, 1893, he tendered the posi- 
tion of attorney general to Richard Olney. 
This was accepted, and that gentleman ful- 
filled the duties of the office until the death 



of Walter Q. Gresham, in May, 1895, made 
vacant the position of secretary of state. 
This post was filled by the appointment of 
Mr. Olney. While occupying the later 
office, Mr. Olney brought himself into inter- 
national prominence by some very able state 
papers. 

JOHN JAY KNOX, for many years comp- 
troller of the currency, and an eminent 
financier, was born in Kno.xboro, Oneida 
county, New York, May 19, 1828. He re- 
ceived a good education and graduated at 
Hamilton College in 1849. For about 
thirteen years he was engaged as a private 
banker, or in a position in a bank, where 
he laid the foundation of his knowledge of 
the laws of finance. In 1862, Salmon P. 
Chase, then secretary of the treasury, ap- 
pointed him to an office in that department 
of the government, and later he had charge 
of the mint coinage correspondence. In 1867 
Mr. Knox was made deputy comptroller 
of the currency, and in that capacity, in 
1870, he made two reports on the mint 
service, with a codification of the mint and 
coinage laws of the United States, and 
suggesting many important amendments. 
These reports were ordered printed by reso- 
lution of congress. The bill which he pre- 
pared, with some slight changes, was sub- 
sequently passed, and has been known in 
history as the " Coinage Act of 1873." 

In 1872 Mr. Knox was appointed comp- 
troller of the currency, and held that re- 
sponsible position until 1884, when he re- 
signed. He then accepted the position of 
president of the National Bank of the Re- 
public, of New York City, which institution 
he served for many years. He was the 
author of " United States Notes," published 
in 1884. In the reports spoken of above, a 
history of the two United States banks is 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



135 



given, together with that of the state and 
national banking system, and much valuable 
statistical matter relating to kindred sub- 
jects. 

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.— In the 
opinion of many critics Hawthorne is 
pronounced the foremost American novelist, 
and in his peculiar vein of romance is said 
to be without a peer. His reputation is 
world-wide, and his ability' as a writer is 
recognized abroad as well as at home. 
He was born July 4, 1804, at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts. On account of feeble health he 
spent some years of his boyhood on a farm 
near Raymond, Maine. He laid the foun- 
dation of a liberal education in his youth, 
and entered Bowdoin College, from which 
he graduated in 1825 in the same class with 
H W Longfellow and John S. C. Abbott. 
He then returned to Salem, where he gave 
his attention to literature, publishing several 
tales and other articles in various periodi- 
cals. His first venture in the field of ro- 
mance, " Fanshaw,'' proved a failure. In 
1836 he removed to Boston, and became 
editor of the "American Magazine," which 
soon passed out of existence. In 1837 ^^ 
published " Twice Told Tales," which were 
chiefly made up of his former contributions 
to magazines. In 183S-41 he held a posi- 
tion in the Boston custom house, but later 
took part in t'ne "Brook farm experiment," 
a socialistic idea after the plan of Fourier. 
In 1843 he was married and took up his 
residence at the old parsonage at Concord, 
Massachusetts, which he immortalized in 
his next work, "Mosses From an Old 
Manse," published in 1846. From the lat- 
ter date until 1850 he v/as surveyor of the 
port of Salem, and while thus employed 
wrote one of his strongest works, "The 
Scarlet Letter." For the succeeding two 



years Lenox, Massachusetts, was his home, 
and the " House of the Seven Gables" was 
produced there, as well as the " Blithedale 
Romance." In 1852 he published a "Life 
of Franklin Pierce," a college friend whom 
he warmly regarded. In 1853 he was ap- 
pointed United States consul to Liverpool, 
England, where he remained some years, 
after which he spent some time in Italy. 
On returning to his native land he took up 
his residence at Concord, Massachusetts. 
While taking a trip for his health with ex- 
President Pierce, he died at Plymouth, New 
Hampshire, May 19, 1864. In addition to 
the works mentioned above Mr. Hawthorne 
gave to the world the following books: 
" True Stories from History," "The Won- 
der Book," " The Snow Image," "Tangle- 
wood Tales," "The Marble Faun," and 
' ' Our Old Home. " After his death appeared 
a series of "Notebooks," edited by his wife, 
Sophia P. Hawthorne; " Septimius Felton," 
edited by his daughter, Una, and " Dr. 
Grimshaw's Secret," put into shape by his 
talented son, Julian. .He left an unfinished 
work called " DoUiver Romance," which has 
been published just as he left it. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth presi- 
dent of the United States, was born 
February 12, 1809, in Larue county (Har- 
din county), Kentucky, in a log-cabin near 
Hudgensville. When he was eight years 
old he removed with his parents to Indiana, 
near the Ohio river, and a year later his 
mother died. His father then married Mrs. 
Elizabeth (Bush) Johnston, of Elizabeth- 
town, Kentuck}', who proved a kind of fos- 
ter-mother to Abraham, and encouraged 
him to study. He worked as a farm hand 
and as a clerk in a store at Gentryville, and 
was noted for his athletic feats and strength, 
fondness for debate, a fund of humorous 



136 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



anecdote, as well as the composition of rude 
verses. He made a trip at the age of nine- 
teen to New Orleans on a flat-boat, and set- 
tled in Illinois in 1830. He assisted his 
father to build a log house and clear a farm 
on the Sangamon river near Decatur, Illinois, 
and split the rails with which to fence it. In 
185 I he was employed in the building of a 
flat-boat on the Sangamon, and to run it to 
New Orleans. The voyage gave him a new 
insight into the horrors of slavery in the 
south. On his return he settled at New 
Salem and engaged, first as a clerk in a store, 
then as giocer, surveyor and postmaster, and 
he piloted the first steamboat that as- 
cended the Sangamon. He participated in 
the Black Hawk war as captain of volun- 
teers, and after his return he studied law, 
interested himself in politics, and became 
prominent locally as a public speaker. He 
was elected to the legislature in 1834 as a 
'• Clay Whig, " and began at once to dis- 
play a command of language and forcible 
rhetoric that made him a match for his 
more cultured opponents. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1837, and began prac- 
tice at Springfield. He married a lady o( a 
prominent Kentucky family in 1842. He 
was active in the presidential campaigns of 
1840 and 1S44 and was an elector on the 
Harrison and Clay tickets, and was elected 
to congress in 1846, over Peter Cartwright. 
He voted for the Wilmot proviso and the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, and opposed the war with Mexico, but 
gained little prominence during his two 
years' service. He then returned to Spring- 
field and devoted his attention to law, tak- 
ing little interest in politics, until the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise and the passage 
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1S54. This 
awakened his interest in politics again and 
he attacked the champion of that measure, 



Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech at Spring- 
field that made him famous, and is said 
by those who heard it to be the greatest 
speech of his life. Lincoln was selected as 
candidate for the United States senate, but 
was defeated by Trumbull. Upon the pas- 
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Whig 
party suddenly went to pieces, and the Re- 
publican party gathered head. At the 
Bloomington Republican convention in 1856 
Lincoln made an effective address in which 
he first took a position antagonistic to the ex- 
istence of slavery. He was a Fremont elector 
and received a strong support for nomina- 
tion as vice-president in the Philadelphia 
convention. In 1858 he was the unanimous 
choice of the Republicans for the United 
States senate, and the great campaign of de- 
bate which followed resulted in the election 
of Douglas, but established Lincoln's repu- 
tation as the leading exponent of Republican 
doctrines. He began to be mentioned in 
Illinois as candidate for the presidency, and 
a course of addresses in the eastern states 
attracted favorable attention. When the 
national convention met at Chicago, his 
rivals, Chase, Seward, Bates and others, 
were compelled to retire before the western 
giant, and he was nominated, with Hannibal 
Hamlin as his running mate. The Demo- 
cratic party had now been disrupted, and 
Lincoln's election assured. He carried 
practically every northern state, and the 
secession of South Carolina, followed by a 
number of the gulf states, took place before 
his inauguration. Lincoln is the only presi- 
dent who was ever compelled to reach 
Washington in a secret manner. He es- 
caped assassination by avoiding Baltimore, 
and was quietly inaugurated March 4, 1S61. 
His inaugural address was firm but con- 
ciliatory, and he said to the secessionists: 
"You have no oath registered in heaven 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



137 



to destroy the government, while I have the 
most solemn one to preserve, protect and 
defend it.' He made up his cabinet chiefly 
of those political rivals in his own party — 
Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates — and se- 
cured the co-operation of the Douglas Dem- 
ocrats. His great deeds, amidst the heat 
and turmoil of war, were: His call for 
seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the 
blockading of southern ports; calling of con- 
gress in extra session, July 14, 1861, and 
obtaining four hundred thousand men and 
four hundred million dollars for the prosecu- 
tion of the war; appointing Stanton secre- 
tary of war; issuing the emancipation proc- 
lamation; calling three hundred thou- 
sand volunteers; address at Gettysburg 
cemetery; commissioned Grant as lieuten- 
ant-general and commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States; his second 
inaugural address; his visit to the army be- 
fore Richmond, and his entry into Rich- 
mond the day after its surrender. 

Abraham Lincoln was shot by John 
Wi'kes Booth in a box in Ford's theater 
at Washington the night of April 14, 1865, 
and expired the following morning. His 
body was buried at Oak Ridge cemetery, 
Springfield, Illinois, and a monument com- 
memorating his great work marks his resting 
place. 

STEPHEN GIRARD, the celebrated 
philanthropist, was born in Bordeaux, 
France, May 24, 1750. He became a sailor 
engaged in the American coast trade, and 
also made frequent trips to the West Indies. 
During the Revolutionary war he was a 
grocer and liquor seller in Philadelphia. 
He married in that city, and afterward 
separated from his wife. After the war he 
again engaged in the coast and West India 
trade, and his fortune began to accumulate 



from receiving goods from West Indian 
planters during the insurrection in Hayti, 
little of which was ever called for again. 
He became a private banker in Philadelphia 
in 1812, and afterward was a director in the 
United States Bank. He made much money 
by leasing property in the city in times of 
depression, and upon the revival of industry 
sub-leasing at enormous profit. He became 
the wealthiest citizen of the United States 
of his time. 

He was eccentric, ungracious, and a 
freethinker. He had few, if any, friends in 
his lifetime. However, he was most chari- 
tably disposed, and gave to charitable in- 
stitutions and schools with a liberal hand. 
He did more than any one else to relieve 
the suffering and deprivations during the 
great yellow fever scourge in Philadelphia, 
devoting his personal attention to the sick. 
He endowed and made a free institution, 
the famous Will's Eye and Ear Infirmary 
of Philadelphia — one of the largest institu- 
tions of its kind in the world. At his death 
practically all his immense wealth was be- 
queathed to charitable institutions, more 
than two millions of dollars going to the 
founding of Girard College, which was to 
be devoted to the education and training of 
boys between the ages of six and ten years. 
Large donations were also made to institu- 
tions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. 
The principal building of Girard College is 
the most magnificent example of Greek 
architecture in America. Girard died De- 
cember 26, 1 83 1. 



LOUIS J. R. AGASSIZ, the eminent nat- 
uralist and geologist, was born in the 
parish of Motier, near Lake Neuchatel, Swit- 
zerland, May 28, 1807, but attained his 
greatest fame after becoming an American 
citizen. He studied the medical sciences at 



138 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. His first 
work was a Latin description of the fishes 
which Martius and Spix brought from Brazil. 
This was published in 1 829-3 1 • He devoted 
much time to the study of fossil fishes, and 
in 1832 was appointed professor of natural 
history at Neuchatel. He greatly increased 
his reputation by a great work in French, 
entitled " Researches on Fossil Fishes," in 
1832-42, in which he made many important 
improvements in the classification of fishes. 
Having passed many summers among the 
Alps in researches on glaciers, he propounded 
some new and interesting ideas on geology, 
and the agency of glaciers in his "Studies 
by the Glaciers." This was published in 
1840. This latter work, with his " System 
of the Glaciers," published in 1847, are 
among his principal works. 

In 1846, Professor Agassiz crossed the 
ocean on a scientific excursion to the United 
States, and soon determined to remain here. 
He accepted, about the beginning of 1848, 
the chair of zoology and geology at Harvard. 
He explored the natural history of the 
United States at different times and gave an 
impulse to the study of nature in this 
country. In 1865 he conducted an expedi- 
tion to Brazil, and explored the lower Ama- 
zon and its tributaries. In 1868 he was 
made non-resident professor of natural his- 
tory at Cornell University. In December, 
1 87 1, he accompanied the Hassler expedi- 
tion, under Professor Pierce, to the South 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He died at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 

1873. 

Among other of the important works of 
Professor Agassiz may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing: "Outlines of Comparative Physi- 
ology," "Journey to Brazil," and "Contri- 
butions to the Natural History of the United 
States." It is said of Professor Agassiz, 



that, perhaps, with the exception of Hugh 
Miller, no one had so popularized science in 
his day, or trained so many young natural- 
ists. Many of the theories held by Agassiz 
are not supported by many of the natural- 
ists of these later days, but upon many of 
the speculations into the origin of species and 
in physics he has left the marks of his own 
strongly marked individuality. 



WILLIAM WINDOM.— As a prominent 
and leading lawyer of the great north- 
west, as a member of both houses of con- 
gress, and as the secretary of the treasury, 
the gentleman whose name heads this sketch 
won for himself a prominent position in the 
history of our country. 

Mr. Windom was a native of Ohio, 
born in Belmont county, May 10, 1827. 
He received a good elementary education in 
the schools of his native state, and took up 
the study of law. He was admitted to the 
bar, and entered upon the practice of his 
profession in Ohio, where he remained until 
1855. In the latter year he made up his 
mind to move further west, and accordingly 
went to Minnesota, and opening an office, 
became identified with the interests of that 
state, and the northwest generally. In 
1858 he took his place in the Minnesota 
delegation in the national house of repre- 
sentatives, at Washington, and continued 
to represent his constituency in that body 
for ten years. In 1871 Mr. Windom was 
elected United States senator from Min- 
nesota, and was re-elected to the same office 
after fulfilling the duties of the position for 
a full term, in 1876. On the inauguration 
of President Garfield, in March, 1881, Mr. 
Windom became secretary of the treasury 
in his cabinet. He resigned this office Oc- 
tober 27, 1 88 1, and was elected senator 
from the North Star state to fill the va- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



139 



cancy caused by the resignation of A. J. 
Edgerton. Mr. Windom served in that 
chamber until March, 1883. 

William Windom died in New York 
City January 29, 1891. 



DON M. DICKINSON, an American 
politician and lawyer, was born in 
Port Ontario, New York, January 17, 1846. 
He removed with his parents to Michigan 
when he was but two years old. He was 
educated in the public schools of Detroit 
and at the University of Michigan at Ann 
Arbor, and was admitted to the bar at the 
age of twenty-one. In 1872 he was made 
secretary of the Democratic state central 
committee of Michigan, and his able man- 
agement of the campaign gave him a prom- 
inent place in the councils of his party. In 
1876, during the Tilden campaign, he acted 
as chairman of the state central committee. 
He was afterward chosen to represent his 
state in the Democratic national committee, 
and in 1886 he was appointed postmaster- 
general by President Cleveland. After the 
expiration of his term of office he returned 
to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. 
In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. 
Dickinson adhered to the "gold wing "of 
the Democracy, and his influence was felt 
in the national canvass, and especially in 
his own state. 



TOHN JACOB ASTOR, the founder of 
<J the Astor family and fortunes, while not 
a native of this country, was one of the 
most noted men of his time, and as all his 
wealth and fame were acquired here, he 
may well be classed among America's great 
men. He was born near Heidelberg, Ger- 
many, July 17, 1763, and when twenty 
years old emigrated to the United States. 
Even at that age he exhibited remarkable 



business ability and foresight, and soon he 
was investing capital in furs which he took 
to London and sold at a great profit. He 
next settled at New York, and engaged ex- 
tensively in the fur trade. He exported 
furs to Europe in his own vessels, which re- 
turned with cargoes of foreign commodities, 
and thus he rapidly amassed an immense 
fortune. In 181 1 he founded Astoria on 
the western coast of North America, near 
the mouth of the Columbia river, as a depot 
for the fur trade, for the promotion of 
which he sent a number of expeditions to 
the Pacific ocean. He also purchased a 
large amount of real estate in New York, 
the value of which increased enormously 
All through life his business ventures were 
a series of marvelous successes, and he 
ranked as one of the most sagacious and 
successful business men in the world. He 
died March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune es- 
timated at over twenty million dollars to 
his children, who have since increased it. 
John Jacob Astor left $400,000 to found a 
public library in New York City, and his son, 
William B. Astor, who died in 1875, left 
$300,000 to add to his father's bequest. 
This is known as the Astor Library, one of 
the largest in the United States. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX, an eminent 
American statesman, was born in New 
York City, March 23, 1823, being a grand- 
son of General William Colfax, the com- 
mander of Washington's life-guards. In 
1836 he removed with his mother, who was 
then a widow, to Indiana, settling at South 
Bend. Young Schuyler studied law, and 
in 1845 became editor of the "St. Joseph 
Valley Register," a Whig paper published 
at South Bend. He was a member of the 
convention which formed a new constitu- 
tion for Indiana in 1850, and he opposed 



140 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



the clause that prohibited colored men 
from settling in that state. In 185 1 he was 
defeated as the Whig candidate for congress 
but was elected in 1854, and, being repeat- 
edly re-elected, continued to represent that 
district in congress until 1869. He became 
one of the most prominent and influential 
members of the house of representatives, 
and served three terms as speaker. During 
the Civil war he was an active participant 
in all public measures of importance, and 
was a confidential friend and adviser of 
President Lincoln. In May, 1S68, Mr. 
Colfax was nominated for vice-president on 
the ticket with General Grant, and was 
elected. After the close of his term he re- 
tired from office, and for the remainder of 
his life devoted much of his time to lectur- 
ing and literary pursuits. His death oc- 
curred January 23, 18S5. He was one of 
the most prominent members of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows in America, 
and that order erected a bronze statue to 
his memory in University Park, Indianapo- 
lis, Indiana, which was unveiled in May, 
1887. 

WILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS, who at- 
tained a national reputation as an able 
lawyer, statesman, and cabinet officer, was 
born at Chelsea, Vermont, July 9, 1840. 
His parents removed to Wisconsin when 
our subject was but eleven years of age, 
and there with the early settlers endured all 
the hardships and trials incident to pioneer 
life. William F. Vilas was given all the 
advantages found in the common schools, 
and supplemented this by a course of study 
in the Wisconsin State University, after 
which he studied law, was admitted to the 
bar and began practicing at Madison. 
Shortly afterward the Civil war broke out 
and Mr. Vilas enlisted and became colonel 



of the Twenty-third regiment of Wisconsin 
Volunteers, serving throughout the war with 
distinction. At the close of the war he re- 
turned to Wisconsin, resumed his law prac- 
tice, and rapidly rose to eminence in this 
profession. In 18S5 he was selected by 
President Cleveland for postmaster-general 
and at the close of his term again returned 
to Madison, Wisconsin, to resume the prac- 
tice of law. 

THOMAS McINTYRECOOLEY, anem- 
inent American jurist and law writer, 
was born in Attica, New York, January G, 
1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, 
and four years later was appointed reporter 
of the supreme court of Michigan, which 
office he continued to hold for seven years. 
In the meantime, in 1S59, he became pro- 
fessor of the law department of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and soon afterward was 
made dean of the faculty of that depart- 
ment. In 1864 he was elected justice of 
the supreme court of Michigan, in 1867 be- 
came chief justice of that court, and in 
1869 was re-elected for a term of eight 
years. In 1881 he again joined the faculty 
of the University of Michigan, assuming the 
professorship of constitutional and adminis- 
trative law. His works on these branches 
have become standard, and he is recog- 
nized as authority on this and related sub- 
jects. Upon the passage of the inter-state 
commerce law in 1S87 he became chairman 
of the commission and served in that capac- 
ity four years. 



JOHN PETER ALTGELD, a noted 
American politician and writer on social 
questions, was born in Germany, December 
30, 1S47. He came to America with his 
parents and settled in Ohio when two years 
old. In 1S64 he entered the Union army 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHIC 



141 



and served till the close of the war, after 
which he setiled in Chicago, Illinois. He 
was elected judge of the superior court of 
Cook county, Illinois, in 1886, in which 
capacity he served until elected governor of 
Illinois in 1S92, as a Democrat. During 
the first year of his term as governor he at- 
tracted national attention by his pardon of 
the anarchists convicted of the Haymarket 
murder in Chicago, and again in 1894 by 
his denunciation of President Cleveland for 
calling out federal troops to suppress the 
rioting in connection with the great Pull- 
man strike in Chicago. At the national 
convention of the Democratic party in Chi- 
cago, in July, 1896, he is said to have in- 
spired the clause in the platform denuncia- 
tory of interference by federal authorities in 
local affairs, and "government by injunc- 
tion." He was gubernatorial candidate for 
re-election on the Democratic ticket in 1896, 
but was defeated by John R. Tanner, Re- 
publican. Mr. Altgeld published two vol- 
umes of essays on " Live Questions," evinc- 
ing radical views on social matters. 



ADLAI EWING STEVENSON, an Amer. 
ican statesman and politician, was born 
in Christian county, Kentucky, October 23, 
1835, Slid removed with the family to 
Bloomington, Illinois, in 1852. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1858, and set- 
tled in the practice of his profession 
in Metamora, Illinois. In 1861 he was 
made master in chancery of Woodford 
county, and in 1864 was elected state's at- 
torney. In 1868 he returned to Blooming- 
ton and formed a law partnership with 
James S. Ewing. He had served as a pres- 
idential elector in 1864, and in 186S was 
elected to congress as a Democrat, receiv- 
ing a majority vote from every county in his 
district. He became prominent in his 



party, and was a delegate to the national 
convention in 1884. On the election of 
Cleveland to the presidency Mr. Stevenson 
was appointed first assistant postmaster- 
general. After the expiration of his term 
he continued to e.xert a controlling influence 
in the politics of his state, and in 1S92 was 
elected vice-president of the United States 
on the ticket with Grover Cleveland. At 
the e.xpiration of his term of office he re- 
sumed the practice of law at Bloomington, 
Illinois. 

SIMON CAMERON, whose name is 
prominently identified with the history 
of the United States as a political leader 
and statesman, was born in Lancaster coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1799. He grew 
to manhood in his native county, receiving 
good educational advantages, and develop- 
ing a natural inclination for political life. 
He rapidly rose in prominence and became 
the most influential Democrat in Pennsyl- 
vania, and in 1845 was elected by that party 
to the United States senate. Upon the 
organization of the Republican party he was 
one of the first to declare his allegiance to 
it, and in 1856 was re-elected United States 
senator from Pennsylvania as a Republican. 
In March, 1861, he was appointed secretary 
of war by President Lincoln, and served 
until early in 1862, when he was sent as 
minister to Russia, returning in 1863. In 
1866 he was again elected United States 
senator and served until 1877, when he re- 
signed and was succeeded by his son, James 
Donald Cameron. He continued to exert a 
powerful influence in political affairs up to 
the time of his death, June 26, 1889. 

James Donald Cameron was the eld- 
est son of Simon Cameron, and also 
attained a high rank among American 
statesmen. He was born at Harrisburg, 



142 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



Pennsylvania, May 14, 1833, and received an 
excellent education, graduating at Princeton 
College in 1852. He rapidly developed into 
one of the most able and successful business 
men of the country and was largely inter- 
ested in and identified with the develop- 
ment of the coal, iron, lumber and manu- 
facturing interests of his native state. He 
served as cashier and afterward president of 
the Middletown bank, and in 1861 was made 
vice-president, and in 1863 president of 
the Northern Central railroad, holding this 
position until 1S74, when he resigned and 
was succeeded by Thomas A. Scott. This 
road was of great service to the government 
during the war as a means of communica- 
tion between Pennsylvania and the national 
capital, via Baltimore. Mr. Cameron also 
took an active part in political affairs, 
always as a Republican. In May, 1S76, 
he was appointed secretary of war in Pres- 
ident Grant's cabinet, and in 1877 suc- 
ceeded his father in the United States 
senate. He was re-elected in 1885, and 
again in 1891, serving until 1896, and was 
recognized as one of the most prominent and 
influential members of that bodv. 



ADOLPHUS W. GREELEY, a famous 
American arctic explorer, was born at 
Newburyport, Massachusetts, March 27, 
1844. He graduated from Brown High 
School at the age of sixteen, and a year 
later enlisted in Company B, Nineteenth 
Massachusetts Infantry, and was made first 
sergeant. In 1863 he was promoted to 
second lieutenant. After the war he was 
assigned to the Fifth United States Cavalry, 
and became first lieutenant in 1873. He 
was assigned to duty in the United States 
signal service shortly after the close of the 
war. An expedition was fitted out by the 
United States government in 1881, un- 



der auspices of the weather bureau, and 
Lieutenant Greeley placed in command. 
They set sail from St. Johns the first week 
in July, and after nine days landed in Green- 
land, where they secured the services of two 
natives, together with sledges, dogs, furs 
and equipment. They encountered an ice 
pack early in August, and on the 28th of 
that month freezing weather set in. Two 
of his party, Lieutenant Lockwood and Ser- 
geant Brainard, added to the known maps 
about forty miles of coast survey, and 
reached the highest point yet attained by 
man, eighty-three degrees and twenty-four 
minutes north, longitude, forty-four degrees 
and five minutes west. On their return to 
Fort Conger, Lieutenant Greeley set out 
for the south on August 9, 1883. He 
reached Baird Inlet twenty days later with 
his entire party. Here they were compelled 
to abandon their boats, and drifted on an 
ice-floe for one month. They then went 
into cainp at Cape Sabine, where they suf- 
fered untold hardships, and eighteen of the 
party succumbed to cold and hunger, and 
had relief been delayed two days longer 
none would have been found alive. They 
were picked up by the relief expedition, 
under Captain Schley, June 22, 1884. The 
dead were taken to New York for burial. 
Many sensational stories were published 
concerning the expedition, and Lieutenant 
Greeley prepared an exhaustive account 
of his explorations and experiences. 



LEVI P. MORTON, the millionaire poli- 
tician, was born in Shoreham, Ver- 
mont, May 16, 1824, and his early educa- 
tion consisted of the rudiments which he 
obtained in the common school up to the 
age of fourteen, and after that time what 
knowledge he gained was wrested from the 
hard school of experience. He removed to 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



143 



Hanover, Vermont, then Concord, Vermont, 
and afterwards to Boston. He had worked 
in a store at Shoreham, his native village, 
and on going to Hanover he established a 
store and went into business for himself. 
In Boston he clerked in a dry goods store, 
and then opened a business of his own in 
the same line in New York. After a short 
career he failed, and was compelled to set- 
tle with his creditors at only fifty cents on 
the dollar. He began the struggle anew, 
and when the war began he established a 
banking house in New York, with Junius 
Morgan as a partner. Through his firm 
, and connections the great government war 
loans were floated, and it resulted in im- 
mense profits to his house. When he was 
again thoroughly established he invited his 
former creditors to a banquet, and under 
each guest's plate was found a check cover- 
ing the amount of loss sustained respec- 
tively, with interest to date. 

President Garfield appointed Mr. Mor- 
ton as minister to France, after he had de- 
clined the secretaryship of the navy, and in 
1888 he was nominated as candidate for 
vice-president, with Harrison, and elected. 
In 1 894 he was elected governor of New 
York over David B. Hill, and served one 
term. 

CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, one 
of the most talented and prominent 
educators this country has known, was born 
January 24, 1835, ^t Derby, Vermont. He 
received an elementary education in the 
common schools, and studied two terms in 
the Derby Academy. Mr. Adams moved 
with his parents to Iowa in 1856. He was 
very anxious to pursue a collegiate course, 
but this was impossible until he had attained 
the age of twenty-one. In the autumn of 
1856 he began the study of Latin and Greek 



at Denmark Academy, and in September, 
1857, he was admitted to the University of 
Michigan. Mr. Adams was v/hoUy depend- 
ent upon himself for the means of his edu- 
cation. During his third and fourth year 
he became deeply interested in historical 
studies, was assistant librarian of the uni- 
versity, and determined to pursue a post- 
graduate course. In 1S64 he was appointed 
instructor of history and Latin and was ad- 
vanced to an assistant professorship in 1865, 
and in 1867, on the resignation of Professor 
White to accept the presidency of Cornell, 
he was appointed to fill the chair of profes- 
sor of history. This he accepted on con- 
dition of his being allowed to spend a year 
for special study in Germany, France and 
Italy. Mr. Adams returned in 1868, and 
assumed the duties of his professorship. 
He introduced the German system for the 
instruction of advanced history classes, and 
his lectures were largely attended. In 1885, 
on the resignation of President White at 
Cornell, he was elected his successor and 
held the office for seven years, and on Jan- 
uary 17, 1S93, he v.'as inaugurated presi- 
dent of the University of Wisconsin. Pres- 
ident Adams was prominently connected 
with numerous scientific and literary organ- - 
izations and a frequent contributor to the 
historical and educational data in the peri- 
odicals and journals of the country. He 
was the author of the following: " Dem- 
ocracy and Monarchy in France," " Manual 
of Historical Literature," " A Plea for Sci- 
entific Agriculture," " Higher Education in 
Germany." 

JOSEPH B. FORAKER, a prominent po- 
litical leader and ex-governor of Ohio, 
was born near Rainsboro, Highland county, 
Ohio, July 5, 1846. His parents operated 
a small farm, with a grist and sawmill, hav- 



144 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ing emigrated hither from Virginia and 
Delaware on account of their distaste for 
slavery. 

Joseph was reared upon a farm until 
1862, when he enlisted in the Eighty-ninth 
Ohio Infantry. Later he was made ser- 
geant, and in 1864 commissioned first lieu- 
tenant. The next year he was brevetted 
captain. At the age of nineteen he was 
mustered out of the army after a brilliant 
service, part of the time being on the staff 
of General Slocum. He participated in the 
battles of Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mount- 
ain and Kenesaw Mountain and in Sher- 
man's march to the sea. 

For two years subsequent to the war 
young Foraker was stud3ing at the Ohio 
Wesleyan University at Delaware, but later 
went to Cornell University, at Unity, New 
York, from which he graduated July i, 
1869. He studied law and was admitted to 
the bar. In 1S79 Mr. Foraker was elected 
judge of the superior court of Cincinnati 
and held the office for three years. In 1883 
he was defeated in the contest for the gov- 
ernorship with Judge Hoadly. In 1885, 
however, being again nominated for the 
same office, he was elected and served two 
terms. In 1889, in running for governor 
again, this time against James E. Camp- 
bell, he was defeated. Two years later his 
career in the United States senate began. 
Mr. Foraker was always a prominent figure 
at all national meetings of the Republican 
party, and a strong power, politically, in his 
native state. 



LYMAN ABBOTT, an eminent American 
preacher and writer on religious sub- 
jects, came of a noted New England 
family. His father, Rev. Jacob Abbott, was 
a prolific and popular writer, and his uncle, 
Rev. John S. C. Abbott, was a noted 



preacher and author. Lyman Abbott was 
born December 18, 1835, in Roxbury, 
Massachusetts. He graduated at the New 
York University, in 1853, studied law, and 
practiced for a time at the bar, after which 
he studied theology with his uncle, Rev. 
John S. C. Abbott, and in i860 was settled 
in the ministry at Terre Haute, Indiana, re- 
maining there until after the close of the 
war. He then became connected with the 
Freedmen's Commission, continuing this 
until 1868, when he accepted the pastorate 
of the New England Congregational church, 
in New York City. A few years later he re- 
signed, to devote his time principally to lit- 
erary pursuits. For a number of years he 
edited for the American Tract Society, its 
"Illustrated Christian Weekly," also the 
New York " Christian Union." He pro- 
duced many works, which had a wide circu- 
lation, among which may be mentioned the 
following: "Jesus of Nazareth, His Life and 
Teachings," "Old Testament Shadows of 
New Testament Truths," "Morning and 
Evening Exercises, Selected from Writings 
of Henry Ward Beecher," "Laicus, or the 
Experiences of a Layman in a Country 
Parish," "Popular Religious Dictionary," 
and "Commentaries on Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, John and Acts." 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.— The 
well-known author, orator and journal- 
ist whose name heads this sketch, was born 
at Providence, Rhode Island, February 24, 
1824. Having laid the foundation of a 
most excellent education in his native land, 
he went to Europe and studied at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. He made an extensive 
tour throughout the Levant, from which he 
returned home in 1850. At that early age 
literature became his field of labor, and in 
1 85 1 he published his first important work, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



145 



" Nile Notes of a Howadji." In 1852 two 
works issued from his facile pen, "The 
Howadji in Syria," and "Lotus-Eating." 
Later on he was the author of the well- 
known " Potiphar Papers," " Prue and L" 
and "Trumps." He greatly distinguished 
himself throughout this land as a lecturer 
on many subjects, and as an orator had but 
few peers. He was also well known as one 
of the most fluent speakers on the stump, 
making many political speeches in favor of 
the Republican party. In recognition of 
his valuable services, Mr. Curtis was ap- 
pointed by President Grant, chairman of 
the advisory board of the civil service. Al- 
though a life-long Republican, Mr. Curtis 
refused to support Blaine for the presidency 
in 1884, because of his ideas on civil ser- 
vice and other reforms. For his memorable 
and magnificent eulogy on Wendell Phillips, 
delivered in Boston, in 1884, that city pre- 
sented Mr. Curtis with a gold medal. 

George W. Curtis, however, is best 
known to the reading public of the United 
States by his connection with the Harper 
Brothers, having been editor of the " Har- 
per's Weekly, " and of the "Easy Chair," 
in " Harper's Monthly Magazine, "for many 
years, in fact retaining that position until 
the day of his death, which occurred August 
31. 1892. 

ANDREW JOHNSON, the seventeenth 
president of the United States, served 
from 1865 to 1869. He was born Decem- 
ber 8, 1808, at Raleigh, North Carolina, 
and was left an orphan at the age of four 
years. He never attended school, and was 
apprenticed to a tailor. While serving his 
apprenticeship he suddenly acquired a pas- 
sion for knowledge, and learned to read. 
From that time on he spent all his spare 
time in reading, and after working for two 



years as a journeyman tailor at Lauren's 
Court House, South Carolina, he removed 
to Greenville, Tennessee, where he worked 
at his trade and was married. Under his 
wife's instruction he made rapid progress in 
his studies and manifested such an interest 
in local politics as to be elected as " work- 
ingmen's candidate " alderman in 1828, and 
in 1830 to the mayoralty, and was twice 
re-elected to each office. Mr. Johnson 
utilized this time in cultivating his talents 
as a public speaker, by taking part in a de- 
bating society. He was elected in 1835 to 
the lower house of the legislature, was re- 
elected in 1839 as a Democrat, and in 
1 841 was elected state senator. Mr. John- 
son was elected representative in congress 
in 1843 and was re-elected four times in 
succession until 1853, when he was the suc- 
cessful candidate for the gubernatorial chair 
of Tennessee. He was re-elected in 1855 
and in 1857 he entered the United States 
senate. In i860 he was supported by the 
Tennessee delegation to the Democratic 
convention for the presidential nomination, 
and lent his 'influence to the Breckinridge 
wing of the party. At the election of Lin- 
coln, which brought about the first attempt 
at secession in December, i860, Mr. John- 
son took a firm attitude in the senate for 
the Union. He was the leader of the loy- 
alists in East Tennessee. By the course 
that Mr. Johnson pursued in this crisis he 
was brought prominently before the north- 
ern people, and when, in March, 1862, he 
was appointed military governor of Ten- 
nessee with the rank of brigadier-general, 
he increased his popularity by the vigorous 
manner in which he labored to restore 
order. In the campaign of 1864 he was 
elected vice-president on the ticket with 
President Lincoln, and upon the assassi- 
nation of the latter he succeeded to the 



146 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



presidency, April 15, 1865. He retained 
the cabinet of President Lincoln, and at 
first exhibited considerable severity towards 
the former Confederates, but he soon inau- 
gurated a policy of reconstruction, pro- 
claimed a general amnesty to the late Con- 
federates, and established provisional gov- 
ernments in the southern states. These 
states claimed representation in congress in 
the following December, and then arose the 
momentous question as to what should be 
the policy of the victorious Union against 
their late enemies. The Republican ma- 
jority in congress had an apprehension that 
the President would undo the results of the 
war, and consequently passed two bills over 
the executive veto, and the two highest 
branches of the government were in open 
antagonism. The cabinet was reconstructed 
in July, and Messrs. Randall, Stanbury and 
Browning superseded Messrs. Denison, 
Speed and Harlan. In August, 1867, Pres- 
ident Johnson removed the secretary of war 
and replaced him with General Grant, but 
when congress met in December it refused 
to ratify the removal of Stanton, who re- 
sumed the functions of his office. In 1868 
the president again attempted to remove 
Stanton, who refused to vacate his post 
and was sustained by the senate. Presi- 
dent Johnson was accused by congress of 
high crimes and misdemeanors, but the trial 
resulted in his acquittal. Later he was Uni- 
ted States senator from Tennessee, and 
died July 31, 1875. 



EDMUND RANDOLPH, first attorney- 
general of the United States, was born 
in Virginia, August 10, 1753. His father, 
John Randolph, was attorney-general of 
Virginia, and lived and died a royalist. Ed- 
mund was educated in the law, but joined 
the army as aide-de-camp to Washington 



in 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He 
was elected to the Virginia convention in 
1776, and attorney-general of the state the 
same year. In 1779 he was elected to the 
Continental congress, and served four years 
in that body. He was a member of the con- 
vention in 1787 that framed the constitu- 
tion. In that convention he proposed what 
was known as the " Virginia plan" of con- 
federation, but it was rejected. He advo- 
cated the ratification of the constitution in 
the Virginia convention, although he had re- 
fused to sign it. He became governor of 
Virginia in 1788, and the next year Wash- 
ington appointed him to the office of at- 
torney-general of the United States upon 
the organization of the government under 
the constitution. He was appointed secre- 
tary of state to succeed Jefferson during 
Washington's second term, but resigned a 
year later on account of differences in the 
cabinet concerning the policy pursued to- 
ward the new French republic. He died 
September 12, 181 3. 



W INFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK was 
born in Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania, February 14, 1824. He received 
his early education at the Norristown 
Academy, in his native county, and, in 1840, 
was appointed a cadet in the United States 
Military Academy, at West Point. He was 
graduated from the latter in 1844, andbrev- 
etted as second lieutenant of infantry. In 
1853 he was made first lieutenant, and two 
years later transferred to the quartermaster's 
department, with the rank of captain, and 
in 1863 promoted to the rank of major. He 
served on the frontier, and in the war with 
Mexico, displaying conspicuous gallantry dur- 
ing the latter. He also took a part in the 
Seminole war, and in the troubles in Kan- 
sas, in 1857, and in California, at the out- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



147 



break of the Civil war, as chief quarter- 
master of the Southern district, he exerted 
a powerful influence. In 1861 he applied 
for active duty in the field, and was assigned 
to the department of Kentucky as chief 
quartermaster, but before entering upon that 
duty, was appointed brigadier-general of 
volunteers. His subsequent history during 
the war was substantially that of the Army 
of the Potomac. He participated in the 
campaign, under McClellan, and led the 
gallant charge, which captured Fort Magru- 
der, won the day at the battle of Wil- 
liamsburg, and by services rendered at 
Savage's Station and other engagements, 
won several grades in the regular service, 
and was recommended by McClellan for 
major-general of volunteers. He was a con- 
spicuous figure at South Mountain and An- 
tietam. He was commissioned major-gen- 
eral of volunteers, November 29, 1862, and 
made commander of the First Division of 
the Second Corps, which he led at Fred- 
ricksburg and at Chancellorsville. He was 
appointed to the command of the Second 
Corps in June, 1863, and at the battle of 
Gettysburg, July i, 2 and 3, of that year, 
took an important part. On his arrival on 
the field he found part of the forces then 
in retreat, but stayed the retrograde 
movement, checked the enemy, and on the 
following day commanded the left center, 
repulsed, on the third, the grand assault of 
General Lee's army, and was severely 
wounded. For his services on that field 
General Hancock received the thanks of 
congress. On recovering from his wound, 
he was detailed to go north to stimulate re- 
cruiting and fill up the diminished corps, and 
was the recipient of many public receptions 
and ovations. In March, 1S64, he returned 
to his command, and in the Wilderness and 
at Spottsylvania led large bodies of men 



successfully and conspicuously. From that 
on to the close of the campaign he was a 
prominent figure. In November, 1864, he 
was detailed to organize the First Veteran 
Reserve Corps, and at the close of hostilities 
was appointed to the command of the Mid- 
dle Military Division. In July, 1866, he 
was made major-general of the regular 
service. He was at the head of various 
military departments until 1872, when he 
was assigned to the command of the Depart- 
ment of the Atlantic, which post he held 
until his death. In 1869 he declined the 
nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. 
He was the nominee of the Democratic 
party for president, in 1880, and was de- 
feated by General Garfield, who had a popu- 
lar majority of seven thousand and eighteen 
and an electoral majority^of fifty-nine. Gen- 
eral Hancock died February 9, 1S86. 



THOMAS PAINE, the most noted polit- 
ical and deistical writer of the Revolu- 
tionary period, was born in England, Jan- 
uary 29, 1737, of Quaker parents. His edu- 
cation was-obtained in the grammar schools 
of Thetford, his native town, and supple- 
mented by hard private study while working 
at his trade of stay-maker at London and 
other cities of England. He was for a time 
a dissenting preacher, although he did not 
relinquish his employment. He married a 
revenue official's daughter, and was employed 
in the revenue service for some time. He 
then became a grocer and during all this time 
he was reading and cultivating his literary 
tastes, and had developed a clear and forci- 
ble style of composition. He was chosen to 
represent the interests of the excisemen, 
and published a pamphlet that brought 
him considerable notice. He was soon after- 
ward introduced to Benjamin Franklin, and 
having been dismissed frgm the service on a 



148 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



charge of smuggling, his resentment led him 
to accept the advice of that statesman to 
come to America, in 1774. He became 
editor of the ' ' Pennsylvania Magazine," and 
the next year published his "Serious 
Thoughts upon Slavery" in the "Penn- 
sylvania Journal." His greatest political 
work, however, was written at the sugges- 
tion of Dr. Rush, and entitled "Common 
Sense." It was the most popular pamphlet 
written during the period and he received 
two thousand five hundred dollars from the 
state of Pennsylvania in recognition of its 
value. His periodical, the "Crisis," began 
in 1776, and its distribution among the 
soldiers did a great deal to keep up the spirit 
of revolution. He was made secretary of 
the committee of foreign affairs, but was dis- 
missed for revealing diplomatic secrets in 
one of his controversies v>'ith Silas Deane. 
He was originator and promoter of a sub- 
scription to relieve the distress of the soldiers 
near the close of the war, and was sent to 
France with Henry Laurens to negotiate the 
treaty with France, and was granted three 
thousand dollars by congress for his services 
there, and an estate at New Rochelle, by the 
state of New York. 

In 1787, after the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war, he went to France, and a few 
years later published his " Rights of Man," 
defending the French revolution, which 
gave him great popularity in France. He 
was made a citizen and elected to the na- 
tional convention at Calais. He favored 
banishment of the king to America, and 
opposed his execution. He was imprisoned 
for about ten months during 1794 by the 
Robespierre party, during which time he 
wrote the " Age of Reason," his great deis- 
tical work. He was in danger of the guillo- 
tine for several months. He took up his 
residence with the family of James Monroe, 



then minister to France and was chosen 
again to the convention. He returned 
to the United States in 1802, and was 
cordially received throughout the coun- 
try except at Trenton, where he was insulted 
by Federalists. He retired to his estate at 
New Rochelle, and his death occurred June 
8, 1809. 

JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY was one of 
America's noted men, both in the de- 
velopment of the western coast and the 
building of the Mackay and Bennett cable. 
He was born in 1831 at Dublin, Ireland; 
came to New York in 1840 and his boyhood 
days were spent in Park Row. He went 
to California some time after the argonauts 
of 1849 and took to the primitive methods 
of mining — lost and won and finally drifted 
into Nevada about i860. The bonanza dis- 
coveries which were to have such a potent 
influence on the finance and statesmanship 
of the day came in 1872. Mr. Mackay 
founded the Nevada Bank in 1878. He is 
said to have taken one hundred and 
fifty million dollars in bullion out of 
the Big Bonanza mine. There were as- 
sociated with him in this enterprise James 
G. Fair, senator from Nevada; William 
O'Brien and James C. Flood. When 
vast wealth came to Mr. Mackay he be- 
lieved it his duty to do his country some 
service, and he agitated in his mind the 
building of an American steamship line, 
and while brooding over this his attention 
was called to the cable relations between 
America and Europe. The financial man- 
agement of the cable was selfish and ex- 
travagant, and the capital was heavy with 
accretions of financial " water" and to pay 
even an apparent dividend upon the sums 
which represented the nominal value of the 
cables, it was necessary to hold the rates 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



149 



at an exorbitant figure. And, moreover, 
the cables were foreign; in one the influence 
of France being paramount and in the other 
that of England; and in the matter of intel- 
ligence, so necessary in case of war, we 
would be at the mercy of our enemies. This 
train of thought brought Mr. Mackay into re- 
lation with James Gordon Bennett, the pro- 
prietor of the " New York Herald." The 
result of their intercourse was that Mr. Mac- 
kay so far entered into the enthusiasm of 
Mr. Bennett over an independent cable, 
that he offered to assist the enterprise with 
live hundred thousand dollars. This was the 
inception of the Commercial Cable Com- 
pany, or of what has been known for years 
as the Mackav-Bennett cable. 



ELISH.\ GRAY, the great inventor and 
electrician, was born August 2, 1835. 
at Barnesville, Belm.ont county, Ohio. He 
was, as a child, greatly interested in the 
phenomena of nature, and read with avidity 
all the books he could obtain, relating to 
this subject. He was apprenticed to various 
trades during his boyhood, but his insatiable 
thirst for knowledge dominated his life and 
he found time to study at odd intervals. 
Supporting himself b}' working at his trade, 
he found time to pursue a course at Oberlin 
College, where he particularly devoted him- 
self to the study of physicial science. Mr. 
Gray secured his first patent for electrical 
or telegraph apparatus on October r, 1867. 
His attention was first attracted to tele- 
phonic transmission during this year and he 
saw in it a way of transmitting signals for 
telegraph purposes, and conceived the idea 
of electro-tones, tuned to different tones in 
the scale. He did not then realize the im- 
portance of his invention, his thoughts being 
employed on the capacity of the apparatus 
for transmitting musical tones through an 



electric circuit, and it was not until 1874 
that he was again called to consider the re- 
production of electrically-transmitted vibra- 
tions through the medium of animal tissue. 
He continued e.xperimenting with various 
results, which finally culminated in his 
taking out a patent for his speaking tele- 
phone on February 14, 1876. He took out 
fifty additional patents in the course of 
eleven years, among which were, telegraph 
switch, telegraph repeater, telegraph annun- 
ciator and typewriting telegraph. From 
1869 until 1873 he was employed in the 
manufacture of telegraph apparatus in Cleve- 
land and Chicago, and filled the office of 
electrician to the Western Electric Com- 
pany. He was awarded the degree of D. 
S. , and in 1874 he went abroad to perfect 
himself in acoustics. Mr. Gray's latest in- 
vention was known as the telautograph or 
long distance writing machine. Mr. Gray 
wrote and published several works on scien- 
tific subjects, among which were: "Tele- 
graphy and Telephony," and "Experi- 
mental Research in Electro-Harmonic Tele- 
graphy and Telephony." 



WHITELAW REID.— Among the many 
men who have adorned the field of 
journalism in the United States, few stand 
out with more prominence than the scholar, 
author and editor whose name heads this ar- 
ticle. Born at Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, 
October 27, 1837, he graduated at Miami 
University in 1856. For about a year he 
was superintendent of the graded schools of 
South Charleston, Ohio, after which he pur- 
chased the "Xenia News," which he edited 
for about two years. This paper was the 
first one outside of Illinois to advocate the 
nomination of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Reid 
having been a Republican since the birth of 
that party in 1856. After taking an active 



150 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



part in the campaign, in the winter of 1860- 
61, he went to the state capital as corres- 
pondent of three daily papers. At the close 
of the session of the legislature he became 
city editor of the "Cincinnati Gazette," 
and at the breaking out of the war went to 
the front as a correspondent for that journal. 
For a time he served on the staff of General 
Morris in West Virginia, with the rank of 
captain. Shortly after he was on the staff 
of General Rosecrans, and, under the name 
of "Agate," wrote most graphic descrip- 
tions of the movements in the field, espe- 
cially that of the battle ol Pittsburg Land- 
ing. In the spring of 1862 Mr. Reid went 
to Washington and was appointed librarian 
to the house of representatives, and acted as 
correspondent of the " Cincinnati Gazette." 
His description of the battle of Gettysburg, 
written on the field, gained him added 
reputation. In 1865 he accompanied Chief 
Justice Chase on a southern tour, and pub- 
lished "After the War; a Southern Tour." 
During the ne.xt two years he was engaged 
in cotton planting in Louisiana and Ala- 
bama, and published "Ohio in the War. " 
In 1868 he returned to the " Cincinnati Ga- 
zette," becoming one of its leading editors. 
The same year he accepted the invitation of 
Horace Greeley and became one of the staff 
on the " New York Tribune." Upon the 
death of Mr. Greeley in 1872, Mr. Reid be- 
came editor and chief proprietor of that 
paper. In 1878 he was tendered the United 
States mission to Berlin, but declined. The 
offer was again made by the Garfield ad- 
ministration, but again he declined. In 
1878 he was elected by the New York legis- 
lature regent of the university, to succeed 
General John A. Dix. Under the Harrison 
administration he served as United States 
minister to France, and in 1892 was the 
Republican nominee for the vice-presidency 



of the United States. Among other works 
published by him were the " Schools of 
Journalism," "The Scholar in Politics," 
"Some Newspaper Tendencies," and 
' ' Town-Hall Suggestions. " 



GEORGE WHITEFIELD was one of 
the most powerful and effective preach- 
ers the world has ever produced, swaying 
his hearers and touching the hearts of im- 
mense audiences in a manner that has rarely 
been equalled and never surpassed. While 
not a native of America, yet much of his 
labor was spent in this country. He wielded 
a great influence in the United States in 
early days, and his death occurred here; so 
that he well deserves a place in this volume 
as one of the most celebrated men America 
has known. 

George Whitefield was born in the Bull 
Inn, at Gloucester, England, December 16, 
1714. He acquired the rudiments of learn- 
ing in St. Mary's grammar school. Later 
he attended Oxford University for a time, 
where he became intimate with the O.xford 
Methodists, and resolved to devote himself 
to the ministry. He was ordained in the 
Gloucester Cathedral June 20, 1836, and 
the following day preached his first sermon 
in the same church. On that day there 
commenced a new era in Whitefield's life. 
He went to London and began to preach at 
Bishopsgate church, his fame soon spread- 
ing over the city, and shortly he was en- 
gaged four times on a single Sunday in ad- 
dressing audiences of enormous magnitude, 
and he preached in various parts of his native 
country, the people crowding in multitudes 
to hear him and hanging upon the rails and 
rafters of the churches and approaches there- 
to. He finally sailed for America, landing 
in Georgia, where he stirred the people to 
great enthusiasm. During the balance of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



153 



his life he divided his time between Great 
Britain and America, and it is recorded that 
he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. He 
came to America for the seventh time in 
1770. He preached every day at Boston 
from the 17th to the 20th of September, 
1770, then traveled to Newbury port, preach- 
ing at Exeter, New Hampshire, September 
29, on the way. That evening he went to 
Newburyport, where he died the next day, 
Sunday, September 30, 1770. 

• ' Whitefield's dramatic power was amaz- 
ing, " says an eminent writer in describing 
him. " His voice was marvelously varied, 
and he ever had it at command — an organ, 
a flute, a harp, all in one. His intellectual 
powers were not of a high order, but he had 
an abundance of that ready talent and that 
wonderful magnetism which makes the pop- 
ular preacher; and beyond all natural en- 
dowments, there was in his ministry the 
power of evangelical truth, and, as his con- 
verts believed, the presence of the spirit of 
God." 

CHARLES FRANCIS BRUSH, one of 
America's prominent men in the devel- 
opment of electrical science, was born March 
17, 1849, near Cleveland, Ohio, and spent 
his early life on his father's farm. From 
the district school at Wickliffe, Ohio, he 
passed to the Shaw Academy at Collamer, 
and then entered the high school at Cleve- 
land. His interest in chemistry, physics 
and engineering was already marked, and 
during his senior year he was placed in 
charge of the chemical and physical appar- 
atus. During these years he devised a plan 
for lighting street lamps, constructed tele- 
scopes, and his first electric arc lamp, also 
an electric motor. In September, 1867, he 
entered the engineering department of the 

University of Michigan and graduated in 
9 



1869, which was a year in advance of his 
class, with the degree of M. E. He then 
returned to Cleveland, and for three years 
was engaged as an analytical chemist and 
for four years in the iron business. In 
1875 Mr. Brush became interested in elec- 
tric lighting, and in 1876, after four months' 
experimenting, he completed the dynamo- 
electric machine that has made his name 
famous, and in a shorter time produced the 
series arc lamps. These were both patent- 
ed in the United States in 1876, and he 
afterward obtained fifty patents on his later 
inventions, including the fundamental stor- 
age battery, the compound series, shunt- 
winding for dynamo-electric machines, and 
the automatic cut-out for arc lamps. His 
patents, two-thirds of which have already 
been profitable, are held by the Brush 
Electric Company, of Cleveland, while his 
foreign patents are controlled by the Anglo- 
American Brush Electric Light Company, 
of London. In 1880 the Western Reserve 
University conferred upon Mr. Brush the 
degree of Ph. D., and in i88i the French 
government decorated him as a chevalier of 
the Legion of Honor. 



HENRY CLEWS, of Wall-street fame, 
was one of the noted old-time opera- 
tors on that famous street, and was also an 
author of some repute. Mr. Clews was 
born in Staffordshire, England, August 14, 
1840. His father had him educated with 
the intention of preparing him for the minis- 
try, but on a visit to the United States the 
young man became interested in a business 
life, and was allowed to engage as a clerk in 
the importing house of Wilson G. Hunt & 
Co., of New York. Here he learned the 
first principles of business, and when the war 
broke out in i86r young Clews saw in the 
needs of the government an opportunity to 



154 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



reap a golden harvest. He identified him- 
self with the negotiating of loans for the 
government, and used his powers of pur- 
suasion upon the great money powers to 
convince them of the stability of the govern- 
ment and the value of its securities. By 
enthusiasm and patriotic arguments he in- 
duced capitalists to invest their money in 
government securities, often against their 
judgment, and his success was remarkable. 
His was one of the leading firms that aided 
the struggling treasury department in that 
critical hour, and his reward was great. In 
addition to the vast wealth it brought, 
President Lincoln and Secretary Chase 
both wrote important letters, acknowledging 
his valued service. In 1873, by the repu- 
diation of the bonded indebtedness of the 
state of Georgia, Mr. Clews lost six million 
dollars which he had invested in those se- 
curities. It is said that he is the only man, 
with one exception, in Wall street, who 
ever regained great wealth after utter dis- 
aster. His " Twenty-Eight Years in Wall 
Street " has been widely read. 



ALFRED VAIL was one of the men that 
gave to the world the electric telegraph 
and the names of Henry, Morse and Vail 
will forever remain linked as the prime fac- 
tors in that great achievement. Mr. Vail 
was born September 25, 1807, at Morris- 
town, New Jersey, and was a son of Stephen 
Vail, the proprietor of the Speedwell Iron 
Works, near Morristown. At the age of 
seventeen, after he had completed his stud- 
ies at the Morristown Academy, Alfred Vail 
went into the Speedwell Iron Works and 
contented himself with the duties of his 
position until he reached his majority. He 
then determined to prepare himself for the 
ministry, and at the age of twenty-five he 
entered the University of the City of New 



York, where he was graduated in 1836. His 
health becoming impaired he labored for a 
time under much uncertainty as to his future 
course. Professor S. F. B. Morse had come 
to the university in 1S35 as professor of lit- 
erature and fine arts, and about this time, 

1837, Professor Gale, occupying the chair 
of chemistry, invited Morse to exhibit his 
apparatus for the benefit of the students. 
On Saturday, September 2, 1837, the exhi- 
bition took place and Vail was asked to at- 
tend, and with his inherited taste for me- 
chanics and knowledge of their construction, 
he saw a great future for the crude mechan- 
ism used by Morse in giving and recording 
signals. Mr. Vail interested his father in 
the invention, and Morse was invited to 
Speedwell and the elder Vail promised to 
help him. It was stipulated that Alfred 
Vail should construct the required apparatus 
and exhibit before a committee of congress 
the telegraph instrument, and was to receive 
a quarter interest in the invention. Morse 
had devised a series of ten numbered leaden 
types, which were to be operated in giving 
the signal. This was not satisfactory to 
Vail, so he devised an entirely new instru- 
ment, involving a lever, or "point," on a 
radically different principle, which, when 
tested, produced dots and dashes, and de- 
vised the famous dot-and-dash alphabet, 
misnamed the " Morse." At last the ma- 
chine was in working order, on January 6, 

1838. The machine was taken to Wash- 
ington, where it caused not only wonder, 
but excitement. Vail continued his experi- 
ments and devised the lever and roller. 
When the line between Baltimore and 
Washington was completed. Vail was sta- 
tioned at the Baltimore end and received 
the famous first message. It is a remarka- 
ble fact that not a single feature of the 
original invention of Morse, as formulated 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



155 



by his caveat and repeated in his original 
patent, is to be found in Vail's apparatus. 
From 1837 to 1844 it was a combination of 
the inventions of Morse, Henry and Vail, 
but the work of Morse fell gradually into 
desuetude, while Vail's conception of an 
alphabet has remained unchanged for half a 
century. . Mr. Vail published but one work, 
"American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph," 
in 1S45, and died at Morristown at the com- 
paratively early age of fifty-one, on January 
19. 1859- 

ULYSSES S. GRANT, the eighteenth 
president of the United States, was 
born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Cler- 
mont county, Ohio. At the age of seven- 
teen he entered the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, from which he 
graduated in June, 1843, and was given his 
brevet as second lieutenant and assigned to 
the Fourth Infantry. He remained in the 
service eleven years, in which time he 
was engaged in the Mexican war with gal- 
lantry, and was thrice brevetted for conduct 
in the field. In 1848 he married Miss Julia 
Dent, and in 1854, having reached the 
grade of captain, he resigned and engaged 
in farming near St. Louis. In i860 he en- 
tered the leather business with his father at 
Galena, Illinois. 

On the breaking out of the war, in 1861, 
he commenced to drill a company at Ga- 
lena, and at the same time offered his serv- 
ices to the adjutant-general of the army, 
but he had few influential friends, so re- 
ceived no answer. He was employed by 
the governor of Illinois in the organization 
of the various volunteer regiments, and at 
the end of a few weeks was given the 
colonelcy of the Twenty-first Infantry, from 
that state. His military training and knowl- 
edge soon attracted the attention of his su- 



perior officers, and on reporting to General 
Pope in Missouri, the latter put him in 
the way of advancement. August 7, 1861, 
he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general of volunteers, and for a few weeks 
was occupied in watching the movements of 
partisan forces in Missouri. September i, 
the same year, he was placed in command 
of the Department of Southeast Missouri, 
with headquarters at Cairo, and on the 6th 
of the month, without orders, seized Padu- 
cah, which commanded the channel of the 
Ohio and Tennessee rivers, by which he se- 
cured Kentucky for the Union. He now 
received orders to make a demonstration on 
Belmoat, which he did, and with about three 
thousand raw recruits held his own against 
the Confederates some seven thousand 
strong, bringing back about two hundred 
prisoners and two guns. In February,] 1 862, 
he moved up the Tennessee river with 
the naval fleet under Commodore Foote. 
The latter soon silenced Fort Henry, and 
Grant advanced against Fort Donelson and 
took their fortress and its garrison. His 
prize here consisted of sixty-five cannon, 
seventeen thousand six hundred stand of 
arms, and fourteen thousand six hundred 
and twenty-three prisoners. This was the 
first important success won by the Union 
forces. Grant was immediately made a 
major-general and placed in command of 
the district of West Tennessee. In April, 
1862, he fought the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, and after the evacuation of Corinth by 
the enemy Grant became commander of the 
Department of the Tennessee. He now 
made his first demonstration toward Vicks- 
burg, but owing to the incapacity of subor- 
dinate officers, was unsuccessful. In Janu- 
ary, 1863, he took command of all the 
troops in the Mississippi Valley and devoted 
several months to the siege of Vicksburg, 



156 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



which was finally taken possession of by him 
July 4, with thirty-one thousand six hundred 
prisoners and one hundred and seventy-two 
cannon, thus throwing the Mississippi river 
open to the Federals. He was now raised 
to the rank of major-general in the regular 
army. October following, at the head of 
the Department of the Mississippi, General 
Grant went to Chattanooga, where he over- 
threw the enemy, and united with the Army 
of the Cumberland. The remarkable suc- 
cesses achieved by him pointed Grant out 
for an appropriate commander of all na- 
tional troops, and in February, 1S64, the 
rank of lieutenant-general was made for him 
by act of congress. Sending Sherman into 
Georgia, Sigel into the Valley of West Vir- 
ginia and Butler to attempt the capture of 
Richmond he fought his way through the 
Wilderness to the James and pressed the 
siege of the capital of the Confederacy. 
After the fall of the latter Grant pressed 
the Confederate army so hard that their 
commander surrendered at Appomattox 
Court House, April 9, 1865. This virtually 
ended the war. 

After the war the rank of general was 
conferred upon U. S. Grant, and in 1868 he 
was elected president of the United States, 
and re-elected his own successor in 1872. 
After the expiration of the latter term he 
made his famous tour of the world. He died 
at Mt. McGregor, near Saratoga, New York, 
July 23, 1885, and was buried at Riverside 
Park, New York, where a magnificent tomb 
has been erected to hold the ashes of the 
nation's hero. 



JOHN MARSHALL, the fourth chief jus- 
tice of the United States supreme court, 
was born in Germantown, Virginia, Septem- 
ber 24, 1755. His father. Colonel Thomas 
Marshall, served with distinction in the Rev- 



olutionary war, while he also served from 
the beginning of the war until 1779, where 
he became noted in the field and courts 
martial. While on detached service he at- 
tended a course of law lectures at William 
and Mary College, delivered by Mr. Wythe, 
and was admitted to the bar. The next year 
he resigned his commission and began his 
career as a lawyer. He was a distinguished 
member of the convention called in Virginia 
to ratify the Federal constitution. He was 
tendered the attorney-generalship of the 
United States, and also a place on the su- 
preme bench, besides other places of less 
honor, all of which he declined. He 
went to France as special envoy in 1798, 
and the next year was elected to congress. 
He served one year and was appointed, first, 
secretary of war, and then secretary of state, 
and in 1801 was made chief justice of the 
United States. He held this high office un- 
til his death, in 1835. 

Chief Justice Marshall's early education 
was neglected, and his opinions, the most 
valuable in existence, are noted for depth 
of wisdom, clear and comprehensive reason- 
ing, justice, and permanency, rather than for 
wide learning and scholarly construction. 
His decisions and rulings are resorted to 
constantly by our greatest lawyers, and his 
renown as a just judge and profound jurist 
was world wide. 



LAWRENCE BARRETT is perhaps 
known more widely as a producer of 
new plays than as a great actor. He was 
born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1838, and 
educated himself as best he could, and at 
the age of sixteen years became salesman 
for a Detroit dry goods house. He after- 
wards began to go upon the stage as a 
Bupernumerary, and his ambition was soon 
rewarded by the notice of the management. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



157 



During the war of the Rebellion he was a 
soldier, and after valiant service for his 
country he returned to the stage. He went 
to Europe and appeared in Liverpool, and 
returning in 1869, he began playing at 
Booth's theater, with Mr. Booth. He was 
afterward associated with John McCullough 
in the management of the California 
theater. Probably the most noted period 
of his work was during his connection with 
Edwin Booth as manager of that great 
actor, and supporting him upon the stage. 
Mr. Barrett was possessed of the crea- 
tive instinct, and, unlike Mr. Booth, he 
sought new fields for the display of his 
genius, and only resorted to traditional 
drama in response to popular demand. He 
preferred new plays, and believed in the 
encouragement of modern dramatic writers, 
and was the only actor of prominence in his 
time that ventured to put upon the stage 
new American plays, which he did at his 
own expense, and the success of his experi- 
ments proved the quality of his judgment. 
He died March 21, 1891. 



ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES, a cel- 
ebrated Catholic clergyman, was born 
at Annaboghan, Tyrone county, Ireland, 
June 24, 1797, and emigrated to America 
when twenty years of age, engaging for 
some time as a gardener and nurseryman. 
In 1 8 19 he entered St. Mary's College, 
where he secured an education, paying his 
way by caring for the college garden. In 
1825 he was ordained a deacon of the Ro- 
man Catholic church, and in the same year, 
a priest. Until 1838 he had pastoral charges 
in Philadelphia, where he founded St. John's 
Asylum in 1829, and a few years later es- 
tablished the "Catholic Herald." In 1838 
he was made bishop of Basileopolis in parti- 
bus and coadjutor to Bishop Dubois, of 



New York, and in 1842 became bishop of 
New York. In 1839 he founded St. John's 
College, at Fordham. In 1850 he was 
made archbishop of New York. In 186 1-2 
he was a special agent of the United States 
in Europe, after which he returned to this 
country and remained until his death, Jan- 
uary 3, 1864. Archbishop Hughes early 
attracted much attention by his controver- 
sial correspondence with Rev. John Breck- 
inridge in 1833-35. He was a man of great 
ability, a fluent and forceful writer and an 
able preacher. 



RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES 
was the nineteenth president of the 
United States and served from 1877 to 1881. 
He was born October 4, 1822, at Delaware, 
Ohio, and his ancestry can be traced back 
as far as 1280, when Hayes and Rutherford 
were two Scottish chieftans fighting side by 
side with Baliol, William Wallace and 
Robert Bruce. The Hayes family had for 
a coat of arms, a shield, barred and sur- 
mounted by a flying eagle. There was a 
circle of stars about the eagle, while on a 
scroll underneath was their motto, "Recte. " 
Misfortune overtook the family and in 1680 
George Hayes, the progenitor of the Ameri- 
can family, came to Connecticut and settled 
at Windsor. Rutherford B. Hayes was 
a very delicate child at his birth and was 
not expected to live, but he lived in spite of 
all and remained at home until he was 
seven years old, when he was placed in 
school. He wasa very tractablepupil, being 
always very studious, and in 1838 entered 
Kenyon College, graduating from the same 
in 1842. He then took up the study of law 
in the office of Thomas Sparrow at Colum- 
bus, but in a short time he decided to enter 
a law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
where for two years he was immersed in the 



153 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



study of law. Mr. Hayes was admitted to 
the bar in 1845 i" Marietta, Ohio, and very 
soon entered upon the active practice of his 
profession with Ralph P. Buckland, of 
Fremont, Ohio. He remained there three 
years, and in 1849 removed to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, where his ambition found a new 
stimulus. Two events occurred at this 
period that had a powerful influence on his 
after life. One was his marriage to Miss 
Lucy Ware Webb, and the other was his 
introduction to a Cincinnati literary club, 
a body embracing such men as Salmon P. 
Chase, John Pope, and Edward F. Noyes. 
In 1856 he was nominated for judge of the 
court of common pleas, but declined, and 
two years later he was appointed city 
solicitor. At the outbreak of the Rebellion 
Mr. Hayes was appointed major of the 
Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, June 7, 1861, 
and in July the regiment was ordered to 
Virginia, and October 15, 1861, saw him 
promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of his 
regiment. He was made colonel of the 
Seventy-ninth Ohio Infantry, but refused to 
leave his old comrades; and in the battle of 
South Mountain he was wounded very 
severely and was unable to rejoin his regi- 
ment until November 30, 1862. He had 
been promoted to the colonelcy of the 
regiment on October 15, 1862. In the 
following December he was appointed to 
command the Kanawa division and was 
given the rank of brigadier-general for 
meritorious services in several battles, and 
in 1864 he was brevetted major-general for 
distinguished services in 1864, during 
which campaign he was wounded several 
times and five horses had been shot under 
him. Mr. Hayes' first venture in politics 
was as a Whig, and later he was one of the 
first to unite with the Republican party. In 
1864 he was elected from the Second Ohio 



district to congress, re-elected in 1866, 
and in 1867 was elected governor of Ohio 
over Allen G. Thurman, and was re-elected 
in 1869. Mr. Hayes was elected to the 
presidency in 1876, for the term of four 
years, and at its close retired to private life, 
and went to his home in Fremont, Ohio, 
where he died on January 17, 1893. 



WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN became 
a celebrated character as the nominee 
of the Democratic and Populist parties for 
president of the United States in 1896. He 
was born March 19, i860, at Salem, Illi- 
nois. He received his early education in 
the public schools of his native county, and 
later on he attended the Whipple Academy 
at Jacksonville. He also took a course in 
Illinois College, and after his graduation 
from the same went to Chicago to study 
law, and entered the Union College of Law 
as a student. He was associated with the 
late Lyman Trumbull, of Chicago, during 
his law studies, and devoted considerable 
time to the questions of government. He 
graduated from the college, was admitted to 
the bar, and went to Jacksonville, Illinois, 
where he was married to Miss Mary Eliza- 
beth Baird. In 1887 Mr. Bryan removed 
to Lincoln, Nebraska, and formed a law 
partnership with Adolphus R. Talbot. He 
entered the field of politics, and in 1888 
was sent as a delegate to the state con- 
vention, which was to choose delegates to 
the national convention, during which he 
made a speech which immediately won him 
a high rank in political affairs. He declined, 
in the ne.xt state convention, a nomination 
for lieutenant-governor, and in 1890 he was 
elected congressman from the First district 
of Nebraska, and was the youngest member 
of the fifty-second congress. He cham- 
pioned the Wilson tariff bill, and served 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



159 



three terms in the house of representatives. 
He next ran for senator, but was defeated 
by John M. Thurston, and in 1896 he was 
selected by the Democratic and Populist 
parties as their nominee for the presidency, 
being defeated by William McKinley. 



M 



ARVIN HUGHITT, one of America's 
famous railroad men, was born in 
Genoa, New York, and entered the railway 
service in 1856 as superintendent of tele- 
graph and trainmaster of the St. Louis, Al- 
ton & Chicago, now Chicago & Alton Rail- 
road. Mr. Hughitt was superintendent of 
the southern division of the Illinois Central 
Railroad from 1862 until 1864, and was, later 
on, the general superintendent of the road 
until 1870. He was then connected with 
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
road as assistant general manager, and re- 
tained this position until 1871, when he be- 
came 'the general manager of Pullman's 
Palace Car Company. In 1872 he was made 
general superintendent of the Chicago & 
Northwestern Railroad. He served during 
1876 and up to 1880 as general manager, 
and from 1880 until 1887 as vice-presi- 
dent and general manager. He was elected 
president of the road in 1887, in recog- 
nition of his ability in conducting the 
affairs of the road. He was also chosen 
president of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis & Omaha Railway; the Fremont, Elk- 
horn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and the 
Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, 
and his services in these capacities stamped 
him as one of the most able railroad mana- 
gers of his day. 



JOSEPH MEDILL, one of the most 
eminent of American journalists, was 
born in New Brunswick, Canada, April 6, 
1823. In I S3 1 his father moved to Stark 



county, Ohio, and until 1841 Joseph Medill 
worked on his father's farm. Later he 
studied law, and began the practice of that 
profession in 1846 at New Philadelphia, 
Ohio. But the newspaper field was more 
attractive to Mr. Medill, and three years 
later he founded a free-soil Whig paper at 
Coshocton, Ohio, and after that time jour- 
nalism received all his abilities. "The 
Leader," another free-soil Whig paper, was 
founded by Mr. Medill at Cleveland in 1852. 
In that city he also became one of the first 
organizers of the Republican party. Shortly 
after that event he removed to Chicago and 
in 1855, with two partners, he purchased 
the " Chicago Tribune." In the contest for 
the nomination for the presidency in i860, 
Mr. Medill worked with unflagging zeal for 
Mr. Lincoln, his warm personal friend, and 
was one of the president's stanchest sup- 
porters during the war. Mr. Medill was a 
member of the Illinois Constitutional con- 
vention in 1870. President Grant, in 1S71, 
appointed the editor a member of the first 
United States civil service commission, and 
the following year, after the fire, he was 
elected mayor of Chicago by a great ma- 
jority. During 1873 and 1874 Mr. Medill 
spent a year in Europe. Upon his return 
he purchased a controlling interest in the 
" Chicago Tribune." 



CLAUSSPRECKELS, the great " sugar 
baron," and one of the most famous 
representatives of commercial life in Amer- 
ica, was born in Hanover, Germany, and 
emigrated to the United States in 1840, 
locating in New York. He very soon be- 
came the proprietor of a small retail gro- 
cery store on Church street, and embarked 
on a career that has since astonished the 
world. He sold out his business and went 
to California with the argonauts of 1849, 



160 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



not as a prospector, but as a trader, and for 
years after his arrival on the coast he was 
still engaged as a grocer. At length, after a 
quarter of a century of fairly prosperous 
business life, he found himself in a position 
where an ordinary man would have retired, 
but Mr. Spreckles did not retire; he had 
merely been gathering capital for the real 
work of his life. His brothers had followed 
him to California, and in combination with 
them he purchased for forty thousand dollars 
an interest in the Albany Brewery in San 
Francisco. But the field was not extensive 
enough for the development of his business 
abilities, so Mr. Sprecklas branched out 
extensively in the sugar business. He suc- 
ceeded in securing the entire output of 
sugar that was produced on the Sand- 
wich Islands, and after 1885 was known as 
the "Sugar King of Sandwich Islands." 
He controlled absolutely the sugar trade of 
the Pacific coast which was known to be 
not less than ten million dollars a year. 



CHARLES HENRY PARKHURST, 
famous as a clergyman, and for many 
years president of the Society for the 
Prevention of Crime, was born April 17, 
1842, at Framingham, Massachusetts, of 
English descent. At the age of sixteen 
he was pupil in the grammar school at 
Clinton, Massachusetts, and for the ensu- 
ing two years was a clerk in a dry goods 
store, which position he gave up to prepare 
himself for college at Lancaster academy. 
Mr. Parkhurst went to Amherst in 1862, 
and after taking a thorough course he gradu- 
ated in 1866, and in 1867 became the prin- 
cipal of the Amherst High School. He re- 
tained this position until 1870, when he 
visited Germany with the intention of tak- 
ing a course in philosophy and theology, 
but was forced to abandon this intention on 



account of illness in the family causing his 
early return from Europe. He accepted the 
chair of Latin and Greek in Williston Semi- 
nary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and re- 
mained there two years. He then accom- 
panied his wife to Europe, &nd devoted two 
years to study in Halle, Leipsic and Bonn. 
Upon his return home he spent considerable 
time in the study of Sanscrit, and in 1874 
he became the pastor of the First Congrega- 
tional church at Lenox, Massachusetts. He 
gained here his reputation as a pulpit ora- 
tor, and on March 9, 18S0, he became the 
pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian 
church of New York. He was, in 1890, 
made a member of the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Crime, and the same 3'ear be- 
came its president. He delivered a sermon 
in 1892 on municipal corruption, for which 
he was brought before the grand jury, which 
body declared his charges to be without suffi- 
cient foundation. But the matter did not end 
here, for he immediately went to work on a 
second sermon in which he substantiated his 
former sermon and wound up by saying, 
"I know, for I have seen." He was again 
summoned before that august body, and as 
a result of his testimony and of the investi- 
gation of the jurors themselves, the police 
authorities were charged with incompetency 
and corruption. Dr. Parkhurst was the 
author of the following works: ' ' The Forms 
of the Latin Verb, Illustrated by Sanscrit," 
"The Blind Man's Creed and Other Ser- 
mons," "The Pattern on the Mount," and 
" Three Gates on a Side." 



HENRY BERGH. although a writer, 
diplomatist and government official, 
was noted as a philanthropist — the founder 
of the American Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals. On his labors for 
the dumb creation alone rests his fame. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



161 



Alone, in the face of indifference, opposition 
and ridicule, he began the reform which is 
now recognized as one of the beneficent 
movements of the age. Through his exer- 
tions as a speaker and lecturer, but above 
all as a bold worker, in the street, in the 
court room, before the legislature, the cause 
he adopted gained friends and rapidly in- 
creased in power until it has reached im- 
mense proportions and influence. The work 
of the society covers all cases of cruelty to 
all sorts of animals, employs every moral 
agency, social, legislative and personal, and 
touches points of vital concern to health as 
well as humanity. 

Henry Bergh was born in New York 
City in 1823, and was educated at Colum- 
bia College. In 1863 he was made secre- 
tary of the legation to Russia and also 
served as vice-consul there. He also de- 
voted some time to literary pursuits and was 
the author of "Love's Alternative," a 
drama; "Married Off," a poem; "'The 
Portentous Telegram, " "The Ocean Para- 
gon;" "The Streets of New York," tales 
and sketches. 



HENRY BENJAMIN WHIPPLE, one 
of the most eminent of American di- 
vines, was born in Adams, Jefferson county. 
New York, February 15, 1822. He was 
brought up in the mercantile business, and 
early in life took an active interest in polit- 
ical affairs. In 1847 he became a candidate 
for holy orders and pursued theological 
studies with Rev. W. D. Wilson, D. D., 
afterward professor in Cornell University. 
He was ordained deacon in 1849, in Trinity 
church, Geneva, New York, by Rt. Rev. 
W. H. De Lancey, D. D., and took charge 
of Zion church, Rome, New York, Decem- 
ber I, 1849. In 1850, our subject was or- 
dained priest by Bishop De Lancey. In 



1S57 he became rector of the Church of the 
Holy Communion, Chicago. On the 30th 
of June, 1859, he was chosen bishop of 
Minnesota, and took charge of the interests 
of the Episcopal church in that state, being 
located at Faribault. In i860 Bishop 
Whipple, with Revs. I. L. Breck, S. W. 
Mauncey and E. S. Peake, organized the 
Bishop Seabury Mission, out of which has 
grown the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior, 
the Seabury Divinity School, Shattuck 
School and St. Mary's Hall, which have 
made Faribault City one of the greatest 
educational centersof the northwest. Bishop 
Whipple also became noted as the friend 
and defender of the North American In- 
dians and planted a number of successful 
missions among them. 



EZRA CORNELL was oneof the greatest 
philanthropists and friends of education 
the country has known. He was born at 
Westchester Landing, New York, January 
II, 1807. He grew to manhood in his na- 
tive state and became a prominent figure in 
business circles as a successful and self-made 
man. Soon after the invention of the elec- 
tric telegraph, he devoted his attention to 
that enterprise, and accumulated an im- 
mense fortune. In 1865, by a gift of five 
hundred thousand dollars, he made possible 
the founding of Cornell University, which 
was named in his honor. He afterward 
made additional bequests amountingto many 
hundred thousand dollars. His death oc- 
curred at Ithaca, New York, December 9, 
1874- 

IGNATIUS DONNELLY, widely known 
i as an author and politician, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 3, 
1 83 1. He was educated at the public 
schools of that city, and graduated fr6m the 



162 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



Central High School in 1849. He studied 
law in the office of Judge B. H. Brewster, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1852. In 
the spring of 1856, Mr. Donnelly emigrated 
to Minnesota, then a new territory, and, at 
Hastings, resumed the practice of law in 
partnership with A. M. Hayes. In 1857, 
and again in 1858, he was defeated for state 
senator, but in 1859 he was elected by the 
Republicans as lieutenant-governor, and re- 
elected in 1 86 1. In 1862 he was elected to 
represent the Second district of Minnesota 
in congress. He was re-elected to the same 
office in 1864 and in 1866. He was an 
abolitionist and warmly supported President 
Lincoln's administration, but was strongly 
in favor of leniency toward the people of 
the south, after the war. In many ways he 
was identified with some of the best meas- 
ures brought before the house during his 
presence there. In the spring of 1868, at 
the request of the Republican national com- 
mittee, he canvassed New Hampshire and 
Connecticut in the interests of that party. 
E. B. Washburne about this time made an 
attack on Donnelly in one of the papers of 
Minnesota, which was replied to on the floor 
of the house by a fierce phillipic that will 
long be remembered. Through the inter- 
vention of the Washburne interests Mr. Don- 
nelly failed of a re-election in 1870. In 
1873 he was elected to the state senate from 
Dakota county, and continuously re-elected 
until 1878. In 1886 he was elected mem- 
ber of the house for two years. In later 
years he identified himself with the Popu- 
list party. 

In 1882, Mr. Donnelly became known as 
an author, publishing his first literary work, 
"Atlantis, the Antediluvian World," which 
passed through over twenty-two editions in 
America, several in England, and was trans- 
lated into French. This was followed by 



" Ragnarok, the Age of Fire and Gravel," 
which attained nearly as much celebrity as 
the first, and these two, in the opinion of 
scientific critics, are sufficient to stamp the 
author as a most capable and painstaking 
student of the facts he has collated in them. 
The work by which he gained the greatest 
notoriety, however, was "The Great Cryp- 
togram, or Francis Bacon's Cipher in the 
Shakespeare Plays." "Caesar's Column," 
" Dr. Huguet," and other works were pub- 
lished subsequently. 



STEVEN V. WHITE, a speculator of 
Wall Street of national reputation, was 
born in Chatham county, North Carolina, 
August I, 1 83 1, and soon afterward re- 
moved to Illinois. His home was a log 
cabin, and until his eighteenth year he 
worked on the farm. Then after several 
years of struggle with poverty he graduated 
from Knox College, and went to St. Louis, 
where he entered a wholesale boot and shoe 
house as bookkeeper. He then studied law 
and worked as a reporter for the "Missouri 
Democrat." After his admission to the bar 
he went to New York, in 1865, and became 
a member of the banking house of Marvin 
& White. Mr. White enjoyed the reputa- 
tion of having engineered the only corner 
in Wall Street since Commodore Vander- 
bilt's time. This was the famous Lacka- 
wanna deal in 1883, in which he made a 
profit of two million dollars. He was some- 
times called " Deacon" White, and, though 
a member for many years of the Plymouth 
church, he never held that office. Mr. 
White was one of the most noted characters 
of the street, and has been called an orator, 
poet, philanthropist, linguist, abolitionist, 
astronomer, schoolmaster, plowboy, and 
trapper. He was a lawyer, ex-congress- 
man, expert accountant, art critic and theo- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



163 



logian. He laid the foundation for a 
"Home for Colored People," in Chatham 
county, North Carolina, where the greater 
part of his father's life was spent, and in 
whose memory the work was undertaken. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, the twentieth 
president of the United States, was born 
November 19, 1831, in Cuyahoga county, 
Ohio, and was the son of Abram and Eliza 
(Baliou) Garfield. In 1833 the father, an 
industrious pioneer farmer, died, and the 
care of the family devolved upon Thomas, 
to whom James became deeply indebted for 
educational and other advantages. As James 
grew up he was industrious and worked on 
the farm, at carpentering, at chopping wood, 
or anything else he found to do, and in the 
meantime made the most of his books. 

Until he was about si.xteen, James' high- 
est ambition was to become a sea captain. 
On attaining that age he walked to 
Cleveland, and, not being able to find work, 
he engaged as a driver on the Ohio & Penn- 
sylvania canal, but quit this after a short 
time. He attended the seminary at Ches- 
ter for about three years, after which he 
entered Hiram Institute, a school started by 
the Disciples of Christ in 1850. In order 
to pay his way he assumed the duties of 
janitor and at times taught school. After 
completing his course at the last named edu- 
cational institution he entered Williams Col- 
lege, from which he graduated in 1856. He 
afterward returned to Hiram College as its 
president. He studied law and was admitted 
to the bar in 1859. November 11, 1858, 
Mr. Garfield and Lucretia Rudolph were 
married. 

In 1859 Mr. Garfield made his first polit- 
ical speeches, at Hiram and in the neighbor- 
hood. The same year he was elected to the 
state senate. 



On the breaking out of the war, in 1 86 1 , 
he became lieutenant-colonel of the Forty- 
second Ohio Infantry, and, while but a new- 
soldier, was given command of four regi- 
ments of infantry and eight companies of 
cavalry, with which he drove the Confeder- 
ates under Humphrey Marshall out of Ken- 
tucky. January 11, 1862, he was commis- 
sioned brigadier-general. He participated 
with General Buell in the battle of Shiloh 
and the operations around Corinth, and was 
then detailed as a member of the Fitz John 
Porter court-martial. Reporting to General 
Rosecrans, he was assigned to the position 
of chief of staff, and resigned his position, 
with the rank of major-general, when his 
immediate superior was superseded. In 
the fall of 1862 Mr. Garfield was elected to 
congress and remained in that body, either 
in the house or senate, until 1 880. 

June 8, 1880, at the national Republican 
convention, held in Chicago, General Gar- 
field was nominated for the presidency, and 
was elected. He was inaugurated March 
4, 1 88 1, but, July 2, following, he was shot 
and fatally wounded by Charles Guiteau for 
some fancied political slight, and died Sep- 
tember 19, 1 88 1. 



INCREASE MATHER was one of the 
1 most prominent preachers, educators and 
authors of early times in the New England 
states. He was born at Dorchester, Massa- 
chusetts, June 21, 1639, and was given an 
excellent education, graduating at Harvard 
in 1656, and at Trinity College, Dublin, 
two years later. He was ordained a min- 
ister, and preached in England and America, 
and in 1664 became pastor of the North 
church, in Boston. In 1685 he became 
president of Harvard University, serving 
until 1 70 1. In 1692 he received the first 
doctorate in divinity conferred in English 



164 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



speaking America. The same year he pro- 
cured in England a new charter for Massa- 
chusetts, which conferred upon himself the 
power of naming the governor, lieutenant- 
governor and council. He opposed the 
severe punishment of witchcraft, and took 
a prominent part in all public affairs of his 
day. He was a prolific writer, and became 
the author of nearly one hundred publica- 
tions, large and small. His death occurred 
August 23, 1723, at Boston. 



COTTON MATHER, a celebrated minis- 
ter in the "Puritan times" of New 
England, was born at Boston, Massachu- 
setts, February 12, 1663, being a son of 
Rev. Increase Mather, and a grandson of 
John Cotton. A biography of his father 
will be found elsewhere in this volume. 
Cotton Mather received his early education 
in his native city, was trained by Ezekiel 
Cheever, and graduated at Harvard College 
in 1678; became a teacher, and in 1684 
was ordained as associate pastor of North 
church, Boston, with his father, having by 
persistent effort overcome an impediment in 
his speech. He labored with great zeal as 
a pastor, endeavoring also, to establish the 
ascendancy of the church and ministry in 
civil affairs, and in the putting down of 
witchcraft by legal sentences, a work in 
which he took an active part and through 
which he is best known in history. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. in 17 10, con- 
ferred by the University of Glasgow, and 
F. R. S. in 17 1 3. His death occurred at 
Boston, February 13, 1728. He was the 
author of many publications, among which 
were " Memorable Providences Relating to 
Witchcraft," "Wonders of the Invisible 
World," "Essays to Do Good," " Mag- 
nalia Christi Americana," and " Illustra- 
tions of the Sacred Scriptures." Some of 



these works are quaint and curious, full of 
learning, piety and prejudice. A well- 
known writer, in summing up the life and 
character of Cotton Mather, says: ' ' Mather, 
with all the faults of his early years, was a 
man of great excellence of character. He 
labored zealously for the benefit of the 
poor, for mariners, slaves, criminals and 
Indians. His cruelty and credulity were 
the faults of his age, while his philanthro- 
phy was far more rare in that age than in 
the present. " 

WILLIAM A. PEFFER, who won a 
national reputation during the time 
he was in the United States senate, was 
born on a farm in Cumberland county, 
Pennsylvania, September 10, 1831. He 
drew his education from the public schools 
of his native state and at the age of fifteen 
taught school in winter, working on a farm 
in the summer. In June, 1853, while yet a 
young man, he removed to Indiana, and 
opened up a farm in St. Joseph county. 
In 1859 he made his way to Missouri and 
settled on a farm in Morgan county, but on 
account of the war and the unsettled state 
of the country, he moved to Illinois in Feb- 
ruary, 1862, and enlisted as a private in 
Company F, Eighty-third Illinois Infantry, 
the following August. He was promoted 
to the rank of second lieutenant in 
March, 1863, and served successively as 
quartermaster, adjutant, post adjutant, 
judge advocate of a military commission, 
and depot quartermaster in the engineer 
department at Nashville. He was mustered 
out of the service June 26, 1865. He had, 
during his leisure hours while in the army, 
studied law, and in August, 1865, he com- 
menced the practice of that profession at 
Clarksville, Tennessee. He removed to 
Kansas in 1870 and practiced there until 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



165 



1878, in the meantime establishing and 
conducting two newspapers, the " Fredonia 
Journal " and " Coffey ville Journal." 

Mr. Peffer was elected to the state senate 
in 1874 and was a prominent and influential 
member of several important committees. 
He served as a presidential elector in 1880. 
The year following he became editor of the 
" Kansas Farmer," which he made a promi- 
nent and useful paper. In 1890 Mr. Peffer 
was elected to the United States senate as 
a member of the People's party and took 
his seat March 4, 1891. After six years of 
service Senator Peffer was succeeded in 
March, 1897, by William A. Harris. 



ROBERT MORRIS. —The name of this 
financier, statesman and patriot is 
closely connected with the early history of 
the United States. He was a native of 
England, born January 20, 1734, and came 
to America with his father when thirteen 
years old. Until 1754 he served in the 
counting house of Charles Willing, then 
formed a partnership with that gentleman's 
son, which continued with greatsuccess until 
1793. In 1776 Mr. Morris was a delegate 
to the Continental congress, and, although 
once voting against the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, signed that paper on its adop- 
tion, and was several times thereafter re- 
elected to congress. During the Revolu- 
tionary war the services of Robert Morris 
in aiding the government during its finan- 
cial difficulties were of incalculable value; he 
freely pledged his personal credit for sup- 
plies for the army, atone time to the amount 
of about one and a half million dollars, with- 
out which the campaign of 1781 would have 
been almost impossible. Mr. Morris was 
appointed superintendent of finance in 1781 
and served until 1784, continuing to employ 
his personal credit to facilitate the needs of 



his department. He also served as mem- 
ber of the Pennsylvania legislature, and 
from 1786 to 1795 was United States sena- 
tor, declining meanwhile the position of sec- 
retary of the treasury, and suggesting the 
name of Alexander Hamilton, who was ap- 
pointed to that post. During the latter 
part of his life Mr. Morris was engaged ex- 
tensively in the China trade, and later be- 
came involved in land speculations, which 
ruined him, so that the remaining days of 
this noble man and patriot were passed 
in confinement for debt. His death occurred 
at Philadelphia, May 8, 1806. 



WILLIAM SHARON, a senator and 
capitalist, and mine owner of na- 
tional reputation, was born at Smithfield, 
Ohio, January 9, 1821. He was reared 
upon a farm and in his boyhood given excel- 
lent educational advantages and in 1842 
entered Athens College. He remained in 
that institution about two years, after which 
he studied law with Edwin M. Stanton, and 
was admitted to the bar at St. Louis and 
commenced practice. His health failing, 
however, he abandoned his profession and 
engaged in mercantile pursuits at Carrollton, 
Greene county, Illinois. During the time 
of the gold excitement of 1849, Mr. Sharon 
went to California, whither so many went, 
and engaged in business at Sacramento. 
The next year he removed to San Francisco, 
where he operated in real estate. Being 
largely interested in its silver mines, he re- 
moved to Nevada, locating at Virginia City, 
and acquired an immense fortune. He be- 
came one of the trustees of the Bank of 
California, and during the troubles that 
arose on the death of William Ralston, the 
president of that institution, was largely in- 
strumental in bringing its affairs into a satis- 
factory shape. 



166 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



Mr. Sharon was elected to represent the 
state of Nevada in the United States senate 
in 1875, and remained a member of that 
body until 1881. He was always distin- 
guished for close application to business. 
Senator Sharon died November 13, 1885. . 



HENRY W. SHAW, an American hu- 
morist who became celebrated unde^ 
the iion-dc-pliiiuc of " Josh Billings," gained 
his fame from the witticism of his writing, 
and peculiar eccentricity of style and spell- 
ing. He was born at Lanesborough, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 18 18. For twenty-five years 
he lived in different parts of the western 
states, following various lines of business, 
including farming and auctioneering, and in 
the latter capacity settled at Poughkeepsie, 
New York, in 1858. In 1863 he began 
writing humorous sketches for the news- 
papers over the signature of "Josh Bill- 
ings," and became immediately popular 
both as a writer and lecturer. He pub- 
lished a number of volumes of comic 
sketches and edited an " Annual Allmina.x " 
for a number of years, which had a wide cir- 
culation. His death occurred October 14, 
1885, at Monterey, California. 



JOHN M. THURSTON, well known 
throughout this country as a senator 
and political leader, was born at Mont- 
pelier, Vermont, August 21, 1847, of an 
old Puritan family which dated back their 
ancestry in this country to 1636, and among 
whom were soldiers of the Revolution and 
of the war of 1812-15. 

Young Thurston was brought west by 
the family in 1854, they settling at Madison, 
Wisconsin, and two years later at Beaver 
Dam, where John M. received his schooling 
in the public schools and at Wayland Uni- 
versity. His father enlisted as a private in 



the First Wisconsin Cavalry and died while 
in the service, in the spring of 1863. 

Young Thurston, thrown on his own 
resources while attaining an education, sup- 
ported himself by farm work, driving team 
and at other manual labor. He studied law 
and was admitted to the bar May 21, 1869, 
and in October of the same year located in 
Omaha, Nebraska. He v/as elected a 
member of the city council in 1872, city 
attorney in 1874 and a member of the Ne- 
braska legislature in 1874. He was a mem- 
ber of the Republican national convention 
of 1884 and temporary chairman of that of 
1888. Taking quite an interest in the 
younger members of his party he was instru- 
mental in forming the Republican League 
of the United States, of which he was presi- 
dent for two years. He was then elected a 
member of the United States senate, in 
1895, to represent the state of Nebraska. 

As an attorney John M. Thurston occu- 
pied a very prominent place, and for a num- 
ber of years held the position of general 
solicitor of the Union Pacific railroad sys- 
tem. 



TOHN JAMES AUDUBON, a celebrated 
<J American naturalist, was born in Louis- 
iana, May 4, 1780, and was the son of an 
opulent French naval officer who owned a 
plantation in the then French colony. In 
his childhood he became deeply interested 
in the study of birds and their habits. About 
1794 he was sent to Paris, France, where 
he was partially educated, and studied de- 
signing under the famous painter, Jacques 
Louis David. He returned to the Unit- 
ed States about 1798, and settled on a 
farm his father gave him, on the Perkiomen 
creek in eastern Pennsylvania. He mar- 
ried Lucy Bakewell in 1808, and, disposing 
of his property, removed to Louisville, Ken- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1B7 



tucky, where he engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits. About two years later he began to 
make extensive excursions through the pri- 
meval forests of the southern and south- 
western states, in the exploration of which 
he passed many years. He made colored 
drawings of all the species of birds that he 
found. For several years he made his home 
with his wife and children at Henderson, on 
the Ohio river. It is said that about this 
time he had failed in business and was re- 
duced to poverty, but kept the wolf from the 
door by giving dancing lessons and in portrait 
painting. In 1824, at Philadelphia, he met 
Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who encouraged 
him to publish a work on ornithology. Two 
years later he went to England and com- 
menced the publication of his great work, 
"The Birds of America." He obtained a 
large number of subscribers at one thousand 
dollars a copy. This work, embracing five 
volumes of letterpress and five volumes of 
beautifully colored plates, was pronounced 
byCuvier " the most magnificent monument 
that art ever raised to ornithology." 

Audubon returned to America in 1829, 
and explored the forests, lakes and coast 
from Canada to Florida, collecting material 
for another work. This was his " Ornitho- 
logical Biography; or. An Account of the 
Habits of the Birds of the United States, 
Etc." He revisited England in 1831, and 
returned in 1839, after which he resiaed on 
the Hudson, near New York City, in which 
place he died January 27, 1851. During 
his life he issued a cheaper edition of his 
great work, and was, in association with 
Dr. Bachman, preparing a work on the 
quadrupeds of North America. 



the superior British squadron, under Com- 
modore Downie, September II, 1814. Com- 
modore McDonough was born in Newcastle 
county, Delaware, December 23, 1783, and 
when seventeen years old entered the 
United States navy as midshipman, serving 
in the expedition to Tripoli, under Decatur, 
in 1803-4. In 1807 he was promoted to 
lieutenant, and in July, 181 3, was made a 
commander. The following year, on Lake 
Champlain, he gained the celebrated victory 
above referred to, for which he was again 
promoted; also received a gold medal from 
congress, and from the state of Vermont an 
estate on Cumberfend Head, in view of the 
scene of the engagement. His death oc- 
curred at sea, November 16, 1825, while he 
was returning from the command of the 
Mediterranean squadron. 



COMMODORE THOMAS McDON- 
OUGH gained his principal fame from 
the celebrated victory which he gained over 



CHARLES FRANCIS HALL, one of 
America's most celebrated arctic ex- 
plorers, was born in Rochester, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1 82 1. He was a blacksmith by 
trade, and located in Cincinnati, where later 
he became a journalist. For several years 
he devoted a great deal of attention to cal- 
orics. Becoming interested in the fate of the 
explorer. Sir John Franklin, he joined the 
expedition fitted out by Henry Grinnell and 
sailed in the ship "George Henry," under 
Captain Buddington, which left New Lon- 
don, Connecticut, in i860. He returned in 
1862, and two years later published his 
" Arctic Researches." He again joined the 
expedition fitted out by Mr. Grinnell, and 
sailed in the ship, " Monticello," under 
Captain Buddington, this time remaining in 
the arctic region over four years. On his 
return he brought back many evidences of 
having found trace of Franklin. 

In 1 87 1 the " Polaris " was fitted out by 
the United States government, and Captain 



168 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Hall again sailed for the polar regions. He 
died in Greenland in October, 1871, and the 
"Polaris" was finally abandoned by the 
crew, a portion of which, under Captain 
Tyson, drifted with the icebergs for one 
hundred and ninety-five days, until picked 
up by the " Tigress," on the 30th of April, 
1873. The other portion of the crew built 
boats, and, after a perilous voyage, were 
picked up in June, 1873, by a whaling vessel. 



OLIVER ELLSWORTH, the third chief 
justice of the United States, was born 
at Windsor, Connecticut, April 29, 1745. 
After graduating from Princeton, he took 
up the study of law, and was licensed 
to practice in 177 1. In 1777 he was elected 
as a delegate to the Continental congress. 
He was judge of the superior court of his 
state in 1784, and was chosen as a delegate 
to the constitutional convention in 1787. 
He sided with the Federalists, was elected 
to the United States senate in 1789, and 
was a firm supporter of Washington's policy. 
He won great distinction in that body, and 
was appointed chief justice of the supreme 
court of the United States by Washington 
in 1796. The relations between this coun- 
try and France having become violently 
strained, he was sent to Paris as envoy ex- 
traordinary in 1799, and was instrumental 
in negotiating the treaty that averted war. 
He resigned the following year, and was suc- 
ceeded by Chief Justice Marshall. His 
death occurred November 26, 1807. 



MELLVILLE WESTON FULLER, an 
eminent American jurist and chief 
justice of the United States supreme court, 
was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1833. His 
education was looked after in boyhood, and 
at the age of sixteen he entered Bowdoin 
College, and on graduation entered the law 



department of Harvard University. He then 
entered the law office of his uncle at Ban- 
gor, Maicie, and soon after opened an office 
for the practice of law at Augusta. He was 
an alderman from his ward, city attorney, 
and editor of the " Age," a rival newspaper 
of the "Journal," which was conducted by 
James G. Blaine. He soon decided to re- 
move to Chicago, then springing into notice 
as a western metropolis. He at once iden- 
tified himself with the interests of the 
new city, and by this means acquired an 
experience that fitted him for his future 
work. He devoted himself assiduously to 
his profession, and had the good fortune to 
connect himself with the many suits grow- 
ing oat of the prorogation of the Illinois 
legislature in 1S63. It was not long before 
he became one of the foremost lawyers in 
Chicago. He made a three days' speech in 
the heresy trial of Dr. Cheney, which added 
to his fame. He was appointed chief jus- 
tice of the United States by President Cleve- 
land in 1888, the youngest man who ever 
held that exalted position. His income from 
his practice had for many years reached 
thirty thousand dollars annually. 



CHESTER ALLEN ARTHUR, twenty- 
first president of the United States, was 
born in Franklin county, Vermont, Octo- 
ber 5, 1830. He was educated at Union 
College, Schenectady, New York, from 
which he graduated with honor, and en- 
gaged in teaching school. After two years 
he entered the law office of Judge E. D. 
Culver, of New York, as a student. He was 
admitted to the bar, and formed a partner- 
ship with an old room-mate, Henry D. Gar- 
diner, with the intention of practicing law 
in the west, but after a few months' search 
for a location, they returned to New York 
and opened an office, and at once entered 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



\m 



upon a profitable practice. He was shortly 
afterwards married to a daughter of Lieu- 
tenant Herndon, of the United States navy. 
Mrs. Arthur died shortly before his nomina- 
tion for the vice-presidency. In 1856 a 
colored woman in New York was ejected 
from a street car and retained Mr. Arthur 
in a suit against the company, and obtained 
a verdict of five hundred dollars. It result- 
ed in a general order by all superintendents 
of street railways in the city to admit col- 
ored people to the cars. 

I^^Ir. Arthur was a delegate to the first 
Republican national convention, and was 
appointed judge-advocate for the Second 
Brigade of New York, and then chief engi- 
neer of Governor Morgan's staff. At the 
close of his term he resumed the practice of 
law in New York. In 1872 he was made 
collector of the port of New York, which 
position he held four years. At the Chi- 
cago convention in 1880 Mr. Arthur was 
nominated for the vice-presidency with 
Garfield, and after an exciting campaign 
was elected. Four months after the inau- 
guration President Garfield was assassinated, 
and Mr. Arthur was called to take the reins 
of government. His administration of 
affairs was generally satisfactory. At its 
close he resumed the practice of law in New 
York. His death occurred November 18, 
1886. 

ISAAC HULL was one of the most con- 
spicuous and prominent naval officers in 
the early history of America. He was born 
at Derby, Connecticut, March 9, 1775, be- 
ing the son of a Revolutionary officer. Isaac 
Hull early in life became a mariner, and 
when nineteen years of age became master 
of a merchant ship in the London trade. 
In 1 798 he became a lieutenant in the United 

States navy, and three years later was made 
10 



first lieutenant of the frigate "Constitution." 
He distinguished himself by skill and valor 
against the French on the coast of Hayti, and 
served with distinction in the Barbary e.xpe- 
ditions. July 12, 1812, he sailed from 
Annapolis, in command of the "Constitu- 
tion," and for three days was pursued by a 
British squadron of five ships, from which 
he escaped by bold and ingenious seaman- 
ship. In August of the same year he cap- 
tured the frigate " Guerriere," one of his 
late pursuers and for this, the first naval 
advantage of that war, he received a gold 
medal from congress. Isaac Hull was later 
made naval commissioner and had command 
of various navy yards. His death occurred 
February 13, 1843, at Philadelphia. 



M 



ARCUS ALONZO HANNA, famous 
as a prominent business man, political 
manager and senator, was born in New Lis- 
bon, Columbiana county, Ohio, September 
24, 1837. He removed with his father's 
family to Cleveland, in the same state, in 
1852, and in the latter city, and in the 
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, 
received his education. He became an em- 
ploye of the wholesale grocery house of 
Hanna, Garrettson & Co., his father being 
the senior member of the firm. The latter 
died in 1862, and Marcus represented his 
interest until 1867, when the business was 
closed up. 

Our subject then became a member of 
the firm of Rhodes & Co., engaged in the 
iron and coal business, but at the expira- 
tion of ten years this firm was changed to 
that of M. A. Hanna & Co. Mr. Hanna 
was long identified with the lake carrying 
business, being interested in vessels on the 
lakes and in the construction of them. As 
a director of the Globe Ship Manufacturing 
Company, of Cleveland, president of the 



170 



COMPENDIUM OF BI0GRAPH7^. 



Union National Bank, of Cleveland, president 
of the Cleveland City Railway Company, 
and president of the Chapin Mining Com- 
pany, of Lake Superior, he became promi- 
nently identified with the business world. 
He was one of the government directors of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, being appointed 
to that position in 1885 by President Cleve- 
land. 

Mr. Hanna was a delegate to the na- 
tional Republican convention of 1884, which 
was his first appearance in the political 
world. He was a delegate to the con- 
ventions of 1888 and 1896, and was elect- 
ed chairman of the Republican national 
committee the latter year, and practically 
managed the campaign of William McKin- 
ley for the presidency. In 1S97 Mr. Hanna 
was appointed senator by Governor Bush- 
nell, of Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by 
the resignation of John Sherman. 



GEORGE PEABODY was one of the 
best known and esteemed of ail philan- 
thropists, whose munificent gifts to Ameri- 
can institutions have proven of so much 
benefit to the cause of humanity. He was 
born February 18, 1795, at South Danvers, 
Massachusetts, which is now called Pea- 
body in honor of him. He received but a 
meager education, and during his early life 
he was a mercantile clerk at Thetford, Ver- 
mont, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 
1814 he became a partner with Elisha 
Riggs, at Georgetown, District of Columbia, 
and in 1 8 1 5 they moved to Baltimore, Mary- 
land. The business grew to great propor- 
tions, and they opened branch houses at 
New York and Philadelphia. Mr. Peabody 
made several voyages to Europe of com- 
mercial importance, and in 1829 became the 
head of the firm, which was then called 
Peabody, Riggs & Co., and in 1838 he re- 



moved to London, England. He retired 
from the firm, and established the cele- 
brated banking house, in which he accumu- 
lated a large fortune. He aided Mr. Grin- 
nell in fitting out Dr. Kane's Arctic expedi- 
tion, in 1852, and founded in the same year 
the Peabody Institute, in his native town, 
which he afterwards endowed with two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. Mr. Peabody visited 
the United States in 1857, and gave three 
hundred thousand dollars for the establish- 
ment at Baltimore of an institute of science, 
literature and fine arts. In 1 862 he gave 
two million five hundred thousand dollars 
for the erecting of lodging houses for the 
poor in London, and on another visit to the 
United States he gave one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars to establish at Harvard a 
museum and professorship of American 
archteology and ethnology, an equal sum for 
the endowment of a department of physical 
science at Yale, and gave the "Southern 
Educational Fund " two million one hundred 
thousand dollars, besides devoting two hun- 
dred thousand dollars to various objects of 
public utility. Mr. Peabody made a final 
visit to the United States in 1869, and on 
this occasion he raised the endowment of 
the Baltimore Institute one million dollars, 
created the Peabody Museum, at Salem, 
Massachusetts, with a fund of one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars, gave sixty thou- 
sand dollars to Washington College, Vir- 
ginia; fifty thousand dollars for a "Peabody 
Museum, " at North Danvers, thirty thousand 
dollars to Phillips Academy, Andover; twen- 
ty-five thousand dollars to Kenyon College, 
Ohio, and twenty thousand dollars to the 
Maryland Historical Society. Mr. Peabody 
also endowed an art school at Rome, in 

1868. He died in London, November 4, 

1869, less then a month after he had re- 
turned from the United States, and his 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



171 



remains were brought to the United States 
and interred in his native town. He made 
several other bequests in his will, and left 
his family about five million dollars. 



jyiATTH] 
iVl public 



ATTHEW S. QUAY, a celebrated 
public man and senator, was born at 
Dillsburgh, York count}', Pennsylvania, 
September 30, 1833, of an old Scotch-Irish 
family, some of whom had settled in the 
Keystone state in 171 5. Matthew received 
a good education, graduating from the Jef- 
ferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, 
at the age of seventeen. He then traveled, 
taught school, lectured, and studied law 
under Judge Sterrett. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1854, was appointed a prothon- 
otary in 1855 and elected to the same 
office in 1856 and 1859. Later he was 
made lieutenant of the Pennsylvania Re 
serves, lieutenant-colonel and assistant com- 
missary-general of the state, private secre- 
tary of the famous war governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, Andrew G. Curtin, colonel of the 
One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylva- 
nia Infantry (nine months men), military 
state agent and held other offices at different 
times. 

Mr. Quay was a member of the house of 
representatives of the state of Pennsylvania 
from 1865 to 1 868. He filled the office of 
secretar}' of the commonwealth from 1872 
to 1878, and the position of delegate-at- 
large to the Republican national conventions 
of 1S72, 1876, 1880 and 1888. Hewasthe 
editor of the "Beaver Radical" and the 
"Philadelphia Record" for a time, and held 
many offices in the state conventions and on 
their committees. He was elected secre- 
tary of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
1869, and served three years, and in 1885 
was chosen state treasurer. In 1886 his 
great abilities pointed him out as the 



natural candidate for United States senator, 
and he was accordingly elected to that posi- 
tion and re-elected thereto in 1892. He 
was always noted for a genius for organiza- 
tion, and as a political leader had but few 
peers. Cool, serene, far-seeing, resourceful, 
holding his impulses and forces in hand, he 
never quailed from any policy he adopted, 
and carried to success most, if not all, of 
the political campaigns in which he took 
part. 

JAMES K. JONES, a noted senator and 
political leader, attained national, fame 
while chairman of the national executive 
committee of the Democratic party in the 
presidential campaign of 1896. He was a 
native of Marshall county, Mississippi, and 
was born September 29, 1839. His father, 
a well-to-do planter, settled in Dallas county, 
Arkansas, in 1848, and there the subject of 
this sketch received a careful education. 
During the Civil war he served as a private 
soldier in the Confederate army. From 
1866 to 1873 he passed a quiet life as a 
planter, but in the latter year was admitted 
to the bar and began the practice of law. 
About the same time he was elected to the 
Arkansas senate and re-elected in 1874. In 
1877 he was made president of the senate 
and the following year was unsuccessful in 
obtaining a nomination as member of con- 
gress. In 18S0 he was elected representa- 
tive and his ability at once placed him in a 
foremost position. He was re-elected to 
congress in 1882 and in 1884, and served as 
an influential member on the committee of 
ways and means. March 4, 1885, Mr. Jones 
took his seat in the United States senate to 
succeed James D. Walker, and was after- 
ward re-elected to the same office. In this 
branch of the national legislature his capa- 
bilities had a wider scope, and he was rec- 



172 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ognized as one of the ablest leaders of his 
party. 

On the nomination of William J. Bryan 
as its candidate for the presidency by the 
national convention of the Democratic 
party, held in Chicago in 1896, Mr. Jones 
was made chairman of the national com- 
mittee. 

THEODORE THOMAS, one of the most 
celebrated musical directors America 
has known, was born in the kingdom of Han- 
over in 1835, and received his musical educa- 
tion ^rom his father. He was a very apt scholar 
and played the violin at public concerts at 
the age of six years. He came with his 
parents to America in 1845, and joined the 
orchestra of the Italian Opera in New York 
City. He played the first violin in the 
orchestra which accompanied Jenny Lind 
in her first American concert. In 1861 Mr. 
Thomas established the orchestra that be- 
came famous under his management, and 
gave his first symphony concerts in New 
York in 1864. He began his first "summer 
night concerts" in the same city in 1868, 
and in 1869 he started on his first tour of 
the principal cities in the United States, 
which he made every year for many years. 
He was director of the College of Music in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, but resigned in 1880, after 
having held the position for three years. 

Later he organized one of the greatest 
and most successful orchestras ever brought 
together in the city of Chicago, and was 
very prominent in musical affairs during the 
World's Columbian Exposition, thereby add- 
ing greatly to his fame. 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, the fa- 
mous inventor and manufacturer, was 
born at Walnut Grove, Virginia, February 
15, 1809. When he was seven years old his 



father invented a reaping machine. It was 
a rude contrivance and not successful. In 
1 83 1 Cyrus made his invention of a reaping * 
machine, and had it patented three years 
later. By successive improvements he was 
able to keep his machines at the head of 
its class during his life. In 1 845 he removed 
to Cincinnati, Ohio, and two years later 
located in Chicago, where he amassed a 
great fortune in manufacturing reapers and 
harvesting machinery. In 1859 he estab- 
lished the Theological Seminary of the 
Northwest at Chicago, an institution for pre- 
paring young men for the ministry in the 
Presbyterian church, and he afterward en- 
dowed a chair in the Washington and Lee 
College at Lexington, Virginia. He mani- 
fested great interest in educational and re- 
ligious matters, and by his great wealth he 
was able to extend aid and encouragement 
to many charitable causes. His death oc- 
curred May 13, 1884. 



DAVID ROSS LOCKE.— Under the 
pen name of Petroleum V. Nasby, this 
well-known humorist and writer made for 
himself a household reputation, and estab- 
lished a school that has many imitators. 

The subject of this article was born at 
Vestal, Broome county. New York, Sep- 
tember 30, 1833. After receiving his edu- 
cation in the county of his birth he en- 
tered the office of the ' ' Democrat, " at Cort- 
land, New York, where he learned the 
printer's trade. He was successively editor 
and publisher of the "Plymouth Advertiser," 
the "Mansfield Herald," the " Bucyrus 
Journal," and the "Findlay Jeffersonian." 
■Later he became editor of the "Toledo 
Blade." In i860 he commenced his 
" Nasby" articles, several series of which 
have been given the world in book form. 
Under a mask of misspelling, and in a ouaiut 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



173 



and humorous style, a keen political satire 
is couched — a most effective weapon. 
Mr. Locke was the author of a num- 
ber of serious political pamphlets, and 
later on a more pretentious work, " The 
Morals of Abou Ben Adhem." As a news- 
paper writer he gained many laurels and his 
works are widely read. Abraham Lincoln 
is said to have been a warm admirer of P. 
V. Nasby, of " Confedrit X Roads" fame. 
Mr. Locke died at Toledo, Ohio, February 
15, 1888. 

RUSSELL A. ALGER, noted as a sol- 
dier, governor and secretary of war, 
was born in Medina county, Ohio, February 
27, 1836, and was the son of Russell and 
Caroline (Moulton) Alger. At the age of 
twelve years he was left an orphan and pen- 
niless. For about a year he worked for 
his board and clothing, and attended school 
part of the time. In 1850 he found a place 
which paid small wages, and out of his 
scanty earnings helped his brother and sister. 
While there working on a farm he found 
time to attend the Richfield Academy, and 
by hard work between times managed to get 
a fair education for that time. The last 
two years of his attendance at this institu- 
tion of learning he taught school during the 
winter months. In 1857 he commenced the 
study of law, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1859. For a while he found employ- 
ment in Cleveland, Ohio, but impaired 
health induced him to remove to Grand 
Rapids, where he engaged in the lumber 
business. He was thus engaged when the 
Civil war broke out, and, his business suf- 
fering and his savings swept away, he en- 
listed as a private in the Second Michigan 
Cavalry. He was promoted to be captain 
the following month, and major for gallant 
conduct at Boonesville, Mississippi, July i. 



1862. October 16, 1862, he was made 
lieutenant-colonel of the Sixth Michigan 
Cavalry, and in February, 1863, colonel of 
the Fifth Michigan Cavalry. He rendered 
excellent service in the Gettysburg cam- 
paign. He was wounded at Boonesboro, 
Maryland, and on returning to his command 
took part with Sherman in the campaign in 
the Shenandoah Valley. For services ren- 
dered, that famous soldier recommended 
him for promotion, and he was brevetted 
major-general of volunteers. In 1866 Gen- 
eral Alger took up his residence at Detroit, 
and prospered exceedingly in his business, 
which was that of lumbering, and grew 
quite wealthy. In 1884 he was a delegate 
to the Republican national convention, and 
the same year was elected governor of 
Michigan. He declined a nomination for 
re-election to the latter office, in 1887, and 
was the following year a candidate for the 
nomination for president. In 1889 he was 
elected commander-in-chief of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, and at different 
times occupied many offices in other or- 
ganizations. 

In March, 1897, President McKinley 
appointed General Alger secretary of war. 



CYRUS WEST FIELD, the father of 
submarine telegraphy, was the son of 
the Rev. David D. Field, D.D., a Congre- 
gational minister, and was born at Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 1819. 
He was educated in his native town, and at 
the age of fifteen years became a clerk in a 
store in New York City. Being gifted with 
excellent business ability Mr. Field pros- 
pered and became the head of a large mer- 
cantile house. In 1853 he spent about six 
months in travel in South America. On his 
return he became interested in ocean teleg- 
raphy. Being solicited to aid in the con- 



174 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAniT. 



struction of a land telegraph across New 
Foundland to receive the news from a line 
of fast steamers it was proposed to run from 
from Ireland to St. Johns, the idea struck 
him to carry the line across the broad At- 
lantic. In 1850 Mr. Field obtained a con- 
cession from the legislature of Newfound- 
land, giving him the sole right for fifty years 
to land submarine cables on the shores of 
that island. In company with Peter Cooper, 
Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts and 
Chandler White, he organized a company 
under the name of the New York, New- 
foundland & London Telegraph Company. 
In two years the line from New York across 
Newfoundland was built. The first cable 
connecting Cape Breton Island with New- 
foundland having been lost in a storm while 
being laid in 1855, another was put down in 
1856. In the latter year Mr. Field went to 
London and organized the Atlantic Tele- 
graph Company, furnishing one-fourth of the 
capital himself. Both governments loaned 
ships to carry out the enterprise. Mr. Field 
accompanied the expeditions of 1857 and 
two in 1S58. The first and second cables 
were failures, and the third worked but a 
short time and then ceased. The people of 
both continents became incredulous of the 
feasibility of laying a successful cable under 
so wide an e.xpanse of sea, and the war 
breaking out shortly after, nothing was done 
until 1865-66. Mr. Field, in the former 
year, again made the attempt, and the Great 
Eastern laid some one thousand two hun- 
dred miles when the cable parted and was 
lost. The following year the same vessel 
succeeded in laying the entire cable, and 
picked up the one lost the year before, and 
both were carried to America's shore. After 
thirteen years of care and toil Mr. Field had 
his reward. He was the recipient of many 
medals and honors from both home and 



abroad. He gave his attention after this 
to establishing telegraphic communication 
throughout the world and many other large 
enterprises, notably the construction of ele- 
vated railroads in New York. Mr. Field 
died July 1 1, 1892. 



G ROVER CLEVELAND, the twenty- 
second president of the United States, 
was born in Caldwell, Essex county. New 
Jersey, March 18, 1837, and was the son 
of Rev. Richard and Annie (Neale) Cleve- 
land. The father, of distinguished New 
England ancestry, was a Presbyterian min- 
ister in charge of the church at Caldwell at 
the time. 

When Grover was about three years of 
age the family removed to Fayetteville, 
Onondaga county, New York, where he 
attended the district school, and was in the 
academy for a short time. His father be- 
lieving that boys should early learn to labor, 
Grover entered a village store and worked 
for the sum of fifty dollars for the first year. 
While he was thus engaged the family re- 
moved to Clinton, New York, and there 
young Cleveland took up h's studies at the 
academy. The death of his father dashed 
all his hopes of a collegiate education, the 
family being left in straightened circum- 
stances, and Grover started out to battle 
for himself. After acting for a year (1853- 
54) as assistant teacher and bookkeeper in 
the Institution for the Blind at New York 
City, he went to Buffalo. A short time 
after he entered the law office of Rogers, 
Bowen & Rogers, of that city, and after a 
hard struggle with adverse circumstances, 
was admitted to the bar in 1859. Hebe- 
came confidential and managing clerk for 
the firm under whom he had studied, and 
remained with them until 1863. In the lat- 
ter 3'ear he was appointed district attorney 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



175 



of Erie county. It was during his incum- 
bency of this office that, on being nominated 
by the Democrats for supervisor, he came 
within thirteen votes of election, although 
the district was usually Republican by two 
hundred and fifty majority. In i866Grover 
Cleveland formed a partnership with Isaac 
V. Vanderpoel. The most of the work here 
fell upon the shoulders of our subject, and 
he soon won a good standing at the bar of 
the state. In 1869 Mr. Cleveland associated 
himself in business with A. P. Laning and 
Oscar Folsom, and under the firm name of 
Laning, Cleveland & Folsom soon built up a 
fair practice. In the fall of 1870 Mr. Cleve- 
land was elected sheriff of Erie county, an 
office which he filled for four years, after 
which he resumed his profession, with L. K. 
Bass and Wilson S. Bissell as partners. 
This firm was strong and popular and 
shortly was in possession of a lucrative 
practice. Mr. Bass retired from the firm 
in 1879, and George J. Secard was admit- 
ted a member in 1 88 1. In the latter year 
Mr. Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo, 
and in 1882 he was chosen governor by 
the enormous majority of one hundred and 
ninety-two thousand votes. July 11, 1884, 
he was nominated for the presidency by the 
Democratic national convention, and in 
November following was elected. 

Mr. Cleveland, after serving one term as 
president of the United States, in 1888 was 
nominated by his party to succeed himself, 
but he failed of the election, being beaten 
by Benjamin Harrison. In 1892, however, 
being nominated again in opposition to the 
then incumbent of the presidency, Mr. Har- 
rison, Grover Cleveland was elected pres- 
ident for the second time and served for the 
usual term of four years. In 1897 Mr. 
Cleveland retired from the chair of the first 
magistrate of the nation, and in New York j 



City resumed the practice of law, in which 
city he had established himself in 1889. 

June 2, 1886, Grover Cleveland was 
united in marriage with Miss Frances Fol- 
som, the daughter of his former partner. 



ALEXANDER WINCHELL, for many 
years one of the greatest of American 
scientists, and one of the most noted and 
prolific writers on scientific subjects, was 
born in Duchess county. New York, Decem- 
ber 31, 1824. He received a thorough col- 
legiate education, and graduated at the 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connect- 
icut, in 1S47. His mind took a scientific 
turn, which manifested itself while he was 
yet a boy, and in 1848 he became teacher 
of natural sciences at the Armenian Semi- 
nary, in his native state, a position which 
he filled for three years. In 185 1-3 he oc- 
cupied the same position in the Mesopo- 
tamia Female Seminary, in .Alabama, after 
which he was president of the Masonic Fe- 
male Seminary, in Alabama. In 1853 he 
became connected with the University of 
Michigan, at Ann Arbor, at which institu- 
tion he performed the most important work 
of his life, and gained a wide reputation as 
a scientist. He held many important posi- 
tions, among which were the following: 
Professor of physics and civil engineering at 
the University of Michigan, also of geology, 
zoology and botany, and later professor of 
geology and palaeontology at the same insti- 
tution. He also, for a time, was president 
of the Michigan Teachers' Association, and 
state geologist of Michigan. Professor 
Winchell was a very prolific writer on scien- 
tific subjects, and published many standard 
works, his most important and widely known 
being those devoted to geology. He also 
contributed a large number of articles to 
scientific and popular journals. 



176 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ANDREW HULL FOOTE, of the 
United States navy, was a native of 
New England, born at New Haven, Con- 
necticut, May 4, 1808. He entered the 
navy, as a midshipman, December 4, 1822. 
He slowly rose in his chosen profession, at- 
taining the rank of lieutenant in 1830, com- 
mander in 1852 and captain in 1861. 
Among the distinguished men in the break- 
ing out of the Civil war, but few stood higher 
in the estimation of his brother officers than 
Foote, and when, in the fall of 1861, he 
was appointed to the command of the flotilla 
then building on the Mississippi, the act 
gave great satisfaction to the service. 
Although embarrassed by want of navy 
yards and supplies, Foote threw himself into 
his new work with unusual energy. He 
overcame all obstacles and in the new, and, 
until that time, untried experiment, of creat- 
ing and maintaining a navy on a river, 
achieved a success beyond the expectations 
of the country. Great incredulity existed as 
to the possibility of carrying on hostilities 
on a river where batteries from the shore 
might bar the passage. But in spite of all, 
Foote soon had a navy on the great river, 
and by the heroic qualities of the crews en- 
trusted to him, demonstrated the utility of 
this new departure in naval architecture. 
All being prepared, February 6, 1862, Foote 
took Fort Henry after a hotly-contested 
action. On the 14th of the same month, 
for an hour and a half engaged the batteries 
of Fort Donelson, with four ironclads and 
two wooden gunboats, thereby dishearten- 
ing the garrison and assisting in its capture. 
April 7th of the same year, after several 
hotly-contested actions, Commodore Foote 
received the surrender of Island No. 10, one 
of the great strongholds of the Confederacy 
on the Mississippi river. Foote having been 
wounded at Fort Donelson, and by neglect 



it having become so serious as to endanger 
his life, he was forced to resign his command 
and return home. June 16, 1S62, he re- 
ceived the thanks of congress and was pro- 
moted to the rank of rear admiral. He was 
appointed chief of the bureau of equipment 
and recruiting. June 4, 1863, he was 
ordered to the fleet of^ Charleston, to super- 
cede Rear Admiral Dupont, but on his way 
to that destination was taken sick at New 
York, and died June 26, 1863. 



NELSON A. MILES, the well-known sol- 
dier, was born at Westminster, Massa- 
chusetts, August 8, 1839. His ancestors set- 
tled in that state in 1643 among the early 
pioneers, and their descendants were, many 
of them, to be found among those battling 
against Great Britain during Revolutionary 
times and during the war of 18 12. Nelson 
was reared on a farm, received an academic 
education, and in early manhood engaged in 
mercantile pursuits in Boston. Early in 

1 86 1 he raised a company and offered hi? 
services to the government, and although 
commissioned as captain, on account of his 
youth went out as first lieutenant in the 
Twenty-second Massachusetts Infantr}'. In 

1 862 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel 
and colonel of the Sixty-first New York In- 
fantry. At the request of Generals Grant 
and Meade he was made a brigadier by 
President Lincoln. He participated in all 
but one of the battles of the Army of the 
Potomac until the close of the war. During 
the latter part of the time he commanded 
the first division of the Second Corps. 
General Miles was wounded at the battles 
of Fair Oaks, Fredericksburg and Chan- 
cellorsville, and received four brevets for 
distinguished service. During the recon- 
struction period he commanded in North 
Carolina, and on the reorganization of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Yil 



regular army he was made colonel of in- 
fantry. In 1880 he was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general, and in 1890 to 
that of major-general. He successfully con- 
ducted several campaigns among the In- 
dians, and his name is known among the 
tribes as a friend when they are peacefully 
inclined. He many times averted war 
with the red men by judicious and humane 
settlement of difficulties without the military 
power. In 1892 General Miles was given 
command of the proceedings in dedicating 
the World's Fair at Chicago, and m the 
summer of 1894, during the great railroad 
strike at the same city. General Miles, then 
in command of the department, had the 
disposal of the troops sent to protect the 
United States mails. On the retirement of 
General J. M. Schofield, in 1895, General 
Miles became the ranking major-general of 
the United States army and the head of its 
forces. 

JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH, the great 
vJ actor, though born in London (1796), is 
more intimately connected with the Amer- 
ican than with the English stage, and his 
popularity in America was almost un- 
bounded, while in England he was not a 
prime favorite. He presented " Richard III. " 
in Richmond on his first appearance on the 
American stage in 1821. This was his 
greatest role, and in it he has never had an 
equal. In October of the same year he 
appeared in New York. After a long and 
successful career he gave his final perform- 
ance at New Orleans in 1852. He con- 
tracted a severe cold, and for lack of proper 
medical attention, it resulted in his death 
on November 30th of that year. He was, 
without question, one of the greatest tra- 
gedians that ever lived. In addition to his 
professional art and genius, he was skilled 



in languages, drawing, painting and sculp- 
ture. In his private life he was reserved, 
and even eccentric. Strange stories are 
related of his peculiarities, and on his farm 
near Baltimore he forbade the use of animal 
food, the taking of animal life, and even the 
felling of trees, and brought his butter and 
eggs to the Baltimore markets in person. 

Junius Brutus Booth, known as the elder 
Booth, gave to the world three sons of note: 
Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., the husband of 
Agnes Booth, the actress; John Wilkes 
Booth, the author of the greatest tragedy 
in the life of our nation; Edwin Booth, in 
his day the greatest actor of America, if not 
of the world. 

JAMES MONTGOMERY BAILEY, fa- 
mous as the "Danbury News Man," 
was one of the best known American humor- 
ists, and was born September 25, 1841, at 
Albany, N. Y. He adopted journalism as a 
profession and started in his chosen work on 
the "Danbury Times," which paper he pur- 
chased on his return from the war. Mr. 
Bailey also purchased the "Jeffersonian," 
another paper of Danbury, and consolidated 
them, forming the "Danbury News," which 
paper soon acquired a celebrity throughout 
the United States, from an incessant flow of 
rich, healthy, and original humor, which the 
pen of the editor imparted to its columns, 
and he succeeded in raising the circulation 
of the paper from a few hundred copies a 
week to over forty thousand. The facilities 
of a country printing office were not so com- 
plete in those days as they are now, but Mr. 
Bailey was resourceful, and he put on re- 
lays of help and ran his presses night and 
day, and always prepared his matter a week 
ahead of time. The "Danbury News Man" 
was a new figure in literature, as his humor 
was so different from that of the newspaper 



178 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



wits — who had preceded him, and he maybe 
called the pioneer of that school now so 
familiar. Mr. Bailey published in book 
form "Life in Danbury" and "The Danbury 
News Man's Almanac. " One of his most 
admirable traits was philanthrophy, as he 
gave with unstinted generosity to all comers, 
and died comparatively poor, notwithstand- 
ing his ownership of a very profitable busi- 
ness which netted him an income of .$40,000 
a j'ear. He died March 4, 1S94. 



mm; 



ATTHEW HALE CARPENTER, a 

famous lawyer, orator and senator, 
was born in Moretown, Vermont, December 
22, 1824. After receiving a common-school 
education he entered the United States 
Military Academy at West Point, but only 
remained two years. On returning to his 
home he commenced the study of law with 
Paul Dillingham, afterwards governor of 
Vermont, and whose daughter he married. 
In 1847 he was admitted to practice at the 
bar in Vermont, but he went to Boston and 
for a time studied with Ruf us Choate. In i S48 
he moved west, settling at Beloit, Wisconsin, 
and commencing the practice of his profes- 
sion soon obtained a wide reputation for 
ability. In 1856 Mr. Carpenter removed to 
Milwaukee, where he found a wider field for 
his now increasing powers. During the 
Civil war, although a strong Democrat, he 
was lojal to the government and aided the 
Union cause to his utmost. In 1S68 he 
was counsel for the government in a test 
case to settle the legality of the reconstruc- 
tion act before the United States supreme 
court, and won his case against Jeremiah S. 
Black. This gave him the election for sen- 
ator from Wisconsin in 1869, and he served 
until 1875, during part of which time he was 
president pro tempore of the senate. Failing 
of a re-election Mr. Carpenter resumed the 



practice of law, and when William W. 
Belknap, late secretary of war, was im- 
peached, entered the case for General 
Belknap, and secured an acquittal. During 
the sitting of the electoral commission of 
1S77, Mr. Carpenter appeared for Samuel 
J. Tilden, although the Republican man- 
agers had intended to have him represent 
R. B. Hayes. Mr. Carpenter was elected 
to the United States senate again in 1879, 
and remained a member of that body until 
the day of his death, which occurred at 
Washington, District of Columbia, Feb- 
ruary 24, i8S(. 

Senator Carpenter's real name was De- 
catur Merritt Hammond Carpenter but about 
1852 he changed it to the one by which he 
was universally known. 



THOMAS E. WATSON, lawyer and 
congressman, the well-known Geor- 
gian, whose name appears at the head of 
this sketch, made himself a place in the his- 
tory of our country by his ability, energy 
and fervid oratory. He was born in Col- 
umbia (now McDuffie) county, Georgia, 
September 5, 1856. He had a common- 
school education, and in 1872 entered Mer- 
cer University, at Macon, Georgia, as fresh- 
man, but for want of money left the college 
at the end of his sophomore year. He 
taught school, studying law at the same 
time, until 1875, when he was admitted to 
the bar. He opened an office and com- 
menced practice in Thomson, Georgia, in 
November, 1S76. He carried on a success- 
ful business, and bought land and farmed on 
an extensive scale. 

Mr. Watson was a delegate to the Demo- 
cratic state convention of 18S0, and was a 
member of the house of representatives of 
the legislature of his native state in 1882. 
In 1888 he was an elector-at-large on the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



179 



Cleveland ticket, and in 1890 was elected 
to represent his district in the fifty-second 
congress. This latter election is said to have 
been due entirely to Mr. Watson's "dash- 
ing display of ability, eloquence and popular 
power." In his later years he championed 
the alliance principles and policies until he 
became a leader in the movement. In the 
heated campaign of 1896, Mr. Watson was 
nominated as the candidate for vice-presi- 
dent on the Bryan ticket by that part of the 
People's party that would not endorse the 
nominee for the same position made by the 
Democratic party. 



FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD, mathe- 
matician, physicist and educator, was 
born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, May 5 , 1 809. 
He graduated from Yale College in 1828, and 
in 1830 became a tutor in the same. From 
1837 to 1848 he was professor of mathe- 
matics and natural philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Alabama, and from 1848 to 1850, 
professor of chemistry and natural history 
in the same educational institution. In 
1854 he became connected with the Univer- 
sity of Mississippi, of which he became 
president in 1856, and chancellor in 1858. 
In 1854 he took orders in the Protestant 
Episcopal church. In 1861 Professor Barnard 
resigned his chancellorship and chair in the 
university, and in 1863 and 1864 was con- 
nected with the United States coast survey 
in charge of chart printing and lithography. 
In May, 1864, he was elected president of 
Columbia College, New York City, which 
he served for a number of years. 

Professor Barnard received the honorary 
degree of LL. D. from Jeflerson College, 
Mississippi, in 1855, and from Yale College 
in 1859; also the degree of S. T. D. from 
the University of Mississippi in 1861, and 
that of L. H. D. from the regents of the 



University of the State of New York in 1 872. 
In i860 he was a member of the eclipse 
party sent by the United States coast sur- 
vey to Labrador, and during his absence 
was elected president of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. In 
the act of congress establishing the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1863, he was named 
as one of the original corporators. In 1867 
he was one of the United States commis- 
sioners to the Paris Exposition. He was 
a member of the American Philosophical 
Society, associate member of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 
many other philosophical and scientific 
societies at home and abroad. Dr. Barnard 
was thoroughly identified with the progress 
of the age in those branches. His published 
works relate wholly to scientific or educa- 
tional subjects, chief among which are the 
following: Report on Collegiate Education; 
Art Culture; History of the American Coast 
Survey; University Education; Undulatory 
Theory of Light; Machinery and Processes 
of the Industrial Arts, and Apparatus of the 
Exact Sciences, Metric System of Weights 
and Measures, etc. 



EDWIN McMASTERS STANTON, the 
secretary of war during the great Civil 
war, was recognized as one of America's 
foremost public men. He was born Decem- 
ber 19, 18 14, at Steubenville, Ohio, where 
he received his education and studied law. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and 
was reporter of the supreme court of Ohio 
from 1842 until 1845. He removed to 
Washington in 1856 to attend to his prac- 
tice before the United States supreme 
court, and in 1858 he went to California as 
counsel for the government in certain land 
cases, which he carried to a successful 
conclusion. Mr. Stanton was appointed 



180 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



attorney-general of the United States in 
December. iS6o, by President Buchanan. 
On March 4, 1S61, Mr. Stanton went with 
the outgoing administration and returned to 
the practice of his profession. He was 
appointed secretarj- of war by President 
Lincoln January 20, 1S62, to succeed Simon 
Cameron. After the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln and the accession of Johnson 
to the presidency, Mr. Stanton was still in 
the same oflSce. He held it for three years, 
and by his strict adherence to the Repub- 
lican party, he antagonized President John- 
son, who endeavored to remove him. On 
August 5, 1S67, the president requested him 
to resign, and appointed General Grant to 
succeed him. but when congress convened 
in December the senate refused to concur in 
the suspension. Mr. Stanton returned to 
his post until the president again removed 
him from office, but was again foiled by 
congress. Soon after, however, he retired 
voluntarily from office and took up the 
practice of law, in which he engaged until 
his death, on December 24, 1S69. 



ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, the eminent 
theologian and founder of the church 
known as Disciples of Christ, was born in 
the countr)' of Antrim, Ireland, in June, 
1788, and was the son of Rev. Thomas 
Campbell, a Scoth-Irish "Seceder. " After 
studying at the Universitj- of Glasgow, he, 
in company with his father, came to America 
in iSoS. and both began labor in western 
Pennsylvania to restore Christianity to 
apostolic simplicity. They organized a 
church at Brush Run, Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, in iSii, which, however, the 
year following, adopted Baptist views, and 
in 1S13, with other congregations joined a 
Baptist association. Some of the under- 
lying principles and many practices of the 



Campbells and their disciples were repug- 
nant to the Baptist church and considerable 
friction was the result, and 1S27 saw the 
separation of that church from the Church 
of Christ, as it is sometimes called. The 
latter then reorganized themselves anew. 
They reject all creeds, professing to receive 
the Bible as their only guide. In most mat- 
ters of faith they are essentially in accord with 
the other Evangelical Christian churches, 
especially in regard to the person and work 
of Christ, the resurrection and judgment. 
They celebrate the Lords Supper weekly, 
hold that repentance and faith should precede 
baptism, attaching much importance to the 
latter ordinance. On all other points they 
encourage individual liberty of thought. In 
1 84 1, Alexander Campbell founded Bethany 
College, West Virginia, of which he was 
president for many j-ears, and died March 4, 
1866. 

The denomination which thej- founded 
is quite a large and important church body 
in the United States. They support quite 
a number of institutions of learning, among 
which are: Bethany College, West \'irginia; 
Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio; Northwestern 
Christian University, Indianapolis, Indiana; 
Eureka College, Illinois; Kentuck)- Univer- 
sity, Lexington, Kentucky; Oskaloosa 
College, Iowa; and a number of seminaries 
and schools. They also support several 
monthlj- and quarterly religious periodicals 
and many papers, both in the United States 
and Great Britain and her dependencies. 



WILLIAM L.WILSON, the noted West 
Virginian, who was postmaster-gener- 
al under President Cleveland's second ad- 
ministration, won distinction as the father 
of the famous " Wilson bill," which became 
a law under the same administration. Mr. 
Wilson was born May 3. 1S43, in Jeffer- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



181 



son county. West Virginia, and received 
a good education at the Charlestown 
Academy, where he prepared himself for 
college. He attended the Columbian Col- 
lege in the District of Columbia, from 
which he graduated in i860, and then 
attended the University of Virginia. Mr. 
Wilson served in the Confederate army dur- 
ing the war, after which he was ;i professor 
in Columbian College. Later he entered 
into the practice of law at Charlestown. 
He attended the Democratic convention 
held at Cincinnati in 1880, as a delegate, 
and later was chosen as one of the electors 
for the state-at-large on the Hancock 
ticket. In the Democratic convention at 
Chicago in 1892, Mr. Wilson was its per- 
manent president. He was elected pres- 
ident of the W'est Virginia University in 
1882, entering upon the duties of his office 
on September 6, but having received the 
nomination for the forty-seventh congress 
on the Democratic ticket, he resigned the 
presidency of the university in June, 1883, 
to take his seat in congress. Mr. Wil- 
son was honored by the Columbian Uni- 
versity and the Hampden-Sidney College, 
both of which conferred upon him the de- 
gree of LL. D. In 1884 he was appointed 
regent of the Smithsonian Institution at 
Washington for two years, and at the end 
of his term was re-appointed. He was 
elected to the forty-seventh, forty-ninth, 
fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-second and fifty- 
third congresses, but was defeated for re- 
election to the fifty-fourth congress. Upon 
the resignation of Mr. Bissell from the office 
of postmaster-general, Mr. Wilson was ap- 
pointed to fill the vacancy by President 
Cleveland. His many years of public serv- 
ice and the prominent part he took in the 
discussion of public questions gave him a 
national reputation. 



C.\LVIN S. BRICE, a successful and 
noted financier and politician, was 
born at Denmark, Ohio, September 17, 
1845, of an old Marj'land family, who trace 
their lineage from the Bryces, or Bruces, of 
Airth, Scotland. The father of our subject 
was a prominent Presbyterian clergjman, 
who removed to Ohio in 18 12. Calvin S. 
Brice was educated in the common schools 
of his native town, and at the age of thir- 
teen entered the preparatory department of 
Miami University at O.xford, Ohio, and the 
following year entered the freshman class. 
On the breaking out of the Civil war, 
although but fifteen years old, he enlisted in 
a company of three-months men. He re- 
turned to complete his college course, but 
re-enlisted in Company A, Eighty-sixth 
Ohio Infantry, and served in the Virginia 
campaign. He then returned to college, 
from which he graduated in 1863. In 1864 
he organized Company E, One Hundred 
and Eightieth Ohio Infantry, and served 
until the close of hostilities, in the western 
armies. 

On his return home Mr. Brice entered 
the law department of the University of 
Michigan, and in 1866 was admitted to the 
bar in Cincinnati. In the winter of 1870- 
71 he went to Europe in the interests of the 
Lake Erie & Louisville Railroad and pro- 
cured a foreign loan. This road became 
the Lake Erie & Western, of which, in 
1887, Mr. Brice became president. This 
was the first railroad in which he had a 
personal interest. The conception, build- 
ing and sale of the New York, Chicago & 
St. Louis Railroad, known as the "Nickel 
Plate," was largely due to him. He was 
connected with many other railroads, among 
which may be mentioned the following: 
Chicago & Atlantic; Ohio Central; Rich- 
mond & Danville; Richmond & West Point 



182 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Terminal; East Tennessee, Virginia & 
Georgia; Memphis & Charleston; Mobile & 
Birmingham; Kentucky Central; Duluth, 
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Marquette, 
Houghton & Ontonagon. In 1890 he was 
elected United States senator from Ohio. 
Notwithstanding his extensive business inter- 
ests, Senator Brice gave a considerable 
time to political matters, becoming one of 
the leaders of the Democratic party and one 
of the most widely known men in the 
country. 

BENJAMIN HARRISON, twenty-third 
president of the United States, was 
born August 20, 1833, at North Bend, 
Hamilton county, Ohio, in the house of his 
grandfather. General William Henry Har- 
rison, afterwards president of the United 
States. His great-grandfather, Benjamin 
Harrison, was a member of the Continental 
congress, signed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and was three times elected gov- 
ernor of Virginia. 

The subject of this sketch entered Farm- 
ers College at an early age, and two years 
later entered Miami University, at Oxford, 
Ohio. Upon graduation he entered the 
office of Stover & Gwyne, of Cincinnati, as a 
law student. He was admitted to the bar 
two years later, and having inherited about 
eight hundred dollars worth of property, he 
married the daughter of Doctor Scott, pres- 
ident of a female school at Oxford, Ohio, 
and selected Indianapolis, Indiana, to begin 
practice. In i860 he was nominated by 
the Republicans as candidate for state 
supreme court reporter, and did his first 
political speaking in that campaign. He 
was elected, and after two years in that 
position he organized the Seventieth Indi- 
ana Infantry, of which he was made colonel, 
and with his regiment joined General Sher- 



man's army. For bravery displayed at Re- 
saca and Peach Tree Creek he was made a 
brigadier-general. In the meantime the 
office of supreme court reporter had been 
declared vacant, and another party elected 
to fill it. In the fall of 1864, having been 
nominated for that office, General Harrison 
obtained a thirty-day leave of absence, went 
to Indiana, canvassed the state and was 
elected. As he was about to rejoin his 
command he was stricken down by an attack 
of fever. After his recovery he joined 
General Sherman's army and participated in 
the closing events of the war. 

In 1868 General Harrison declined to 
be a candidate for the office of supreme 
court reporter, and returned to the practice 
of the law. His brilliant campaign for the 
office of governor of Indiana in 1876, 
brought him into public notice, although he 
was defeated. He took a prominent part 
in the presidential canvass of 1880, and was 
chosen United States senator from Indiana, 
serving six years. He then returned to the 
practice of his profession. In 1888 he was 
selected by the Republican convention at 
Chicago as candidate for the presidency, and 
after a heated campaign was elected over 
Cleveland. He was inaugurated March 4, 
1889, and signed the McKinley bill October 
I, 1890, perhaps the most distinctive feature 
of his administration. In 1892 he was 
again the nominee of the Republican party 
for president, but was defeated by Grover 
Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, and 
again resumed the practice of law in Indian- 
apolis. 

JOHN CRAIG HAVEMEYER, the 
kj celebrated merchant and sugar refiner, 
was born in New York City in 1833. His 
father, William F. Havemeyer, and grand- 
father, William Havemeyer, were both sugar 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



183 



refiners. The latter named came from 
Buckeburg, Germany, in 1799, and settled 
in New York, establishing one of the first 
refineries in that city. William F. succeeded 
his father, and at an early age retired from 
business with a competency. He was three 
times mayor of his native city. New York. 
John C. Havemeyer was educated in 
private schools, and was prepared for college 
at Columbia College grammar school. 
Owing to failing eyesight he was unable to 
finish his college course, and began his 
business career in a wholesale grocery store, 
where he remained two years. In 1854, 
after a year's travel abroad, he assumed the 
responsibility of the office work in the sugar 
refinery of Havemeyer & Molter, but two 
years later etablished a refinery of his own 
in Brooklyn. This afterwards developed into 
the immense business of Havemeyer & Elder. 
The capital was furnished by his father, 
and, chafing under the anxiety caused by the 
use of borrowed money, he sold out his 
interest and returned to Havemeyer & 
Molter. This firm dissolving the next year, 
John C. declined an offer of partnership 
from the successors, not wishing to use 
borrowed money. For two years he remain- 
ed with the house, receiving a share of the 
profits as compensation. For some years 
thereafter he was engaged in the commission 
business, until failing health caused his 
retirement. In 1871, he again engaged in 
the sugar refining business at Greenport, 
Long Island, with his brother and another 
partner, under the firm name of Havemeyer 
Brothers & Co. Here he remained until 
1880, when his health again declined. 
During the greater part of his life Mr. 
Havemeyer was identified with many benev- 
olent societies, including the New York 
Port Society, Missionary Society of the 
Methodist Church, American Bible Society, 



New York Sabbath School Society and 
others. He was active in Young Men's 
Christian Association work in New York, 
and organized and was the first president of 
an affiliated society of the same at Yonkers. 
He was director of several railroad corpo- 
rations and a trustee of the Continental Trust 
Company of New York. 



WALTER QUINTIN GRESHAM, an 
eminent American statesman and 
jurist, was born March 17, 1833, near Cory- 
don, Harrison county, Indiana. He ac- 
quired his education m the local schools of 
the county and at Bloomington Academy, 
although he did not graduate. After leav- 
ing college he read law with Judge Porter 
at Corydon, and just before the war he be- 
gani to take an interest in politics. Mr. 
Gresham was elected to the legislature from 
Harrison county as a Republican; previous 
to this the district had been represented by 
a Democrat. At the commencement of 
hostilities he was made lieutenant-colonel of 
the Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, but 
served in that regiment only a short time, 
when he was appointed colonel of the Fifty- 
third Indiana, and served under General 
Grant at the siege of Vicksburg as brigadier- 
general. Later he was under Sherman in 
the famous "March to the Sea," and com- 
manded a division of Blair's corps at the 
siege of Atlanta where he was so badly 
wounded in the leg that he was compelled 
to return home. On his way home he was 
forced to stop at New Albany, where he re- 
mained a year before he was able to leave. 
He was brevetted major-general at the close 
of the war. While at New Albany, Mr. 
Gresham was appointed state agent, his 
duty being to pay the interest on the state 
debt in New York, and he ran twice for 
congress against ex-Speaker Kerr, but was 



184 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



defeated in both cases, although he greatly 
reduced the Democratic majority. He was 
held in high esteem by President Grant, 
who offered him the portfolio of the interior 
but Mr. Gresham declined, but accepted 
the appointment of United States judge for 
Indiana to succeed David McDonald. 
Judge Gresham served on the United States 
district court bench until 1883, when he 
was appointed postmaster-general by Presi- 
dent Arthur, but held that of^ce only a few 
months when he was made secretary of the 
treasury. Near the end of President 
Arthur's term, Judge Gresham was ap- 
pointed judge of the United States circuit 
court of the district composed of Indiana, 
Illinois and contiguous states, which he held 
until 1893. Judge Gresham was one of the 
presidential possibilities in the National Re- 
publican convention in 1888, when General 
Harrison was nominated, and was also men- 
tioned for president in 1892. Later the 
People's party made a strenuous effort to 
induce him to become their candidate for 
president, he refusing the offer, however, 
and a few weeks before the election he an- 
nounced that he would support Mr. Cleve- 
land, the Democratic nominee for president. 
Upon the election of Mr. Cleveland in the 
fall of 1892, Judge Gresham was made the 
secretary of state, and filled that position 
until his death on May 28, 1895, ^t Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia. 



ELISHA B. ANDREWS, noted as an ed- 
ucator and college president, was born 
at Hinsdale, New Hampshire, January 10, 
1844, his father and mother being Erastus 
and Elmira (Bartlett) Andrews. In 1861, 
he entered the service of the general gov- 
ernment as private and non-commissioned 
officer in the First Connecticut Heavy Ar- 
tillery, and in 1863 was promoted to the 



rank of second lieutenant. Returning home 
he was prepared for college at Powers In- 
stitute and at the Wesleyan Academy, and 
entered Brown University. From here he 
was graduated in 1870. For the succeeding 
two years he was principal of the Connecti- 
cut Literary Institute at Suffield, Connecticut. 
Completing a course at the Newton Theo- 
logical Institute, he was ordained pastor of 
the First Baptist church at Beverly, Massa- 
chusetts, July 2, 1874. The following 
year he became president of the Denison 
University, at Granville, Ohio. In 1879 
he accepted the professorship of homiletics, 
pastoral duties and church polity at Newton 
Theological Institute. In 1882 he was 
elected to the chair of history and political 
economy at Brown University. The Uni- 
versity of Nebraska honored him with an 
LL. D. in 1884, and the same year Colby 
University conferred the degree of D. D. 
In 1888 he became professor of political 
economy and public economy at Cornell 
University, but the next year returned to 
Brown University as its president. From 
the time of his inauguration the college work 
broadened in many ways. Many timely 
and generous donations from friends and 
alumni of the college were influenced by 
him, and large additions made -to the same. 
Professor Andrews published, in 1887, 
" Institutes of General History," and in 
1888, " Institutes of Economics." 



JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, the subject 
of the present biography, was, during his 
life, one of the most distinguished chemists 
and scientific writers in America. He was 
an Englishman by birth, born at Liverpool, 
May 5, 181 1, and was reared in his native 
land, receiving an excellent education, 
graduating at the University of London. In 
1833 he came to the United States, and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



187 



settled first in Pennsylvania. He graduated 
in medicine, at the University of Philadel- 
phia, in 1836, and for three years following 
was professor of chemistry and physiology 
at Hampden-Sidney College. He then be- 
came professor of chemistry in the New York 
University, with which institution he was 
prominently connected for many years. It 
is stated on excellent authority that Pro- 
fessor Draper, in 1839, took the first photo- 
graphic picture ever taken from life. He 
was a great student, and carried on many 
important and intricate experiments along 
scientific lines. He discovered many of the 
fundamental facts of spectrum analysis, 
which he published. He published a number 
of works of great merit, many of which are 
recognized as authority upon the subjects of 
which they treat. Among his work were: 
"Human Physiology, Statistical and Dyna- 
mical of the Conditions and Cause of Life 
in Man," "History of Intellectual Develop- 
ment of Europe," " I-iistory of the Ameri- 
can Civil War," besides a number of works 
on chemistry, optics and mathematics. Pro- 
fessor Draper continued to hold a high place 
among the scientific scholars of America 
until his death, which occurred in January, 
1882. 

GEORGE W. PECK, ex-governor of 
the state of Wisconsin and a famous 
journalist and humorist, was born in Jeffer- 
son county. New York, September 28, 1840. 
When he was about three years of age his 
parents removed to Wisconsin, settling near 
Whitewater, where young Peck received his 
education at the public schools. At fifteen 
he entered the office of the "Whitewater 
Register, " where he learned the printer's 
art. He helped start the "Jefferson County 
Republican" later on, but sold out his 

interest therein and set type in the office of 
11 



the "State Journal," at Madison. At the 
outbreak of the war he enlisted in the 
Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry as a private, and 
after serving four years returned a second 
lieutenant. He then started the " Ripon 
Representative," which he sold not long 
after, and removing to New York, was on 
the staff of Mark Pomeroy's "Democrat." 
Going to La Crosse, later, he conducted the 
La Crosse branch paper, a half interest in 
which he bought in 1874. He next started 
"Peck's Sun," which four years later he 
removed to Milwaukee. While in La 
Crosse he was chief of police one year, and 
also chief clerk of the Democratic assembly 
in 1874. It was in 1878 that Mr. Peck 
took his paper to Milwaukee, and achieved 
his first permanent success, the circulation 
increasing to 80,000. For ten years he was 
regarded as one of the most original, versa- 
tile and entertaining writers in the country, 
and he has delineated every phase of 
country newspaper life, army life, domestic 
experience, travel and city adventure. Up 
to 1890 Mr. Peck took but little part in 
politics, but in that year was elected mayor 
of Milwaukee on the Democratic ticket. 
The following August he was elected gov- 
ernor of Wisconsin by a large majority, 
the "Bennett School Bill" figuring to a 
large extent in his favor. 

Mr. Peck, besides many newspaper arti- 
cles in his peculiar vein and numerous lect- 
ures, bubbling over with fun, is known to 
fame by the following books: "Peck's Bad 
Boy and his Pa," and "The Grocery Man 
and Peck's Bad Boy." 



CHARLES O'CONOR, who was for 
many years the acknowledged leader 
of the legal profession of New York City, 
was also conceded to be one of the greatest 
lawyers America has produced. He was 



188 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



born in New York City in 1804, his father 
being an educated Irish gentleman. Charles 
received a common-school education, and 
early took up the study of law, being ad- 
mitted to practice in 1824. His close ap- 
plication and untiring energy and industry 
soon placed him in the front rank of the 
profession, and within a few years he was 
handling many of the most important cases. 
One of the first great cases he had and which 
gained him a wide reputation, was that of 
"Jack, the Fugitive Slave, " in 1835, in which 
his masterful argument before the supreme 
court attracted wide attention and com- 
ment. Charles O'Conor was a Democrat 
all his life. He did not aspire to office- 
holding, however, and never held any office 
except that of district attorney under Presi- 
dent Pierce's administration, which he only 
retained a short time. He took an active 
mterest, however, in public questions, and 
was a member of the state (New York) con- 
stitutional convention in 1864. In 1868 he 
was nominated for the presidency by the 
" Extreme Democrats." His death occurred 
in May, 1884. 

SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER, a noted 
American officer and major-general in 
the Confederate army, was born in Ken- 
tucky in 1823. He graduated from West 
Point Military Academy in 1844, served in 
the United States infantry and was later as- 
signed to commissary duty with the rank of 
captain. He served several years at fron- 
tier posts, and was assistant professor in the 
military academy in 1846. He was with 
General Scott in the Mexican war, and en- 
gaged in all the battles from Vera Cruz to 
the capture of the Mexican capital. He 
was wounded at Cherubusco and brevetted 
first lieutenant, and at Molino del Rey was 
brevetted captain. After the close of the 



Mexican war he returned to West Point as 
assistant instructor, and was then assigned 
to commissary duty at New York. He re- 
signed in 1855 and became su[>erintendent 
of construction of the Chicago custom house. 
He was made adjutant-genecal, with the 
rank of colonel, of Illinois militia, and was 
colonel of Illinois volunteers raised for the 
Utah expedition, but was not mustered into 
service. In i860 he removed to Kentucky, 
where he settled on a farm near Louisville 
and became inspector-general in command 
of the Kentucky Home Guards. At the 
opening of the Civil war he joined the Con- 
federate army, and was given command at 
Bowling Green, Kentucky, which he was 
compelled to abandon after the capture of 
Fort Henry. He then retired to Fort Don- 
elson, and was there captured with sixteen 
thousand men, and an immense store of pro- 
visions, by General Grant, in February, 
1862. He was held as a prisoner of war 
at Fort Warren until August of that year. 
He commanded a division of Hardee's corps 
in Bragg's Army of the Tennessee, and was 
afterward assigned to the third division and 
participated in the battles of Chickamauga, 
and Murfreesboro. He was with Kirby 
Smith when that general surrendered his 
army to General Canby in May, 1865. He 
was an unsuccessful candidate for the vice- 
presidency on the Gold Democratic ticket 
with Senator John M. Palmer in 1896. 



SIMON KENTON, one of the famous pio- 
neers and scouts whose names fill the 
pages of the early history of our country, 
was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, 
April 3, 1755. In consequence of an affray, 
at the age of eighteen, young Kenton went 
to Kentucky, then the "Dark and Bloody 
Ground," and became associated with Dan- 
iel Boone and other pioneers of that region. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT 



189 



For a short time he acted as a scout and 
spy for Lord Dunmore, the British governor 
of Virginia, but afterward taking the side 
of the struggHng colonists, participated in 
the war for independence west of the Alle- 
ghanies. In 1784 he returned to Virginia, 
but did not remain there long, going back 
with his family to Kentucky. From 
that time until 1793 he participated in all 
the combats and battles of that time, and 
until "Mad Anthony" Wayne swept the 
Valley of the Ohio, and settled the suprem- 
acy of the whites in that region. Kenton 
laid claim to large tracts of land in the new 
country he had helped to open up, but 
through ignorance of law, and the growing 
value of the land, lost it all and was reduced 
to poverty. During the war with England 
in 1812-15, Kenton took part in the inva- 
sion of Canada with the Kentucky troops 
and participated in the battle of the Thames. 
He finally had land granted him by the 
legislature of Kentucky, and received a pen- 
sion from the United States government. 
He died in Logan county, Ohio, April 29, 
1836. 

ELIHU BENJAMIN WASHBURNE, an 
American statesman of eminence, was 
born in Livermore, Maine, September 23, 
1 8 16. He learned the trade of printer, but 
abandoned that calling at the age of eight- 
een and entered the Kent's Hill Academy at 
Reading, Maine, and then took up the study 
of law, reading in Hallowell, Boston, and at 
the Harvard Law School. He began prac- 
tice at Galena, Illinois, in 1840. He was 
elected to congress in 1852, and represented 
his district in that body continuously until 
March, 1869, and at the time of his retire- 
ment he had served a greater number of 
consecutive terms than any other member 
of the house. In 1873 President Grant ap- 



pointed him secretary of state, which posi- 
tion he resigned to accept that of minister 
to France. During the Franco- Prussian 
war, including the siege of Paris and the 
reign of the Commune, Mr. Washburne re- 
mained at his post, protecting the lives and 
property of his countrymen, as well as that 
of other foreign residents in Paris, while the 
ministers of all other powers abandoned 
their posts at a time when they were most 
needed. As far as possible he extended 
protection to unfortunate German residents, 
who were the particular objects of hatred of 
the populace, and his firmness and the suc- 
cess which attended his efforts won the ad- 
miration of all Europe. Mr. Washburne 
died at Chicago, Illinois, October 22, 1887. 



WILLIAM CRAMP, one of the most 
extensive shipbuilders of this coun- 
try, was born in Kensington, then a suburb, 
now a part of Philadelphia, in 1806. He 
received a thorough English education, and 
when he left school was associated with 
Samuel Grice, one of the most eminent 
naval architects of his day. In 1830, hav- 
ing mastered all the details of shipbuilding, 
Mr. Cramp engaged in business on his own 
account. By reason of ability and excel- 
lent work he prospered from the start, until 
now, in the hands of his sons, under the 
name of William Cramp & Sons' Ship and 
Engine Building Company, it has become the 
most complete shipbuilding plant and naval 
arsenal in the western hemisphere, and fully 
equal to any in the world. As Mr. Cramp's 
sons attained manhood they learned their 
father's profession, and were admitted to a 
partnership. In 1872 the firm was incor- 
porated under the title given above. Until 
i860 wood was used in building vessels, al- 
though pace was kept with all advances in 
the art of shipbuilding. At the opening of 



190 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



the war came an unexpected demand for 
war vessels, which they promptly met. The 
sea-going ironclad "New Ironsides" was 
built by them in 1862, followed by a num- 
ber of formidable ironclads and the cruiser 
"Chattanooga." They subsequently built 
several war vessels for the Russian and 
other governments which added to their 
reputation. When the American steamship 
line was established in 1870, the Cramps 
were commissioned to build for it four first- 
class iron steamships, the " Pennsylvania," 
"Ohio," "Indiana" and "Illinois," which 
they turned out in rapid order, some of the 
finest specimens of the naval architecture of 
their day. William Cramp remained at the 
head of the great company he had founded 
until his death, which occurred January 6, 
1879. 

Charles H. Cramp, the successor of his 
father as head of the William Cramp & 
Sons' Ship and Engine Building Company, 
was born in Philadelphia May 9, 1829, and 
received an excellent education in his native 
city, which he sedulously sought to sup- 
plement by close study until he became 
an authority on general subjects and the 
best naval architect on the western hemis- 
phere. Many of the best vessels of our 
new navy were built by this immense con- 
cern. 

WASHINGTON ALLSTON, probably 
the greatest American painter, was 
born in South Carolina in 1779. He was 
sent to school at the age of seven years at 
Newport, Rhode Island, where he met Ed- 
ward Malbone, two years his senior, and 
who later became a pamter of note. The 
friendship that sprang up between them un- 
doubtedly influenced young Allston in the 
choice of a profession. He graduated from 
Harvard in 1800, and went to England the 



following year, after pursuing his studies for 
a year under his friend Malbone at his home 
in South Carolina. He became a student 
at the Royal Academy where the great 
American, Benjamin West, presided, and 
who became his intimate friend. Allston 
later went to Paris, and then to Italy, where 
four years were spent, mostly at Rome. In 
1809 he returned to America, but soon after 
returned to London, having married in the 
meantime a sister of Dr. Channing. In 
a short time his first great work appeared, 
"The Dead Man Restored to Life by the 
Bones of Elisha, " which took the British 
Association prize and firmly established his 
reputation. Other paintings followed in 
quick succession, the greatest among which 
were "Uriel in the Center of the Sun," 
"Saint Peter Liberated by the Angel," and 
"Jacob's Dream," supplemented by many 
smaller pieces. Hard work, and grief at the 
death of his wife began to tell upon his health, 
and he left London in 18 18 for America. 
The same year he was elected an associate 
of the Royal Academy. During the next 
few years he painted "Jeremiah," "Witch 
ofEndor," and "Beatrice." In 1830 Alls- 
ton married a daughter of Judge Dana, and 
went to Cambridge, which was his home 
until his death. Here he produced the 
"Vision of the Bloody Hand," "Rosalie," 
and many less noted pieces, and had given 
one week of labor to his unfinished master- 
piece, "Belshazzar's Feast," when death 
ended his career July 9, 1843. 



JOHN ROACH, ship builder and manu- 
facturer, whose career was a marvel of. 
industrial labor, and who impressed his in- 
dividuality and genius upon the times in 
which he lived more, perhaps, than any 
other manufacturer in America. He was 
born at Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ire- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



191 



land, December 25, 181 5, the son of a 
wealthy merchant. He attended school 
until he was thirteen, when his father be- 
came financially embarrassed and failed 
and shortly after died; John determined to 
come to America and carve out a fortune 
for himself. He landed in New York at the 
age of sixteen, and soon obtained employ- 
ment at the Howell Iron Works in New Jer- 
sey, at twenty-five cents a day. He soon 
made himself a place in the world, and at 
the end of three years had saved some 
twelve hundred dollars, which he lost by 
the failure of his employer, in whose hands 
it was left. Returning to New York he 
began to learn how to make castings for 
marine engines and ship work. Having 
again accumulated one thousand dollars, in 
company with three fellow workmen, he 
purchased a small foundry in New York, 
but soon became sole proprietor. At the 
end of four years he had saved thirty thou- 
sand dollars, besides enlarging his works. 
In 1856 his works were destroyed by a 
boiler explosion, and being unable to collect 
the insurance, was left, after paying his 
debts, without a dollar. However, his 
credit and reputation for integrity was good, 
and he built the Etna Iron Works, giving it 
capacity to construct larger marine engines 
than any previously built in this country. 
Here he turned out immense engines for 
the steam ram Dunderberg, for the war ves- 
sels Winooski and Neshaning, and other 
large vessels. To accommodate his increas- 
ing business, Mr. Roach, in 1S69, pur- 
chased the Morgan Iron Works, one of the 
largest in New York, and shortly after sev- 
eral others. In 1871 he bought the Ches- 
ter ship yards, which he added to largely, 
erecting a rolling mill and blast furnace, and 
providing every facility for building a ship 
out of the ore and timber. This immense 



plant covered a large area, was valued at 
several millions of dollars, and was known 
as the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding 
and Engine Works, of which Mr. Roach 
was the principal owner. He built a large 
percentage of the iron vessels now flying 
the American flag, the bulk of his business 
being for private parties. In 1S75 he built 
the sectional dry docks at Pensacola. He, 
about this time, drew the attention of the 
government to the use of compound marine 
engines, and thus was the means of im- 
proving the speed and economy of the ves- 
sels of our new navy. In 1883 Mr. Roach 
commenced work on the three cruisers for 
the government, the "Chicago," "Boston" 
and "Atlanta," and the dispatch boat 
" Dolphin." For some cause the secretary 
of the navy refused to receive the latter and 
decided that Mr. Roach's contract would 
not hold. This embarrassed Mr. Roach, 
as a large amount of his capital was in- 
volved in these contracts, and for the pro- 
tection of bondsmen and creditors, July 18, 
1885, he made an assignment, but the 
financial trouble broke down his strong con- 
stitution, and January 10, 1887, he died. 
His son, John B. Roach, succeeded to the 
shipbuilding interests, while Stephen W. 
Roach inherited the Morgan Iron Works at 
New York. 



JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, one of 
kJ the two great painters who laid the 
foundation of true American art, was born 
in Boston in 1737, one year earlier than his 
great contemporary, Benjamin West. His 
education was limited to the common schools 
of that time, and his training in art he ob- 
tained by his own observation and experi- 
ments solely. When he was about seven- 
teen years old he had mapped out his future, 
however, by choosing painting as his pro- 



192 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



fession. If he ever studied under any 
teacher in his early efforts, we have no au- 
thentic account of it, and tradition credits 
the young artist's wonderful success en- 
tirely to his own talent and untiring effort. 
It is almost incredible that at the age of 
twenty-three years his income from his 
works aggregated fifteen hundred dollars 
per annum, a very great sum in those days. 
In 1774 he went to Europe in search of ma- 
terial for study, which was so rare in his 
native land. After some time spent in Italy 
he finally took up his permanent residence 
in England. In 1783 he was made a mem- 
ber of the Royal Academy, and later his 
son had the high honor of becoming lord 
chancellor of England and Lord Lyndhurst. 
Many specimens of Copley's work are to 
be found in the Memorial Hall at Harvard 
and in the Boston Museum, as well as a few 
of the works upon vvhich he modeled his 
style. Copley was essentially a portrait 
painter, though his historical paintings at- 
tained great celebrity, his masterpiece 
being his " Death of Major Pierson," though 
that distinction has by some been given to 
his "Death of Chatham." It is said that 
he never saw a good picture until he was 
thirty-five years old, yet his portraits prior 
to that period are regarded as rare speci- 
mens. He died in 181 5. 



HENRY B. PLANT, one of the greatest 
railroad men of the country, became 
famous as president of the Plant system of 
railway and steamer lines, and also the 
Southern & Texas E.xpress Co. He was 
born in October, 18 19, at Branford, 
Connecticut, and entered the railroad serv- 
ice in 1844, serving as express messenger 
on the Hartford & New Haven Railroad until 
1853, during which time he had entire 
charge of the expr^?- jusiness of that road. 



He went south in 1853 and established ex- 
press lines on various southern railways, and 
in 1 86 1 organized the Southern Express 
Co., and became its president. In 1879 he 
purchased, with others, the Atlantic & Gulf 
Railroad of Georgia, and later reorgafiized 
the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, 
of which he became president. He pur- 
chased and rebuilt, in 1880, the Savannah 
& Charleston Railroad, now Charleston & 
Savannah. Not long after this he organ- 
ized the Plant Investment Co., to control 
these railroads and advance their interests 
generally, and later established a steamboat 
line on the St. John's river, in Florida. 
From 1853 until i860 he was general 
superintendent of the southern division of 
the Adams Express Co., and in 1867 be- 
came president of the Texas Express Co. 
The "Plant system" of railway, steamer 
and steamship lines is one of the greatest 
business corporations of the southern states. 



WADE HAMPTON, a noted Confeder- 
ate officer, was born at Columbia, 
South Carolina, in 18 18. He graduated 
from the South Carolina College, took an 
active part in politics, and was twice elected 
to the legislature of his state. In 1861 he 
joined the Confederate army, and command- 
ed the " Hampton Legion " at the first bat- 
tle of Bull Run, in July, 1861. He did 
meritorious service, was wounded, and pro- 
moted to brigadier-general. He command- 
ed a brigade at Seven Pines, in 1862, and 
was again wounded. He was engaged in 
the battle of Antietam in September of the 
same year, and participated in the raid into 
Pennsylvania in October. In 1863 he was 
with Lee at Gettysburg, where he was 
wounded for the third time. He was pro- 
moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and 
commanded a troop of cavalry in Lee's 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



193 



army during 1864, and was in numerous en- 
gagements. In 1865 he was in South Car- 
oHna, and commanded the cavalry rear 
guard of the Confederate army in its stub- 
born retreat before General Sherman on his 
advance toward Richmond. 

After the war Hampton took an active 
part in politics, and was a prominent figure 
at the Democratic national convention in 
1868, which nominated Seymour and Blair 
for president and vice-president. He was 
governor of South Carolina, and took his 
seat in the United States senate in 1879, 
where he became a conspicuous figure in 
national affairs. 



NIKOLA TESLA, one of the most cele- 
brated electricians America has known, 
was born in 1857, at Smiljau, Lika, Servia. 
He descended from an old and representative 
family of that country. His father was a 
a minister of the Greek church, of high rank, 
while his mother was a woman of remarka- 
ble skill in the construction of looms, churns 
and the machinery required in a rural home. 
Nikola received early education in the 
public schools of Gospich, when he was 
sent to the higher "Real Schule " at Karl- 
stadt, where, after a three years' course, 
he graduated in 1873. He devoted him- 
self to experiments in electricity and 
magnetism, to the chagrin of his father, 
who had destined him for the ministry, 
but giving way to the boy's evident genius 
he was allowed to continue his studies in 
the polytechnic school at Gratz. He in- 
herited a wonderful intuition which enabled 
him to see through the intricacies of ma- 
chinery, and despite his instructor's demon- 
stration that a dynamo could not be oper- 
ated without commutators or brushes, 
began experiments which finally resulted in 
his rotating field motors. After the study 



of languages at Prague and Buda-Pesth, he 
became associated with M. Puskas, who 
had introduced the telephone into Hungary. 
He invented several improvements, but 
being unable to reap the necessary benefit 
from them, he, in search of a wider field, 
went to Paris, where he found employment 
with one of the electric lighting companies 
as electrical engineer. Soon he set his face 
westward, and coming to the United States 
for a time found congenial employment whh 
Thomas A. Edison. Finding it impossible, 
overshadowed as he was, to carry out his 
own ideas he left the Edison works to join 
a company formed to place his own inven- 
tions on the market. He perfected his 
rotary field principle, adapting it to circuits 
then in operation. It is said of him that 
some of his proved theories will change the 
entire electrical science. It would, in an 
article of this length, be impossible to ex- 
plain all that Tesla accomplished for the 
practical side of electrical engineering. 
His discoveries formed the basis of the at- 
tempt to utilize the water power of Niagara 
Falls. His work ranges far beyond the 
vast department of polyphase currents and 
high potential lighting and includes many 
inventions in arc lighting, transformers, 
pyro and thermo-magnetic motors, new 
forms of incandescent lamps, unipolar dyna- 
mos and many others. 



CHARLES B. LEWIS won fame as an 
American humorist under the name of 
"M. Quad." It is said he owes his 
celebrity originally to the fact that he was 
once mixed up in a boiler explosion on the 
Ohio river, and the impressions he received 
from the event he set up from his case when 
he was in the composing room of an ob- 
scure Michigan paper. His style possesses a 
peculiar quaintness, and there runs through 



11)4 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



it a vein of philosophy. Mr. Lewis was 
born in 1844, near a town called Liverpool, 
Ohio. He was, however, raised in Lansing, 
Michigan, where he spent a year in an agri- 
cultural college, going from there to the 
composing room of the "Lansing Demo- 
crat." At the outbreak of the war he en- 
listed in the service, remained during the 
entire war, and then returned to Lansing. 
The explosion of the boiler that "blew him 
into fame, " took place two years later, while 
he was on his way south. When he re- 
covered physically, he brought suit for dam- 
ages against the steamboat company, which 
he gained, and was awarded a verdict of 
twelve thousand dollars for injuries re- 
ceived. It was while he was employed by 
the " Jacksonian " of Pontiac, Mich., that he 
set up his account of how he felt while being 



blown up. He says that he signed it 



M 



Quad," because "a bourgeoise em quad is 
useless except in its own line — it won't 
justify with any other type." Soon after, 
because of the celebrity he attained by this 
screed, Mr. Lewis secured a place on the 
staff of the ' ' Detroit Free Press, " and made 
for that paper a wide reputation. Kis 
sketches of the "Lime I\iln Club" and 
" Brudder Gardner " are perhaps the best 
known of his humorous writings. 



HIRAM S. MAXIM, the famous inventor, 
was born in Sangersville, Maine, 
February 5, 1S40, the son of Isaac W. 
and Harriet B. Ma.xim. The town of his 
birth was but a small place, in the 
woods, on the confines of civilization, 
and the family endured many hardships. 
They were without means and entirely 
dependent on themselves to make out of 
raw materials all they needed. The mother 
was an expert spinner, weaver, dyer and 
seamstress and the father a trapper, tanner, 



miller, blacksmith, carpenter, mason and 
farmer. Amid such surroundings young 
Maxim gave early promise of remarkable 
aptitude. With the universal Yankee jack- 
knife the products of his skill excited the 
wonder and interest of the locality. His 
parents did not encourage his latent genius 
but apprenticed him to a coach builder. 
Four years he labored at this uncongenial 
trade but at the end of that time he forsook 
it and entered a machine shop at Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts. Soon mastering the details 
of that business and that of mechanical 
drawing, he went to Boston as the foreman 
of the philosophical instrument manufactory. 
From thence he went to New York and with 
the Novelty Iron Works Shipbuilding Co. 
he gained experience in those trades. His 
inventions up to this time consisted of 
improvements in steam engines, and an 
automatic gas machine, which came into 
general use. In 1877 he turned his attention 
to electricity, and in 1878 produced an 
incandescent lamp, that would burn 1,000 
hours. He was the first to design a process 
for flashing electric carbons, and the first 
to "standardize" carbons for electric light- 
ing. In 1880 he visited Europe and exhibit- 
ing, at the Paris Exposition of 1881, a self- 
regulating machine, was decorated with the 
Legion of Honor. In 1883 he returned to 
London as the European representative of the 
United States Electric Light Co. An incident 
of his boyhood, in which the recoil of a rifle 
was noticed by him, and the apparent loss 
of power shown, in 188 1-2 prompted the 
invention of a gun which utilizes the recoil to 
automatically load and fire seven hundred 
and seventy shots per minute. The Maxim- 
Nordenfelt Gun Co., with a capital of nine 
million dollars, grew from this. In 1883 he 
patented his electric training gear for large 
guns. And later turned his attention to fly- 



COMPENDIITM OF BIOGRAPIIT 



195 



ing machines, which he claimed were not an 
impossibility. He took out over one hundred 
patents for smol^eless gunpowder, and for pe- 
troleum and other motors and autocycles. 



JOHN DAVISON ROCKEFELLER, 
<J one of America's very greatest financiers 
and philanthropists, was born in Richford, 
Tioga county, New York, July 8, 1839. He 
received a common-school education in his 
native place, and in 1853, when his parents 
removed to Cleveland, Ohio, he entered the 
high school of that city. After a two-years' 
course of diligent work, he entered the com- 
mission and forwarding house of Hewitt & 
Tuttle, of Cleveland, remaining with the 
firm some years, and then began business 
for himself, forming a partnership with 
Morris B. Clark. Mr. Rockefeller was then 
but nineteen years of age, and during the 
year i860, in connection with others, they 
started the oil refining business, under the 
firm name of Andrews, Clark & Co. Mr. 
Ivockefeller and Mr. Andrews purchased the 
interest of their associates, and, after taking 
William Rockefeller into the firm, established 
offices in Cleveland under the name of 
William Rockefeller & Co. Shortly after 
this the house of Rockefeller & Co. was es- 
tablished in New York for the purpose of 
finding a market for their products, -and two 
years later all the refining companies were 
consolidated under the firm name of Rocke- 
feller, Andrews & Flagler. This firm was 
succeeded in 1870 by the Standard Oil 
Company of Ohio, said to be the most 
gigantic business corporation of modern 
times. John D. Rockefeller's fortune has 
been variously estimated at from one hun- 
dred million to two hundred million dollars. 
Mr. Rockefeller's philanthropy mani- 
fested itself principally through the American 
Baptist Educational Society. He donated 



the building for the Spelman Institute at 
Atlanta, Georgia, a school for the instruction 
of negroes. His other gifts were to the 
University of Rochester, Cook Academy, 
Peddie Institute, and Vassar College, be- 
sides smaller gifts to many institutions 
throughout the country. His princely do- 
nations, however, were to the University of 
Chicago. His first gift to this institution 
was a conditional offer of si.x hundred thou- 
sand dollars in 1889, and when this amount 
was paid he added one million more. Dur- 
ing 1892 he made it two gifts of one million 
each, and all told, his donations to this one 
institution aggregated betwee^ seven and 
eight millions of dollars. 



JOHN M. PALMER.— For over a third 
of a century this gentleman occupied a 
prominent place in the political world, both 
in the state of Illinois and on the broader 
platform of national issues. 

Mr. Palmer was born at Eagle Creek, 
Scott county, Kentucky, September 13, 
18 17. The family subsequently removed 
to Christian county, in the same state, where 
he acquired a common-school education, and 
made his home until 1831. His father was 
opposed to slavery, and in the latter year 
removed to Illinois and settled near Alton. 
In 1834 John entered Alton College, or- 
ganized on the manual-labor plan, but his 
funds failing, abandoned it and entered a 
cooper shop. He subsequently was en- 
gaged in peddling, and teaching a district 
school near Canton. In 1838 he began the 
study of law, and the following year re- 
moved to Carlinville, where, in December of 
that year, he was admitted to the bar. He 
was shortly after defeated for county clerk. 
In 1843 he was elected probate judge. In 
the constitutional convention of 1847, Mr. 
Palmer was a delegate, and from 1849 to 



lOG 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



1851 he was county judge. In 1852 he be- 
came a member of the state senate, but not 
being with his party on the slavery question 
he resigned that office in 1854. In 1856 
Mr. Palmer was chairman of the first Re- 
publican state convention held in Illinois, 
and the same year was a deleg^e to the 
national convention. In i860 he was an 
elector on the Lincoln ticket, and on the 
breaking out of the war entered the service 
as colonel of the Fourteenth Illinois Infan- 
try, but was shortly after brevetted brigadier- 
general. In August, 1862, he organized 
the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illi- 
nois Infantry, but in September he was 
placed in command of the first division of 
the Army of the Mississippi, afterward was 
promoted to the rank of major-general. In 
1865 he was assigned to the military ad- 
ministration in Kentucky. In 1867 General 
Palmer was elected governor of Illinois and 
served four years. In 1872 he went with 
the Liberal Republicans, who supported 
Horace Greeley, after which time he was 
identified with the Democratic party. In 
1890 he was elected United States senator 
from Illinois, and served as such for si.x 
years. In 1896, on the adoption of the sil- 
ver plank in the platform of the Democratic 
party. General Palmer consented to lead, 
as presidential candidate, the National Dem- 
ocrats, or Gold Democracy. 



WILLIAM H. BEARD, the humorist 
among American painters, was born 
at Painesville, Ohio, in 1821.^ His father, 
James H. Beard, was also a painter of na- 
tional reputation. William H. Beard be- 
gan his career as a traveling portrait 
painter. He pursued his studies in New 
York, and later removed to Buffalo, where 
he achieved reputation. He then went to 



Italy and after a short stay returned to New 
York and opened a studio. One of his 
earliest paintings was a small picture called 
"Cat and Kittens," which was placed in 
the National Academy onexhibition. Among 
his best productions are "Raining Cats and 
Dogs," "The Dance of Silenus," "Bears 
on a Bender," "Bulls and Bears," ' ' Whoo!" 
" Grimalkin's Dream," " Little Red Riding 
Hood," "The Guardian of the Flag." His 
animal pictures convey the most ludicrous 
and satirical ideas, and the intelligent, 
human expression in their faces is most 
comical. Some artists and critics have re- 
fused to give Mr. Beard a place among the 
first circles in art, solely on account of the 
class of subjects he has chosen. 



WW. CORCORAN, the noted philan- 
throphist, was born at Georgetown, 
District of Columbia. December 27, 1798. 
At the age of twenty-five he entered the 
banking business in Washington, and in 
time became very wealthy. He was 
noted for his magnificent donations to char- 
ity. Oak Hill cemetery was donated to 
Georgetown in 1847, and ten years later the 
Corcoran Art Gallery, Temple of Art, was 
presented to the city of Washington. The 
uncompleted building was utilized by the 
government as quartermaster's headquar- 
ters during the war. The building was 
completed after the war at a cost of a mil- 
lion and a half dollars, all the gift of Mr. 
Corcoran. The Louise Home for Women 
is another noble charity to his credit. Its 
object is the care of women of gentle breed- 
ing who in declining years are without 
means of support. In addition to this he 
gave liberally to many worthy institutions 
of learning and charity. He died at Wash- 
ington February 24, 188S. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



197 



ALBERT BIERSTADT, the noted paint- 
er of American landscape, was born in 
Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1829, and was 
brought to America by his parents at the 
age of two years. He received his early 
education here, but returned to Dusseldorf 
to study painting, and also went to Rome. 
On his return to America he accompanied 
Lander's expedition across the continent, in 
1858, and soon after produced his most 
popular work, "The Rocky Mountains — 
Lander'siPeak. '' Its boldness and grandeur 
were so unusual that it made him famous. 
The picture sold for twenty-five thousand 
dollars. In 1867 Mr. Bierstadt went to 
Europe, with a government commission, 
and gathered materials for his great historic- 
al work, "Discovery of the North River 
by Hendrik Hudson." Others of his great 
works were " Storm in the Rocky Mount- 
ains," " Valley of the Yosemite," "North 
Fork of the Platte," "Diamond Pool," 
"Mount Hood," "Mount Rosalie," and 
"The Sierra Nevada Mountains." His 
"Estes Park" sold for fifteen thousand 
dollars, and "Mount Rosalie" brought 
thirty-five thousand dollars. His smaller 
Rocky mountain scenes, however, are vast- 
ly superior to his larger works in execution 
and coloring. 

ADDISON CAMMACK, a famous mill- 
ionaire Wall street speculator, was 
born in Kentucky. When sixteen years old 
he ran away from home and went to New 
Orleans, where he went to work in a ship- 
ping house. He outlived and outworked 
all the partners, and became the head of the 
firm before the opening of the war. At 
that time he fitted out small vessels and en- 
gaged in running the blockade of southern 
ports and carrying ammunition, merchan- 
dise, etc., to the southern people. This 



made him a fortune. . At the close of the 
war he quit business and went to New 
York. For two years he did not enter any 
active business, but seemed to be simply an 
on-looker in the great speculative center of 
America. He was observing keenly the 
methods and financial machinery, however, 
and when, in 1867, he formed a partnership 
with the popular Charles J. Osborne, the 
firm began to prosper. He never had an 
office on the street, but wandered into the 
various brokers' offices and placed his orders 
as he saw fit. In 1873 he dissolved his 
partnership with Osborne and operated 
alone. He joined a band of speculative 
conspirators known as the ' ' Twenty-third 
party," and was the ruling spirit in that or- 
ganization for the control of the stock mar- 
ket. He was always on the ' ' bear " side and 
the only serious obstacle he ever encoun- 
tered was the persistent boom in industrial 
stocks, particularly sugar, engineered by 
James R. Keane. Mr. Cammack fought 
Keane for two years, and during the time is 
said to have lost no less than two million 
dollars before he abandoned the fight. 



WALT. WHITMAN.— Foremost among 
the lesserpoets of the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, the gentleman whose 
name adorns the head of this article takes 
a conspicuous place. 

Whitman was born at West Hills, Long 
Island, New York, May 13, 1809. In the 
schools of Brooklyn he laid the foundation 
of his education, and early in life learned the 
printer's trade. For a time he taught coun- 
try schools in his native state. In 1846-7 
he was editor of the "Brooklyn Eagle," 
but in 1848-9 was on the editorial staff of 
the "Crescent," of New Orleans. He 
made an extended tour throughout the 
United States and Canada, and returned to 



198 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Brooklyn, where, in 1850, he published the 
"Freeman. " For some years succeeding 
this he was engaged as carpenter and builder. 
During the Civil war, Whitman acted as 
a volunteer nurse in the hospitals at 
Washington and vicinity and from the close 
of hostilities until 1873 he was employed 
in various clerkships in the government 
offices in the nation's capital. In the latter 
year he was stricken with paralysis as a 
result of his labors in the hospital, it is 
said, and being partially disabled lived for 
many years at Camden, New Jersey. 

The first edition of the work which was 
to bring him fame, "Leaves of Grass," was 
published in 1855 and was but a small 
volume of about ninety-four pages. Seven 
or eight editions of "Leaves of Grass" have 
been issued, each enlarged and enriched with 
new poems. "Drum Taps," at first a 
separate publication, has been incorporated 
with the others. This volume and one 
prose writing entitled "Specimen Days and 
Collect," constituted his whole work. 

Walt. Whitman died at Camden, New 
Jersey, March 26, 1892. 



H 



ENRY DUPONT, who became cele- 
brated as America's greatest manufact- 
urer of gunpowder, was a native of Dela- 
ware, born August 8, 18 12. He received 
his education in its higher branches at the 
United States Military Academy at West 
Point, from which he graduated and entered 
the army as second lieutenant of artiller}' in 
1833. In 1834 hfi resigned and became 
proprietor of the extensive gunpowder 
manufacturing plant that bears his name, 
near Wilmington, Delaware. His large 
business interests interfered with his tak- 
ing any active participation in political 
life, although for many years he served 
as adjutant-general of his native state, and 



during the war as major-general command- 
ing the Home Guards. He died August 8, 
1889. His son, Henry A. Dupont, also was 
a native of Delaware, and was born July 30, 
1838. After graduating from West Point 
in 1 86 1, he entered the army as second 
lieutenant of engineers. Shortly after he 
was transferred to the Fifth .\rtillery as first 
lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank 
of captain in 1864, serving in camp and 
garrison most of the time. He was in com- 
mand of a battery in the campaign of 
1863-4. As chief of artillery of the army of 
West \'irginia, he figured until the close of 
the war, being in the battles of Opequan, 
Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, besides 
many minor engagements. He afterward 
acted as instructor in the artillery school at 
Fortress Monroe, and on special duty at 
West -Point. He resigned from the army 
March i, 1875. 



WILLIAM DEERING, one of the fa- 
mous manufacturers of America, and 
also a philanthropist and patron of educa- 
tion, was born in Maine in 1826. His an- 
cestors were English, having settled in New 
England in 1634. Early in life it was Will- 
iam's intention to become a physician, and 
after completing his common-school educa- 
tion, when about eighteen years of age, he 
began an apprenticeship with a physician. 
A short time later, however, at the request 
of his father, he took charge of his father's 
business interests, which included a woolen 
mill, retail store and grist mill, after which 
he became agent for a dry goods commission 
house in Portland, where he was married. 
Later he became partner in the firm, and 
removed to New York. The business pros- 
pered, and after a number of years, on ac- 
count of failing health, Mr. Deering sold his 
interest to his partner, a Mr. Milner. The 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



199 



business has since made Mr. Milner a mill- 
ionaire many times over. A few years 
later Mr. Deering located in Chicago. His 
beginning in the manufacture of reapers, 
which has since made his name famous, 
was somewhat of an accident. He had 
loaned money to a man in that business, 
and in 1878 was compelled to buy out the 
business to protect his interests. The busi- 
ness developed rapidly and grew to immense 
proportions. The factories now cover sixty- 
two acres of ground and employ many thou- 
sands of men. 



JOHN McAllister schofield, an 
American general, was born in Chautau- 
qua county, New York, September 29, 1831. 
He graduated at West Point in 1853, and 
was for five years assistant professor of nat- 
ural philosophy in that institution. In 1861 
he entered the volunteer service as major of 
the First Missouri Volunteers, and was ap- 
pointed chief of staff by General Lyon, under 
whom he fought at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek. In November, 1861, he was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and 
was placed in command of the Missouri 
militia until November, 1862, and of the 
army of the frontier from that time until 
1863. In 1862 he was made major-general 
of volunteers, and was placed in command of 
the Department of the Missouri, and in 1864 
of the Department of the Ohio. During the 
campaign through Georgia General Scho- 
field was in command of the Twenty-third 
Army Corps, and was engaged in most of the 
fighting of that famous campaign. Novem- 
ber 30, 1864, he defeated Hood's army at 
Franklin, Tennessee, and then joined Gen- 
eral Thomas at Nashville. He took part in 
the battle of Nashville, where Hood's army 
was destroyed. In January, 1865, he led 
his corps into North Carolina, captured 



Wilmington, fought the battle of Kingston, 
and joined General Sherman at Goldsboro 
March 22, 1865. He executed the details 
of the capitulation of General Johnston to 
Sherman, which practically closed the war. 
In June, 1868, General Schofield suc- 
ceeded Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of 
war, but was the next year appointed major- 
general of the United States army, and order- 
ed to the Department of the Missouri. From 
1870 to 1876 he was in command of the De- 
partment of the Pacific; from 1876 to 1881 
superintendent of the West Point Military 
Academy; in 1883 he was in charge of the 
Department of the Missouri, and in 1886 of 
the division of the Atlantic. In 1888 he 
became general-in-chief of the United States 
army, and in February, 1895, was appoint- 
ed lieutenant-general by President Cleve- 
land, that rank having been revived by con- 
gress. In September, 1895, he was retired 
from active service. 



LEWIS WALLACE, an American gen- 
eral and famous author, was born in 
Brookville, Indiana, April 10, 1827. He 
served in the Mexican war as first lieutenant 
of a company of Indiana Volunteers. After 
his return from Mexico he was admitted to 
the bar, and practiced law in Covington and 
Crawfordsville, Indiana, until 1861. At the 
opening of the war he was appointed ad- 
jutant-general of Indiana, and soon after be- 
came colonel of the Eleventh Indiana Vol- 
unteers. He defeated a force of Confeder- 
ates at Romney, West Virginia, and was 
made brigadier-general in September, 1861. 
At the capture of Fort Donelson in 1862 he 
commanded a division, and was engaged in 
the second day's fight at Shiloh. In 1863 
his defenses about Cincinnati saved that city 
from capture by Kirby Smith. At Monoc- 
acy in Jul)', 1864, he was defeated, but 



200 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his resistance delayed the advance of Gen- 
eral Early and thus saved Washington from 
capture. 

General Wallace was a member of the 
court that tried the assassins of President 
Lincoln, and also of that before whom Cap- 
tain Henry Wirtz, who had charge of the 
Andersonville prison, was tried. In 1881 
General Wallace was sent as minister to 
Turkey. When not in official service he 
devoted much of his time to literature. 
Among his better known works are his 
"Fair God," "Ben Hur," "Prince of 
India," and a " Life of Benjamin Harrison." 



THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD, an Ameri- 
can statesman and diplomat, was born 
at Wilmington, Delaware, October 29, 1828. 
He obtained his education at an Episcopal 
academy at Flushing, Long Island, and 
after a short service in a mercantile house in 
New York, he returned to Wilmington and 
entered his father's law office to prepare 
himself for the practice of that profession. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1851. He 
was appointed to the office of United States 
district attorney for the state of Delaware, 
serving one year. In 1869 he was elected to 
the United States senate, and continuously 
represented his state in that body until 1885, 
and in 1881, when Chester A. Arthur entered 
the presidential chair, Mr. Bayard was 
chosen president pro tempore of the senate. 
He had also served on the famous electoral 
commission that decided the Hayes-Tilden 
contest in 1876-7. In 1885 President Cleve- 
land appointed Mr. Bayard secretary of 
state. At the beginning of Cleveland's sec- 
ond term, in 1893, Mr. Bayard was selected 
for the post of ambassador at the court of 
St. James, London, and was the first to hold 
that rank in American diplomacy, serving 
until the beginning of the McKinley admin- 



istration. The questions for adjustment at 
that time between the two governments 
were the Behring Sea controversy and the 
Venezuelan boundary question. He was 
very popular in England because of his 
tariff views, and because of his criticism of 
the protective policy of the United States 
in his public speeches delivered in London, 
Edinburgh and other places, he received, in 
March, 1896, a vote of censure in the lower 
house of congress. 



JOHN WORK GARRETT, for so many 
years at the head of the great Baltimore 
& Ohio railroad system, was born in Balti- 
more, Maryland, July 31, 1820. His father, 
Robert Garrett, an enterprising merchant, 
had amassed a large fortune from a small 
beginning. The son entered Lafayette Col- 
lege in 1834, but left the following year and 
entered his father's counting room, and in 
1839 became a partner. John W. Gar- 
rett took a great interest in the develop- 
ment of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He 
was elected one of the directors in 1857, 
and was its president from 1858 until his 
death. When he took charge of the road 
it was in an embarrassed condition, but 
within a year, for the first time in its exist- 
ence, it paid a dividend, the increase in its 
net gains being $725,385. After the war, 
during which the road suffered much damage 
from the Confederates, numerous branches 
and connecting roads were built or acquired, 
until it reached colossal proportions. Mr. 
Garrett was also active in securing a regular 
line of steamers between Baltimore and 
Bremen, and between the same port and 
Liverpool. He was one of the most active 
trustees of Johns Hopkins University, and a 
liberal contributor to the Young Men's 
Christian Association of Baltimore. He 
died September 26, 1884. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



201 



Robert Garrett, the son of John W. 
Garrett, was born in Baltimore April 9, 
1847, and graduated from Princeton in 1867. 
He received a business education in the 
banking house of his father, and in 1871 
became president of the Valley Railroad of 
Virginia. He was made third vice-presi- 
dent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 
1879, and first vice-president in 1881. He 
succeeded his father as president in 1884. 
Robert Garrett died July 29, 1896. 



CARL SCHURZ, a noted German-Ameri- 
can statesman, was born in Liblar, Prus- 
sia, March 2, 1S29. He studied at the Uni- 
versity of Bonn, and in 1849 was engaged in 
an attempt to excite an insurrection at that 
place. After the surrender of Rastadt by 
the revolutionists, in the defense of which 
Schurz took part, he decided to emigrate to 
America. He resided in Philadelphia three 
years, and then settled in Watertown, Wis- 
consin, and in 1859 removed to Milwaukee, 
where he practiced law. On the organiza- 
tion of the Republican party he became a 
leader of the German element and entered 
the campaign for Lincoln in i860. He was 
appointed minister to Spain in 1861, but re- 
signed in December of that year to enter 
the army. He was appointed brigadier- 
general in 1862, and participated in the 
second battle of Bull Run, and also at 
Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg he had 
temporary command of the Eleventh Army 
Corps, and also took part in the battle of 
Chattanooga. 

After the war he located at St. Louis, 
and in 1869 was elected United States sena- 
tor from Missouri. He supported Horace 
Greeley for the presidency in 1872, and in 
the campaign of 1876, having removed to 
New York, he supported Hayes and the Re- 
publican ticket, and was appointed secre- 



tary of the interior in 1877. In 1881 he 
became editor of the "New York Evening 
Post," and in 1884 was prominent in his 
opposition to James G. Blaine, and became 
a leader. of the "Mugwumps," thus assist- 
ing in the election of Cleveland. In the 
presidential campaign of 1896 his forcible 
speeches in the interest of sound money 
wielded an immense influence. Mr. Schurz 
wrote a "Life of Henry Clay," said to be 
the best biography ever published of that 
eminent statesman. 



GEORGE F. EDMUNDS, an American 
statesman of national reputation, was 
born in Richmond, Vermont, February i, 
1828. His education was obtained in the 
public schools and from the instructions of 
a private tutor. He was admitted to the 
bar, practiced law, and served in the state 
legislature from 1854 to 1859, during three 
years of that time being speaker of the lower 
house. He was elected to the state senate 
and acted as president pro tempore of that 
body in 1861 and 1862. He became promi- 
nent for his activity in the impeachment 
proceedings against President Johnson, and 
was appointed to the United States senate 
to fill out the unexpired term of Solomon 
Foot, entering that body in 1866. He was 
re-elected to the senate four times, and 
served on the electoral commission in 1877. 
He became president pro tempore of the 
senate after the death of President Garfield, 
and was the author of the bill which put an 
end to the practice of polygamy in the ter- 
ritory of Utah. In November, 1891, owing 
to impaired health, he retired from the sen- 
ate and again resumed the practice of law. 



LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, a prominent 
political leader, statesman and jurist, 
was born in Putnam county, Georgia, Sep- 



202 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



tember 17, 1825. He graduated from Emory 
College in 1845, studied law at Macon under 
Hon. A. H. Chappell, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1847. He moved to Oxford, 
Mississippi, in 1849, ^'^^ was elected to a 
professorship in the State University. He 
resigned the next year and returned to Cov- 
ington, Georgia, and resumed the practice 
of law. In 1853 he was elected to the 
Georgia Legislature, and in 1854 he removed 
to his plantation in Lafayette county, Mis- 
sissippi, and was elected to represent his 
district in the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth 
congresses. He resigned in i860, and was 
sent as a delegate to the secession conven- 
tion of the state. He entered the Confed- 
erate service in i86i as lieutenant-colonel 
of the Nineteenth Regiment, and was soon 
after made colonel. In 1863 President 
Davis appointed him to an important diplo- 
matic mission to Russia. In 1866 he was 
elected professor of political economy and 
social science in the State University, and 
was soon afterward transferred to the pro- 
fessorship of the law department. He rep- 
resented his district in the forty-third and 
forty-fourth congresses, and was elected 
United States senator from Mississippi in 
1877, and re-elected in 1882. In 1885, be- 
fore the expiration / of his term, he was 
appointed by President Cleveland as secre- 
tary of the interior, which position he held 
until his appointment as associate justice of 
the United States supreme court, in 1888, 
in which capacity he served until his death, 
January 23, 1894. 



BENJAMIN PENHALLOW SHILLA- 
BER won fame in the world of 
humorists under the name of "Mrs. Parting- 
ton." He was born in 1841 at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, and started out in life as a 
printer. Mr. Shillaber went to Dover, 



where he secured employment in a printing 
office, and from there he went to Demerara, 
Guiana, where he was employed as a com- 
positor in 1835-37. In 1840 he became 
connected with the "Boston Post," and 
acquired quite a reputation as a humorist 
by his "Sayings of Mrs. Partington." He 
remained as editor of the paper until 1S50, 
when he printed and edited a paper of his 
own called the "Pathfinder," which he con- 
tinued until 1852. Mr. Shillaber be- 
came editor and proprietor of the "Carpet 
Bag," which he conducted during 1850-52, 
and then returned to the "Boston Post," 
with which he was connected until 1856. 
During the same time he was one of the 
editors of the "Saturday Evening Gazette," 
and continued in this line after he severed 
his connection with the "Post," for ten 
years. After 1866 Mr. Shillaber wrote for 
various newspapers and periodicals, and 
during his life published the following 
books: ' 'Rhymes with Reason and Without, " 
"Poems," "Life and Sayings of Mrs. Part- 
ington," "Knitting Work," and others. 
His death occurred at Chelsea, Massachu- 
setts, November 25, 1890. 



EASTMAN JOHNSON stands first among 
painters of American country life. He 
was born in Lovell, Maine, in 1824, and be- 
gan his work in drawing at the age of eight- 
een years. His first works were portraits, 
and, as he took up his residence in Wash- 
ington, the most famous men of the nation 
were his subjects. In 1 846 he went to Bos- 
ton, and there made crayon portraits of 
Longfellow, Emerson, Sumner, Hawthorne 
and other noted men. In 1849 he went to 
Europe. He studied at Dusseldorf, Ger- 
many; spent a year at the Royal Academy, 
and thence to The Hague, where he spent 
four years, producing there his first pictures 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



203 



of consequence, "The Card-Players " and 
"The Savoyard." He then went to Paris, 
but was called home, after an absence from 
America of six years. He lived some time 
in Washington, and then spent two years 
among the Indians of Lake Superior. In 
1858 he produced his famous picture, "The 
Old Kentucky Home." He took up his 
permanent residence at New York at that 
time. His "Sunday Morning in Virginia" 
is a work of equal merit. He was espe- 
cially successful in coloring, a master of 
drawing, and the expression conveys with 
precision the thought of the artist. His 
portrayal of family life and child life is un- 
equalled. Among his other great works are 
"The Confab," "Crossing a Stream,' 
"Chimney Sweep," "Old Stage Coach," 
" The New Bonnet," " The Drummer Boy," 
"Childhood of Lincoln," and a great vari- 
ety of equally familiar subjects. 



PIERCE GUSTAVE TOUTANT BEAU- 
REGARD, one of the most distin- 
guished generals in the Confederate army, 
was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, 
May 28, 1818. He graduated from West 
Point Military Academy in 1838, and was 
made second lieutenant of engineers. He 
was with General Scott in Mexico, and dis- 
tinguished himself at Vera Cruz, Cerro 
Gordo, and the battles near the City of 
Mexico, for which he was twice brevetted. 
After the Mexican war closed he was placed 
in charge of defenses about New Orleans, 
and in i860 was appointed superintendent 
of the United States Military Academy at 
West Point. He held this position but a 
few months, when he resigned February 20, 
1 86 1, and accepted a commission of briga- 
dier-general in the Confederate army. He 
directed the attack on Fort Sumter, the 
first engagement of the Civil war. He was 

13 



in command of the Confederates at the first 
battle of Bull Run, and for this victory was 
made general. In 1862 he was placed in 
command of the Army of the Mississippi, 
and planned the attack upon General Grant 
at Shiloh, and upon the death of General 
Johnston he took command of the army 
and was only defeated by the timely arrival 
of General Buell with reinforcements. He 
commanded at Charleston and successfully 
defended that city against the combined at- 
tack by land and sea in 1863. In 1864 he 
was in command in Virginia, defeating Gen- 
eral Butler, and resisting Grant's attack 
upon Petersburg until reinforced from Rich- 
mond. During the long siege which fol- 
lowed he was sent to check General Sher- 
man's march to the sea, and was with Gen- 
eral Joseph E. Johnston when that general 
surrendered in 1865. After the close of the 
war he was largely interested in railroad 
management. In 1866 he was offered chief 
command of the Army of Roumania, and in 
1869, that of the Army of Egypt. He de- 
clined these offers. His death occurred 
February 20, 1893. 



HENRY GEORGE, one of America's 
most celebrated political economists, 
was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
September2, 1839. He received a common- 
school education and entered the high 
school in 1853, and then went into a mer- 
cantile office. He made several voyages on 
the sea, and settled in California in 1858. 
He then worked at the printer's trade for a 
number of years, which he left to follow the 
editorial profession. He edited in succession 
several daily newspapers, and attracted at- 
tention by a number of strong essays and 
speeches on political and social questions. 
In 1 87 1 he edited a pamphlet, entitled ' ' Our 
Land and Policy," in which he outlined a 



204 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



theory, which has since made him so widely 
known. This was developed in " Progress 
and Poverty," a book which soon attained a 
large circulation on both sides of the Atlan- 
tic, which has been extensively translated. 
In 1880 Mr. George located in New York, 
where he made his home, though he fre- 
quently addressed audiences in Great Britain, 
Ireland, Australia, and throughout the 
United States. In 1886 he was nominated 
by the labor organizations for mayor of New 
York, and made a campaign notable for its 
development of unexpectedpower. In 1887 he 
was candidate of the Union Labor party for 
secretary of state of New York. These cam- 
paigns served to formulate the idea of a single 
tax and popularize the Australian ballot sys- 
tem. Mr. George became a free trader in 
1888, and in 1892 supported the election of 
Grover Cleveland. His political and eco- 
nomic ideas, known as the "single tax," 
have a large and growing support, but are 
not confined to this country alone. He 
wrote numerous miscellaneous articles in 
support of his principles, and also published: 
"The Land Question," " Social Problems, " 
"Protection or Free Trade," "The Condi- 
tion of Labor, an Open Letter to Pope Leo 
XIII.," and " Perplexed Philosopher." 



THOMAS ALEXANDER SCOTT. —This 
name is indissolubly connected with 
the history and development of the railway 
systems of the United States. Mr. Scott 
was born December 28, 1823, at London, 
Franklin county, Pennsylvania. He was first 
regularly employed by Major James Patton, 
the collector of tolls on the state road be- 
tween Philadelphia and Columbia, Penn- 
sylvania. He entered into the employ of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1850, 
and went through all the different branches 
of work until he had mastered all the details 



of the office work, and in 1858 he was ap- 
pointed general superintendent. Mr. Scott 
was the next year chosen vice-president of 
the road. This position at once brought 
him before the public, and the enterprise 
and ability displayed by him in its manage- 
ment marked him as a leader among the 
railroad men of the country. At the out- 
break of the rebellion in 1861, Mr. Scott 
was selected by Governor Curtin as a mem- 
ber of his staff, and placed in charge of the 
equipment and forwarding of the state troops 
to the seat of war. On April 27, 1861, the 
secretary of war desired to establish a new 
line of road between the national capital 
and Philadelphia, for the more expeditious 
transportation of troops. He called upon 
Mr. Scott to direct this work, and the road 
by the way of Annapolis and Perryville was 
completed in a marvelously short space of 
time. On May 3, 1861, he was commis- 
sioned colonel of volunteers, and on the 23d 
of the same month the government railroads 
and telegraph lines were placed in his charge. 
Mr. Scott was the first assistant secretary 
of war ever appointed, and he took charge 
of this new post August i, 1861. In Janu- 
ary, 1862, he was directed to organize 
transportation in the northwest, and in 
March he performed the same service on 
the western rivers. He resigned June i, 
1862, and resumed his direction of affairs on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad. Colonel Scott 
directed the policy that secured to his road 
the control of the western roads, and be- 
came the president of the new company to 
operate these lines in 187 1. For one 3'ear, 
from March, 1871, he was president of the 
Union Pacific Railroad, and m 1874 he suc- 
ceeded to the presidency of the Pennsj'l- 
vania Company. He projected the Texas 
Pacific Railroad and was for many years its 
president. Colonel Scott's health failed 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



205 



him and he resigned the presidency of the 
road June i, 1880, and died at his home in 
Darby, Pennsylvania, May 21, 1881. 



ROBERT TOOMBS, an American states- 
man of note, was born in Wilkes coun- 
ty, Georgia, July 2, 18 10. He attended 
the University of Georgia, and graduated 
from Union College, Schenectady, New 
York, and then took a law course at the 
University of Virginia. In 1830, before he 
had attained his majority, he was admitted 
to the bar by special act of the legislature, 
and rose rapidly in his profession, attracting 
the attention of the leading statesmen and 
judges of that time. He raised a volunteer 
company for the Creek war, and served as 
captain to the close. He was elected to the 
state legislature in 1837, re-elected in 1842, 
and in 1844 vi^as elected to congress. He 
had been brought up as a Jeffersonian 
Democrat, but voted for Harrison in 1840 
and for Clay in 1844. He made his first 
speech in congress on the Oregon question, 
and immediately took rank with the greatest 
debaters of that body. In 1853 he was 
elected to the United States senate, and 
again in 1859, but when his native state 
seceded he resigned his seat in the senate 
and was elected to the Confederate con- 
gress. It is stated on the best authority 
that had it not been for a misunderstanding 
which could not be explained till too late he 
would have been elected president of the 
Confederacy. He was appointed secretary 
of state by President Davis, but resigned 
after a fesv months and was commissioned 
brigadier-general in the Confederate army. 
He won distinction at the second battle of 
Bull Run and at Sharpsburg, but resigned 
his commission soon after and returned to 
Georgia. He organized the militia of 
Georgia to resist Sherman, and was made 



brigadier-general of the state troops. He 
left the country at the close of the war and 
did not return until 1867. He died Decem- 
ber 15, 1885. 

AUSTIN CORBIN, one of the greatest 
railway magnates of the United States, 
was born July 11, 1827, at Newport, New 
Hampshire. He studied law with Chief 
Justice Gushing and Governor Ralph Met- 
calf, and later took a course in the Harvard 
Law School, where he graduated in 1849. 
He was admitted to the bar, and practiced 
law, with Governor Metcalf as his partner, 
until October 12, 1851. Mr. Corbin then 
removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he re- 
mained until 1S65. In 1 8 54 he was a part- 
ner in the banking firm of Macklot & Cor- 
bin, and later he organized the First Na- 
tional bank of Davenport, Iowa, which 
commenced business June 29, 1863, and 
which was the first national bank open for 
business in the United States. Mr. Corbin 
sold out his business in the Davenport bank, 
and removed to New York in 1865 and com- 
menced business with partners under the 
style of Corbin Banking Company. Soon 
after his removal to New York he became 
interested in railroads, and became one of 
the! leading railroad men of the country. 
The development of the west half of Coney 
Island as a summer resort first brought him 
into general prominence. He built a rail- 
road from New Y'ork to the island, and 
built great hotels on its ocean front. He 
next turned his attention to Long Island, 
and secured all the railroads and consoli- 
dated them under one management, became 
president of the system, and under his con- 
trol Long Island became the great ocean 
suburb of New York. His latest public 
achievement was the rehabilitation of the 
Reading Railroad, of Pennsylvania, and 



206 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



during the same time he and his friends 
purchased the controlling interest of the 
New Jersey Central Railroad. He took it 
out of the hands of the receiver, and in 
three years had it on a dividend-paying 
basis. Mr. Corbin's death occurred June 
4. 1896. 

JAMES GORDON BENNETT, Sr., 
was one of the greatest journalists of 
America in his day. He was born Septem- 
ber I, 1795, at New Mill, near Keith, Scot- 
land. At the age of fourteen he was sent 
to Aberdeen to study for the priesthood, 
but, convinced that he was mistaken in his 
vocation, he determined to emigrate. He 
landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 18 19, 
where he attempted to earn a living by 
teaching bookkeeping. Failing in this he 
went to Boston and found employment as a 
proof reader. Mr. Bennett went to New 
York about 1822 and wrote for the news- 
papers. Later on he became assistant 
editor in the office of the "Charleston 
Courier," but returned to New York in 1824 
and endeavored to start a commercial 
school, but was unsuccessful in this, and 
again returned to newspaper work. He 
continued in newspaper work with varying 
success until, at his suggestion, the "En- 
quirer" was consolidated with another 
paper, and became the "Courier and En- 
quirer," with James Watson Webb as 
editor and Mr. Bennett for assistant. At 
this time this was the leading American 
newspaper. He, however, severed his con- 
nection with this newspaper and tried, 
without success, other ventures in the line 
of journalism until May 6, 1835, when he 
issued the first number of the "New York 
Herald." Mr. Bennett wrote the entire 
paper, and made up for lack of news by his 
own imagination. The paper became popu- 



lar, and in 1838 he engaged European jour- 
nalists as regular correspondents. In 1841 
the income derived from his paper was at 
least one hundred thousand dollars. Dur- 
ing the Civil war the " Herald " had on its 
staff sixty-three war correspondents and the 
circulation was doubled. Mr. Bennett was 
interested with John W. Mackay in that great 
enterprise which is now known as the Mac- 
kay-Bennett Cable. He had collected for use 
in his paper over fifty thousand biographies, 
sketches and all manner of information re- 
garding every well-known man, which are 
still kept in the archives of the "Herald" 
office. He died in the city of New York in 
1872, and left to his son, James Gordon, 
Jr., one of the greatest and most profitable 
journals in the United States, or even in the 
world. 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, a 
noted American, won distinction in the 
field of literature, in which he attained a 
world-wide reputation. He was born at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29, 1809. 
He received a collegiate education and grad- 
uated from Harvard in 1829, at the age of 
twenty, and took up the study of law and 
later studied medicine. Dr. Holmes at- 
tended several years in the hospitals of 
Europe and received his degree in 1836. 
He became professor of anatomy and phys- 
iology in Dartmouth in 1838, and re- 
mained there until 1847, when he was 
called to the Massachusetts Medical School 
at Boston to occupy the same chair, which 
position he resigned in 1882. The first 
collected edition of his poems appeared in 
1836, and his "Phi Beta Kappa Poems," 
"Poetry," in 1836; "Terpsichore," in 1843; 
"Urania," in 1846, and "Astreea," won for 
him many fresh laurels. His series of 
papers in the "Atlantic Monthly," were; 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



207 



"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "Pro- 
fessor at the Breakfast Table," "Poet at 
the Breakfast Table," and are a series of 
masterly wit, humor and pathos. Among 
his medical papers and addresses, are: "Cur- 
rents and Counter-currents in the Medical 
Science," and "Borderland in Some Prov- 
inces of Medical Science." Mr. Holmes 
edited quite a number of works, of which 
we quote the following: "Else Venner, " 
"Songs in Many Keys," "Soundings from 
the Atlantic," "Humorous Poems," "The 
Guardian Angel," "Mechanism in Thoughts 
and Morals," "Songs of Many Seasons," 
"John L. Motley" — a memoir, "The Iron 
Gate and Other Poems," "Ralph Waldo 
Emerson," "A Moral Antipathy." Dr. 
Holmes visited England for the second time, 
and while there the degree of LL. D. 
was conferred upon him by the University 
of Edinburgh. His death occurred October 
7. 1894- 

RUFUS CHOATE, one of the most em- 
inent of America's great lawyers, was 
born October i, 1799, at Essex, Massachu- 
setts. He entered Dartmouth in 18 15, 
and after taking his degree he remained as 
a teacher in the college for one year. He 
took up the study of law in Cambridge, and 
subsequently studied under the distinguished 
lawyer, Mr. Wirt, who was then United 
States attorney-general at Washington. Mr. 
Choatebegan the practice of law in Danvers, 
Massachusetts, and from there he went to 
Salem, and afterwards to Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. While living at Salem he was 
elected to congress in 1832, and later, in 
1 84 1, he was chosen United States senator 
to succeed Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster 
having been appointed secretary of state 
under William Henry Harrison. 

After the death of Webster, Mr. Choate 



was the acknowledged leader of the Massa- 
chusetts bar, and was looked upon by the 
younger members of the profession with an 
affection that almost amounted to a rever- 
ence. Mr. Choate's powers as an orator 
were of the rarest order, and his genius 
made it possible for him to enchant and in- 
terest his listeners, even while discussing the 
most ordinary theme. He was not merely 
eloquent on the subjects that were calculated 
to touch the feelings and stir the passions 
of his audience in themselves, but could at 
all times command their attention. He re- 
tired from active life in 1858, and was on 
his way to Europe, his physician having 
ordered a sea voyage for his health, but had 
only reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, when 
he died, July 13, 1858. 



D WIGHT L. MOODY, one of the most 
noted and effective pulpit orators and 
evangelists America has produced, was born 
in Northfield, Franklin county, Massachu- 
setts, February 5, 1837. He received but 
a meager education and worked on a farm 
until seventeen years of age, when he be- 
came clerk in a boot and shoe store in 
Boston. Soon after this he joined the Con- 
gregational church and went to Chicago, 
where he zealously engaged in missionary 
work among the poor classes. He met 
with great success, and in less than a year 
he built up a Sunday-school which numbered 
over one thousand children. When the 
war broke out he became connected with 
what was known as the "Christian Com- 
mission," and later became city missionary 
of the Young Men's Christian Association at 
Chicago. A church was built there for his 
converts and he became its unordained pas- 
tor. In the Chicago fire of 1871 the church 
and Mr. Moody's house and furniture, which 
had been given him, were destroyed. The 



208 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



church edifice was afterward replaced by a 
new church erected on the site of the old 
one. In 1873, accompanied by Ira D. 
Sankey, Mr. Moody went to Europe and 
excited great religious awakenings through- 
out England, Ireland and Scotland. In 
1875 they returned to America and held 
large meetings in various cities. They 
afterward made another visit to Great 
Britain for the same purpose, meeting with 
great success, returning to the United States 
in 1884. Mr. Moody afterward continued 
his evangelistic work, meeting everywhere 
with a warm reception and success. Mr. 
Moody produced a number of works, some 
of which had a wide circulation. 



JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN, a financier 
of world-wide reputation, and famous 
as the head of one of the largest banking 
houses in the world, was born April 17, 
1837, at Hartford, Connecticut. He re- 
ceived his early education in the English 
high school, in Boston, and later supple- 
mented this with a course in the University 
of Giittingen, Germany. He returned to 
the United States, in 1857, and entered the 
banking firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., 
of New York, and, in i860, he became 
agent and attorney, in the United States, for 
George Peabody & Co., of London. He 
became the junior partner in the banking 
firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co., in 1864, 
and that of Drexel, Morgan & Co., in 1871. 
This house was among the chief negotiators 
of railroad bonds, and was active in the re- 
organization of the West Shore Railroad, 
and its absorption by the New York Central 
Railroad. It was conspicuous in the re- 
organization of the Philadelphia & Read- 
ing Railroad, in 18S7, which a syndicate of 
capitalists, formed by Mr. Morgan, placed 
on a sound financial basis. After that time 



many other lines of railroad and gigantic 
financial enterprises were brought under Mr. 
Morgan's control, and in some respects it 
may be said he became the foremost fi nancier 
of the century. 



THOMAS BRACKETT REED, one of 
the most eminent of American states- 
men, was born October 18, 1839, at Port- 
land, Maine, where he received his early 
education in the common schools of the 
city, and prepared himself for college. Mr. 
Reed graduated from Bowdoin College in 
i860, and won one of the highest honors of 
the college, the prize for excellence in Eng- 
lish composition. The following four years 
were spent by him in teaching and in the 
study of law. Before his admission to the 
bar, however, he was acting assistant pay- 
master in the United States navy, and 
served on the "tin-clad" Sybil, which pa- 
trolled the Tennessee, Cumberland and 
Mississippi rivers. After his discharge in 
1865, he returned to Portland, was admit- 
ted to the bar, and began the practice of his 
profession. He entered into political life, 
and in 1868 was elected to the legislature 
of Maine as a Republican, and in 1869 he 
was re-elected to the house, and in 1870 
was made state senator, from which he 
passed to attorney-general of the state. 
He retired from this office in 1873, and 
until 1877 he was solicitor for the city 
of Portland. In 1876 he was elected to 
the forty-fifth congress, which assembled 
in 1877. Mr. Reed sprung into prominence 
in that body by one of the first speeches 
which he delivered, and his long service in 
congress, coupled with his ability, gave him 
a national reputation. His influence each 
year became more strongly marked, and the 
leadership of his party was finally conceded 
to him, and in the forty-ninth and fiftieth 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



209 



congresses the complimentary nomination 
for the speakership was tendered him by the 
RepubHcans. That party having obtained 
the ascendency in the fifty-first congress he 
was elected speaker on the first ballot, and 
he was again chosen speaker of the fifty- 
fourth and fifth-fifth congresses. As a 
writer, Mr. Reed contributed largely to the 
magazines and periodicals, and his book 
upon parliamentary rules is generally rec- 
ognized as authority on that subject. 



CLARA BARTON is a celebrated char- 
acter among what might be termed as 
the highest grade of philanthropists Amer- 
ica has produced. She was born on a farm 
at Oxford, Massachusetts, a daughter of 
Captain Stephen Barton, and was educated 
at Clinton, New York. She engaged in 
teaching early in life, and founded a free 
school at Bordentown, the first in New Jer- 
sey. She opened with six pupils, but the 
attendance had grown to six hundred up to 
1854, when she went to Washington. She 
was appointed clerk in the patent depart- 
ment, and remained there until the out- 
break of the Civil war, when she resigned 
her position and devoted herself to the al- 
leviation of the sufferings of the soldiers, 
serving, not in the hospitals, but on the bat- 
tle field. She was present at a number of 
battles, and after the war closed she origi- 
nated, and for some time carried on at her 
own expense, the search for missing soldiers. 
She then for several years devoted her time 
to lecturing on "Incidents of the War." 
About 1868 she went to Europe for her 
health, and settled in Switzerland, but on the 
outbreak of the Franco-German war she ac- 
cepted the invitation of the grand duchess 
of Baden to aid in the establishment of her 
hospitals, and Miss Barton afterward fol- 
lowed the German army She was deco- 



rated with the golden cross by the grand 
duke of Baden, and with the iron cross by 
the emperor of Germany. She also served 
for many years as president of the famous 
Red Cross Society and attained a world- 
wide reputation. 



CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS, one of 
the most eminent Catholic clergymen 
in America, was born in Baltimore, Mary- 
land, July 23, 1834. He was given a 
thorough education, graduated at St. Charles 
College, Maryland, in 1857, and studied 
theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, 
Maryland. In 1861 he became pastor of 
St. Bridget's church in Baltimore, and in 
1868 was consecrated vicar apostolic of 
North Carolina. In 1872 our subject be- 
came bishop of Richmond, Virginia, and 
five years later was made archbishop of Bal- 
timore. On the 30th of June, 1886, he 
was admitted to the full degree of cardmal 
and primate of the American Catholic 
church. He was a fluent writer, and his 
book, "Faith of Our Fathers," had a wide 
circulation. 



CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW.— 
This name is, without doubt, one of 
the most widely known in the United States. 
Mr. Depew was born April 23, 1834, at 
Peekskill, New York, the home of the Depew 
family for two hundred years. He attended 
the common schools of his native place, 
where he prepared himself to enter college. 
He began his collegiate course at Yale at 
the age of eighteen and graduated in 1856. 
He earl}' took an active interest in politics 
and joined the Republican party at its for- 
mation. He then took up the study of law 
and went into the office of the Hon. Will- 
iam Nelson, of Peekskill, for that purpose, 
and in 1858 he was admitted to the bar. 



210 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



He was sent as a delegate by the new party 
to the Republican state convention of that 
year. He began the practice of his profes- 
sion in 1859, but though he was a good 
worker, his attention was detracted by the 
campaign of i860, in which he took an act- 
ive part. During this campaign he gained 
his first laurels as a public speaker. Mr. 
Depew was elected assemblyman in 1862 
from a Democratic district. In 1863 he se- 
cured the nomination for secretary of state, 
and gained that post by a majority of thirty 
thousand. In 1866 he left the field of pol- 
itics and entered into the active practice 
of his law business as attorney for the 
New York & Harlem Railroad Company, 
and in 1869 when this road was consoli- 
dated with the New York Central, and 
called the New York Central & Hudson 
River Railroad, he was appointed the attor- 
ney for the new road. His rise in the rail- 
road business was rapid, and ten years after 
his entrance into the Vanderbilt system as 
attorney for a single line, he was the gen- 
eral counsel for one of the largest railroad 
systems in the world. He was also a 
director in the Lake Shore & Michigan 
Southern, Michigan Central, Chicago & 
Northwestern, St. Paul & Omaha, West 
Shore, and Nickel Plate railroad companies. 
In 1874 Mr. Depew was made regent of 
the State University, and a member of the 
commission appointed to superintend the 
erection of the capitol at Albany. In 1882, 
on the resignation of W. H. Vanderbilt 
from the presidency of the New York Cen- 
tral and the accession to that office by 
James H. Rutter, Mr. Depew was made 
second vice-president, and held that posi- 
tion until the death of Mr. Rutter in 1885. 
In this year Mr. Depew became the execu- 
tive head of this great corporation. Mr. 
Depew's greatest fame grew from his ability 



and eloquence as an orator and " after-din- 
ner speaker," and it has been said by emi- 
nent critics that this country has never pro- 
duced his equal in wit, fluency and eloquence. 



PHILIP KEARNEY.— Among the most 
dashing and brilliant commanders in 
the United States service, few have outshone 
the talented officer whose name heads this 
sketch. He was born in New York City, 
June 2, 181 5, and was of Irish ancestry and 
imbued with all the dash and bravery of the 
Celtic race. He graduated from Columbia 
College and studied law, but in 1S37 ac- 
cepted a commission as lieutenant in the 
First United States Dragoons, of which his 
uncle, Stephen W. Kearney, was then colo- 
nel. He was sent by the government, 
soon after, to Europe to examine and report 
upon the tactics of the French cavalry. 
There he attended the Polytechnic School. 
at Samur, and subsequently served as a vol- 
unteer in Algiers, winning the cross of the 
Legion of Honor. He returned to the 
United States in 1S40, and on the staff of 
General Scott, in the Mexican war, served 
with great gallantry. He was made a cap.- 
tain of dragoons in 1846 and made major 
for services at Contreras and Cherubusco. 
In the final assault on the City of Mexico, 
at the San Antonio Gate, Kearney lost an 
arm. He subsequently served in California 
and the Pacific coast. In 185 1 he resigned 
his commission and went to Europe, where 
he resumed his military studies. In the 
Italian war, in 1859, he served as a volun- 
teer on the staff of General Maurier, of the 
French army, and took part in the battles 
of Solferino and Magenta, and for bravery 
was, for the second time, decorated with 
the cross of the Legion of Honor. On the 
opening of the Civil war he hastened home, 
and, offering his services to the general gov- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



211 



ernment, was made brigadier-general of 
volunteers and placed in command of a bri- 
gade of New Jersey troops. In the cam- 
paign under McClellan he commanded a di- 
vision, and at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks 
his services were valuable and brilliant, as 
well as in subsequent engagements. At 
Harrison's Landing he was made major-gen- 
eral of volunteers. In the second battle of 
Bull Run he was conspicuous, and at the 
battle of Chantilly, September i, 1862, 
while leading in advance of his troops, Gen- 
eral Kearney was shot and killed. 



RUSSELL SAGE, one of the financial 
giants of the present century and for 
more than an average generation one of the 
most conspicuous and celebrated of Ameri- 
cans, was born in a frontier hamlet in cen- 
tral New York in August, 1816. WhileRus- 
sell was still a boy an elder brother, Henry 
Risley Sage, established a small grocery 
store at Troy, New York, and here Russell 
found his first employment, as errand boy. 
He served a five-years apprenticeship, and 
then joined another brother, Elisha M. Sage, 
in a new venture in the same line, which 
proved profitable, at least for Russell, who 
soon became its sole owner. Next he 
formed the partnership of Sage & Bates, 
and greatly extended his field of operations. 
At twenty-five he had, by his own exertions, 
amassed what was, in those days, a consid- 
erable fortune, being worth about seventy- 
five thousand dollars. He had acquired an 
influence in local politics, and four years 
later his party, the Whigs, elected him to 
the aldermanic board of Troy and to the 
treasuryship of Rensselaer county. In 1848 
he was a prominent member of the New 
York delegation to the Whig convention at 
Philadelphia, casting his first votes for Henry 
Clay, but joining the "stampede" which 



nominated Zachary Taylor. In 1850 the 
Whigs of Troy nominated him for congress, 
but he was not elected — a failure which he 
retrieved two years later, and in 1S54 he 
was re-elected by a sweeping majority. At 
Washington he ranked high in influence and 
ability. Fame as a speaker and as a polit- 
ical leader was within his grasp, when he 
gave up public life, declined a renomination 
to congress, and went back to Troy to de- 
vote himself to his private business. Six 
years later, in 1863, he removed to New 
York and plunged into the arena of Wall 
street. A man of boundless energy and 
tireless pertinacity, with wonderful judg- 
ment of men and things, he soon took his 
place as a king in finance, and, it is said, 
during the latter part of his life he con- 
trolled more ready money than any other 
single individual on this continent. 



ROGER QUARLES MILLS, a noted 
United States senator and famous as the 
father of the "Mills tariff bill, "was born 
in Todd county, Kentucky, March 30, 1832. 
He received a liberal education in the com- 
mon schools, and removed to Palestine, 
Texas, in 1849. He took up the study of 
law, and supported himself by serving as an 
assistant in the post-office, and in the offices 
of the court clerks. In 1850 he was elected 
engrossing clerk of the Texas house of rep- 
resentatives, and in 1852 was admitted to 
the bar, while still a minor, by special act 
of the legislature. He then settled at Cor- 
sicana, Texas, and began the active prac- 
tice of his profession. He was elected to 
the state legislature in 1859, and in 1872 he 
was elected to congress from the state at 
large, as a Democrat. After his first elec- 
tion he was continuously returned to con- 
gress until he resigned to accept the posi- 
tion of United States senator, to which he 



212 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



was elected March 23, 1892, to succeed 
Hon. Horace Chilton. He took his seat in 
the senate March 30, 1S92; was afterward 
re-elected and ranked among the most use- 
ful and prominent members of that body. 
In 1876 he opposed the creation of the elec- 
toral commission, and in 1887 canvassed 
the state of Texas against the adoption of 
a prohibition amendment to its constitution, 
which was defeated. He introduced into 
the house of representatives the bill that was 
known as the "Mills Bill," reducing duties 
on imports, and extending the free list. 
The bill passed the house on July 21, 1888, 
and made the name of "Mills" famous 
throughout the entire country. 



HAZEN S. PINGREE, the celebrated 
Michigan political leader, was born in 
Maine in 1842. Up to fourteen years of 
age he worked hard on the stony ground of 
his father's small farm. Attending school 
in the winter, he gained a fair education, 
and when not laboring on the farm, he 
found employment in the cotton mills in the 
vicinity. He resolved to find more steady 
work, and accordingly went to Hopkinton, 
Massachusetts, where he entered a shoe fac- 
tory, but on the outbreak of the war he en- 
listed at once and was enrolled in the First 
Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He partici- 
pated in the battle of Bull Run, which was 
his initial fight, and served creditably his 
early term of service, at the expiration of 
which he re-enlisted. He fought in the 
battles of Fredricksburg, Harris Farm, 
Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Har- 
bor. In 1864 he was captured by Mosby, 
and spent five months at Andersonville, 
Georgia, as a prisoner, but escaped at the 
end of that time. He re-entered the service 
and participated in the battles of Fort 
Fisher, Boyden, and Sailor's Creek. He 



was honorably mustered out of service, and 
in 1866 went to Detroit, Michigan, where 
he made use of his former experience in a 
shoe factory, and found work. Later he 
formed a partnership with another vrorkman 
and started a small factory, which has since 
become a large establishment. Mr. Pin- 
gree made his entrance into politics in 1889, 
in which year he was elected by a surpris- 
ingly large majority as a Republican to the 
mayoralty of Detroit, in which office he was 
the incumbent during four consecutive terms. 
In November, 1896, he was elected gov- 
ernor of the state of Michigan. While 
mayor of Detroit, Mr. Pingree originated 
and put into execution the idea of allov/ing 
the poor people of the city the use of va- 
cant city lands and lots for the purpose of 
raising potatoes. The idea was enthusiast- 
ically adopted by thousands of poor families, 
attracted wide attention, and gave its author 
a national reputation as "Potato-patch Pin- 
gree." 

THOMAS ANDREW HENDRICKS, an 
eminent American statesman and a 
Democratic politician of national fame, was 
born in Muskingum county, Ohio, Septem- 
ber 7, 1819. In 1822 he removed, with his 
father, to Shelby county, Indiana. He 
graduated from the South Hanover College 
in 1 84 1, and two years later was admitted 
to the bar. In 1851 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the state constitutional convention, 
and took a leading part in the deliberations 
of that body. He was elected to congress 
in 185 1, and after serving two terms was 
appointed commissioner of the United States 
general land-office. In 1863 he was elected 
to the United States senate, where his dis- 
tinguished services commanded the respect 
of all parties. He was elected governor of 
Indiana in 1872, serving four years, and in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



213 



1876 was nominated by the Democrats as 
candidate for the vice-presidency with Til- 
den. The returns in a number of states 
were contested, and resulted in the appoint- 
ment of the famous electoral commission, 
which decided in favor of the Republican 
candidates. In 1884 Mr. Hendricks was 
again nominated as candidate for the vice- 
presidency, by the Democratic party, on the 
ticket with Grover Cleveland, was elected, 
and served about six months. He died at 
Indianapolis, November 25, 1885. He was 
regarded as one of the brainiest men in the 
party, and his integrity was never ques- 
tioned, even by his political opponents. 



GARRETT A. HOBART, one of the 
many able men who have held the 
high office of vice-president of the United 
States, was born June 3, 1844, in Mon- 
mouth county, New Jersey, and in i860 en- 
tered the sophomore class at Rutgers Col- 
lege, from which he graduated in 1863 at 
the age of nineteen. He then taught 
school until he entered the law office of 
Socrates Tuttle, of Paterson, New Jersey, 
with whom he studied law, and in 1869 
was admitted to the bar. He immediately 
began the active practice of his profession 
in the office of the above named gentleman. 
He became interested in political life, and 
espoused the cause of the Republican party, 
and in 1865 held his first office, serving as 
clerk for the grand jury. He was also city 
counsel of Paterson in 1871, and in May, 
1872, was elected counsel for the board of 
chosen freeholders. He entered the state 
legislature in 1873, and was re-elected to 
the assembly in 1874. Mr. Hobart was 
made speaker of the assembly in 1S76, and 
and in 1879 was elected to the state senate. 
After serving three years in the same, he 
was elected president of that body in 1881, 



and the following year was re-elected to 
that office. He was a delegate-at-large to 
the Republican national convention in 1876 
and 1880, and was elected a member of the 
national committee in 1884, which position 
he occupied continuously until 1S96. He 
was then nominated for vice-president by 
the Republican national convention, and 
was elected to that office in the fall of 1896, 
on the ticket with William McKinley. 



WILLIAM MORRIS STEWART, noted 
as a political leader and senator, was 
born in Lyons, Wayne county. New York, 
August 9, 1827, and removed with his par- 
ents while still a small child to Mesopota- 
mia township, Trumbull county, Ohio. He 
attended the Lyons Union school and Farm- 
ington Academy, where he obtained his ed- 
ucation. Later he taught mathematics in 
the former school, while yet a pupil, and 
with the little money thus earned and the 
assistance of James C. Smith, one of the 
judges of the supreme court of New York, 
he entered Yale College. He remained 
there until the winter of 1849-50, when, at- 
tracted by the gold discoveries in California 
he wended his way thither. He arrived at 
San Francisco in May, 1S50, and later en- 
gaged in mining with pick and shovel in Ne- 
vada county. In this way he accumulated 
some money, and in the spring of 1852 he 
took up the study of law under John R. 
McConnell. The following December he 
was appointed district attorney, to which 
office he was chosen at the general election 
of the next year. In 1854 he was ap- 
pointed attorney-general of CaHfornia, and 
in i860 he removed to Virginia City, Ne- 
vada, where he largely engaged in early 
mining litigation. Mr. Stewart was also in- 
terested in the development of the "Com- 
stock lode," and in 1861 was chosen a 



214 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



member of the territorial council. He was 
elected a member of the constitutional con- 
vention in 1S63, and was elected United 
States senator in 1864, and re-elected in 
1869. At the expiration of his term in 
1875, he resumed the practice of law in 
Nevada, California, and the Pacific coast 
generally. He was thus engaged when he 
was elected again to the United States sen- 
ate as a Republican in 1887 to succeed the 
late James G. Fair, a Democrat, and took 
his seat March 4, 1887. On the expiration 
of his term he was again re-elected and be- 
came one of the leaders of his party in con- 
gress. His ability as an orator, and the 
prominent part he took in the discussion of 
public questions, gained him a national rep- 
utation. 



GEORGE GRAHAM VEST, for many 
years a prominent member of the 
United States senate, was born in Frank- 
fort, Kentucky, December 6, 1848. He 
graduated from Center College in 1868, and 
from the law department of the Transyl- 
vania University of Lexington, Kentucky, 
in 1853. In the same year he removed to 
Missouri and began the practice of his pro- 
fession. In i860 he was an elector on the 
Democratic ticket, and was a member of 
the lower house of the Missouri legislature 
in 1860-61, He was elected to the Con- 
federate congress, serving two years in the 
lower house and one in the senate. He 
then resumed the practice of law, and in 
1 879 was elected to the senate of the United 
States to succeed James Shields. He was 
re-elected in 1885, and again in 1891 and 
1897. His many years of service in the 
National congress, coupled with his ability 
as a speaker and the active part he took in 
the discussion of public questions, gave him 
a wide reputation. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN, a noted American 
statesman, whose name is indissolubly 
connected with the history of this country, 
was born in Paris, Maine, August 27, 1809. 
He learned the printer's trade and followed 
that calling for several years. He then 
studied law, and was admitted to practice 
in 1833. He was elected to the legislature 
of the state of Maine, where he was several 
times chosen speaker of the lower house. 
He was elected to congress by the Demo- 
crats in 1843, and re-elected in 1845. In 
1848 he was chosen to the United States 
senate and served in that body until 1861. 
He was elected governor of Maine in 1S57 
on the Republican ticket, but resigned when 
re-elected to the United States senate 
the same year. He was elected vice-presi- 
dent of the United States on the ticket with 
Lincoln in i860, and inaugurated in March, 
1 861. In 1865 he was appointed collector 
of the port of Boston. Beginning with 
1869 he served two six-year terms in the 
United States senate, and was then ap- 
pointed by President Garfield as minister to 
Spain in 1881. His death occurred July 4, 
1891. 

TSHAM G. HARRIS, famous as Confed- 
1 erate war governor of Tennessee, and 
distinguished by his twenty years of service 
in the senate of the United States, was 
born in Franklin county, Tennessee, and 
educated at the Academy of Winchester. 
He then took up the study of law, was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and commenced practice 
at Paris, Tennessee, in 1841. He was 
elected to the state legislature in 1847, was 
a candidate for presidential elector on the 
Democratic ticket in 1848, and the next 
year was elected to congress from his dis- 
trict, and re-elected in 1851. In 1853 he 
was renominated by the Democrats of his 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



215 



district, but declined, and removed to Mem- 
phis, where he took up the practice of law. 
He was a presidential elector-at-large from 
Tennessee in 1856, and was elected gov- 
ernor of the state the next year, and again 
in 1859, and in 1861. He was driven from 
Nashville by the advance of the Union 
armies, and for the last three years of the 
war acted as aid upon the staff of the com- 
manding general of the Confederate army 
of Tennessee. After the war he went to 
Liverpool, England, where he became a 
merchant, but returned to Memphis in 1867, 
and resumed the practice of law. In 1877 
he was elected to the United States senate, 
to which position he was successively re- 
elected until his death in 1897. 



NELSON DINGLEY, Jr., for nearly a 
quarter of a century one of the leaders 
in congress and framer of the famous 
" Dingley tariff bill," was born in Durham, 
Maine, in 1832. His father as well as all 
his ancestors, were farmers, merchants and 
mechanics and of English descent. Young 
Dingley was given the advantages first of 
the common schools and in vacations helped 
his father in the store and on the farm. 
When twelve years of age he attended high 
school and at seventeen was teaching in a 
country school district and preparing him- 
self for college. The following year he en- 
tered Waterville Academy and in 1 85 1 en- 
tered Colby University. After a year and a 
half in this institution he entered Dart- 
mouth College and was graduated in 1855 
with high rank as a scholar, debater and 
writer. He next studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1856. But instead of 
practicing his profession he purchased the 
" Lewistown (Me.) Journal," which be- 
came famous throughout the New England 
states as a leader in the advocacy of Repub- 



lican principles. About the same time Mr. 
Dingley began his political career, although 
ever after continuing at the head of the 
newspaper. He was soon elected to the 
state legislature and afterward to the lower 
house of congress, where he became a 
prominent national character. He also 
served two terms as governor of Maine. 



OLIVER PERRY MORTON, a distin- 
guished American statesman, was born 
in Wayne county, Indiana, August 4, 1823. 
His early education was by private teaching 
and a course at the Wayne County Seminary. 
At the age of twenty years he entered the 
Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, and at 
the end of two years quit the college, began 
the study of law in the office of John New- 
man, of Centerville, Indiana, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1847. 

Mr. Morton was elected judge on the 
Democratic ticket, in 1852, but on tht 
passage of the " Kansas- Nebraska Bill " he 
severed his connection with that part}', and 
soon became a prominent leader of the Re- 
publicans. He was elected governor of In- 
diana in 1 86 1, and as war governor became 
well known throughout the country. He 
received a paralytic stroke in 1865, which 
partially deprived him of the use of his 
limbs. He was chosen to the United States 
senate from Indiana, in 1867, and wielded 
great influence in that body until the time 
of his death, November i, 1877. 



JOHN B. GORDON, a brilliant Confeder- 
ate officer and noted senator of the United 
States, was born in Upson county, Georgia, 
February 6, 1832. He graduated from the 
State University, studied law, and took up 
the practice of his profession. At the be- 
ginning of the war he entered the Confederate 
service as captain of infantry, and rapidly 



216 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, 
commanding one wing of the Confederate 
army at the close of the war. In 1868 he 
was Democratic candidate for governor of 
Georgia, and it is said was elected by a large 
majority, but his opponent was given the 
office. He was a delegate to the national 
Democratic conventions in 1868 and 1872, 
and a presidential elector both years. In 
1873 he was elected to the United States 
senate. In 1886 he was elected governor 
of Georgia, and re-elected in 1888. He 
was again elected to the United States 
senate in 1890, serving until 1897, when he 
was succeeded by A. S. Clay. He was 
regarded as a leader of the southern Democ- 
racy, and noted for his fiery eloquence. 



STEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD, an illus- 
trious associate justice of the supreme 
court of the United States, was born at 
Haddam, Connecticut, November 4, iSi6,' 
being one of the noted sons of Rev. D. 
D. Field. He graduated from Williams 
College in 1837. took up the study of law 
with his brother, David Dudley Field, be- 
coming his partner upon admission to the 
bar. He went to California in 1849, and at 
once began to take an active interest in the 
political affairs of that state. He was 
elected alcalde of Marysville, in 1850, and 
in the autumn of the same year was elected 
to the state legislature. In 1857 he was 
elected judge of the supreme court of the 
state, and two years afterwards became its 
chief justice. In 1863 he was appointed by 
President Lincoln as associate justice of the 
supreme court of the United States. During 
his incumbency, in 1873, he was appointed 
by the governor of California one of a com- 
mission to examine the codes of the state 
and for the preparation of amendments to 
the same for submission to the legislature. 



In 1877 he was one of the famous electoral 
commission of fifteen members, and voted 
as one of the seven favoring the election of 
Tilden to the presidency. In 1880 a large 
portion of the Democratic party favored his 
nomination as candidate for the presidency. 
He retired in the fall of 1897, having 
served a greater number of years on the 
supreme bench than any of his associates or 
predecessors. Chief Justice Marshall coming 
ne.xt in length of service. 



JOHN T. MORGAN, whose services in 
the United States senate brought him 
into national prominence, was born in 
Athens, Tennessee, June 20, 1824. At the 
age of nine years he emigrated to Alabama, 
where he made his permanent home, and 
where he received an academic education. 
He then took up the study of law, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1845. He took a 
leading part in local politics, was a presi- 
dential elector in i860, casting his ballot 
for Breckenridge and Lane, and in 1861 
was a delegate to the state convention which 
passed the ordinance of secession. In May, 
of the same year, he joined the Confederate 
army as a private in Company I, Cahawba 
Rifles, and was soon after made major and 
then lieutenant-colonel ofthe Fifth Regiment. 
In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and 
soon after made brigadier-general and as- 
signed to the command of a brigade in Vir- 
ginia. He resigned to join his old regiment 
whose colonel had been killed. He was 
soon afterward again made brigadier-gen- 
eral and given command of the brigade that 
included his regiment. 

After the war he returned to the prac- 
tice of law, and continued it up to the time 
of his election to the United States senate, in 
1877. He was a presidential elector in 1876, 
and cast his vote for Tilden and Hendricks. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



217 



He was re-elected to the senate in 1883, 
and again in 1889, and 1895. His speeches 
and the measures he introduced, marked 
as they were by an intense Americanism, 
brought him into national prominence. 



WILLIAM Mckinley, the twenty-fifth 
president of the United States, was 
born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, Jan- 
uary 29, 1844. He was of Scotch-Irish 
ancestry, and received his early education 
in a Methodist academy in the small village 
of Poland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the 
war Mr. McKinley was teaching school, 
earning twenty-five dollars per month. As 
soon as Fort Sumter was fired upon he en- 
listed in a company that was formed in 
Poland, which was inspected and mustered 
in by General John C. Fremont, who at 
first objected to Mr. McKinley, as being too 
young, but upon examination he was finally 
accepted. Mr. McKinley was seventeen 
when the war broke out but did not look his 
age. He served in the Twenty-third Ohio 
Infantry throughout the war, was promoted 
from sergeant to captain, for good conduct 
on the field, and at the close of the war, 
for meritorious services, he was brevetted 
major. After leaving the army Major Mc- 
Kinley took up the study of law, and was 
admitted to the bar, and in 1869 he took 
his initiation into politics, being elected pros- 
ecuting attorney of his county as a Republi- 
can, although the district was usually Demo- 
cratic. In 1 876 he was elected to congress, 
and in a call upon the President-elect, Mr. 
Hayes, to whom he went for advice upon the 
way he should shape his career, he was 
told that to achieve fame and success he 
must take one special line and stick to it. 
Mr. McKinley chose tariff legislation and 
he became an authority in regard to import 
duties. He was a member of congress for 



many years, became chairman of the ways 
and means committee, and later he advo- 
cated the famous tariff bill that bore his 
name, which was passed in 1890. In the 
next election the Republican party was 
overwhelmingly defeated through the coun- 
try, and the Democrats secured more than 
a two thirds majority in the lower house, 
and also had control of the senate, Mr. 
McKinley being defeated in his own district 
by a small majority. He was elected gov- 
ernor of Ohio in 1 89 1 by a plurality of 
twenty-one thousand, five hundred and 
eleven, and two years later he was re-elected 
by the still greater plurality of eighty thou- 
sand, nine hundred and ninety-five. He was 
a delegate-at-large to the Minneapolis Re^ 
publican convention in 1892, and was in- 
structed to support the nomination of Mr. 
Harrison. He was chairman of the con^ 
vention, and was the only man from Ohio 
to vote for Mr. Harrison upon the roll call. 
In November, 1892, a number of prominent 
politicians gathered in New York to discuss 
the political situation, and decided that the 
result of the election had put an end to Mc- 
Kinley and McKinleyism. But in less than 
four years from that date Mr. McKinley was 
nominated for the presidency against the 
combined opposition of half a dozen rival 
candidates. Much of the credit for his suc- 
cess was due to Mark A. Hanna, of Cleve- 
land, afterward chairman of the Republican 
national committee. At the election which 
occurred in November, 1896, Mr. McKinley 
was elected president of the United States 
by an enormous majority, on a gold stand- 
ard and protective tariff platform. He was 
inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1897, 
and called a special session of congress, to 
which was submitted a bill for tariff reform, 
which was passed in the latter part of July 
of that vear. 



218 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER, 
known in the literary world as Joaquin 
Miller, "the poet of the Sierras," was born 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1841. When only 
about thirteen years of age he ran away 
from home and went to the mining regions 
in California and along the Pacific coast. 
Some time afterward he was taken prisoner 
by the Modoc Indians and lived with them 
for five years. He learned their language 
and gained great influence with them, fight- 
ing in their wars, and in all modes of living 
became as one of them. In 1858 he left 
the Indians and went to San Francisco, 
where he studied law, and in 1S60 was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Oregon. In 1866 he 
was elected a county judge in Oregon and 
served four years. Early in the seventies 
he began devoting a good deal of time to 
literary pursuits, and about 1874 he settled 
in Washington, D. C. He wrote many 
poems and dramas that attracted consider- 
able attention and won him an extended 
reputation. Among his productions may be 
mentioned "Pacific Poems," " Songs of the 
Sierras," "Songs of the Sun Lands," 
' ' Ships in the Desert, " ' ' Adrianne, a Dream 
of Italy," " Danites, " "Unwritten History," 
" First Families of the Sierras " (a novel), 
" One Fair Woman " (a novel), " Songs of 
Italy," " Shadows of Shasta," "The Gold- 
Seekers of the Sierras," and a number of 
others. 

GEORGE FREDERICK ROOT, a 
noted music publisher and composer, 
was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, 
Massachusetts, on August 30, 1820. While 
working on his father's farm he found time 
to learn, unaided, several musical instru- 
ments, and in his eighteenth year he went 
to Boston, where he soon found employ- 
ment as a teacher of music. From 1839 



until 1844 he gave instructions in music in 
the public schools of that city, and was also 
director of music in two churches. Mr. 
Root then went to New York and taught 
music in the various educational institutions 
of the city. He went to Paris in 1850 and 
spent one year there in study, and on his re- 
turn he published his first song, "Hazel 
Dell." It appeared as the work of "Wur- 
zel," which was the German equivalent of 
his name. He was the originator of the 
normal musical institutions, and when the 
first one was started in New York he 
was one of the faculty. He removed to 
Chicago, Illinois, in i860, and established 
the firm of Root & Cady, and engaged in 
the publication of music. He received, in 
1872, the degree of "Doctor of Music" 
from the University of Chicago. After the 
war the firm became George F. Root & Co., 
of Cincinnati and Chicago. Mr. Root did 
much to elevate the standard of music in this 
country by his compositions and work as a 
teacher. Besides his numerous songs he 
wrote a great deal of sacred music and pub- 
lished many collections of vocal and instru- 
mental music. For many years he was the 
most popular song writer in America, and 
was one of the greatest song writers of the 
war. He is also well-known as an author, 
and his work in that line comprises: " Meth- 
ods for the Piano and Organ," "Hand- 
book on Harmony Teaching," and innumer- 
able articles for the musical press. Among 
his many and most popular songs of the 
wartime are: " Rosalie, the Prairie-flower," 
" Battle Cry of Freedom," " Just Before the 
Battle," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys 
are Marching," ' ' The Old Folks are Gone, " 
"A Hundred Years Ago," "Old Potomac 
Shore, "and " There's Music in the Air." Mr. 
Root's cantatas include ' ' The Flower Queen" 
and "The Haymakers." He died in 1896. 



t .. Part II .. 

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I -J^COMFENDIUM^^l- 



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LOCAL BIOGRAPHY # # I 



I Butler. .^ Polk, ^ Seward. ^ York. I 

^ AND .^ Fillmore ^ Counties, f 

I t 

I J 

<» ^ t > : NEBRASKA ^^^^ f 

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CLAUDIUS JONES, Deceased. 






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COMPENDIUM 
^ LOCAL BIOGRAPHY! 



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LAUDIUS JONES, de- 
ceased, was for many 
years an important 
figure in the com- 
mercial circles of Sew- 
ard county, who con- 
tributed much to the 
progress of the com- 
munity. He was a man of the utmost per- 
sonal honor and businesss probity; earnest 
and pushing in his own affairs; kind and 
sympathetic in his neighborhood relations, 
with a kind word and a helping hand for 
every uplifting and forward movement. 

Claudius Jones was born in Orleans 
county, New York, in 1827, and was a son 
of David and Cynthia Jones. His father was a 
native of Wales, who on coming to the 
United States settled in New York state, 
where he followed farming as an occupation 
until the time of his death. 

Mr. Jones spent his boyhood days in 
the county of his nativity receiving his educa- 
tion from the schools of that county, after 
which he engaged in farming for a number of 
years, but owing to a feeble constitution he 
was compelled to leave the farm, and was 
shortly afterwards married to Miss Harriet 
I. Weed. She was a native of the same 
county, her parents being among its earliest 



settlers. To this union were born two sons 
and three daughters, four of whom survive 
him: Harry T. Jones, Hattie L. Tipton, 
Anna B. Brown and Emma T. Jones, three 
of whom now make their home in Seward 
county, Nebraska. 

In about the' year 1859 Mr. Jones re- 
moved to Chicago, Illinois, and was engaged 
in business in that city for several years. On 
the breaking out of the Civil war he gave 
proof of his patriotism and love of country 
by assisting in organizing a regiment in that 
city, of which he was to have been colonel. 
His ill health prevented him from accepting 
this position, but he was allowed to name 
its commanding officer. 

After remaining several years in Chicago 
Mr. Jones removed to Monmouth, Illinois, 
where he assisted in the organization of the 
First National Bank of that city, and served 
as its cashier until 1870, when on account 
of failing health he was compelled to dis- 
pose of his interests there, and the same 
year removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, where 
for a time he engaged in the handling of 
state and county warrants. 

In 1873 Mr. Jones became a resident of 
Seward county, and established the State 
Bank of Nebraska, of which he was presi- 
dent and sole owner. He successfully con- 



224 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ducted this business until 1879, when his 
health again failed him, and he disposed of 
this bank and turned his attention to farm- 
ing and cattle raising, and was thus profitably 
and pleasanth' engaged for many years. In 
1883 he established the Jones National 
Bank and was its president until 1895. At 
the time of his death, which occurred in 
November, 1896, he was the most extensive 
real estate owner and farmer in this section 
of the state, as well as director of the 
Jones National Bank, thus showing what 
energy and perseverance can accomplish 
in spite of poor health and a feeble con- 
stitution. 

Mr. Jones was a man of public spirit and 
a strong conviction of duty; besides attend- 
ing to his own e.xtensive interests he ever 
found time to take an active part in public 
affairs. When the bonds for the A. & N. 
railroad, amounting to $75,000,000, had 
been issued in this county and in a manner 
which he believed to be fraudulent, he took 
a strong ground in opposition to this prop- 
osition and at once set about to defeat them 
in the courts. This he accomplished only 
after a bitter fight and the free use of his 
time and money, saving Seward county an 
immense sum of money, but for his services 
he received nothing in return. 

The name of Claudius Jones is insepa- 
rably connected with the history of Seward 
county; each step of progress bore the 
marks of his handwork, and he has left be- 
hind him monuments that will survive him 
and his posterity for many years. His 
widow is still living and is tended with care 
by her children. A portrait of Mr. Jones 
appears on another page of this volume. 

Harry T. Jones, the only living son of 
Claudius Jones, is well known as one of the 
successful bankers of this part of Nebraska, 
He was educated in this (Seward) county, 
and prepared himself for a business career 
under the careful supervision of his father. 
In 1883 he entered the Jones National Bank 



as its cashier and in 1891 secured a controll- 
ing interest in this well known financial in- 
stitution, and is at the present its president 
and active manager. Besides giving his 
personal attention to the management of the 
bank, he is the largest owner of farmland in 
.Seward county. 

In 1S94 he was united in marriage with 
Miss Emma Totten, and this union has 
proved a happy one in every wa}-. Socially 
he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
being a Knight Templar, and he is also a 
Knight of Pythias. In politics he is an 
ardent Republican and is considered one of 
the leaders of that party in this county, but 
has never sought political office. He is 
managing an extensive business and has im- 
portant interests in his hands, and finds 
life sufficiently full for him without the 
excitement of political ambition. 



HON. CHARLES ARTEMUS WAR- 
NER, an extensive land-owner, and 
an old soldier with a most enviable record, 
is one of the best known citizens of Fill- 
more county, Nebraska. His residence is 
located on section 18, in Chelsea township, 
near the city of Geneva. 

Mr. Warner was born in Ogle county, 
Illinois, October 7, 1846, the son of James 
and Jemima (Hammond) Warner, the former 
a native of Germany, and the latter of the 
state of Vermont. The parents both died 
in Ogle county, Illinois, the father at the 
age of seventy-six years, and the mother at 
the early age of thirty-five years. 

Upon the death of his mother, young 
Charles A. Warner, then ten years of age, 
started out to make a living for himself. 
For several years following he worked for 
various parties, attending the public schools 
during the winter months, until at the break- 
ing out of the war of the Rebellion, he en- 
listed in the service of his country, and was 
enrolled in Company F, Thirty-fourth Illi- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



225 



nois Volunteer Infantry, on the 7th day of 
September, 1861. December 22, 1863, his 
entire regiment enlisted as veterans, and 
thus preserved their old organization intact. 

The subject of this sketch took part in 
many of the most bloody struggles of the 
war, and innumerable skirmishes, among 
which the following may be named: Shiloh 
(Pittsburg Landing), Siege of Corinth, Clay- 
ville (Kentucky), Laverne (Tennessee), Tri- 
une, Stone River, Liberty Gap, Mission 
Ridge, Rocky Face, Resaca, Rome, Dallas, 
Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Siege 
of Atlanta,^ Jonesboro, and various skirmishes 
through the state of Georgia on the march 
to Savannah. Also in the campaign of the 
Carolinas, including Averj'sboro, Benton- 
ville, Goldsboro and Raleigh. Our youth- 
ful soldier was in all of these battles, and 
upon two occasions came near being killed 
or disabled. At Resaca, while crossing an 
open place in the face of the enemy, his 
Springfield rifle being on his shoulder, 
caught an ounce ball between the lock-plate 
and the stock. He preserved that ball for 
many years, but it was finally lost in the 
fire which destroyed his father's house. 
The second incident occurred at Rome, 
Georgia, when on May 17, 1864, his regi- 
ment with the army was making a charge 
on the enemy's line, he was struck by a 
grape-shot upon the buckle of his belt, and 
undoubtedly it was owing to the weight and 
thickness of the buckle that his life was 
saved. He was never in the hospital but 
once, and that was for a period of two 
weeks, during an attack of the measles. 

At the time he enlisted in the army he 
was but fifteen years of age, but his weight 
and size enabled him to pass the required 
tests, his weight at that time being one 
hundred and forty-seven pounds. In 1862, 
when only sixteen years old, he was made 
a corporal, and on March i, 1864, he was 
promoted to be sergeant, and at the time 
of his discharge, July 12, 1865, he was act- 



ing orderly sergeant of his company, being 
at that time not yet nineteen years old. 
He attended the great review at Washington, 
and after nearly four years of arduous service 
he returned to his home to follow the peace- 
ful pursuits of a farmer, but not until after 
Johnston had laid down his arms to Gen- 
eral Sherman. 

After his return home he rented a farm 
and undertook to make a home for himself. 
In April, 1871, he converted his holdings 
into money and went to Nebraska, where 
he homesteaded a tract of land, comprising 
the northeast quarter of section 18, in Chel- 
sea township, where he still resides. He 
has added tract after tract to his original 
holdings, until he is now the owner of 700 
acres of excellent land in Chelsea township. 

On January 18, 1874, Mr. Warner was 
united in wedlock with Miss Hattie Leon- 
ard, daughter of Abram G. and Catherine 
(King) Leonard. Mrs. Warner's anteced- 
ents on her father's side are of German de- 
scent, and on her mother's side of Scotch 
lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Warner are the 
parents of five children, named in the order 
of their births as follows: Lula, Harry A., 
Charles J., Leonard H. and Orpha Luella. 
Harry A. was married January 17, 1897, to 
Miss Hattie Robinson. They live one mile 
east of the old home place. The other 
children are all at home except Leonard, 
who is a volunteer soldier, enlisted in Com- 
pany G, First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, 
and is now in Manila with his regiment, and 
owing to his happy disposition, as well as 
that of his messmates, who occupy the 
same tent with him, they are known as the 
" Happy Four." 

Mr. Warner's services to his community 
have always been of the highest order. For 
the past twenty-five years the schools of his 
district have demanded much of his atten- 
tion, and he has alwa3'S taken a great inter- 
est in educational matters, and done what 
he could to advance their welfare in every 



226 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



way possible. In 1873 he was elected sher- 
iff of Fillmore county, and re-elected for 
two succeeding terms. He relates a story 
to the effect that at one time he was di- 
rected to arrest a party charged with some 
crime, and there being no place for keeping 
such prisoners, he had to bring him to his 
own home, and during the time he was thus 
keeping him, our subject was invited to a 
wedding. He was not long in deciding 
what to do under the circumstances, so he 
took his prisoner with him and they attended 
the wedding together. 

In 1890 Mr. Warner was again called 
upon to serve his community and county, 
being unanimously elected state senator 
from the district composed of the counties 
of York and Fillmore. He was instru- 
mental in procuring the passage of the laws 
establishing the Industrial Schools for Girls, 
which have been of so much benefit to the 
state, and Mr. Warner is especially proud 
of his record in connection with these meas- 
ures, as it was largely due to his untiring 
efforts and influence that the measures were 
enacted into law. Mr. Warner is an old- 
fashioned Republican, having cast his first 
vote for John C. Fremont, and his last for 
William McKinley as president. In relig- 
ious sentiment he is a Baptist. 



HON. B. D. REMINGTON, the present 
treasurer of Seward county, is a gen- 
tleman of unusual ability and large experi- 
ence, and is discharging the duties of his 
responsible office in a most satisfactory 
manner. He is a farmer by occupation, 
and represents the best type of his kind. 
Because he tills the soil, he has never 
thought it necessary to shut himself within 
the lines of his home farm. He has for 
years taken a deep and intelligent interest 
in public affairs, and on more than one oc- 
casion he has served his community in mat- 
ters of vital importance. It is the opinion 



of his friends that his career is not to be 
terminated at the end of his present term. 

Mr. Remington was born in Rock county, 
Wisconsin, May 7, 1849, into the family of 
Amos and Matilda (Munger) Remington. 
His father was from Ohio and his mother 
from New York. The senior Remington 
was a farmer and settled in Wisconsin in 
1842. He spent something like a quarter 
of a century in that state, and in 1867 re- 
moved to Missouri in search of a balmier 
climate. Two years later he bought a home 
in Page county, Iowa, where he lived until 
his death in May, 1896. He was the father 
of one son and two daughters who survived 
to reach maturity. The son, whose name 
introduces this article, spent his youth and 
early manhood in Wisconsin. He attended 
the public school of his own community, 
and was a student for three years at the 
Evansville Seminary, an institution which 
has been the only alma mater for some of 
the most successful men of the West. He 
accompanied his father to Missouri and Iowa, 
and followed farming in his association. He 
determined to try the possibilities of Ne- 
braska and came into this county in 1883, 
and bought a farm near Seward. He was 
engaged in its cultivation until elected to his 
present position in 1897. He took charge 
of his new office January 5, 1898, and gives 
it his most careful attention. 

Mr. Remington was married in 1879 to 
Miss Florence L. Morgan. She was born 
in Illinois, but was a resident of Missouri at 
the time of her wedding. To this happy 
union have been born four children, whose 
names are Guy^A., Darlien, Fay and Wilem- 
ma B. They are all living and constitute a 
most interesting family. He is an active 
and zealous Mason, and is a member 
of two fraternal insurance orders, the United 
Workmen and the Maccabees. In politics 
he is identified with what is known as the 
Independent party, and was a delegate to 
the national convention of that organization 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



227 



which was held in Cincinnati in 1890. He 
was on the congressional committee for a 
number of years. He was chairman of the 
county board for two years and was a mem- 
ber of the state legislature in 1885. He is 
one of the best known men of the state, and 
is everywhere respected for his manly qual- 
ities. 



JOSEPH S. GALAWAY, deceased, was 
identified with much of the earliest 
history of York county, and will be remem- 
bered by pioneers of this part of Nebraska 
as a man of good character and lofty senti- 
ments. When a good man dies the entire 
community suffers a loss, although his in- 
fluence may abide in good lives that have 
been kindled and inspired by him. So 
when Mr. Galaway was called home, many 
felt a personal sense of loss due to a knowl- 
edge of his unassuming goodness, public 
spirit and habits of industry and prudence. 
Mr. Galaway was one of the earliest 
settlers of York county, having made a pre- 
emption claim to one hundred and sixty 
acres of land in section 24, Hays township, 
as early as October, 1869. He constructed 
a dug-out on the banks of the creek that 
bears his name, into which he moved his 
family, consisting of his wife and five 
children. His personal property did not 
exceed a wagon and four horses, and his 
household furniture was of the simplest de- 
scription and of home construction. Boxes 
served for table and cupboard, benches 
from native timber took the place of chairs, 
and beds were made from willow branches, 
and in this way he started to make a home 
for himself and family. The accomplish- 
ment of such an undertaking represented 
many years' hard work and a vast amount 
of discouraging experiences. The nearest 
market was over fifty miles distant, money 
was scarce and prices were high. Lumber 
used to make a door cost fifty dollars per 



thousand feet, and other building material 
was correspondingly high. It is not a mat- 
ter of wonder then that the pioneers of York 
county at that time were compelled to live 
in sod houses and dug-outs. 

When Mr. Galaway had proved up on 
his land, he sold out, and moved to section 
14 of the same township, where he took up 
eighty acres under the homestead law, and 
bought a quarter section in addition, thus 
making him a large and satisfactory farm. 
It was all wild prairie, and his entrance 
upon the new farm was practically a renewal 
of pioneering. For a few years the family 
residence was a dug-out, but made many 
substantial improvements, and put up a com- 
modious residence, where his widow still re- 
sides. He died June 26, 1895, and his pass- 
ing recorded the death of an honored pioneer, 
and a highly respected and popular citizen. 
During the first two weeks spent here they 
were visited by over five hundred Indians at 
one time. 

Joseph Galaway was born in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, December 26, 1833, 
and was a son of John and Lear (Smith) 
Galaway, who were also natives to the state. 
He was bred a farmer, and sent to the dis- 
trict school, and when seventeen years of 
age removed to Meigs county, Ohio, in com- 
pany with his parents. There the earlier 
part of his manly years were spent, and 
there he married and engaged in farming. 
In the fall of 1856 he removed to LaSalle 
county, Illinois, and later to Marshall county 
of the same state. He made his appearance 
in York county in the fall of 1869, making 
the trip overland by wagon, and Mrs. Gala- 
way says for more than a month she was 
not inside a house. This estimable lady 
married Mr. Galaway April 30, 1855. " Her 
maiden name was Anna Maria Foley, and 
she is a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth 
(Wilson) Foley, and with her parents claims 
Virginia as her native state. Thomas Foley 
brought his family to Athens county, Ohio, 



228 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in 1842, and at a later date removed from 
there to Meigs county, where he still lives 
at the venerable age of ninety years. His 
wife died in August, 1894, at the ripe old 
age of seventy-eight years. Mrs. Galaway 
is the mother of seven children; Thomas 
M., Elizabeth J. (deceased), James S., 
David Sylvester, William H. and Harriet 
C. and John J. She holds the respect of 
the community in a marked degree, and is 
very popular in all the circles of the old 
settlers as well as among the people of the 
new generation. The declining years that 
stretch away in front of her are thickset 
with the benedictions of those who know 
how kind and good and true a wife and 
mother, friend and neighbor she has been. 



HON. MILTON A. MILLS, ex-state sen- 
ator, and a promment attorney of Osce- 
ola, has for twenty years enjoyed a successful 
and lucrative practice at the bar of Polk coun- 
ty, and as the result of his untiring labors, 
his ambition, his energy and well directed 
efforts he is to-day the possessor of a hand- 
some competence. He is a native of Ohio, 
born September 19, 1841, in Marion coun- 
ty, Ohio, where his parents, Versailles and 
Rebecca (Makeever) Mills, were married in 
1839. The maternal grandfather, Patrick 
Makeever, came to this country from Coun- 
ty Donegal, Ireland, and settled in Greene 
county, Pennsylvania. He was in religious 
belief a member of the Church of England. 
The father of our subject was a native of 
Vermont and a son of Dr. Mills, who be- 
longed to an old and prominent New Eng- 
land family. In early life Versailles Mills 
engaged in teaching school, and subsequent- 
ly became one of the first traveling sales- 
men in this country, and died while on one 
of his trips at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 
1844. Later his widow, with her two chil- 
dren located on a farm four miles west of 
Rensselaer, Indiana, where she made her 



home until 1893, when she went to live 
with her son in Missouri, dying there No- 
vember 9, 1895. Our subject is the older 
of the two children, the other being James 
Versailles, a musician, who was a member 
of an Indiana regiment in the Civil war, 
and now resides at Ridgeway, Missouri. 

Milton A. Mills was reared on the farm 
near Rensselaer, Ind. , and obtained his early 
education in the district schools of the 
neighborhood. He graduated from the 
Iowa State Law School with the class of 
1870, and was admitted to the bar by the 
supreme court of Iowa in 1869, after which 
he engaged in practice in Leon, that state, 
until coming to Osceola, Nebraska, in 1878. 
He is now the oldest attorney in this place, 
is engaged in practice in all the courts and 
takes front rank among his professional 
brethren in the state. Financially as well 
as professionally he has met with success, 
and is now the owner of an excellent farm 
lying partly within the corporate limits of 
Osceola, besides four hundred and eighty 
acres of land elsewhere. 

On the loth of April, 1873, Mr. Mills 
was united in marriage with Miss Emma J. 
Dawson, a native of Defiance county, Ohio, 
born November 25, 1854, and a daughter 
of J. B. and Susan (Webster) Dawson, now 
residents of Osceola. Her mother belongs 
to the same family of which Daniel Web- • 
ster was a member. Mr. Dawson is a native 
of England, and during our Civil war three 
times enlisted, but was never accepted on 
account of physical disability. There were 
only two children in the family: Mrs. 
Mills, and Helen, wife of Prof. Des Islets, 
who is professer of Greek in the college at Al- 
legheny City, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Mills was 
educated in the High school of Leon, Iowa, 
and by her marriage has become the mother 
of seven children: Frank D., who is now 
a Lieut, in Co. H^ 3d Reg. Neb. Vol. Inf. — 
(Colonel Bryan's regiment); Ralph, who was 
injured in a fire at Osceola and died from 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



229 



the effects of the same September 5, 1895; 
Blanche, who is a student in the State Uni- 
versity; Tom, who is in the office of his 
father; Milton A., Jr.; Webster; and Emma 
A. The wife and mother is an active and 
prominent member of the Methodist Church. 
For a quarter of a century Mr. Mills has 
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and 
has been a member of Royal Arch Chapter 
for twenty years. Politically he is a free- 
silver Democrat. He has been honored 
with a number of important official positions, 
being county attorney of Polk county, a 
member of the state senate in 1885, and 
president of the school board. He is a 
genial, courteous gentleman, a pleasant en- 
tertaining companion, and has many stanch 
and admiring friends among all classes of 
men. As an energetic, upright and consci- 
entious lawyer, and a gentleman of attract- 
ive social qualities, he stands high in the 
estimation of the entire community. 



WILLIAM M. BUNTING, president 
of the Central Nebraska National 
Bank, of David City, Nebraska, stands in 
the front rank among men of enterprise, 
public spirit, and business ability, who have 
built the prosperity of Butler county upon 
a sure and permanent foundation. 

William M. Bunting was born in Lan- 
caster county, Pennsylvania, November 25, 
1838. His father, Ebenezer Bunting, was 
a native of the same county, where he fol- 
lowed the occupation of a farmer until 1840, 
when he removed to Preble county, Ohio. 
He remained there but one year, when he 
went to Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, 
where a portion of the time he was con- 
ducting a farm and a portion of the 
time engaged in the butcher business. 
In 1850 he went to Millersburg, Mercer 
county, Illinois, and conducted a hotel. In 
the spring of 1871 he located in Butler 
county, Nebraska, where he died in April, 



1872, in the sixty-second year of his age. 
His father, Walter Bunting, was also a na- 
tive of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
and the Buntings trace their lineage back 
to the time of William Penn, through six 
generations, and the farm on which our 
subject was born was purchased direct of 
that noted Quaker philanthropist, and is 
still owned by a cousin of our subject, Wal- 
ter Bunting. The family is of Scotch-Irish 
descent. The maiden name of our subject's 
mother was Susan Moore. She was born 
in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and was 
a daughter of David Moore, a native of 
Pennsylvania, of German descent. She 
died in Butler county, Nebraska, in the fall 
of 1893, ^' the age of seventy-eight years. 
Ebenezer and Susan Bunting were the par- 
ents of seven children, all of whom are now 
living. Mary E., wife of David Stevens, of 
Mercer county, Illinois; William M.,our 
present subject; Harriet, wife of James Gil- 
more, of David City, Nebraska; James, of 
David City, Nebraska; John, of St. Clair 
county, Missouri; Leah, wife of Eli Shot- 
well, of David City, Nebraska; and Orrick, 
of Butler county, Nebraska. 

William M. Bunting was but two years 
old when he went with the family to Pre- 
ble county, Ohio, and but a year older 
when they went to Richmond, Indiana. 
There he remained until 1850, when he 
went to Mercer county, Illinois. He attend- 
. ed an old fashioned subscription school at 
Richmond, Indiana, and later the public 
schools of Mercer county, Illinois. In 1862 
he enlisted in Company G, one hundred and 
second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a pri- 
vate, he waspromotedto the rank of corporal 
and was discharged as such at the close of the 
war, June 6, 1865, at Washington, D. C. 
He was with Sherman's army on its famous 
"March to the Sea" and was wounded in 
the battle of Resaca, Georgia on the 14th of 
May, 1864, in the left shoulder. He re- 
mained in the hospital four months, and 



230 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



then returned to his regiment before Atlan- 
ta, and witnessed the surrender of that city. 
He was in the battles of Averysburg and 
Bentonville, North Carolina and a number of 
minor engagements. After an army experi- 
ence of about three years he was honorably 
discharged, and returned to Mercer county, 
Illinois, and engaged in farming. 

In 1870 Mr. Bunting went to Butler 
county, Nebraska, and filed a homestead 
claim to section 32, Franklin township, one 
and a half miles southeast of David City. 
He was the first settler on the "Table Land," 
in that township, and erected the first land- 
marks of civilization there. He constructed 
a sod house 12 x 14 feet, in which he lived 
one year. He built a frame residence 
20x24 feet, which he "sodded " outside and 
lathed and plastered inside, making it a 
most comfortable and cosy abode, it being 
one of the first houses to be thus construct- 
ed in the west. In the fall of 1871 he re- 
turned to Mercer county, and on November 
26th of that year, was married to Anna 
Maury, a native of Mercer county, Illinois, 
and a daughter of Dr. James and Elizabeth 
(Long) Maury. They spent the winter in 
Mercer county, returning to Nebraska in the 
spring, and in April 1872, they located on 
their homestead near David City. At the 
fall election in 1873 Mr. Bunting was elect- 
ed treasurer of Butler county, and shortly 
after moved to David City. Two years la- 
ter he was re-elected to the same office, and 
at the expiration of his fourth year of service 
as county treasurer he opened a real estate 
office in David City, and was appointed 
land agent by the Union Pacific Railroad 
Company having received this appointment 
the year previous. He remained in this 
capacity until their lands had all been sold, or 
until about the year 1888. He also was 
collector for the same company. He con- 
ducted his business in partnership with E. 
S. Runyon from about 1878 until 1892. In 
1887, upon the organization of the Central 



Nebraska National Bank, Mr. Bunting was 
elected president of that institution, and 
has discharged the duties of that position 
since. The capital stock was $100,000 at 
the organization of the bank, but three 
years later it was decided to reduce it to 
$50,000. The other officers are Geo. R. 
Colton, cashier, and I. E. Doty, vice- 
president. 

Mr. Bunting is one of the largest land- 
owners in Nebraska, his holdings aggregat- 
ing over 3,000 acres. Not least impor- 
tant of these tracts is the old homestead, 
which he still owns, and which- has never 
been under mortgage. Many of the best 
business blocks and substantial residences 
of David City owe their existence to the 
enterprise of Mr. Bunting, and he is the 
largest contributor to the revenues of But- 
ler county. He was at one time engaged 
extensively in cattle dealing, and he is now 
interested in the breeding of Shetland pon- 
ies, his herd now consisting of twenty-four 
head. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bunting are the parents of 
four children, two of whom are now living: 
Wanetta M. , educated at the State Normal 
School; and Archie M. The first daughter 
was Hattie, who died at the age of eighteen 
months. Lester was the third child, and 
died at the age of four years. 

Mr. Bunting is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, and holds membership \xt Fidel- 
ity lodge No. 31, of David City. In polit- 
ical views he is a Democrat, and aside from 
his early service as country treasurer he has 
not sought political honors. 



WILLIAM M. REDFORD, the present 
mayor of Seward, Nebraska, has 
helped to make the city and county in a 
very marked degree, and is a man of broad 
views and positive character. He possesses 
good business habits, and is known far and 
wide as a reliable and trustworthy trades- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



231 



man. He is an Englishman and exhibits 
many of the best traits of the blood, prompt, 
energetic, upright and candid. He be- 
lieves in square dealing, and would scorn 
to take a mean advantage. 

Mayor Redford was born near London, 
in the shire of Lincoln, March 7, 1841, and 
was a son in the family of Robert and Sarah 
(Forington) Redford, and comes of a long 
line of English ancestry. Robert Redford 
emigrated to the United States in 1847, ac- 
companied by his family, and made his 
home at Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 
killed by a falling tree in 1850. He was 
the father of four sons and two daughters. 
Young Redford obtained his early education 
under primitive conditions, but the teachers 
were mostly capable instructors, and he 
learned some things quite thoroughly. Log 
schoolhouses have nurtured some strong 
minds, and men have gone forth from their 
shadows to sway the destinies of the world. 
He was a soldier in the Union army, first 
enlisting in 1861 in Company A, Tenth 
Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and was dis- 
charged for disability the same year. Later 
he enlisted again in 1864. He served as 
sergeant in Company F, Fortieth Wiscon- 
sin Volunteer Infantry. A portion of the 
time he was stationed at Memphis, Tennes- 
see. After the termination of the war he 
returned to Wisconsin, and engaged in 
farming, remaining in that state until 1878. 
In that year he purchased a farm near 
Seward, and was busy in its cultivation for 
a number of years. In 1884 he removed 
to the city, and bought a grocery store. He 
kept this for six years, when he sold it, and 
made an extended visit to his native land. 
On his return he opened a furniture estab- 
lishment, and in this line he was engaged 
up to September, 189S, when he disposed 
of the business and is now living retired. 

Mr. Redford was married to Miss Ellen 
J. Dalton May 20, 1866. She was born in 
New York, and is the mother of one daugh- 



ter. Mizzle T. They are members of the 
Congregational church, and take an active 
interest in its prosperity. He is an Odd 
Fellow, and also belongs to the Grand Army 
of the Republic. As a Republican he has 
always been an earnest party worker. In 
Wisconsin he was elected to the board of 
supervisors, and in 1884 he was county 
commissioner in this county, and served 
two years. He was supervisor from G pre- 
cinct two years. He was an alderman of 
the city of Seward for four years, and on 
the board of education for six years. In 
1898 he was elected to the mayoralty. The 
previous year he ran for county treasurer on 
the Republican ticket, but failed of election. 
The career of our subject in this state is 
instructive and interesting. He brought 
little money with him, but possessed more im- 
portant qualities, honesty, industry, ability, 
and an accommodating genial spirit. He 
has attained a very substantial success. 



CHARLES HILL, who was one of the 
very first settlers in Lockridge town- 
ship, York county, Nebraska, where he has 
resided since the spring of 1870, is one of 
the leading agriculturists of the county. 
His name is indissolubly connected with 
the growth and development of the general 
farming interests of the county, as he has 
always given his aid to any project that 
would tend to promote the general welfare 
of the locality in which he resides. He was 
born in York, England, on June 4, 1840, 
and is a son of Charles and Mary (Train) 
Hill, who were both natives of England. 
The father was a farmer and stockraiser by 
occupation, and followed that calling in 
England until 1851. In that year he came 
to the United States, and located in Clinton 
county, Iowa, where he resided during the 
remainder of his life. He died in 1876, in 
Clinton county, Iowa, and the mother died 
in England in 1844. They were the parents 



282 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of two children, Charles, the subject of this 
sketch, and one sister. 

Charles Hill received his education in 
the common schools of Iowa, and at an 
early age he became engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, which he has followed throughout 
his entire life. In 1861 he enlisted in Com- 
pany A, Eighth Iowa Infantry, and served 
for eleven months in that regiment, at the 
end of which time he was discharged for dis- 
ability at Sedalia, Missouri; during that 
time he did guard duty and saw some active 
service. In August of 1862, he again en- 
listed, this time in Company D, Twenty- 
sixth Iowa Infantry, and served until the 
close of the war. He participated in the 
following battles, Arkansas Post, Arkansas, 
in the winter of 1862, Ringgold, Georgia, 
known as the battle of Dalton, fought in 
August, 1863. In the last named engage- 
ment he received a scalp wound, which in- 
capacitated him for service for some time. 
He was then attached to the sharpshooters 
brigade for that winter. He then accom- 
panied Sherman on his famous " March to 
the Sea," during which campaign he was 
detailed as a scout for John A. Logan. He 
was captured in the winter of 1865, at Hang- 
ing Rock, North Carolina, and held a pris- 
oner for three months. However, he suc- 
ceeded in destroying his papers, and thus 
avoided being shot as a spy, but was held in 
Libby prison at Richmond. When he was 
released the war was over, and he returned 
to Iowa, where he remained in Clinton 
county for five years. He then moved 
further west in the state, and in the spring 
of 1870 he came to York county, Nebraska. 
He took up his present homestead, and has 
resided here ever since. In 1876 and 1877 
he went to California, but soon returned to 
Nebraska. When he first took up the land 
on which he now lives it was all raw 
prairie land, wild and unbroken, and there 
were no settlements near it. His first home 
was a dug-out, which later on gave way 



to a sod house, and the latter in turn 
was replaced by a small frame house. 
The house in which Mr. Hill now lives in 
is considered to be one of the best in the 
county. His farm consists of three hundred 
and twenty acres of fine land, all of 
which is under a high state of cultivation. 
Mr. Hill was married on January i, 
1867, to Miss Rosie Echelbarger, a native 
of Ohio, the ceremony being performed in 
Clinton county, Iowa. They are the parents 
of fifteen children, upon whom they bestowed 
the following names: Nellie K., Lorenzo 
D., Charles W^, George M., Bird E., Owen 
B., Vena, Orlin V., Merlin I., Mabel, 
Zetta and Ava, all of whom are now liv- 
ing. The deceased are Eva, Reno and Ina. 
Mr. Hill uses his elective franchise in sup- 
port of the principles of the Republican 
party, though he favors free silver. Though 
he has taken an active interest in the polit- 
ical welfare of the community in which he 
resides, he has never sought or held any 
ofBce, though he assisted in the organiza- 
tion of Lockridge township. He is a mem- 
ber of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
He is one of the substantial and well-to-do 
men of the county, and has amassed all of 
his wealth by careful and thrifty habits, as 
when he came to the county, he was en- 
tirely without means, and to-day he is one 
of the leading and representative citizens 
of the county. He has been rewafded for 
his labors by the acquisition of a good prop- 
erty, and he retains the unbounded con- 
fidence and esteem of all who know him. 



GEORGE W. GREGG.— It is with re- 
luctance as well as pleasure that we 
attempt to write the life record of such 
a man as Mr. Gregg. It affords us pleasure 
to present to our readers the sketch of one 
that they will so gladly receive and eagerly 
peruse but, fearful that we will not do jus- 
tice to one so worthy of honorable men- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



233 



tion, we dread undertaking the task. His 
name is a synonym for honorable business 
dealing; he was one of the brave defenders 
of the union during the dark days of our 
Civil war; and during the twenty years of 
his residence in Polk county has been a sup- 
porter of every enterprise for the public 
good. His life has been one of honest and 
earnest endeavor, and he has labored for 
others with an unseliish devotion that well 
entitles him to the respect which is so 
freely given him and to a place among the 
honored and valued residents of Osceola. 

The Gregg family was founded in Ameri- 
ca by Samuel Gregg, who emigrated from 
Scotland in 1699, when but twelve years 
old, and settled in Philadelphia. When 
quite young he married an English lady of 
some note by the name of Gregg. For sev- 
eral generations his descendants married into 
families of the same name, all being of the 
Quaker faith and of either English or Scot- 
tish ancestry. Of his children, Thomas 
was born in Philadelphia, in 1721, and in 
1743 married a Miss Gregg. Their son Is- 
rael was born in the same city in 1747 and 
was married in 1770 to a Miss Gregg. With 
their seven children they removed to the 
wilds of Kentucky in 1784. Of this family 
Thomas Gregg was born in Philadelphia, in 
1780, but grew to manhood in Kentucky, 
where he married Delilah Owens. After 
the birth of seven of their children they re- 
moved to Fianklin county, Ind., in 1808, 
and there five other children were added to 
the family. The father of these was the 
first school teacher in that county, and also 
organized the first Methodist class there, 
being the first of the family to leave the 
Society of Friends, although he still con- 
tinued to use their form of speech. 

John Gregg, the son of Thomas and 
Delilah (Owens) Gregg, was born in Frank- 
lin county, Indiana, in 18 10, and there 
made his permanent home. He was a 
blacksmith by trade, but also operated a 



farm, and was an active and prominent 
member of the Methodist church. In Feb- 
ruary, 1833, he wedded Mary A. Bowling, 
and died December 13, 1840, leaving a 
wife and three small children, of whom our 
subject is the youngest. Eliza C., born 
February 19, 1834, is now the wife of Isra- 
el Artz, of Dorchester, Nebraska, and they 
have six children. Margaret D., born De- 
cember 8, 1835, married Thomas Wallace 
and died in November, 1858, leaving no 
children. In 1843 the mother with her 
little family moved to Rock Island, Illinois, 
and for three years lived on a farm in Bowl- 
ing township, which was named in honor 
of her father, Ambrose G. Bowling, who 
served all through the war of 1812. Heowned 
a rope walk in Washington, D. C., and 
also one in Alexandria, Virginia, both of 
which were destroyed when the British 
burned the capital. He died at the ripe 
old age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Gregg 
married for her second husband Rev. J. L. 
Condon, who was for half a century a cir- 
cuit rider in the United Brethren church, 
and they removed to Mercer county, Illi- 
nois, and in 1 881, to Barton county, Mis- 
souri, where she died July 9, 1889. By 
her second union she had three daughters: 
Mrs. Martha K. Stoughton, a resident of 
Iowa; Virginia, wife of Joseph Clegg, of 
Barton county, Missouri, and Addie, wife 
of A. Sprouse, of the same county. 

George W. Gregg, of this sketch, was 
born in Franklin county, Indiana, July 17, 
1839, but was reared in Rock Island and 
Mercer counties, Illinois, acquiring his edu- 
cation in the district schools there. At the 
age of fifteen he bound himself out to learn 
the mason's trade, and after serving a three- 
years' apprenticeship, he worked at the 
same for a time in Berlin, Mercer county, 
Illinois. On the 8th of August, 1862, he 
donned the blue and went to the front as a 
private in Company C, One Hundred and 
Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The 



234 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



regiment was first sent to Jeffersonville, 
Indiana, from there to Louisville and Frank- 
fort, Kentucky, where they did guard duty 
for a time, then proceeded to Bowling Green 
and Scottsville, and during the winter were 
on guard at Gallatin, Tennessee. Leaving 
there they went to Luverne, Tennessee, 
and did patrol duty on the railroad between 
Nashville and Murfreesboro. From Lookout 
Mountain they went with Sherman on the At- 
lanta campaign, on the march to the sea and 
through the Carolinas. Mr. Gregg was in 
every engagement in which his regiment took 
part, including the battles of Resaca, Cass- 
ville. Burnt Hickory, Dallas, Lost Mountain, 
Pine Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Kene- 
saw, Marietta, Atlanta, Savannah, Averys- 
boro. North Carolina, and Bentonville, 
He was present at the surrender of Gen. 
Joseph E. Johnston, April 26, 1865, and 
as one of " Sherman's Bummers " participa- 
ted in the grand review at Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia, May 24, 1865. The 
troops were made brevet citizens of Wash- 
ington. At Chicago our subject was mus- 
tered out in June, 1865, with the rank of 
orderly sergeant of Company C. 

During his service Mr. Gregg met with 
a very painful accident. While returning 
home on a furlough, October 31, 1864, he, 
with five others, was standing on the front 
platform of a car and in coming round a 
curve between Lafayette and Indianapolis, 
Indiana, a heavy freight train ran into them, 
both going at full speed. The car on which 
Mr. Gregg stood was telescoped by the bag- 
gage car in front of it, and both legs being 
caught under the platform of the latter, he 
was forced along nearly the whole length of 
the coach telescoped. There he lay wedged 
in and crushed for an hour and a half before 
assistance could reach him. His eyes 
were filled with blood, a body 14y across 
him and atidther hung suspended over him. 
When c msciousness returned he threw the 
body off him, and taking hold of the bell 



rope pulled himself out, but was too weak 
to stand. Some outsiders then pushed for- 
ward a rail which he caught and they pulled 
him out from under the wreck. His head 
was badly cut on the right side, including 
the upper part of his ear; several ribs were 
torn loose; and the flesh of his legs was so 
mangled that in some places the bones 
were exposed, while some small bones in 
his foot had to be removed. He was 
the first man taken from the wreck; twenty- 
five were removed in a helpless condition ; and 
twenty-eight killed outright. Being taken 
to Lafayette, he received excellent care, 
and was finally taken to the train, against 
the orders of the surgeon, and returned 
home, reaching there just as the second dis- 
patch saying that he was dead, arrived. 
He was finally nursed back to health by his 
loving wife and family. 

For two years after the war Mr. Gregg 
worked at his trade and then purchased a 
dry goods store in Berlin, Illinois, but after 
conducting it for a year, he sold out and re- 
moved to New Windsor, that state, where 
he engaged in the hardware business for 
four years. He next owned and carried on 
a drug store for a year, and on selling it 
purchased another drug store, which he 
finally disposed of. He was postmaster of 
New Windsor under President Grant, re- 
signing that position in 1879 on cTiming to 
Nebraska. He first located on Gospel 
Ridge, subsequently lived for one year in 
Osceola, and then traded his home there for 
the farm of eighty acres on which he now 
resides. He has made all of the improve- 
ments upon the place, and since 1883 has 
engaged in the nursery business, devoting 
fifty-five acres to orchard and nursery stock, 
the remainder to farming. He has over six 
thousand fruit trees bearing, and in 1896 
sold seventy-five bushels of cherries from 
two hundred and forty trees. 

One of the most important events in 
the life of Mr. Gregg was his marriage. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



235 



•which was celebrated July 4, 1862, Miss 
Amy Shaw becoming his wife. She was 
born in Berlin, Illinois, February 9, 1839, a 
daughter of Levi and Martha (Metzler) 
Shaw, early settlers of Mercer county. Her 
father was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. 
For thirty-four year Mr. and Mrs. Gregg 
traveled life's journey together, sharing its 
•joys and sorrows, its adversity and prosper- 
ity, and she ever proved to him a faithful 
helpmeet. She was a kind and affectionate 
wife and mother, was always ready to lend 
a helping hand to the poor and needy, and 
her pleasant and agreeable manner gained 
her the love and respect of all with whom 
she came in contact. Her death, which 
occurred July 29, 1896, left a vacancy not 
only in the home, but also in the commu- 
nity where she was so much admired. The 
funeral services were under the auspices of 
the Eastern Star, the Daughters of Rebecca, 
and the Woman's Relief Corps, of Osceola, 
of which she was a prominent member, and 
she was laid to rest in the cemetery of that 
city. 

On the 25th of July, 1887, Mr. and 
and Mrs. Gregg had celebrated their twen- 
ty-fifth wedding anniversary, two hundred 
guests being present and Hon. John H. 
Mickey acting as master of ceremonies, and 
it was the most notable event of the kind 
which ever transpired in Polk county. 
They were re-married in their own door- 
yard, standing beneath the old flag as they 
had done twenty-five years before. Re- 
freshments were served on large tables 
spread under the trees, which were beau- 
tifully decorated with over one thousand 
United States flags. Mr. and Mrs. Gregg 
were the recipient of many beeautiful pres- 
ents, including a handsome, solid silver 
service, the gift of one hundred and one 
personal friends, silver berrj' casket, berry 
spoon and vase. 

The children of this worthy couple are 
asfoUows: Inez Leola, born April 14, 1866, 



is now the wife of J. R. Burns, of Osceola; 
Claudie Llewellyn, born August 6, 1869, 
died June 3, 1870; Harley Lionel, born 
August 10, 1871, is a graduate of the Oma- 
ha Medical College and is now a practicing 
physician of Silver Creek, Nebraska. He 
married Helen Gushee. George W. , Jr., 
born June 9, 1874, was principal of the 
Gresham schools. Laurel Lavergne, born 
August 6, 1876, is a graduate of Bryant's 
Business College, and is now a member 
of Twenty-second Regulars, United States 
Infantry. John Levi, born July 17, 1880, 
died August 14, 1882. All of the children 
you have reached years of maturity are 
graduates of the Osceola high school and 
have successfully engaged in teaching for 
several terms. 

Mr. Gregg is a charter member of the 
G. A. R. Post, of Osceola, has served as 
its commander, and in 1893 attended the 
national encampment at Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia, taking part in the grand 
review. He is also a charter member of 
the Odd Fellows lodge of Osceola, in which 
he has filled all the chairs, is a member of 
the Masonic order, and held office in Sher- 
man lodge, of Berlin, Illinois. He also be- 
longs to the Pilgrim Knights, the Eastern 
Star, and Daughters of Rebekah, his wife 
also being a member of the last two. She 
was a charter member of the Woman's Re- 
lief Corps, and was conductor at the time 
of her death. Politically Mr. Gregg is an 
ardent Republican, and gives his support to 
all measures which he believes will advance 
the moral, educational or material welfare 
of his county or state. He has been a mem- 
ber of the school board of Osceola, is presi- 
dent of the Cemetery Association, president 
of the Agricultural Society for two years, 
and treasurer of the same for one year. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gregg, some ten years be- 
fore her death, conceived the idea of plant- 
ing orchards for benevolent purposes, and 
have since dedicated one each to the follow- 



286 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ing societies: Thanksgiving day, Novem- 
ber 27, 1890, each member of the family — 
eight in all — set out a tree for Rising Star 
lodge, No. 75, I. O. O. F. , and Osceola 
Rebecca lodge. No. 88; dedicated as Frater- 
nity Orchards Nos. i and 2, July 9, 1897. 
On Christmas day, 1890, each member of 
the family set out one apple tree, and on 
St. John's day, November 27, 1890, Mr. and 
Mrs. Gregg set out four more, making 
twelve in all; dedicating this to Masonic 
lodge. No. 65, F. & A. M., and Eastern Star 
lodge. No. 24, as Fraternity orchards Nos- 
3 and 4. January i, 1891, Mr. and Mrs. 
Gregg set out five apple trees dedicated to 
the Merry Workers of the Presbyterian 
church on June 24, 1897, as Fraternity 
Orchard No. 5. April 7, 1893, they set out 
twenty-one apple trees, fifteen of which 
were set in a circle forty-five feet in diame- 
ter. There is one in the center, with five 
around it, representing the five points of a 
star, the emblem of the Twentieth Army 
Corps, of which Mr. Gregg was a member. 
This was dedicated to the G. A. R. and W. 
R. C, of Osceola, July 17, 1897. Each 
tree one-half way round the circle is named 
for one of the noted army nurses, the re- 
mainder for prominent generals of the Army 
of the Tennessee, while the center tree is 
named Lincoln, and those at the five points 
of the star — Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Lo- 
gan and Sheridan. This is Fraternity Or- 
chard Nos. 6 and 7. Between each tree 
and the next of this cirole are two rose 
bushes, while a fence of roses form the lines 
of the star, and inside are two snowball 
bushes, three hydrangeas and five peonies, 
making one of the most beautiful spots to be 
found anywhere in this section of the state. 



JUDGE BENJAMIN O. PERKINS. 
Among those whose lives are an essen- 
tial feature in the history of Butler county, 
Nebraska, the name of Judge Benjamin O. 



Perkins, president of the City National 
Bank, of David City, should be recorded as 
one of the first. He adopted Butler county 
as his permanent home in 1869, and since 
that time he has been identified with its 
every best interest, and in its unprecedented 
development in all lines he has been one 
of those to point the way and to his guiding 
hand and counsel much of the credit is due 
for the prominent place his county now 
maintains among its neighbors in finance, 
commerce, education and general prog- 
ress. 

Judge Perkins was born in Sangamon 
county. Illinois, January 3, 1825, the second 
son and second child of Solomon and Mary 
(Ogle) Perkins, the former a native of Ken- 
tucky, of English descent. He was reared 
in Illinois, where he followed the occupa- 
tion of a farmer. Our subject's mother 
was born in Illinois, and was of English de- 
scent. Solomon and Mary Perkins were 
the parents of twelve children, — six sons 
and six daughters. 

When Benjamin O. Perkins was but a 
child his parents removed to Warren coun- 
ty, Illinois, and when he was eight years old 
they went to Des Moines county, Iowa. 
Here he assisted on the farm and^attended 
the public schools until he reached his ma- 
jority. He then went to Adams county, 
Illinois, but after a short time proceeded to 
Monroe county, Iowa, and thence to War- 
ren county, Iowa. 

In 1869 our subject determined to find 
a home farther west, and crossing the Platte 
river on March 2d, of that year, he located 
eight miles north of the present site of David 
City. The scattered population recognized 
his worthy qualities at once, and he was 
elected probate judge the same year that 
he located in the county, — 1869, when 
there was a total of seventy votes polled. 
At the time David City was organized he 
located there and built a hotel, one of the 
first houses erected within its limits. This 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



237 



structure was composed of a part of the old 
court house at Savanna, which the Judge 
moved to David City. He conducted this 
hotel about three years. 

In 1 882 Judge Perkins opened the David 
City Bank, a private institution, which he 
conducted until 1S88, when by the consol- 
idation of the Merchants & Farmers Bank 
with the David City Bank the present City 
National Bank was established. Of this 
new financial institution Benjamin O. Per- 
kins became president; Edward E. Leonard, 
cashier; and James Bell, vice-president; 
capital stock, $50,000. Its present officers 
are Benjamin O. Perkins, president; Chas. 
O. Crosthwaite, cashier; and Arthur Myatt, 
vice-president; capital stock, $50,000. 

In addition to his banking business Judge 
Perkins is an e.xtensive land-owner, his 
holdings aggregating about six hundred 
acres. Before disposing of some extensive 
tracts a few years ago, he was the owner 
of about two thousand acres. The Judge 
has always been public spirited and enter- 
prising. He has built many of the substan- 
tial buildings of David City, and has con- 
tributed more than his share to the work of 
placing the city on its present solid basis of 
prosperity and progress. 

The marriage of our subject to Mary A. 
Leggett occurred in the year 1865. Mrs. 
Perkins is a native of Illinois, and was 
reared in Marshall county of that state, in 
the village of Henry. Judge and Mrs. 
Perkins are the parents of three children, 
named as follows: Minnie; Maggie, wife of 
Charles Stoops, of David City; Benjamin O. , 
Jr., bookkeeper in the City National Bank, 
David City. 

In political sentiment Judge Perkins was 
in early life a Whig. On the organization 
of the Republican party he adhered to its 
principles, to which he has since given his 
support. He was chosen Probate Judge of 
the county in 1869, was twice a member of 
the city council, and served as mayor of 

14 



David City two terms. From his long res- 
idence in the county he has become well and 
favorably known in every part of it, and 
each year adds to the full measure of esteem 



and regard. 



FRANK G. SIMMONS, the editor of the 
Seward Reporter, was born May 31, 
1 8 54, in New York City. He was a son of 
Henry A. and Emma M. (Cooke) Simmons. 
His father came from Massachusetts, and 
his mother was a daughter of New York. 
He attended the public school of his native 
city until he reached his twelfth year. His 
mother died when he was only four years 
old, and at the death of his father in the 
Union army in 1865, he was cast upon his 
own resources. He work for a time in New 
York, and went to Illinois in 1867, where 
he found employment on a farm until 1874, 
attending school during the winter season 
and later taught school, and spent several 
years in this capacity in this county, hav- 
ing come to this county in 1874. A six 
months' course at a commercial school com- 
pleted his instruction and in 1877 he entered 
the Reporter office and succeeded to the 
ownership five years later. He has taken 
an active part in politics and all matters of 
a public nature. He has held various im- 
portant official stations. He was clerk of 
the Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded 
Youth in 1887 to 1890; deputy collector of 
internal revenue from 1890 to 1S94, and be- 
came postmaster of Seward, April i, 1898. 
He has always retained editorial control of 
his paper, and has made its columns the 
exponent of a stalwart Republicanism. He 
is a member of the Nebraska Press Associa- 
tion, and was its secretary for three j'ears, 
and its president for two years. He was 
active in the organization of the Nebraska 
Federation of Republican Publishers, and 
was its first president. Mr. Simmons was 
married January i, 1879, to Miss Anna W. 



238 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl'. 



Boughton. She was born and raised in the 
Badger state. They are the proud parents 
of a family of five children, all of whom are 
living. He is prominent in the Masonic 
order, and that of the United Workmen, 
having held numerous positions of impor- 
tance in both societies. 



HELMUTH F. PUTLITZ is an old and 
honored citizen of Fillmore county, 
who has for several years most successfully 
filled the office of clerk of the district court. 
He lives at Geneva, and has a circle of ac- 
quaintances that includes the county, and 
all who know him best have the profound- 
est respect for his high personal character 
and acknowledged integrity. 

Mr. Putlitz is a native of the Prussian 
province of Silesia, and his industrious hab- 
its and upright disposition reflect no dis- 
honor upon his German ancestry. He 
comes of good stock, and his life is in evi- 
dence that he has lived up to the standard. 
He was born March 8, 1852, and his par- 
ents, France and Augusta O. (Mast) von 
Putlitz, were also Silesian born and bred. 
His father belonged to the order of the 
German nobility, and was a man of charac- 
ter and consequence in his day. He served 
for many years in the Prussian regular 
army, and rose from a very subordinate po- 
sition to the rank of major. When too 
far advanced in years to continue in the 
field, he was put on the retired list, and 
spent his last years as an honored veteran 
of the great struggles that lifted his own 
country to the front place among the Ger- 
man states and its king the "Ivaiservon 
Deutchland." The old soldier and his wife 
have long since been numbered with the 
dead. 

Helmuth Putlitz spent his childhood and 
youth in his native town where he was lib- 
erally educated, both in the village school 
and in a military establishment where he 



was prepared for a soldier's life. But his 
tastes did not lead in that direction, and at 
the age of nineteen he shipped on board a 
merchant vessel, "before the mast," and 
went to sea as an able-bodied sailor. His 
first voyage was a long and disastrous one. 
It brought him to the Sandwich Islands, 
and while passing round Cape Horn the 
ship encountered such severe weather that 
the extreme cold was the cause of much in- 
jury to many of the sailors. Mr. Putlitz 
froze his right hand so seriously that he has 
never recovered its perfect use. This mis- 
fortune satisfied him that he had experi- 
enced all the vicissitudes of a seafaring life 
which he cared to invite, and his career 
upon the ocean was not prolonged. A sub- 
sequent voyage brought him to the harbor 
of New York, and having long cherished a 
desire to locate in this country, he went 
ashore, and did not return to the ship, 
which sailed without him. He remained in 
that city about a year, and sounded the 
depths of privation and hardship. He did 
not lose heart, however, and when he could, 
left the overcrowded streets of the great 
metropolis, and penetrating far into the in- 
terior made his home in the vicinity of 
Monmouth, Illinois, where he spent at least 
two years engaged in working for farmers 
near that city. By this time habits of thrift 
and economy had produced their natural re- 
sults, and he was in a condition to think 
about a farm and a home for himself. This 
he wisely sought in the newer west, and 
coming into this state found a desirable lo- 
cation in Fillmore county. His preliminary 
exploration was made in the fall of 1874, 
and in the following year he permanently 
settled upon a quarter-section of railroad 
land in Madison township. This was wild 
prairie when it passed into his hands, but 
to-day it is a beautiful and well-kept farm 
with solid and substantial improvements 
that represent years of unflagging labor. 
The wedding of Mr. Putlitz and Miss 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



239 



Heiderstaedt occurred in 1875, and has 
proved a most happy union. She is the 
daughter of Frederick and Martha (McClin- 
tock) Heiderstaedt, and was born in She- 
boygan, Wisconsin, where her parents had 
their home for a number of years. They 
were early settlers of Fillmore county, and 
passed to their reward some years since. 
Her father was of German extraction, and 
her mother was born in Carew, Ireland. 
They were honorable upright people, and left 
their children the heritage of a good name. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Putlitz have been born 
five children, whose names are Francis F. , 
Helmuth W., Martha, Harry and Wanda. 
He has been for many years a prominent 
Democrat, and an influential member of 
the councils of the party in this county, but 
of late years has been closely and intimately 
identified with the Populist party. He 
embraced its principles unreservedly and 
has brought to their support all the ener- 
gies of his active and earnest spirit. In 
1886 he was a candidate for representative 
in the state legislature, and after a spirited 
contest was defeated though his vote ex- 
ceeded that of any other candidate on the 
ticket. In 1891 he was nominated by the 
Populists for clerk of the district court, and 
was endorsed by the Democrats. He was 
elected by one hundred and twenty-five 
majority in a county which up to that date 
had been largely Republican. In 1895 he 
was renominated for the same position and 
again elected, this time by a majority con- 
siderably increased over that of four years 
before. The administration of this re- 
sponsible position has been beyond criti- 
cism, and has won for him a host of friends 
quite outside of business or political asso- 
ciations. Mr. Putliz is a member of the 
Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order 
United Workmen, and is a valued associate 
in these fraternal movements. He and his 
wife are regular attendants at the Episcopal 
church, of which she is a member. They 



hold a good place in the affairs of the com- 
munity, and take a full share in its social 
and benevolent activities. 



HERMAN F. BENSE.— A prominent 
position among the citizens of Osce- 
ola, Polk county, Nebraska, is held by the 
gentleman whose name introduces these 
paragraphs. He was born in Hanover, 
Germany, December 9, 1837, and is a son 
of John B. and Sophia (Evisj Bense, and 
they were both natives of the same place, 
and he was a farmer by occupation. John 
B. Bense emigrated to America in 1837, 
and located upon one hundred and sixty 
acres of wild land, in St. Louis, Missouri. 
The rest of his family joined him there in 
1838, and made that place their home un- 
til 1845, when they removed to Iowa. 
They settled upon forty acres of wild land 
in Jefferson county, upon which they opened 
up a country store, and hauled their goods in 
a wagon from Burlington, which was forty- 
five miles away. Mr. Bense established a 
postoffice there in 185 1, which he named 
Germanville, and held the office of post- 
master until his death. He also improved 
his farm and added to it as circumstances 
would permit, at the same time keeping up 
the work of bringing the same to a high state 
of cultivation, which it finally attained. 
He died in May, 1858, and his wife died in 
1879. They were the parents of eight 
children, all of whom grew to maturity, and 
of whom we have the following record: 
Henry was killed in California in 185 1; 
Anna M., the wife of Jacob I\nerr, a sol- 
dier; Herman F., the subject of this sketch; 
Margaret, the wife of Henry Conover, also 
a soldier; Bernard, who was a soldier in 
Company Iv, Seventh Iowa Volunteer In- 
fantry, and was killed in the service in May, 
1862; Mary, the wife of A. N. Stafford, a 
soldier; John F. and Charles C, twins. 
The parents were members in good stand- 



240 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ing of the Lutheran church, and the father 
held the following local offices: Township 
supervisor, assessor and road overseer. 

Herman F. Bense was an infant when 
he crossed the ocean, from his native land, 
and learned to walk on the ship. He landed 
at New Orleans, in 1838, with his parents, 
and was raised in Iowa on a farm. He 
learned the trades of blacksmithing and 
engineering, and ran an engine in Iowa until 
the outbreak of the Civil war. 

On July 19, 1861, he enlisted in Com- 
pany K, Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
and was made second corporal in his com- 
pany. On August 6, they left the state on 
the steamer Jennie Whipple, and landed at 
St. Louis, where they were quartered in 
Jefferson barracks, until they were ordered 
to join General Lyon, at Wilson's creek. 
The regiment went to St. Louis, where they 
drew guns and ammunition, and proceeded 
to Pilot Knob, upon leaving which they 
went to Ironton. They then marched to 
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, from whence they 
went to Fort Holt in Kentucky. They were 
the first regiment to arrive there and they 
established Camp Crittenden eight miles 
away, where they drew their first uniforms. 
From here they went and established Fort 
Jefferson, and then proceeded to Norfolk, 
from whence they marched to Bird's Point. 
On November 6, they embarked on a steam- 
boat for Columbus, Kentucky, and on the 
ne.xt day fought the battle of Belmont. 
After the battle they returned to Bird's Point, 
and on November 16 they encamped at 
Benton barracks, in St. Louis. On Janu- 
ary 12, 1862, the regiment received orders 
to march, but Mr. Bense was laid up with 
inflammatory rheumatism, which necessi- 
tated his remaining in St. Louis at the Fifth 
Street Hospital. On the 4th of the follow- 
ing month, however, he rejoined his com- 
mand at Smithland, Kentucky, and pro- 
ceeded to the capture of Fort Henry, after 
which came the battle for the capture of 



Fort Donelson, in which the brigade to 
which he belonged was selected to lead the 
assault. Corporal Bense had been made 
sergeant just before the battle of Belmont, 
and on the last day of the fight before Fort 
Donelson, the Seventh was in the charge 
upon the works, and Color Sergeant Bense 
was the second one to reach the works with 
his colors. At the surrender of the fort his 
brigade was the first to enter. After the 
departure of the troops Mr. Bense was 
placed in charge of the sick and left at the 
fort, but he soon got them to the regiment 
again and proceeded to Pittsburg Landing. 
He took part in that memorable battle, 
which lasted two days, and the regiment to 
which he belonged was in the "Hornets' 
Nest." In the first day of the battle Mr. 
Bense was slightly wounded on the foot by 
a shell, and the second day he was struck 
on the leg by a spent ball. Ne.xt followed 
the siege of Corinth, after which the Seventh 
took the advance in pursuing the enemy, 
but were unable to get any wg.ter to drink 
until they reached the Tombigbee river. 
The regiment then returned to Corinth, and 
participated in the second battle at that place. 
During the summer of 1863 the regiment 
was ordered to Moscow and Lagrange, Ten- 
nessee, after considerable skirmishing and 
scouting around Corinth. Later they went 
to luka for a few days, and then marched 
to Eastport, Tennessee, and from thence 
they went into winter quarters at Pulaski, in 
the same state. From there the regiment 
was sent to Prospect, where Mr. Bense was 
chief of scouts for a time. In July of 1864, 
the regiment was ordered to Chattanooga, 
where he was mustered out, by reason of 
the expiration of his term of enlistment. 
He drew his money at Louisville, Kentucky, 
and proceeded to his home in Iowa, where 
he joined a militia company, of which he 
was chosen captain. 

Herman F. Bense was married April 6, 
1865, to Miss Mary Stoker, who was born 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



241 



June I, 1846. in Shelby county, Ohio. She 
was a daughter of Elijah and Lydia T. 
(Dey) Stoker, the former having been born 
in West Virginia, January 30, 18 10, and 
the latter born in New Jersey, November 9, 
1809. They were very early settlers in 
Shelby county, Ohio, where he built the 
first mill at Laramie in that county. Mr. 
Stocker died on January 11, 1852, and in 
the following year the family removed to 
Iowa. They made the trip in a wagon and 
settled on a farm in Jefferson county, which 
they broke and improved. They next lo- 
cated in Wayne county, of the same state, 
where Mrs. Stoker died January 25, 1868. 
The family consisted of the following 
children, who were four in number, and 
were named as follows: Milbern; Ezra, 
who was a member of Company D, Seven- 
teenth Iowa Volunteers, and was killed in 
the battle of Champion Hill; Perry was a 
member of Company E, Thirtieth Iowa 
Volunteers, and died in the service; and 
Mary, the wife of our subject. 

After the marriage of our subject, he lo- 
cated in Wayne county, Iowa, where he 
began to improve the farm, and on March 
18, 1 87 1, he and family started in a wagon 
for Nebraska. They first located in Sarpy 
county, where they were engaged for one 
year in farming. In 1872 they took up a 
homestead on the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion 14, of township 13, range 2 west, in 
Polk county. The county at this time was 
very sparsely settled, as it was one mile and 
a half to their nearest neighbor's place, and 
they were compelled to go three miles to 
secure water. Mr. Bense built a sod house, 
and later he built another one, which in its 
turn was superseded by a frame structure 
14 X 22 feet. He also put up a sod stable, 
which with all of his crop, was destroyed 
by fire in 1875. He had the first well on 
his land that was drilled in that section of 
the prairie, and the same was at that time a 
noted and serviceable one. In 1872 he 



raised some sod corn and potatoes, and the 
following year he also raised a crop, but in 
1874 his crop went to feed that terrible pest, 
the grasshoppers. But notwithstanding all 
these hardships and privations, incidental to 
pioneer life, he has succeeded in bringing 
his farm to a high state of cultivation, has 
the same all well improved, and adorned 
with a large and commodious dwelling 
which he erected in 1886. On February 
13, 1890, Mr. and Mrs. Bense took up their 
residence in the city of Osceola, where they 
have a cosy and comfortable home. They 
are the parents of four children, of whom 
we give the following record: William E., 
born September 28, 1869; Dora E., born 
August 3, 1 87 1, and is now the wife of Jesse 
Cartwright, and the mother of two children, 
Millie Fay and Roy Albine; Eddie, born 
July 5, 1875, and died on September 22, of 
the same year; and Herman S., born Feb- 
ruary 23, 1890. 

Mrs. Bense is a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, and is an active 
worker in the same. She is a charter mem- 
ber of the J. F. Reynolds Relief Corps No. 
69, W. R. C, of Osceola, of which she was 
the first chaplain, and in 1896 she was its 
president. She is also senior vice in the 
woman's department of the Platte Valley 
G. A. R. Reunion Association. Mr. Bense 
is a member of the J. F. Reynolds Post No. 
26, G. A. R., of Osceola, of which he is 
the senior past commander, and officer of 
the day, having held the same fourteen 
years. He was the first senior vice of the 
Platte Valley G. A. R. Reunion Association, 
and is at present one of the directors of the 
same. He is a stanch Republican and has 
always been an active worker in behalf of 
the principles of that party, and has been 
honored by the people with several of the 
minor offices. He has been a member of 
the election board for a number of years, 
and was once the assessor of Stromsburg 
precinct. The family are honored residents 



242 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



o{ the community, and are respected by all 
for their many sterling traits of character. 



GEORGE W. SHIDLER, M. D., is one 
of the oldest physicians of York countj', 
having for twenty years followed the prac- 
tice of his profession in the city of York, of 
that county. He was born near Hillsboro, 
Washington county, Pennsylvania, Septem- 
ber 13, 1849. His parents, George B and 
Elizabeth (Garber) Shidler, were both na- 
tives of Pennsylvania. The father was a 
carpenter and architect, following that call- 
ing in Pennsylvania until 1854, when he 
moved to Virginia. Three years later he 
moved to Iowa and settled in Lowell, Henry 
county, and died there in February, 1885. 
They were married in Pennsylvania and 
seven children, four sons and three daugh- 
ters, were born to them. The mother also 
died in Iowa, in 1888. 

Our subject was educated in Iowa, at- 
tending the public schools and also the 
Denmark Academy, in Lee county, Iowa. 
He then taught school and worked with his 
father until he began the study of medicine, 
in 1869, in Lowell, Iowa, under Dr. Hobbs, 
of that place. After studying with Dr. 
Hobbs for two years and practicing for a 
short time, he entered the medical depart- 
ment of the Michigan university, in 1871, 
and attended there one year, resuming 
practice of his profession in Iowa. In 1875 
he entered the medical college at Keokuk, 
Iowa, from which he graduated the follow- 
ing year. In 1878 Doctor Shidler came to 
York and has since made this his home and 
base of operations. He has since taken the 
post-graduate and polyclinics courses both 
in Chicago and New York, at different 
times, and for the past ten years he has 
attended regularly every two years. After 
settling in York, the Doctor practiced alone 
for five years, and from 1883 until 1888 he 
was in partnership with Dr. J. J. Porter. 



He then practiced alone until 1896, when 
he formed a partnership with Dr. O. M. 
Moore, of York. Doctor Shidler was sur- 
geon for the Burlington & Missouri River 
and the K. C. & O. railroads for several 
years and was also a member of the insane 
commission. During President Arthur's ad- 
ministration the Doctor was appointed, in 
1883, as a member of the pension board and 
continued in that capacity uninterruptedly 
until the present administration of Mr. 
McKinley. He is a member of the State 
Medical Society, the American Association, 
the Missouri Valley Association, and the 
York County Association, and was pres- 
ident of the latter at one time. The 
Doctor has also taken an active and whole- 
some interest in every public project which 
tended to the progress and development of 
the city and county or the improvement of 
its status or the strengthening of the local 
government. He has been a stockholder in 
some of the banks of the county. In poli- 
tics he is a Democrat and is chairman of the 
senatorial district committee. 

Doctor Shidler was married October 14, 
1880, to Miss Alice J. Shirey, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and their wedded life has 
been blessed by the presence of two chil- 
dren, George P. , who is now sixteen years 
of age, and Bertha L. , who is thirteen 
years of age. Our subject affiliates with 
the Masonic fraternity, holding his mem- 
bership in the Commandery, Knight Temp- 
lar and the Mystic Shrine, and is also a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen, the Mod- 
ern Woodman of America and the Macca- 
bees. During the past year he has served 
as state examiner of the latter order. 



PHILO P. GARFIELD belongs to the 
vast diminishing number of those who 
have looked upon Nebraska when it was a 



COMPENDIU.^f OF BIOGRAPHT. 



243 



wilderness abounding in danger and death, 
and live to witness its present marvelous 
prosperity. Could the story of his eventful 
life be fully told it would require a volume. 
It would open with exciting scenes and inci- 
dents in the period when Kansas was the 
prize of bloody contention, and the Platte 
valley the roaming ground of numerous 
bands of cruel Indians. It would put into 
its earlier chapters the story of the war as it 
touched the Nebraska country, and would 
note the advent of a young man sixteen 
years of age at the public schools, who has 
been too much occupied in watching and 
warding against Indians and wild beasts be- 
fore that age to take an interest in school 
work. And then it would show later on 
how the energy and self-reliance generated 
in an environment of such danger had carried 
our subject to a large and honorable success 
in later life. Mr. Garfield is still a young 
man, not fifty years old, and bears himself 
with a jauntiness and vigor that show the 
natural fire and energy of youth are still 
unabated in his veins. It is a pleasure to 
meet him, and hear him recount the story 
of the old days. He has a pleasant home 
on section 33, Bone Creek township, and 
made his first appearance in this county 
with his parents in 1858. 

Philo P. Garfield was born in Venango 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1850, and was 
the fourth son of Solomon and Margaret 
(Blair) Garfield. Solomon Garfield was a 
native of St. Lawrence county. New York, 
where he first inhaled the vital air in 18 14. 
He removed in early life to Venango county, 
Pennsylvania, where his five sons, George, 
Horace, Azor, Philo and James were born. 
In 1857 the Garfield and Blair families 
started west in search of homes and pros- 
perity in the wilderness beyond the Missouri. 
Their objective point was in Kansas, but 
that was a year of storm and death, and the 
way across the Missouri was closed to their 
eager feet. They spent the winter almost 



in sight of the Canaan land, and seeking land 
for homes where liberty and honor might 
prevail, they came up the river, and reached 
the Platte valley, and settled near the pres- 
ent location of Linwood, Butler county, on 
Skull creek. The Indians were still numer- 
ous and warlike, and did much to make 
life a burden to the few white people who 
had penetrated into these remote regions. 
The Garfields and the Blairs had many con- 
flicts with wanderingbandsof mnrauders, and 
every one was provided with a gun and taught 
how to use it at the earliest moment. The 
Indians usually traveled in small hunting 
parties, always in uneven numbers, and it 
was a frequent duty of the lad Philo to 
seek a point of observation on the bluffs 
near their house and watch the movements 
of these dangerous neighbors. He soon 
learned the language of the prairie, and 
could hold free conversation with the Indi- 
ans, a circumstance which afterwards saved 
his life. He would sit in their wigwams for 
hours at night, and listen to the braves as 
they recounted to the younger Indians 
stories of the prowess of their fathers and 
the mighty deeds which had won honor and 
fame for the tribe. 

Though the Garfields and Blairs had 
many encounters with their lawless neigh- 
bors and had been forced in strict self-de- 
fense to kill many of them, they held on to 
their home in the Platte valley until 1863. 
At that time they removed to Polk county, 
where they located at what now bears the 
name of Garfield, and here Solomon Gar- 
field passed away in 1864, dying in peace 
and quiet in the midst of scenes of danger 
and death. A year later his widow, Mrs. 
Margaret Garfield, returned to Butler coun- 
ty and took a homestead in Bone Creek 
township, section 4, where she found peace 
and quiet much increased over former years. 
As might be expected from such a narration, 
the school privileges of young Philo were 
very meagre, and he did not go to school 



244 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



until he had entered his nineteenth year. 
Perhaps his experiences had tended to de- 
velop a finer and stronger strain of man- 
hood than could have been acquired through 
a more intimate knowledge of books. He 
is a close observer and a careful student of 
men, and goes through life with his eyes 
and ears open, and is certainly a well in- 
formed man upon all the topics and issues 
of the day. 

Mr. Garfield was married in i8S6 to 
Miss C. Liza DeLong. She was a native of 
Bureau county, Illinois, and was of English 
descent. She came into the state in 1882, 
and is the proud and happy mother of two 
children, Kurtz and Clara. She is an inter- 
esting character, and worthily sustains her 
husband's good name and the hospitality of 
his generous home. He is a member of the 
order of Modern Woodmen of America, and 
is a valued citizen of the communitj'. 



JAMES H. WOODWARD, M. D. , one 
of the better known eclectic physicians 
and surgeons of this part of the state, has 
his office and home at Seward, Nebraska, 
and possesses a practice that covers an ex- 
tensive portion of the state. He has spent 
many years in the service of ailing human- 
ity, and brings to the bedside of the sick 
not only the results of much study and read- 
ing, but the fruits of long experience. He 
exhibits the natural characteristics of a 
physician, and has met with very substan- 
tial success. 

Dr. Woodward was born in Monroe 
county, Indiana, January 5, 1835, ^nd is 
the oldest son of James and Malinda (Good- 
win) Woodward. They came from Ken- 
tucky, and the father was a farmer, and 
settled in Indiana in the earlier portion of 
the century. He was a captain in the 
Mexican war, and commanded a company 
of Indiana soldiers. He died in Carroll 
county, Indiana, in 1893 at the age of 



eight-four. He was the father of four sons, 
and was a man of much character and 
force. James attended the public schools 
in company with the other children of the 
famil}', and received advanced instruction 
from a seminary at Logansport. He re- 
mained on the farm until he was twenty- 
two years of age, and then began reading 
medicine at Westfield, Indiana, under the 
supervision of his uncle. Dr. Harrison Good- 
win, and completed his preparation for en- 
tering the school under Dr. Taylor, a cele- 
brated physician of Logansport. In 1864 
he entered the Eclectic Medical Institute at 
Cincinnati, and was graduated in 1S66. He 
had already attained sufficient insight into 
medicine to do minor business before going 
away to school, and upon his graduation he 
opened an office at Logansport, and spent 
the ensuing eight years in professional labor. 
In 1 874 he established himself in this county, 
and here he has remained to the present 
day. In 1875 he took a full post-graduate 
course at the American Medical Institute of 
St. Louis, and received its diploma of 
graduation. He has done a general practice 
in this county up to recent years, but of 
late has made a specialty of the diseases of 
women, and is regarded as very proficient 
in this important branch of medicine. 

Dr. Woodward was married in 1866 to 
Miss Emma Gifford. She was a native of 
Indiana, and became the mother of three chil- 
dren. The oldest was a son, Alva. Emma 
is Mrs. Cummings, and Jennie is Mrs. Mc- 
Donald. The Doctor was married a second 
time. Mary J. Stalcup, a resident of St. 
Louis, became his wife in 1876, and is the 
mother of two sons, viz.: James C. , a soldier 
in the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, and 
George. They are members of the Chris- 
tian church, and he belongs to the State 
Eclectic Medical Society. He is a Repub- 
lican, and is now filling the office of county 
physician. President Harrison appointed 
him to the pension board, and he is widely 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



245 



known as an honorable and capable physi- 
cian. His learning and ability have com- 
manded recognition outside the limits of the 
county. He filled the chair of materia 
medica and therapeutics for two sessions at 
the medical department of the State Univer- 
sity. He held the chair of abdominal dis- 
eases for three sessions at the Cotner Medi- 
cal College, of Lincoln. He is rich in an 
inventive genius, and he has devised several 
pieces of apparatus that are highly regarded 
by the members of the profession, chief 
among them being an inductive electrical 
cabinet and electric female syringe, and on 
account of this last device he has received 
a diploma from the Paris Academy of In- 
ventors. The National Electrical College 
at Indianapolis has bestowed upon him the 
degree of Master of Electricity, and in 1886 
he published an interesting volume upon the 
subject of the place of electricity in medical 
practice. 



HON. JAMES P. MILLER.— It is a 
pleasure to record the main events in 
the life of one who has attained an enviable 
position solely through his own efforts and 
exertions, and who, though close onto 
man's allotted three score and ten years, 
can still look forward to quite a few years 
of usefulness. Mr. Miller was reared a 
farmer and throughout the greater part of 
his life he has made that his vocation, and 
yet he has found time to devoted to the in- 
terest of the state, and as a resultofhis push 
and energy he has attained a conspicuous 
position among the politicians of the state. 
He is a well-informed man, being particu- 
larly well versed on topics of education and 
economy, and is widely and favorably 
known as a citizen devoted to his country's 
best interests. 

Mr. Miller was born in Franklin count}-, 
Ohio, April 29, 1834, a son of Jacob and 
Ruth (Kile) Miller, the former a native of 



West Virginia, and the latter a native of 
Kentucky. The father was a farmer by oc- 
cupation and made his home in his native 
state until he was twenty-one years of age, 
and then moved to Ohio. He was married 
in Ohio, and later moved to Iowa and set- 
tled in Henry county, of that state, in 
1856, and made that his home until his 
death, which occurred in July, 1864. The 
mother moved to Nebraska in 1875, and 
died in 1890. They were the parents of 
eight children, five of whom are living. 

Our subject was educated in Ohio, and 
at the age of twenty-one he moved to Hen- 
ry county, Iowa, and there engaged in farm- 
ing until 1863, when he enlisted in Com- 
pany D, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and served 
for two years. He was then given the com- 
mission of second lieutenant of the One 
Hundred Thirty-seventh United States Col- 
ored Troops, and assigned to duty in Atlan- 
ta, Georgia, and served in that capacity for 
six months. He participated in the battles 
of Selma, Alabama, Columbus and Macon, 
Georgia. He captured the flag of the 
Twelfth Mississippi Cavalry at Selma, and 
for this he was given a medal by Congress. 
At the close of the war, Mr. Miller returned 
to Iowa, and engaged in farming until 1870. 
He then moved to York county, Nebraska, 
and has since made that his home. After 
locating in this county he engaged in farm- 
ing for two years, and from 1873 until 1882 
he served as sheriff of York count}'. He 
then for a time turned his attention to the 
real estate business and later returned to 
his farm. In 1892 he was elected state 
senator from the district in which he lives 
and served as such for two years, and since 
that time he has resided in the city of York. 

Mr. Miller was married in 1873 to Miss 
Mariah Baker, a resident of York county. 
Our subject is a member of the Grand Army 
of the Republic, the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He 
organized the Old Settlers Society of York 



246 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



county in December, 1895, was elected its 
first president and is now serving his second 
term as presiding officer of tiiat body. 



JUDGE EDWIN W. HALE.— What- 
ever else may be said of the legal fra- 
ternity, it cannot be denied that members 
of the bar have been more prominent actors 
in public affairs than any other class of the 
community. This is but the natural result 
of causes which are manifest and require no 
explanation. The abilityand training which 
qualify one to practice law, also qualify him 
in many respects for duties which lie outside 
the strict path of his profession and which 
touch the general interests of society. Hold- 
ing marked precedence among the repre- 
sentatives of the legal profession in Butler 
county is Judge Hale, who is now occupying 
the county bench. 

He was born in Waukesha county, Wis- 
consin, March 27, 1865, and is a son of 
Edwin Hale, who was born and reared in 
Otsego county. New York. His ancestry 
can be traced back to England whence emi- 
grated the founder of the family in America, 
in the year 1650. Edwin Hale engaged in 
the merchandise business in Utica, New 
York, until 1848, when he removed to the 
west, taking up his residence in Waukesha 
county among its early settlers. There he 
devoted his remaining days to agricultural 
pursuits and died on his farm in 1894, at 
the age of seventy-seven years. His wife, 
who bore the maiden name of Susan J. 
Debnam, is a native of Utica, New York, 
and is still living in Waukesha county, Wis- 
consin. Her father, Robert Debnam, was 
also supposed to be a native of the Empire 
state and his father was a soldier in the war 
of 1812. Mrs. Hale's maternal grand- 
mother was a native of Wales. In the fam- 
ily of Edwin and Susan Hale were four chil- 
dren, three of whom reached mature years. 

The Judge is the only son and youngest 



child. He was reared in the county of his 
nativity, and acquired his preliminary edu- 
cation in the common schools, after which he 
became a student in Carroll College, of 
Waukesha, Wisconsin, in which institution 
he was graduated in the class of 1885. 
Being imbued with a desire to make the 
practice of law his life work, he then 
entered the law department of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, at Madison, and was 
graduated in 1889. Following this he 
entered upon his professional career in 
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where he entered 
into partnership with John A. Kelley, a con- 
nection that was maintained until the spring 
of 1 89 1, when Judge Hale came to Butler 
county, Nebraska, locating in David City 
for the practice of law. Here he formed a 
partnership with Hon. Arthur J. Evans, and 
the firm of Evans & Hale continued in a 
large and lucrative practice until January 
I, 1894, when Judge Hale entered upon the 
discharge of the duties of county judge, to 
which position he had been elected in 1893. 

He was at that time the nominee of the 
Republican party, and in 1895 he was re- 
elected. In 1897 he became the candidate 
on the fusion ticket. He possesses the 
four things which benefit a judge — to hear 
courteously, to answer wisely, to consider 
soberly and to give judgment without par- 
tiality. He has a comprehensive knowledge 
of the science of law and his decisions are 
models of judicial soundness. 

On the 20th of December, 1893, Judge 
Hale was united in marriage to Miss Bertha 
Williams, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, a 
daughter of William P. Williams, of that 
place. They have two sons, Edwin W. and 
John K., and a daughter, Beatrice D. Our 
subject is a valued member of the J^^nights 
of Pythias fraternity, the Modern W'oodmen 
of America, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and I. O. O. F. In January, 
1896, he was commissioned by Governor 
Holcomb judge-advocate general on his 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



247 



staff with the rank of colonel. He and his 
wife hold a very prominent and enviable 
position socially, their pleasant home being 
the center of a cultured society circle. 
While on the bench judge Hale fully sus- 
tains the majesty of the law, in private 
life he is a genial gentleman, who easily 
wins friends, and to know him is to honor 
and esteem him. 



JUDGE SAMUEL H. SEDGWICK, a 
leading attorney of York, is now filling 
the responsible position of judge of the fifth 
judicial district of Nebraska with distin- 
guished ability and to the credit of his state. 
Admitted to the bar he at once entered 
upon practice, and from the beginning has 
been unusually prosperous in every respect. 
The success that he has attained is due to 
his own efforts and merits. The possession 
of advantage is no guaranty whatever of pro- 
fessional success. This comes not of itself, 
nor can it be secured without integrity, abil- 
ity and industry. Those qualities he pos- 
sesses to an eminent degree, and he has 
been faithful to every interest committed to 
his charge. Throughout his whole life, 
whatsoever his hand found to do, whether 
in his profession or his official duties, or in 
any other sphere, he has done with all his 
might and with a deep sense of conscien- 
tious obligation. 

The Judge was born in Dupage county, 
Illinois, March 12, 1848, and is a son of 
Parker and Hephsibah (Goodwin) Sedg- 
wick, natives of Connecticut, whence they 
removed to New York, and later came to 
Illinois, in 1843. The father was educated 
in the Empire state for the medical profes- 
sion, which he successfully practiced in both 
New York and Illinois, and also engaged in 
farming. He was twice married and was 
the father of fourteen children. His death 
occurred in Wheaton, Illinois, in 1871, and 
the mother of our subject departed this life 



in York, Nebraska, in 1S82. The founder 
of the family in the new world was Robert 
Sedgwick, who was an English official of 
high standing, having served as governor of 
Jamaica, and later of one of the American 
colonies. He came to this country in 1640. 

Like many of our most distinguished cit- 
izens, Judge Sedgwick was reared upon a 
farm and received his primary education in 
the country schools. In 1861 he entered 
Wheaton College, of Illinois, from which in- 
stitution he graduated in 1872, but in the 
meantime he had spent one year in the law 
department of the Michigan University at 
Ann Arbor. In 1872-3 he conducted an 
academy in Sharon, Wisconsin. In 1874 
he was admitted to the bar at Green Bay, 
and in the spring of that year opened a law 
office in Kewaunee county, Wisconsin, 
where he engaged in practice until coming 
to York, Nebraska, in the fall of 1878. He 
has met with most gratifying success in his 
chosen calling, and in 1895 was honored 
with an election to the bench, being the 
Republican candidate for judge of the fifth 
judicial district of the state. He is abso- 
lutely fearless in the discharge of his duties, 
and favor cannot tempt him from the 
straight path. He possesses a mind prac- 
tically free from judicial bias, and he brings 
to his duties a most thorough knowledge of 
the law and of human nature, a compre- 
hensive mind, and calm and deliberate 
judgment. His sentences are models of ju- 
dicial fairness, and he is a type of the law 
that respects and protects, not condemns 
humanity. Aside from his professional and 
official duties, the Judge is interested in 
the Newspaper Union of York, and is a 
stockholder in the waterworks and electric 
light plant. Besides this property he owns 
two farms in York county. 

In 1878 Judge Sedgwick was united in 
marriage with Miss Clara M. Jones, of Ogle 
county, Illinois, and to them were born 
three children — two daughters living, Cath- 



248 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



erine N. and Myrna P., and one son who 
died in infancy. The Judge and his wife 
hold membership in the Congregational 
church, and their home is the center of a 
cultured society circle. 



COL. AURELIUS ROBERTS, an hon- 
ored resident of Rising City, first set- 
tled in Butler county in the summer of 1868, 
filing a homestead claim to a part of section 
18, Reading township. Mr. Roberts was 
born in Washington county, Ohio, July 15, 
1835, a son of John Roberts, a native of 
Bangor, Maine. John Roberts, a son of 
John Roberts, moved, when a young man, 
with his parents to Washington county, 
Ohio. He was a shoemaker during the 
early part of his life, but later studied med- 
icine and was for many years a prominent 
physician. He was married in Washington 
county, Ohio, about the year 1824, to Miss 
Mahala Miller, a daughter of John Miller. 
When our subject was about two years of 
age the family moved to Jefferson county, 
Iowa, where the father continued his prac- 
tice of medicine, and where he died in 
1848. 

Our subject was reared on a farm in the 
timber portion of Jefferson county, and dur- 
ing his boyhood received a very meager 
education, learning to figure and write after 
he was eighteen years of age. He then 
prepared himself for teaching, and for five 
years was engaged in teaching and attend- 
ing school. He was attending the Baptist 
College at Burlington, Iowa, when the war 
broke out, and he left school in April, 1S61, 
and enlisted in Company E, First Iowa In- 
fantry, for three months. During this time 
he operated in Missouri and was in the en- 
gagement at Wilson Creek, and was there 
when General Lyon was killed. After this 
battle he returned to Burlington and enlist- 
ed in the United States regular army, and 
was detailed for recruiting service. This 



continued until July, 1862, when he raised 
a company of volunteers and was commis- 
sioned captain and his company. Company 
C, Thirtieth Iowa Infantry, was attached to 
the First Division, First Brigade, Fifteenth 
Army Corps. He joined Sherman at Mem- 
phis, Tennessee, and on the 22d of May, 
1 863, he took command of the regiment, and 
the following day he was commissioned lieu- 
tenant-colonel. At Cherokee Station, Ala- 
bama, in September, 1863, Colonel Torrence 
was killed and left our subject in command of 
the regiment, and he continued to serve in 
that capacity until the close of the war. 
He commanded the regiment at the battle 
of Lookout Mountain, and the next day at 
Missionary Ridge his brigade captured John 
C. Breckenridge's command, but Brecken- 
ridge escaped. Our subject was with Sher- 
man throughout the campaign from Atlanta 
to the sea, and from the latter place to 
Washington, where he participated in the 
grand review. He then started with many 
of his comrades to his home in Iowa, but 
while CH route to Davenport an accident oc- 
curred which resulted in the death of one 
man and seriously injuring twenty-seven 
others. 

After the clo?e of the war Colonel Rob- 
erts found himself fitted for no business ex- 
cept that of a soldier, but he immediately 
began a business course in the Bryant & 
Stratton College, at Burlington, Iowa. After 
finishing his course of study he started busi- 
ness at Sigourney, Iowa, where he was 
soon after appointed deputy collector of in- 
ternal revenue under General Belknap. 
This he made his home until 1867, when he 
moved to Nebraska. This trip to Nebraska 
was made for the purpose of visiting his 
brother, Stephen, at Fremont, and they 
started together for the Indian Territory, but 
while going down the Platte Valley, by the 
way of Oak Creek, they arrived at the Blue 
River, near Ulysses, and were so favorably 
impressed with the country that they de- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



249 



cided to go no farther, and our subject has 
since made that his home. In 1S70 he was 
chosen to represent the district comprising 
Saunders, Seward, Butler, Polk, York and 
and Hamilton counties and all unorganized 
territory south and west of the Platte River 
in the legislature and served two years. In 
1878 he left the farm and engaged in the 
grain and stock business in David City. 
When the Union Pacific railroad was built 
to Rising City he moved his business, in 
November, 1878, to that city and has since 
made that his home and base of operations. 
For ten years after locating here he followed 
the grain and stock business, and then, in 
partnership with E. E. Leonard, he or- 
ganized the Commercial Bank, which, how- 
ever, did not prove a profitable investment. 
In 1897 he was appointed postmaster at Ris- 
ing City. 

Colonel Roberts was first married to 
Miss Elsada McCray, who died in 1S66. 
March 31, 1869, he was again married at 
Sigourney, Iowa, to Miss Elizabeth Brooks, 
and their wedded life has been blessed by 
the presence of a family of si.x children, 
four daughters and two sons: Cornelia, 
Althea, Claire, Elizabeth, Aurelius and Fin- 
ley M. Socially our subject affiliates with 
the Masonic fraternity in the capacity of a 
thirty-third-degree Mason. He is senior 
warden of the lodge at Seward, master at 
Ulysses and for seven years has been master 
at Rising City. 



HON. DAVID S. ZIMMERMAN.— A 
striking example of what can be ac- 
complished by persistent industry and strict 
attention to business is afforded in the life 
of Hon. David S. Zimmerman, who holds 
a conspicuous position among the members 
of the agricultural district of York county, 
and who is now representing that county in 
the lower house. 

Mr. Zimmerman was born in Tuscara- 



was county, Ohio, February 10, 1854. 
His parents, Jacob and Catherine (Allbach) 
Zimmerman, were both natives of the state 
of Ohio, but their parents came from Penn- 
sylvania. Jacob Zimmerman was a farmer 
and followed that occupation in Ohio until 
he moved to LaSalle county, Illinois, in 
1865, and is still making that place his 
home. He also taught school in the earlier 
part of his life. Our subject was educated 
in the district schools and in the Blackstone 
High School, of Mendota, Illinois. After 
graduating from that institution, he began 
farming in Illinois and was thus engaged 
three years. In the spring of 1880, he 
came to York county, Nebraska, and set- 
tled upon a homestead previously purchased 
near York. In 1891 he left the farm and 
removed to the city of York to assume the 
duties of county treasurer, a position he 
held for two terms of two years each. He 
afterward sold the homestead and purchased 
a tract of land adjoining York City, upon 
which he still resides. Since retiring from 
the office of county treasurer, he has de- 
voted the greater part of his time to feed- 
ing stock, feeding about ten car loads an- 
nually. In 1896 Mr. Zimmerman was 
elected to the lower house, and is now serv- 
ing in that capacity. He is a member of 
several committees, among them the com- 
mittee on railroads, of which he is chair- 
man, and the committee on finance, ways 
and means. 

In December, 1877, Mr. Zimmerman 
was united in marriage to Miss Harriett 
Salmon, a native of Illinois. In politics our 
subject is a Populist and assisted in the 
organization of that party in Nebraska. He 
is the vice-president of the City National 
Bank, at York, and is a stockholder of the 
Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, which 
he also helped to organize. He is a mem- 
ber of the business men's fraternity. Our 
subject is a self-made man, starting in life 
with no capital except his own mental and 



250 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



physical ability and the advantage of a 
thorough high-school education, and when 
he arrived in Nebraska, he was in debt. 
He has now become one of the most promi- 
nent and influential citizens of the county 
and has accumulated a comfortable fortune 
as the result of his thrifty and systematic 
habits. 



HON. E. L. KING, a leading citizen of 
Osceola, and one of the most able 
lawyers practicing at the bar of Polk county, 
was born February 4, 1855, in Cuyahoga 
county, Ohio, and springs from an old and 
prominent New England family. His parents 
were William and Phoebe (Hall) King, both 
of whom were of English descent. The 
paternal grandfather, William King, Sr. , 
was a native of Connecticut, whence he 
emigrated to Ohio in 1806, being one of the 
first settlers to locate on the banks of the 
Cuyahoga river. He was a farmer by oc- 
cupation, and was a soldier of the war of 
1812. 

William King, Jr., was born in Cuya- 
hoga county, Ohio, Februarys, 1818, was 
also engaged in agricultural pursuits as a 
life work, and manifested his patriotism by 
enlisting in the United States army for serv- 
ice in the Mexican war, but hostilities 
ceased before his regiment reached the 
front. In Niagara county. New York, he 
was married June 4, 1847, to Miss Phoebe 
Hall, who was born in Essex county, that 
state, July 27, 1821, and they made their 
home in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, until 1867, 
when they moved to Benton county, Iowa, 
and located upon an unimproved farm, to 
the developntent and cultivation of which 
the father devoted his energies until his 
death, which occurred January 9, 1881. 
The mother survived him five years, dying 
July 25, 1886. She held membership in 
the Universalist church, and both had the 
respect and esteem of all who knew them. 



Of their five children one died in infancy. 
Those still living are Alasco A., a resident 
of Benton county, Iowa, who married Car- 
rie Remington and has six children; Minnie, 
who married John W. Hoon, of Benton 
county, and has four children; E. L., of 
this sketch; and Kittie, wife of Frank Bur- 
rell, also of Benton county, Iowa, by whom 
she has five children. 

Mrs. Phoebe King, mother of our sub- 
ject, was the eleventh in order of birth in a 
family of twelve children, whose parents 
were Joseph and Mary (Edmunds) Hall. 
Her father was born in Charleston, Rhode 
Island, October 4, 1771, her mother in 
Clarendon, Vermont, February 12, 1780, 
and their marriage was celebrated in De- 
cember, 1798. The former died August 26, 
1858, in Bedford, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, 
and the latter October 20, 1846, in Hartland, 
Niagara county. New York. Mrs. Hall was 
also eleventh in a family of twelve children 
born to James and Abigail (Jenks) Edmunds, 
who were married in 1758. Mrs. Edmunds 
was born in 1742 and died in Clarendon, 
Vermont, in 181 3, while Mr. Edmunds was 
born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1731, 
and also died in Clarendon, Vermont, in 
1799. He was twice married, his first 
union being with a Miss Alaison, who died 
in 1757, leaving one son, William. James 
Edmunds was a son of James Edmunds, Sr. , 
who with two brothers, William and Andrew, 
came from England to the New World and 
located in Rhode Island. He died in 1734 
somewhere between the ages of twenty-five 
and thirty-five years, leaving an infant son, 
James, Jr. His brother William died at 
sea in early life. James Edmunds, Jr., was 
left in possession of a good farm two miles 
from Providence, Rhode Island, which he 
subsequent!}' exchanged for a house in that 
city, but eventually lost this property by 
going security for his father-in-law, and in 
1775 removed to Vermont, which state was 
then considered the "far west." The old 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



251 



Edmunds homestead is now within the cor- 
porate limits of Providence, and is also 
built up with city residences. 

Reared on a farm, Mr. King, of this 
review, obtained his elementary education 
in the district schools near his home, and 
later attended Tilford Academy, at Vinton, 
Iowa; Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, that 
state; and the Iowa State Agricultural 
College, at Ames, graduating from the last 
named institution in the class of 1877. He 
then entered the Law School at Des Moines, 
where he completed the course and was 
granted the degree of LL. B. in 1878, 
and on the 12th of June of that year was 
admitted to the bar. Thus ably fitted for 
his chosen profession he opened an office in 
Vinton, Iowa, where he engaged in practice 
until June of the following year and then 
came to Nebraska, locating in Osceola in 
July, 1879. For two years he was a mem- 
ber of the firm of Cornish & King, the follow- 
ing year a member of the firm of King & 
Thurman, and was then alone in business 
until 1893, when the present partnership be- 
tween Mr. King and Mr. Bittner was formed. 
It was not long before his skill and ability in 
mastering difficult cases were widely rec- 
ognized, and to-day he ranks among the 
foremost lawyers practicing in all the courts 
of the state. It is said that if a man follows 
that pursuit for which nature intended him 
he cannot but win success, and nature 
evidently intended Mr. King for an attorney 
if success is any criterion. As a fluent, 
earnest and convincing advocate he has but 
few equals, and he commands alike the re- 
spect of the court and the esteem of his as- 
sociates at the bar. 

On the 27th of March, 1880, Mr. King 
was united in marriage with Miss Abby 
Fowle, who was born in Newark, New Jer- 
sey, September 25, 1854, a daughter of Ed- 
win and Emeline P. (Lyon) Fowle. Her 
mother is now deceased, but the father is 
still living and makes his home in Clarkes- 



ville, Iowa. Mrs. King attended the high 
school at that place and was later a student 
in the State Agricultural College at Ames, 
Iowa. By her marriage she has become the 
mother of two children, both born in Osceola, 
Nebraska — Edna L. , January 19, 1881, and 
William Ross, August 8, 1886. 

Besides being an able attorney, Mr. 
King is a capable business man, and is now 
vice-president of the Osceola Bank, and also 
owns an improved farm in Polk county. 
Fraternally he is a prominent member of 
the Masonic order, is past master of the 
local lodge, and also belongs to the Modern 
Woodmen of America. He is one of the 
leading Republicans of the county, and be- 
ing a fluent and able speaker, has rendered 
his party efficient service as a stump speak- 
er in every campaign. He is also an active 
worker in the conventions of his party, and 
his fellow citizens recognizing his fitness for 
public office have honored him with a num- 
ber of important positions. For fifteen con- 
secutive years he has been a member of the 
Osceola school board, of which he has 
been president the greater part of the time; 
was county attorney for Polk county in 1887 
and 1888; and in 1885 was a distinguished 
and popular member of the state legislature. 



JUDGE HAMMOND H. BROWER, who 
is living in an honored and well-de- 
served retirement in McCool Junction, Ne- 
braska, has had a history that reaches well 
back into the first part of the century, and 
has had a hand in some of the most stirring 
experiences of early times. He is now 
drawing well towards his eightieth birthday. 
He bears the burden of years with dignity, 
and keeps his intellectual faculties unclouded 
to the present time. 

Judge Brower was born April 7, 18 19, 
in what is Fulton county. New York, and is 
a son of Abraham and Philotha (Webster) 
Brower. His father was a native of New 



252 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



York, and his mother was from Connecticut, 
and a relative of the famous Noah Webster. 
The senior Brower was a millwright and a 
carpenter, and most of his life was engaged 
in farming. In the summer of 1831 he 
brought his family to Ashtabula county, 
Ohio, traveling by wagon into a country 
which the railroad had not yet penetrated. 
They located on a farm in the timber twenty- 
five miles south of the city of Ashtabula. 
Mr. Brower died at the home of his son in 
LaSalle county, Illinois, when past ninety- 
four. His wife died a number of years pre- 
viously in Ohio. 

Judge Brower was twelve years old 
when his parents brought him into Ohio, 
and he had the privilege of an education 
superior to what was the common lot of 
farm lads in his time. He passed through 
the public school, and attended college at 
Meadville, Pennsylvania. He had learned 
the shoemaker's trade while a lad, and he 
worked at it during the years he was pre- 
paring for a legal career. He was admitted 
to the bar in Ashtabula county, where he 
practiced law quite successfully for a num- 
ber of years. In 1852 he located on a 
farm north of Ottawa, Illinois, and after 
several years had passed resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession at Pontiac. It was 
there that he was appointed to fill a vacancy 
on the bench, and has since worn the title 
of "Judge," which accords so well with his 
judicial spirit and candid mind that it has 
never been dropped by his friends. In 
Pontiac he was highly respected, and was 
frequently a candidate on the Democratic 
ticket for county and legislative positions. 
He came within forty-two votes of being 
elected prosecuting attorney in a county 
which cast over one thousand normal Re- 
publican majority. When he left Pontiac, 
the members of the bar presented him with 
a gold-headed cane, bearing the following 
inscription, "Presented to H. H. Brower, 
by the Livingston county Bar, as a token of 



professional esteem. Pontiac, Illinois, May 
22, 1877." He came to this state and 
entered upon the conduct of a farm, being 
obliged to give up professional labors on ac- 
count of failing health. Here he has made his 
home with the exception of five years spent 
in Colorado, until he moved into McCool 
Junction in 1896. He has sold his farm in 
Fillmore county, but still owns eighty acres 
of land in this county with a quarter section 
in Custer county and a block in the Junc- 
tion. 

Judge Brower was married for the first 
time in Ashtabula county, Ohio, to Miss 
Maryette Crosby, who died in Earlville, 
Illinois, in 1854. There were four children 
born to this marriage, Charles, Casendane, 
Douglas (deceased) and Castarah. He was 
married again in LaSalle county, to Miss 
Margaret J. Furrow, in 1857, by whom four 
children were born. The oldest of these, 
Frank, was recently mustered into Company 
H, Third Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. 
George is the second in the family. Flora is 
dead, and Alice is the youngest of the fam- 
ily. The Judge has been a Mason for many 
years, and is probably one of the oldest in 
the state, having joined the order in 1849. 



HON. NATHAN V. HARLAN.— What 
ever else may be said of the legal fra- 
ternity, it cannot be denied that members of 
the bar have been more prominent actors in 
public affairs than any other class of Amer- 
ican people. This is but the natural result 
of causes which are manifest and require no 
explanation. The ability and training which 
qualify one to practice law also qualify him 
in many respects for duties which lie outside 
the diametrical lines of his profession, 
and which touch the general interests of so- 
ciety. The subject of this record, one of 
the oldest attorneys in York county, is a man 
who has brought his keen perception and 
thorough wisdom to bear not alone in pro- 




HON. N. Y. HARLAN. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



255 



fessional paths, but also for the benefit of 
his county and state. 

Mr. Harlan was born in Darke county, 
Ohio, October 22, 1846, and is a son of 
Valentine and Elizabeth (Polly) Harlan, na- 
tives of South Carolina and Iventucky, re- 
spectively. The father, who was a farmer 
by occupation and a local preacher, died 
when our subject was only three years old, 
and the mother when he was but eighteen. 
With the family he removed to Lee county, 
Iowa, at the age of five years, and was edu- 
cated at Howe's Academy, in Mt. Pleasant, 
and Oskaloosa College, Oskaloosa, that 
state. After leaving school he successfully 
engaged in teaching for ten years, and for 
about half of that period devoted his leisure 
time to the study of law, being admitted to 
the bar at Keosauqua, Iowa, in 1878. The 
same year he came to York, Nebraska, and 
at once began the practice of his chosen pro- 
fession, in which he has been remarkably 
successful. As an attorney he ranks among 
the ablest in this part of the state. He is a 
good judge of law, and, what is of almost 
equal importance, is a good judge of men, 
and it is this quality, together with his great 
earnestness and ability as a speaker, that 
has given him such marked success in the 
trial of cases. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Harlan married Miss Vina 
Carmine, a native of Iowa, and they have 
become the parents of two children: Ger- 
trude, who was born in 1872, and is now 
Mrs. William G. Boyer; and Edmund V., 
born in 18S1. In his social relations Mr. 
Harlan is both an Odd Fellow and Mason. 
He is a recognized leader in the ranks of 
the Republican organization of the state, 
and has been honored with a number of im- 
portant official positions. For three terms 
he served as mayor of York, and in 1885 
and 1887 represented his district in the 
lower house of the state legislature, serv- 
ing as its speaker during the last year. He 
is a born leader of men, and in this august 

15 



body his qualities were quickly recognized. 
In 1890 he was the candidate of his party 
for congress in his district but was defeated, 
and is now serving his second term as county 
attorney. Socially he is deservedly popular, 
as he is affable and courteous in manner and 
possesses that essential qualification to suc- 
cess in public life, that of making friends 
readily and strengthening the ties of all 
friendships as time advances. In connec- 
tion with this sketch is presented a portrait 
of Mr. Harlan. 



CHARLES B. SUPPIGER, the present 
able and popular clerk of Seward coun- 
ty, lives at Seward, but has a circle of 
friends and acquaintances that covers the 
entire county. He has been engaged in 
trade for many years, and proved so relia- 
ble and trustworthy that he had little diffi- 
culty in securing his present responsible 
position. Integrity and honor have char- 
acterized his career in this county, and the 
people depend upon him as prompt and ac- 
curate. 

Mr. Suppiger was born in Highland, 
Madison county, Illinois, February 4, 1852. 
His parents, Xavier and Lucy (Hitz) Sup- 
piger, were Swiss, and came to this coun- 
try in 1833, locating at Highland. The hus- 
band and father was a harnessmaker, and 
followed that business all his life. The 
grandfather, Johnson Suppiger, was a 
farmer and a weaver, and came with his 
son to this country. He spent his last 
days at Highland. He was the father of 
three sons and eight daughters. The family 
of his son Xavier consisted of one son and 
two daughters, of whom the son and one 
daughter are now living. 

Charles Suppiger received a very liberal 
education for the times in which he grew to 
manhood. He took what the Illinois public 
schools afforded, added to it at a school in 
Oakfield, Missouri, and completed his studies 



256 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



at Jones' Business College, a well-known St. 
Louis school. He became aharnessmaker, 
and worked by his father's side for many 
years. In 1875 succeeded to the business 
jat Highlands. He sold out in 1883. He 
spent one year in Kansas, but was not sat- 
isfied with its opportunities, and moved a 
second time. He came to this county and 
settled at Staplehurst, where he was in busi- 
ness for thirteen years. He built up an 
extensive trade, and conciliated the good 
opinion of the public. In 1897 he was 
elected county clerk, and is now discharg- 
ing the duties of that position in a most ac- 
ceptable manner. 

The marriage of Charles B. Suppiger 
and Miss Minnie Frey was ce'ebrated in 
Highland, Illinois, in 1875. She was a 
lady of many good qualities, and has helped 
to promote her husband's success. They 
are members of the German Evangelical 
church, and take an active interest in the 
upbuilding of the faith. Two children have 
been given to them, both of whom are living; 
Minnie E. is the wife of L. Biek, and has 
her home in this county; John X. is fast 
verging into manhood, and is still dwelling 
under the parental roof. Mr. Suppiger is 
a Democrat, and previous to his election 
to his present position, was somewhat con- 
spicuous in public affairs. He was village 
and township clerk, and school director, 
and is known throughout the county. 



EMANUEL BABLE.— An excellent ex- 
ample of a self-made American citizen 
and a grand exemplification of the progress 
that an ambitious foreigner can make in this 
country of unbounded opportunities, is shown 
in the case of our subject, one of the leading 
German-American residents of York county, 
his home being on section 24, Leroy town- 
ship. His success is due to his own energy 
and the high ideal which his lofty and 
laudable ambition placed before him. Suc- 



cess in any walk of life is an indication of 
earnest endeavor and persevering effort — 
characteristics that he possesses in an em- 
inent degree. 

Mr. Babel was born in Prussia, Ger- 
many, in October, 1830, and is a son of 
Francis and Margaret (Hereford) Babel, 
who spent their entire lives in that coun- 
try, the father following the tailor's trade. 
Reared in his native land, our subject there 
acquired a limited education. He worked 
on a farm during his early years, but seeing 
no chance of advancement, his wages being 
only fifteen dollars per 5'ear, he decided to 
come to the new world, where he had 
heard better opportunities were afforded 
industrious and ambitious young men. Ac- 
cordingly in 1850, at the age of twenty 
years, he took passage on a sailing ves- 
sel, and after a voyage of six weeks landed 
at Quebec, Canada, in debt seventy-six dol- 
lars in gold for his passage. He was not 
only without money, but also was .with- 
out friends on this side of the Atlantic. 
His baggage consisted of only seven pounds. 
Going to Michigan, he secured work on a 
farm, where he received seven dollars per 
month, which was almost half of what he 
had received annually in Germany. 

After living seven years in Michigan, 
Mr. Babel removed to Lewis county. New 
York, where he was married in February, 
1865, to Miss Mary Tiebald, who was born 
near the River Rhine, in Germany. They 
have become the parents of the following 
children: Anna, Mary, Margaret, Lizzie, 
Minnie, now Sister Martha at the York Con- 
vent; William, and Lillie A., and two that 
are dead. 

Mr. Babel purchased a farm of fifty 
acres in Lewis county, New York, which he 
operated for four years and then sold. Re- 
moving to Illinois, he engaged in farming 
there for the same length of time, and at 
the end of that period decided to go farther 
west where land was cheaper. In the fall 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



257 



of 1872 we find him <■« ;-^///^ for Nebraska 
in company with Henry Schmidt, and on 
reaching York county he took a homestead 
claim of eighty acres on section 24, Leroy 
township. Returning to lUinois, he there 
spent the winter, and the following Febru- 
ary brought his family to their new home. 
Their stock at that time consisted of two 
horses, a cow, four pigs and a few chickens. 
Mr. Babel erected a sod house for his fam- 
ily and a sod stable for his stock, and dur- 
ing a frightful snow storm, to keep his pigs 
and chickens from perishing, he brought 
them into the house. One year the grass- 
hoppers destroyed all his crops, and he and 
his family underwent all the hardships and 
trials of pioneer life. He has steadily over- 
come all obstacles in his path, however, 
and is now one of the well-to-do and pros- 
perous citizens of his community, owning a 
fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, 
which he has placed under a high state of 
cultivation and well improved, with a modern 
residence, good barns and outbuildings, fruit 
and shade trees, which add greatly to the 
value and attractive appearance of the place. 
Mr. Babel has not only gained a comfortable 
home and competence, but has also secured 
the confidence and respect of those with 
whom he has come in contact either in 
business or social life. 



OWEN D. WILSON, Jr., is the pro- 
prietor and editor of the Geneva Ga- 
zette, the official paper of Fillmore county. 
This paper was established in 1884 under 
the name of the Geneva Democrat, by W. 
H. Cooksey and J. D. Carson. In 1894 
the name was changed to the Geneva Ga- 
zette under the management of J. J. Burk, 
present deputy clerk of the district court. 
In October, 1895, Miss Edith M. Pray be- 
came the editor, and July 20, 1896, Mr. 
Wilson purchased the paper and it has since 
continued under his management. It is 



a six-column, eight-page, bright, newsy 
sheet, and espouses the principles of the 
Populist party, and reaches the minds and 
consciences of many of Fillmore county's 
prominent citizens and also prominent men 
in other and adjoining counties. The able 
editor of this paper, Mr. Owen D. Wilson, 
was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, 
December 14, 1851, a son of Lewis and 
Minerva (Tipton) Wilson, the former a na- 
tive of Ohio, and the latter a native of 
Indiana. The father was a farmer by oc- 
cupation and located in Rock Island coun- 
ty, Illinois, in 1850, and entered govern- 
ment land, being among the first settlers of 
that section of Illinois. He became well 
known there and figured quite conspicuous- 
ly in Rock Island county's politics, being 
one of the leaders of the Democratic party. 
He was one of the first supervisors elected 
in the county under the law for township 
organization and representation in the 
county board, and served in that capacity 
for many years. He was twice a candi- 
date for legislature, and once for the state 
senate, but was defeated, owing to the 
overwhelming Republican majority. 

Our subject was reared on a farm in his 
native county, and received his education in 
the common schools. His mother died dur- 
ing his infancy. When he attained the age 
of twenty-one years he left home and began 
the battles of life on his own responsibility. 
He started for Nebraska, making the entire 
trip with a team and emigrant wagon, and 
arrived in Fillmore county, May 6, 1873. 
His worldly possessions at that time con- 
sisted of his team and wagon and about fifty 
dollars in money, but he filed a homestead 
claim to an eighty-acre tract of land, four 
miles east of Geneva, and began work with a 
will. This property he still owns, and con- 
tinued to cultivate it until July, 1896, when 
he discontinued that line of work to assume 
the management of the newspaper he had 
purchased. He has taken a keen interest 



258 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in all matters pertaining to politics since his 
boyhood, which can perhaps be attributed to 
the position his father held in the political 
world. He is well versed in the current 
events, and has ably conducted the various 
departments of his newspaper enterprises, 
and he has built up for himself an excellent 
reputation as an editor and a large patron- 
age for his paper. He has never aspired to 
nor held a public office other than that of 
supervisor, in which capacity he served for 
five years under the township organization. 
Socially, he affiliates with the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, and also the Modern 
Woodmen of America. 

Mr. Wilson was married in 1877 to Miss 
Sadie E. Hope, also a native of Rock Island 
county, Illinois, and a daughter of David 
and Margaret (Campbell) Hope. Her father 
was for many years a locomotive engineer 
and was killed in accident at Keokuk, Iowa, 
when Mrs. Wilson was about three years of 
age. Her mother died in December, 1892, 
in Fillmore county, Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wilson are the parents of a family of 
three children, whose names and present 
ages are as follows: Lena L. , twenty years; 
Bertha, fifteen years; Leila, four years. 



JH. BETZER, the editor of the Blue 
Valley Blade, which has become one of 
the influential and popular journals of Ne- 
braska, lives at Seward, and takes a promi- 
nent position in the editorial fraternity of 
the west. He was born in Ross county, 
Ohio, January 24, 1836. His parents were 
William I. and Francis (Beeler) Betzer, na- 
tives respectively of Ohio and Kentucky. 
The father was a farmer and moved from 
Ohio in 1856 to DeWitt county, Illinois. 
He died there one year later, and the wife 
and mother died at Seward at the age of 
eighty-three. 

Mr. Betzer received his early training in 
Ohio. He attended the common school 



and the academy at Frankfort, and was well 
prepared for the responsibilities of life. He 
moved to Illinois in company with his par- 
ents, and was engaged in running the engine 
of a saw mill for si.x years. In 1866 he 
bought the Blade, at Pella, Iowa, and was 
its editor and manager for eleven years. He 
sold it at the expiration of that period, and 
was connected with the Times, at Monroe, 
Iowa, for a short time, when he bought it, 
and moved the outfit to Chariton, and en- 
tered upon the publication of the Chariton 
Republican. In 1878 he disposed of his 
Chariton enterprise, came to this county, 
and bought the Seward Advocate, and 
changed its title to the Blue Valley Blade. 
In this paper he is still engaged and for 
some time has been having the association 
of his son, Elmer E., who acts as its assist- 
ant editor and manager. 

Mr. Betzer was married in 1858 to Miss 
Rhoda C. Welch, a native of Indiana. 
They had two sons and three daughters, 
America A. (now Mrs. Hugh Logan), Elmer 
E., Mary E. (now Mrs. C. M. Hall), Welby 
S. and Clystie M. Mr. Betzer has been 
three times married. His first wife died in 
1 89 1. His present wife is Miss Mary E. 
Storms, and was a resident of Colorado at 
the time of her marriage. The paper has 
always been Republican, and has long been 
regarded as the organ of the party in this 
county. It has a large circulation in this 
and the adjoining counties, and is one of the 
most popular country papers of the state. 

Elmer E. Betzer, who is associated with 
his father in the publication of the Blade, 
was born in Marion county, Iowa, August 
17, 1862, and was educated in the schools 
of his native state. He entered his father's 
printing office when thirteen years old, and 
has thoroughly mastered the printer's trade. 
He has had charge of the mechanical de- 
partment of the office for a number of years, 
and to his watchful care is very largely due 
the credit for the neat appearance the Blade 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



259 



always presents. He was married in 1891 
to Miss Rose M. Gordon, a native of Logans- 
port, Indiana. 



GEORGE B. FRANCE is one of the 
ablest lawyers practicing at the York 
county bar, having that mental grasp which 
enables him to discover the points in a case. 
A man of sound judgment, he manages his 
cases with masterly skill and tact, and is 
regarded as one of the ablest jury advocates 
in York. He is a logical reasoner and has 
a ready command of English. 

Mr. France was born in Ohio, January 
10, 1837, and is a son of Adam D. and 
Lydia (Griffith) France, the former a native 
of Pennsylvania, the latter of Ohio. The 
father, who was a farmer by occupation, 
followed his chosen calling in Ohio until 
185 1, and then removed to Laporte county, 
Indiana, where he made his home until 
called to his final rest in 1891, at the ripe 
old age of eighty-four years. Reared upon 
the home farm in the Hoosier state, our 
subject obtained his early education in the 
country schools of the locality, but at the 
age of twenty-one years he entered Oberlin 
College, at Oberlin, Ohio, where he was a 
student for seven years, graduating with the 
class of 1867. Later he entered the law 
department of the University of Michigan, 
at Ann Arbor, and on completing the pre- 
scribed course was granted the degree of 
LL. D. on his graduation in 1868. 

Resolved to try his fortune in the west, 
Mr. France came to Nebraska immediately 
after his graduation and opened an office in 
Milford, Seward county, where he success- 
fully engaged in practice until the 4th of 
January, 1876. He also took quite a promi- 
nent part in public affairs, and for six years 
acceptably served as superintendent of pub- 
lic instructions in Seward county. On 
leaving Milford, he located in York, where 
he has since made his home, and soon suc- 



ceeded in building up a large and lucrative 
practice, which he still enjoys. 

Mr. France was one of the boys in blue 
during the war of the Rebellion, having en- 
listed August 15, 1862, in the Twenty-first 
Indiana Battery. He held the rank of 
sergeant, and was in a number of skirmishes 
and also the battle of Hoovfer's Gap, remain- 
ing in the service until August, 1863, when 
he was severely wounded at University 
Springs, Tennessee, by the explosion of six 
hundred pounds of powder. On the ist of 
September, 1874, Mr. France was united in 
marriage with Miss Edith M. Courtright, a 
resident of Dixon, Illinois, and they have 
become the parents of two children, a son 
and a daughter: George W. and Era H., 
both living. 

Mr. France has always been a stalwart 
Republican in his political belief, but is an 
advocate of the free coinage of silver. He 
is one of the most prominent Masons of the 
state, having attained to the thirty-third 
degree, and in 1888 served as grand master 
of Nebraska, but it is as a successful lawyer 
that he is most widely known. Holding 
marked precedence among the members of 
the bar in York county, and retaining a 
clientele of so representative a character as 
to alone stand in evidence of his professional 
ability and personal popularity, Mr. France 
must assuredly be accorded a prominent 
place in this volume. 



HON. MICHAEL CHARLES DELA- 
NEY is the owner of four hundred 
acres of rich farming land in section 31, 
Skull Creek township, Butler county, Ne- 
braska, and is one of the most strongly 
marked characters to be found in that en- 
terprising and progressive region. He is a 
farmer, a reading and thinking man, thor- 
oughly informed on all topics of interest, 
and a political leader of acknowledged skill 
and power. The impress of his own person- 



260 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ality rests on the history of the county, and 
he is recognized as a strong man throughout 
the state. 

Mr. Delaney was born in Washington 
county, New York, August 28, 1843, and is 
of Irish ancestry. His father, John and his 
mother, Rosa Delaney, both came from Ire- 
land. They married in New York, and 
when little Michael was only two years 
old, moved to Waukesha county, Wiscon- 
sin, and remained there until the spring of 
1870. The early days of Mr. Delaney 
were spent in that state, and he acquired a 
good education in its common schools, fin- 
ishing at the Horicon high school. He was 
a farmer lad, and grew up in that close con- 
tact with nature that gives a steadiness and 
strength to character that the children of 
the city pavement seek in vain. He early 
began teaching in the public schools, and 
followed that avocation until he had 
reached the age of twenty-five. He com- 
bined farming with his work as an instruct- 
or, and removed to Iowa in 1870, proposing 
to work along the same lines. In that state 
he had a brother near him of congenial 
temper and habits, and the two came into 
Nebraska in search of a promising location. 
They covered a wide territory in their 
search, and finally selected Butler county 
as the most inviting locality they had seen, 
and in the spring of 1872 Mr. Delaney 
bought two hundred acres of section 31, 
Skull Creek township, at the price of three 
dollars an acre. The same year he was mar- 
ried in Jasper county, Iowa, to Miss Kate 
Hanna, a daughter of Patrick Hanna. The 
young couple applied themselves earnestly 
to the making of a home on their Butler 
county farm, and in 1879 put up a house 
on it that was regarded as quite pretentious 
for those times. They have witnessed the 
marvelous improvement in this county that 
began about the year 1 880, and have done 
not a little to help it along. 

Mr. Delaney was born and raised a 



Democrat, and when he came into the state 
he found it apparently hopelessly in the 
possession of his political enemies. Butler 
county frequently gave as high as five hun- 
dred Republican majority. He longed for 
a different state of things, and set himself 
to make a revolution. Gradually new men 
and measures came to the front. His long 
and successful career as a teacher and his 
evident familiarity with the details of school 
work fitted Mr. Delaney for the position of 
county superintendent, and to this place he 
was nominated and elected. His term of 
office covered four years and in that time 
sixty-eight school districts were organized. 
It was an immense work, but it was thor- 
oughly and systematically done. He raised 
the grade of the teaching force of the 
county, and witnessed a very general advance 
along all lines of educational activity. He 
declined a nomination to the state legisla- 
ture, but could not refuse a second nomina- 
tion in the fall of 1888, and was elected as 
a member of the legislature that year and 
again in 1894. During the session of 1889 
he took an active part in anti-monopoly 
legislation, attended to every interest of his 
constituency, and was an unusually effi- 
cient legislator. He is . widely spoken of 
as a rising man. Mr. and Mrs. Delaney 
are the parents of a family of seven children, 
and four of these, Agnes, John P., William 
Francis and Rose Etta, were born in Iowa. 
The others, Michael, Leo, George, Charles 
Eugene and Mary, were born in Butler 
county. 



M" 



RS. ANNA FUNK, who was born in 
Pennsylvania in the early years of the 
century, belongs to the number of the most 
venerated residents of Nebraska, and still 
abides on the old homestead near Bradshaw, 
York county, which her husband secured al- 
most a third of a century ago. She is almost 
eighty-three years old, and her eye is still 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



261 



alight, and her natural force but little 
abated. She is loved and revered by those 
who have shared with her the dangers and 
perils of the old pioneer days, and to the 
new generation she is a precious landmark 
of the dark past out of which the state has 
come. Many are the kindly invocations 
that rest upon her closing days. 

Mrs. Anna Funk was born in Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, November i6, 1816, 
and here her parents and grandparents had 
originated, and hence the Funk family is 
one of the older families of the great Key- 
stone state, and in former years has been 
associated with many important events in 
its history. She married Martin Funk in 
1843, and for the next twenty-three years 
continued her residence in Pennsylvania. 
The family then removed into Illinois, where 
a stay of seven years was made, and in 1871, 
Mr. and Mrs. Funk brought their children 
to York county, and settled on the home- 
stead where the venerable lady, whose name 
introduces this article, still lives with her 
youngest daughter. Miss Kate Funk, who is 
the active manager of the farm, and her son 
Albert. She and her husband were mem- 
bers for many years of the German Baptist 
church. He was a Whig in early life, and 
afterwards became a Republican upon the 
breaking-up of the old parties in the years 
that preceded the outbreak of the Civil war. 
He voted for William Henry Harrison in 
1840, and followed down in a straight parly 
line until the day of his death. They were 
the parents of eight children, seven of whom 
were living when they entered this state. 
The husband and father died in 1890, and 
left his aged wife in the care of his young- 
est daughter Kate, who undertook to care 
for the farm, pay off an indebtedness of 
eleven hundred dollars against it and see 
that the last days of her mother were 
shadowed by no anxious cares. She has 
nobly fulfilled her trust, and has proved 
herself a model business woman. The farm 



is in fine condition, the crops have been 
planted and gathered with skill and prompt- 
ness, and every rising turn of the market 
has been made to contribute to the pros- 
perity of the Funk place. Looking back 
over the past seven years in the face of the 
disaster and wreck that have come to so 
many, it is indeed an evidence of a remark- 
able business instinct and unwearied indus- 
try that she has been able to accomplish so 
much. 

The Funk family was represented in the 
Union army by two sons, Albert H. and 
Elias. They settled close by the paternal 
home, and the father and two sons occu- 
pied nearly a section of land. It was a 
day of dug-outs and sod houses, and when 
the elder Funk put up a little house of 
boards for his family, he received the good- 
natured title of " the aristocrat " from his 
sons and neighbors. Those pioneer days 
were full of labor and anxiety, yet they 
have many precious and beautiful memo- 
ries for those who still abide. Evenings 
when the long winter cold was upon the 
country would be signalized by the gather- 
ing of the entire family, four sons and three 
daughters under the family roof, to discuss 
plans of work for the coming spring, or for 
hours of song, or pleasant conversation 
with neighboring young men who would 
come in for such pleasant privileges. The 
old family Bible was not left behind in the 
family journeyings, and it had a conspicu- 
ous place in the corner. It was a modern 
American edition of Burns' " Cotter's Satur- 
day Night." When the Funks first looked 
out on their prairie domain not a twig or a 
stick was to be seen. It was a wide stretch 
of rich black soil. But in thirty years how 
changed the scene. Groves abound, har- 
vests of grain and corn are gathered that 
feed the poor and hungry of a kingdom, 
and it seems as if some old magician had 
passed by with his magic wand and trans- 
formed the face of the country. The dear 



262 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



old lady, now resting in the loving care of 
her daughter on the old homestead has 
seen this wonderful change from the begin- 
ning. She has seven children around her. 
There are nineteen grandchildren, and six 
great-grandchildren who rise up to call her 
" blessed." 



HON. J. J. THOMAS, the present 
judge of Seward county, is a living 
illustration of the open door before the 
young men who adventure the possibilities 
of the West. Not yet thirty years of age, 
he has secured an important position, and 
is acquitting himself most creditably. 

Judge Thomas was born in Hancock 
county, Illinois, January i, 1869, and is a 
son of John C. and AnnaC. (Luft) Thomas. 
His father was born in Germany, and his 
mother in Kentucky. The senior Thomas 
left Germany at the age of seventeen, and 
came to this country in i860. He settled 
in Illinois, where he married, and where his 
son, the subject of this article, was born. 
He was engaged in farming, and in 1869 
came to this county and secured a home- 
stead. He is the father of seven sons and 
two daughters, all of whom are residents of 
this county. 

Judge Thomas was educated in the 
Seward schools, and supplemented their in- 
struction by special work at Lincoln. He 
began the study of law in 1888, when he 
entered the law department of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan. He was a close student, 
and received his diploma in 1890. The 
following year he opened an office in Seward, 
and entered into a professional partnership 
with Mr. Biggs, under the firm name of 
Biggs & Thomas. He came to the front 
very soon, and was recognized as a frank and 
fearless practitioner. He was elected pros- 
ecuting attorney in 1894, and the prompt 
and systematic dicharge of the duties of 
that position justified his election as county 



judge in 1897. Judge Thomas is a Demo- 
crat, and is very highly esteemed by all who 
know him. 



DAVID DARLING.— Doubtless the most 
enterprising young men of the older 
states have left the confines of their early 
homes to seek a new and wider field of 
operation, and among these is the gentle- 
man whose name introduces this sketch. 
As a pioneer of York county, he has been 
prominently identified with its development 
and prosperity, and is to-day numbered 
among its progressive and successful agri- 
culturalists. 

A native of Illinois, Mr. Darling was 
born in Edgar county, June 4, 1849, and is 
a son of David and Ermina (Falmsby) Dar- 
ling, the former born in 18 — , the latter in 
181 8. In their family were six children: 
Aurilla, William, Harriet, David, John and 
Melissa. As the father died in Edgar county, 
Illinois, our subject remained with his 
mother upon the home farm, aiding in its 
management and cultivation. When he 
was twenty-three, the family left their old 
home and removed to Minnesota, in 1871, 
but not being satisfied in that state, they 
turned their faces toward the still newer and 
wilder prairies of Nebraska, which they 
reached during the year 1872. Mr. Darling 
selected a homestead of eighty acres on 
section 34, township 12, range 4, York 
county, and also purchased another eighty- 
acre, tract adjoining. 

He then returned to Edgar county, Illi- 
nois, where he wedded Miss Mary E. Poor, 
who was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, 
April 7, 1850, a daughter of Andrew J. and 
Charlotte T. (Taylor) Poor, the former a 
native of Johnson county, Indiana, the 
latter of Hendricks county, born near Clay- 
ton. For seven years her parents lived in 
Clayton, where her father conducted a shoe 
shop, and in 1856 moved to Edgar county, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



263 



Illinois, where he engaged in the same line 
of business throughout the remainder of his 
life. He died in 1897, at the advanced age 
of seventy-nine years. The children born 
to Mr. and Mrs. Darling are as follows: 
Nancy Aurilla, Melissa A., Sylva L. , Will- 
iam A. and Benjamin G. Two of these are 
already married and have good homes of 
their own, and the rest will soon be grown. 
They have attended the best schools, and 
the family is one of prominence in social 
circles, their hospitable home always being 
open for the reception of their many friends. 
After his marriage Mr. Darling brought 
his bride to his western home, where they 
still continue to reside. On locating upon 
his farm it was entirely unimproved, not an 
object in sight, neither tree nor shrub noth- 
ing but prairie as far as the eye could 
reach. Many antelope, deer, elk and now 
and then a stray buffalo, chased by a still 
wilder Indian, could be seen dotting the 
level prairie. Like all the early settlers he 
commenced operations in York county with 
a machine known as the prairie plow, of 
peculiar construction, and with this he 
turned over the black soil which had never 
before been disturbed by the plow share. 
While he held his plow with one hand he 
would drop corn in the furrow with the 
other, and the next round with the plow 
would cover the seed up. In this way he 
soon had a corn field with broad leaves and 
tassels, waving and rustling in the sunlight 
of Nebraska. His crops would grow with- 
out the aid of hoe or corn-plow and would 
produce not less than twenty bushels of 
corn to the acre. Upon his place he 
planted trees, including apples, plums and 
cherries, which from year to year furnishes 
all the fruit the family can use. He now 
has a pleasant home and is surrounded by 
all the comforts and many of the luxuries 
of life, which have been secured through 
years of honest toil and well-directed 
efforts. 



Mr. Darling is a straight-forward, up- 
right and honorable man, and he and his 
estimable wife are identified with the Home 
Forum, where they now and then spend a 
pleasant evening, the society having a 
membership of fifty. She is also an active 
member of the United Brethren church. 
In his political affiliations Mr. Darling has 
been a life-long Republican. 



HON. FRANK F. LOOMIS.— Perhaps 
no man in all of Butler coynty is so 
well known for his intelligence, active 
public spirit, and thorough appreciation of 
the wants of his locality as is the gentleman 
whose name heads this article. He came 
to the county in an early day and has since 
been identified with all matters which per- 
tain to the improvement and upbuilding of 
the better interests of the locality in which 
he has lived. His active participation in 
public affairs has not been confined to his 
own county, but he has thoroughly ac- 
quainted himself and been associated with 
matters pertaining to the state. Being a man 
of excellent business qualifications and a 
character of the highest order, he has been 
called upon by his fellow-citizens to occupy 
various important official positions. In 
every instance he has proven his efficiency 
and has administered the duties of his vari- 
ous offices with rare fidelity and with in- 
creasing popularity. His home is now lo- 
cated on section 2, Bone Creek township, 
where he settled in the spring of 1866. 

Mr. Loomis was born in Jefferson, Ash- 
tabula county, Ohio, December 26, 1846, a 
son of Chauncey Clark Loomis. The father 
was a native of Oneida county. New York, 
where he was born in the year 1808, a son 
of Devesta Loomis. The latter was a na- 
tive of Hartford, Connecticut, and was a 
soldier in the war of 1812. Our subject's 
father, Chauncey Clark Loomis, moved to 
Ashtabula county, Ohio, about the year 



264 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1828. He was a tailor by occupation, and 
was married in Ohio in 1844, to Miss Susan 
E. Wood, a daughter of Evan Wood. In 
1866 he moved with his family to Butler 
county, Nebraska, then an unsettled and un- 
developed country. Our subject was then 
about twenty years of age. Both he and 
his father took an active part in the organi- 
zation of the county, and in 1868 Chauncey 
Q,. Loomis was appointed the first county 
judge, and our subject was appointed county 
surveyor, although the latter never assumed 
the duties of his office. 

Our subject spent his early life in Ohio 
and received a common-school education 
there. He also worked for a time in a 
printing office in Ohio. After moving to 
Butler county, Nebraska, he at once as- 
sumed a conspicuous position in public mat- 
ters, was one of the most ardent workers 
of the Republican party, radical in his views 
and an opponent to machine politics. These 
characteristics were shown a few years later, 
when, in the Republican state convention, 
to which he was a delegate, when he inde- 
pendently and ably opposed the political 
organization, apparently at the sacrifice of 
his future political success. The following 
is an extract from the legislative year book: 
"In the Republican state convention which 
defeated Judge Ma.xwell for renomination to 
the supreme bench, Mr. Loomis was a dele- 
gate and fought vigorously against .the will 
of the machine. Unsuccessful in his efforts, 
and having imbibed independent principles, 
he became a Silver Republican and a can- 
didate of the free silver element for repre- 
sentative in 1896." Instead of resulting in 
the end of his political career, Mr. Loomis' 
thorough appreciation of the needs his fel- 
low-citizens and his vigorous and able de- 
fence of what he considered their best inter- 
ests was appreciated by his fellows and his 
election to the legislature by a proportion- 
ately large majority followed. Although a 
stranger in the legislative halls, our subject's 



natural force of character soon brought him 
into prominence and he was looked upon as 
a leader in that body. As a member of the 
committee on privileges and elections, his 
work on the new ballot law of Nebraska, of 
which he is the author, stands as a monu- 
ment to his statesmanship. He is also 
author of the Anti-trust Elevator Bill, and 
he is frequently in council with the best ele- 
ment of the legislature. 

Mr. Loomis has been twice married. 
His first wife, who bore the maiden name 
of Emily Perkins, was a daughter of E. M. 
Perkins, and met him at the altar of hymen 
in 1877. To this union were born four chil- 
dren, whose names in the order of their 
birth are as follows: Mabel, Maud, Ger- 
trude and Mary. Mrs. Loomis died, and in 
1894 our subject was united in marriage to 
Ethie M. Betis, who was a teacher by occu- 
pation, having taught for several years in 
the public schools and also for four years 
in the David City high school. To this 
union have been born two children, Edna 
and Ethel, twins. Both our subject and 
Mrs. Loomis are members of the Degree of 
Honor, and he is also a member of the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen. They are 
living on a farm of one hundred and sixty 
acres in Bone Creek township. 



HON. SERVITUS V. MOORE, M. D., 
one of the pioneer physicians of York 
county, Nebraska, was born in Starke 
county, Ohio, October 12, 1835, a son of 
John and Sarah Moore. 

The Doctor was educated in Medina and 
Wajne counties, Ohio, and taught school 
there for some time. He began to read 
medicine in 1851, in Fulton county, Indiana, 
but only read six months there, and com- 
pleted his course in Brown county, Illinois, 
under Doctor Higbee. He began the prac- 
tice of his profession at Fredericksville, 
Illinois, and was thus engaged for several 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



265 



years. He then retired from medical prac- 
tice for a few years and engaged in the 
manufacture of stoneware at Whitehall, 
Illinois. In 1869 he came to York county, 
Nebraska, took a claim north of Bradshaw, 
and followed the pursuit of agriculture for 
a few years, during which time he also spent 
about twelve years in the practice of his 
profession in York county. 

In August, 1857, Doctor Moore was 
united in marriage to Miss Laura A. Morris, 
a native of Virginia, and their home has 
been blessed by the presence of a family of 
three children, viz: Dr. Orvill Moore, of 
York; Robert S., who is engaged in the 
hardware trade; and Alice M. A fourth 
child was born to them but it died young. 

The Doctor has been a Mason since the 
age of twenty-one. Formerly he was a Re- 
publican, in political views, but is now in- 
dependent of parties. He was the first 
county commissioner of York county, and 
has also filled several of the minor offices. 
He has twice represented the county in the 
state legislature, the first time being in 
1876-77, and was again elected in 1880 for 
a term of two years. Doctor Moore is at 
present engaged in the hardware business 
in Bradshaw in company with his youngest 
son. 



HENRY H. CAMPBELL, the well-known 
postmaster, and editor and proprie- 
tor of the Osceola Record, is a native of 
Adams county, Iowa, born December 2, 
1865, and is a son of Benjamin C. and 
Elizabeth Ann (Scott) Campbell, the former 
born at Fort Wayne, Ohio, when that place 
was a government fort on the frontier, the 
latter born in Indiana. The paternal great- 
grandfather of our sketch was a Quaker and 
of Scotch descent. The grandfather bore 
the name of James Campbell. Five of his 
sons were members of the Union army 
during the Rebellion, and two were killed in 



battle. Our subject's father enlisted in 
Company F, Twenty-first Missouri Regi- 
ment, and for three years valiantly fought 
for the preservation of the union, taking 
part in every battle with his regiment ex- 
cept one. Fortunately he was never 
wounded nor taken prisoner. After his 
marriage, which was celebrated in Indiana, 
he moved to Iowa, and in 1872 came to 
Polk county, Nebraska, taking up his resi- 
dence a mile and a half north of Osceola 
upon a claim he had secured the year previ- 
ous. This he improved and cultivated, but 
finally sold in 1889. Two years before he 
had gone to Keya Paha county, Nebraska, 
where he made his home until 1893, but 
since that time has lived retired in Osceola, 
enjoying the fruits of his former toil. He 
and his wife are consistent merpbers of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and he also 
belongs to the G. A. R. post at Osceola. 
Their children are Norris Scott, Mary 
Maria, Rev. James Samuel, John Allen, 
Flora Cinderella, Henry H. and Clarissa 
Anna. 

Being only si.x years old at the time of 
the removal of the family to Polk county, 
Mr. Campbell grew to manhood here, and 
completed his literary education in the high 
school of Osceola, being a member of the 
first graduating class. Subsequently he en- 
gaged in teaching school in Polk county, 
and for two years was bookkeeper for the 
Osceola Bank, leaving that position to take 
charge of the Record in May, 1890. This 
paper was established August 27, 1873, by 
H. T. Arnold, who was succeeded by Frank 
Burgess October 15, 1873. The next ed- 
itor was M. E. Crookham, who sold out to 
the Osceola Printing Company, but later 
Mr. Burgess again had charge until April 
15, 1874, when he was succeeded by W. F. 
Kimmel. From August 11, 1875, until No- 
vember 17, the same year, Calmar McCune 
was the owner, and was succeeded by S. F. 
Fleharty. Up to this time the title of the 



/' 



266 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



paper had been The Homesteader, but was 
changed to the present name by Mr. Fle- 
harty, who subsequently sold out to H. C. 
and Ada M. Bittenbender, who had control 
until October, 1881, when Mr. McCune 
again took it, owning it until November 23, 
1882. In February, 1883, it was sold to D. 
M. Butler, who was succeeded by Mr. 
Campbell in May, 1890, as before stated. 
It has steadily prospered under his able 
management and is now one of the foremost 
journals in this section of the state. 

Mr. Campbell was married July 2, 1890, 
to Miss Anna Teele, a native of Vermont, 
who was educated in Tabor College, Iowa. 
Her father. Rev. Edwin E. Teele, was a 
Congregational minister, and while serving 
as a home missionary in Minnesota, died in 
that state. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have 
four children: Harold Ray, Phillips Brooks, 
Esther and Benjamin Burdette. The 
parents are worthy members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church of Osceola, and Mr. 
Campbell has always been identified with 
the Republican party. He is a member of 
the Modern Woodmen of America, and of 
the blue lodge of the Masonic Order at 
Osceola, in which he has served as junior 
warden one year and secretary two years. 
On the nth of November, 1897, he re- 
ceived the appointment of postmaster of 
Osceola, and assumed the duties of the 
office January i, 1898. He is proving a 
painstaking and popular official, and as a 
citizen merits and receives the highest con- 
fidence and esteem of all who know him. 



JUDGE T. L. NORVAL, whose resi- 
dence is in Seward, Nebraska, is a law- 
yer whose legal attainments and personal 
character have found a fitting recognition 
by his election to the supreme bench of the 
state. He possesses the judicial instinct, 
and from the moment he began the practice 
of the profession the spirit of equity and 



right was seen to be very strong in his 
nature. 

Judge Norval was born in Fulton county, 
Illinois, August 26, 1847, and his parents, 
Oliver and Mary J. (Sampson) Norval, 
though natives of North Carolina and 
Maryland, were of Scotch descent. The 
father left North Carolina in 1832, moved 
into Indiana, where he remained three 
years. He moved into Illinois in 1835, 
where he lived out the remainder of his life. 
He was twice married, was the father of 
twenty-one children, and died in 1891. His 
son, the present Judge, was educated in the 
common schools of Illinois, and completed 
his general studies at Hedding College, a 
well-known school at Abbington, Illinois. 
After his graduation at this institution he 
engaged in teaching for several years, and 
while busy in the school room was laying 
the foundation of that successful career he 
has had in the legal profession. He entered 
the law department of the University of 
Michigan in 1869, in company with his 
brother, R. S., and together with him trav- 
ersed the academic halls. He was gradu- 
ated in March, 1871, and was admitted to 
the bar of the supreme court of Michigan 
at the time of his graduation. Before at- 
tending the University he had already se- 
cured a minor practice, and had accumu- 
lated through his own exertion a consider- 
able library of valuable law books. 

Judge Norval made his first visit to Sew- 
ard in 1869, when he made the journey 
from Lincoln to this point on foot. He 
was so well pleased with the prospect of 
the country, that in 1872 he came to Sew- 
ard to engage in the practice of his pro- 
fession. That year he was admitted to the 
bar in this state, and at once formed a 
partnership with his brother R. S., under 
the firm name of Norval Brothers. This 
professional and fraternal association con- 
tinued unbroken until his election to the 
bench. He was sent to the state senate in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHi: 



267 



1879, and was appointed to the district 
bench in 1883, to complete the unexpired 
term of Judge Post. He acquitted himself 
so well in this responsible position that he 
was twice elected to it by the people. In 
January, 1890, he resigned to accept the 
office of supreme judge, to which he had 
been elected in November, 1889. He dis- 
charged the duties of the high position so 
admirably that he was re-elected in 1895. 
Judge Norval was married in 1875 to 
Miss Ella Godfrey, whose birthplace was in 
Knox county, Illinois. They have had two 
children. One is dead, and a daughter, 
Winnifred, is living. Judge and Mrs. Nor- 
val are members of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and their well ordered lives at- 
test the strength of their moral and religious 
convictions. He is a Mason, and a mem- 
ber of the Ancient Order of the United 
Workmen. He is a leading spirit in the 
councils of the Republican party of the 
state, and his utterances are listened to 
with respect. He speaks only after care- 
ful meditation, and his words bear weight. 



BRIGHT B. OGG, the present efficient 
and popular sheriff of Fillmore county, 
has been a resident of his locality for eight- 
een years. He was for a long period con- 
nected with the farming interests of the 
community but now makes his home in Ge- 
neva. He belongs to that class of repre- 
sentative citizens whose progressive spirit 
and practical methods materially advance 
the interests and welfare of the localities 
with which they are connected, and the 
history of Fillmore county would be incom- 
plete without the record of his life. 

Mr. Ogg was born in Sangamon county, 
Illinois, on the loth of January, 1850, and 
is a son of Bright B. and Francis (Thomas) 
Ogg, who were natives of Kentucky, whence 
they emigrated to Sangamon county, Illi- 
nois. The father was a carpenter by trade, 



and in addition to that pursuit carried on 
farming. Both he and his wife spent their 
last days in Macoupin county, Illinois. 

Upon the home farm in the county of 
his nativity Bright B. Ogg spent the days 
of his boyhood and youth and early be- 
came familiar with the duties that fall to 
the lot of the agriculturist. He is indebted 
to the public school system for the educa- 
tional privileges which he enjoyed. From 
Sangamon he removed to Macoupin county, 
and after a few years left Illinois for Ne- 
braska; this was in the year 1880. He lo- 
cated in Fillmore county, purchasing land 
in Geneva township, about nine miles from 
Geneva. Since that time he has bought 
and sold several farms and is now the own- 
er of a valuable tract of land of two hundred 
acres pleasantly located within three and a 
half miles of the county seat. It is nearly 
all under cultivation and is in a high state 
of improvement, substantial buildings and 
all modern accessories indicating the thrift 
and enterprise of the owner. For the past 
twelve years Mr. Ogg has been extensively 
engaged in stock dealing, buying, feeding 
and shipping, and has found this a profita- 
ble source of income. 

Mr. Ogg was married in Macoupin coun- 
ty, Illinois, February 10, 1876, to Miss 
Ella Redfern, a native of Kansas and a 
daughter of John and Polly (Pritchett) Red- 
fern. They now have a family of seven 
children, namely: Ora L. , James W., 
Charles C., Cecil, Chloe, Josie and Hazel. 

In the fall of 1895 Mr. Ogg became the 
Populist candidate for the office of county 
sheriff and was elected by a majority of one 
hundred and seventy-three. After serving 
for two years he was re-nominated and 
elected by a majority of two hundred and 
forty-nine, a fact which plainly indicates 
his faithful and fearless service and his per- 
sonal popularity among the law-abiding 
citizens. He was a Democrat in his early 
political affiliations, but has since the organ- 



268 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHi' 



ization of the Populist party been one of 
its stanch advocates. Socially he is con- 
nected with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men and the Fraternal Aid. 



HON. GEORGE W. POST.— In modern 
ages, and to a large extent in the past, 
banks have constituted a vital part of 
organized society and governments, both 
monarchical and popular, have depended 
upon them for material aid in times of de- 
pression and trouble. Their influence has 
extended over the entire world, and their 
prosperity has been the barometer which 
has unfalteringly indicated the financial 
status of all nations. Of this important 
branch of business Judge Post is a worthy 
representative. He is now president of the 
First National Bank of York, and is re- 
garded as one of the most prominent figures 
in the business life of the county. 

A native of Cumberland, Guernsey 
county, Ohio, Judge Post was born Febru- 
ary 20, 1 85 1, and is a son of William E. 
and Sarah S. Post. The father was a Pres- 
byterian minister and in consequence re- 
sided in various parts of the country. Before 
the war of the Rebellion he removed to 
Missouri, but after a short time went to 
Bloomfield, Iowa, where his death occurred 
in 1868. 

In the district schools of Iowa, and in 
the Troy high school, the subject of this 
review acquired his education. When a 
youth of only fourteen years he responded 
to his country's call for aid, enlisting at 
Bloomfield, Iowa, for one hundred days' 
service, in the Forty-fifth Iowa Infantry. 
In early life, thinking to devote his energies 
to the legal profession, he began reading law 
in the office of Hon. H. C. Travers, of 
Bloomfield, and was admitted to the bar in 
1 87 1. Not long afterward he removed to 
York, Nebraska, being one of the first 



lawyers to locate in the county. Here he 
practiced in partnership with T. L. Warring- 
ton for a short time, and was then alone in 
the conduct of the important litigation en- 
trusted to his care until 1S75, when he was 
elected judge of the fourth judicial district. 
So capably did he fill the office through the 
four-years term, that he was re-elected in 
1879. He seemed fully to realize the im- 
portance of the profession to which he de- 
voted his energies, and the fact that justice 
and the higher attribute of mercy he often 
held in his hands. His reputation as a 
lawyer was won through earnest, honest 
labor and his standing at the bar was a 
merited tribute to his ability. Other official 
honors were bestowed upon him and in the 
state legislature and the office of internal 
revenue collector, he won high encomiums 
by his prompt and faithful performance of 
his duty. 

Judge Post's connection with the bank- 
ing interests of the county covers a long 
period and it is largely due to his efforts 
and able ad ministration that the First Nation- 
al ranks first among the financial institu- 
tions of the state. The first bank of York 
county was established in the city of York, 
January i, 1877, and was known as the Mc- 
Wherter Bank, the owner and president 
thereof being William M. McWherter, who 
conducted the. enterprise until 1879 when he 
died. The bank was then continued by D. 
S. Sayer and F. K. Atkins, who organized 
the Commercial State Bank, which was 
conducted a number of years with Mr. 
Sayer as president. During that time Cyrus 
Langworthy organized a bank at York, of 
which he was president and A. C. Ward 
cashier. This was later merged into the 
First National Bank, which was organized 
May 6, 1882, the first officers being Richard 
C. Outclat, president and Ed. Mosher, cash- 
ier. This institution was later purchased by 
Sayer & Atkins, and consolidated with the 
Commercial State Bank, February 6, 1886, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



269 



with F. O. Bell as president and W. J. 
Wildmore, cashier. Some ten years prior 
to this the Exchange Bank was organ- 
ized, with E. D. Einsel as president and 
after several years was purchased by Judge 
Post and Lee Love. Under the name of 
the York National it was conducted until 
October 19, 1893, when the York National 
and the First National consolidated under 
the name of the latter, but the officers of 
the former continued in their respective 
positions. The bank is now capitalized for 
fifty thousand dollars, with a surplus of 
fifty thousand and undivided profits to the 
amount of fourteen thousand. They do a 
general banking business and the institution 
has an unassailable reputation, which in- 
sures to it a liberal patronage. The officers 
are G. W. Post, president, and E. J. 
Wightman, and all the stockholders reside 
in the count}'. 

Judge Post was married January i, 1879, 
in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, to Miss 
Laura McConaughy, a resident of that 
place. He is a man of subjective modesty, 
entirel/ free from ostentation or display, 
but his fellow citizens know him as a man 
of sterling worth and honor him for his 
well-spent life. ^ 



FRANK J. ZEMAN is a capable and ac- 
complished teacher of Bruno, Nebras- 
ka, and though not yet thirty years of age 
he has won high standing in this noble pro- 
fession. It is a profession with him and 
not simply a stepping stone to something 
else. He puts his heart and soul into it, 
and is making a record for careful work, 
and conscientious devotion to it, that will 
place him well to the front before he grows 
much older. 

Mr. Zeman was born in Bohemia in 
1869, but coming to this country when only 
si.x months of age, he is as it were to the 
manor born, and bears himself as a true 



American. His father established the fam- 
ily in Faulkner, Franklin county, Iowa, 
where the young Frank grew up to man- 
hood, receiving the education the public 
schools afforded and graduating from the 
high school at Iowa Falls in 1891. Upon 
his graduation he immediately engaged in 
teaching, and soon became an educator of 
acknowledged character and standing. 
He came to this state and taught in Dodge 
schools of Dodge county for a time, and 
was chosen principal of the city schools in 
Bruno in 1895. He still holds this position, 
and in it has rendered invaluable service to 
the cause of education. He has brought 
the various departments of the school up to 
a high grade, and has inspired the youth 
under his charge with an unusual zeal and 
devotion to their studies. 

Joseph Zeman was the father of our sub- 
ject and belonged to an old and leading fam- 
ily in Bohemia. He taught his son to re- 
vere its great names and glorious deeds 
even while he turned his back upon it, and 
sought a home in the new world. Mr. 
Zeman has a not unnatural pride in the fact 
that he is native to a country whose sons 
have done so much for human progress in 
other days, and is adopted to a land where 
the light of liberty and justice shines for all. 
He was married in Bruno, May 19, 1897, 
to Miss Agnes Rerucha, a daughter of Jos- 
eph Rerucha, formerly of Saunders county. 
They were early settlers in the state, and 
she has become a worthy helpmeet to her 
talented and popular husband. 



EUGENE A. WALRATH, who has al- 
ways had a taste for journalistc work, 
is now the able editor and proprietor of the 
Polk County Democrat, published at Os- 
ceola, Nebraska. He was born in Rochelle, 
Illinois, November 26, 1867, a son of J. 
and Jennie (Fell) Walrath, the former a 
native of New York, the latter of Canada. 



270 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHy. 



They were married in Oregon, Illinois, and 
lived in Ogle county, that state, until 1883, 
when they removed to Washington county, 
Kansas, but after two years spent there, 
they came to Polk county, Nebraska, where 
they still reside, honored and respected by 
the entire community. Of their two chil- 
dren, the younger, H. C. Walrath, is now 
the editor of the Mt. Morris Index, of Mt. 
Morris, Illinois. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
were mainly passed in Rochelle, Illinois, 
where he attended high school, but com- 
pleted his education in the high school at 
Greenleaf, Kansas. On starting out in life 
for himself he was in the drug business for 
a time, but on coming to Osceola in 1885 
became interested in newspaper work. He 
had always a fondness for a printing office, 
and was usually found in one wherever he 
lived. In this way he early obtained a fair 
knowledge of the printing business in its 
various departments, on coming to Osceola 
accepted a position in the office of the 
Record, which was then conducted by D. 
M. Butler. On severing his connection 
with that establishment he started the Dem- 
ocrat, July 19, 1888, and has since carried 
it on, building it up to its present high 
standing. It is now one of the best edited 
papers in the county, and is a credit to its 
founder and manager. In politics it was 
Democratic until 1896, since which time it 
has giv«n its influence and support to the 
Populist movement. It is a six-column 
quarto, and is a bright, newsy sheet, filled 
with both general and local matters of in- 
terest to its many patrons. 

Mr. Walrath was married August 14, 
1890, to Miss Birdie L. Pulver, a native of 
Viroqua, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Oli- 
ver and Hanna (Bixby) Pulver, now resi- 
dents of Payson, Utah. Mrs. Walrath was 
educated in the schools of Osceola, and is 
a member of the Presbyterian Church there. 
Mr. and Mr. Walrath have a little daughter 



— Maurine. Although a stanch Democrat 
in politics, Mr. Walrath has never been an 
ofSce seeker. Socially he is identified with 
the blue lodge, No. 6"], F. & A. M. , of Os- 
ceola; the Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 75; 
and the Camp of Modern Woodmen of 
America, of which he is chief officer, or 
consul. 



HON. HIRAM LESLIE SMITH, M. D., 
is one of the oldest business men of 
Fillmore county, and bears upon his should- 
ers the burden of seventy years of an active 
and earnest life. He is the president of the 
Citizen's Bank, of Geneva, and maj- prop- 
erly be spoken of as one of the leading men 
of Nebraska. 

Dr. Smith was born in Franklin county. 
New York, October 19, 1828, and is a son 
of John C. and Esther Parker (Culver) 
Smith, both of whom were natives of Ver- 
mont, and settlers of New York very early 
in life. His father removed to Ohio about 
1835, ''•nd for many years was steward of 
Granville College, a Baptist institution near 
Granville, that is now known as Denison 
University. He passed his last years in re- 
tirement in Steuben county, Indiana, where 
several of his children have established 
themselves. 

Dr. Smith was about seven years old 
when his parents removed to Ohio and 
he received a very liberal education for 
the times. He was a student at Granville 
University, and became a very successful 
teacher. Teaching, however, was for him 
but a stepping stone into the field of med- 
icine. At twenty-two he began his prep- 
aration for the profession, and reading at 
intervals, he worked his way along a dif- 
ficult road into professional success. He 
went into the harvest field, and swung a 
cradle for two dollars and fifty cents a day, 
and by other equally arduous labors paid 
his way through school. He graduated 




HON. HIRAM L. SMITH, M. D. 



COMPEXDJUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



273 



from the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical In- 
stitute in 1856, after taking a full course 
of instruction with a creditable standing, 
and entered into professional practice at 
Flint, Indiana, where he met with success 
from the start. He was at Flint seven 
years when he removed to the neighboring 
town of Orland, where he found an en- 
larged field for his professional labors, 
which he fully utilized. For fifteen years 
he held a prominent position in the affairs 
of Orland and vicinity, and exerted a wide 
influence for good upon a host of young 
men. He was a trustee of the Indiana 
Northwestern Institute for fifteen years 
consecutively, from which a great number 
of students have gone to the University of 
Michigan. It is thought that perhaps more 
people have prepared for that famous uni- 
versity at this school than any other similar 
institution. During these years he made 
several trips to Nebraska, and thinking it 
presented a favorable opportunity for in- 
vestments, put in considerable money in 
different ways in this county and in the city 
of Lincoln. These interests soon became 
extensive and demanded annual trips for 
their proper conservation. F.nally he de- 
termined to settle in Nebraska, and give all 
his time to his extensive commercial enter- 
prises. He made his home in 1875 i" Ge- 
neva, where he has since resided. It was 
but a most insignificant village then, of 
scarcely fifty inhabitants, but presenting 
great possibilities as the prospective county 
seat. He has done much to build up the 
town in these intervening years, and while 
he has declined to practice his profession 
he has never been able to refuse the de- 
mands of old friends, who were his patrons 
back in Indiana. Wherever he has ren- 
der medical assistance he has uniformly 
refused all compensation, preferring to re- 
gard it as neighborly kindness rather than 
professional work. 

In the meantime the business interests 

16 



of the quondam Indiana doctor have grown 
very extensive. For a dozen years or more 
he was the partner in the general mercantile 
establishment of J. T. Piatt & Company, 
but in the main has preferred to keep very 
close to his real estate enterprises. That 
he has a large faith in Fillmore county and 
this part of the west is supported by the 
fact of his ownini^ twelve hundred acres in 
this county, and more than one thousand 
acres in Jefferson county, besides other 
western lands in large amounts. He be- 
came associated with the Citizens' Bank of 
Geneva, soon after its organization, and for 
the last four years has been its president. 
It was organized January i, 1885, with a 
capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, 
which was but half paid up. To-day it has a 
capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, fully 
paid in, and a standing as one of the solid 
financial institutions of the west which is 
beyond question. He was the first mayor 
of the city, and served three consecutive 
terms since in that capacity. It was during 
his administration that the water works were 
installed, and other advanced steps taken. 
He was elected state senator in 1885 and 
has always been an ardent Republican. In 
the senate he made a good record and be- 
came known throughout the state as an in- 
flexible opponent of vicious and injudicious 
legislation. 

In local interests Dr. Smith has always 
taken a large view of all questions and 
worked for the best interests of his own 
community. He has recently donated his 
magnificent private library of nearly eight 
hundred volumes for the purpose of estab- 
lishing a city library and reading room. 
The new philanthropy has its rooms on the 
third floor of the Citizens' Bank building, 
and is in the charge of the Masonic and Odd 
Fellow lodges as trustees. It bears the 
name of the H. L. Smith Library in his 
honor, and has possibilities of limitless 
good. 



274 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Dr. Smith is a Mason of high degree and 
enthusiastic devotion to the craft. He is a 
member of the commandery, the thirty- 
second degree Scottish Rite and the Shrine. 
His Masonic history covers a period of 
nearly forty years and throughout it has 
been highly creditable both to himself 
and the order. He has united with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
several other fraternal societies, and is 
a man who likes the company of other 
men. He was married in 1855 to Miss 
Phoebe A. Williams, a native of Mans- 
field, Ohio, where she was in her early life 
a playmate with the Shermans. She died 
in Orland, Indiana, leaving two children, 
who are now living. Hattie is the wife of 
Mark J. Butler, a prosperous Nebraska 
farmer, whose land adjoins Geneva. Curtis 
Adams is also a resident of this county, 
where he owns and farms a half section of 
land a mile east of Geneva. Both brother 
and sister have received from their open- 
handed father the present of a half section 
of good farming land, with stock, imple- 
ments and everything required for success- 
ful cultivation. With his two children 
about him comfortably established in homes 
of their own, and assured of a competence, 
and commanding the respect and esteem of 
all who have met him either in business or 
personal relations, Dr. Smith enters upon a 
serene and honored old age. A portrait of 
Dr. Smith appears on another page. 



MOTHER'S JEWELS' HOME.— A full 
and complete history of this home for 
orphan children would fill a small sized 
volume, and in the limited space alloted us 
we can only give a brief outline of the 
origin and growth of this most worthy en- 
terprise. The first move made in this di- 
rection in Nebraska was by Doctor Arm- 
strong, of Platte county, when he estab- 
lished a small home for boys, but having 



limited means at his disposal he was unable 
to accomplish much. A board of trustees 
was appointed, however, among whom was 
Mrs. Burwell Spurlock, and to her efforts is 
due the establishment of the present com- 
fortable and commodious quarters at York. 
In 1890 she was a delegate to the national 
convention of the Woman's Home Mission- 
ary Society held at Syracuse, New York. 
Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes was president of 
the society at that time and she had long 
cherished a plan to found a national home 
for orphan children of Methodist ministers. 
At this convention the subject was brought 
up for discussion, and of course almost 
every delegate had a place to suggest for 
the location of the home. Among others 
Mrs. Spurlock presented the advantages of 
the great west and gave many excellent 
reasons for locating it in Nebraska, among 
which was the one that some little had 
already been done along that line, and she 
believed that the farm given by Doctor 
Armstrong would be transferred to the 
society. In accordance with this sugges-; 
tion a committee was appointed to confer 
with the Doctor and investigate the prop- 
erty. They proceeded to Platte county, 
but found on investigation that the location 
was poorly adapted to such an enterprise 
and that the farm was also badly incum- 
bered with debt. By this time, however, 
the Methodists in Nebraska had become in- 
terested in the movement, and the commit- 
tee came to York to confer with the confer- 
ence then in session here. Many offers 
were made by different places of lands and 
funds, and among the cities offering the 
largest amounts were both Omaha and Lin- 
coln, but Mrs. Spurlock still maintained 
that the school should be located away 
from any city, where the bad effects of city 
life would not surround the children. The 
citizens of York then made a generous offer 
of a ten-thousand-dollar farm adjoining the 
city, and it was finally decided to locate 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Tif> 



the home at this place, the society agreeing 
on their part to at once erect a ten-thou- 
sand-dollar building on the grounds. The 
erection of a three story brick building was 
begun and completed in due course of time, 
costing fifteen thousand dollars, and other 
buildings were also erected. After all of 
this work was accomplished the next ques- 
tion that arose was who was the proper per- 
son to assume the management of it. A 
strong influence was brought to bear on Mr. 
and Mrs. Spurlock to undertake the respon- 
sibility, and they finally consented. The 
wisdom of this choice has been fully proven, 
as the home under their able manage- 
ment has been a success in every 
particular. Here are ample accommo- 
dations for one hundred children, and 
they come from all parts of this great 
country of ours, remaining here until good 
homes are found for them in private fam- 
ilies. Mr. Spurlock superintends the man- 
agement of the farm, and the products 
raised thereon go a long ways in support- 
ing the home. There is a good school 
where the pupils can complete a seventh- 
grade course, and upon the place are em- 
ployed one man, seven female assistants 
and a nurse. 



BURWELL AND ISABELLA (DAVIS) 
SPURLOCK.— This age is not wholly 
utilitarian. On all sides we see some ear- 
nest souls laboring devotedly to bring about 
a recognition of some higher principle in 
life than selfish greed, and stimulating in 
the hearts of others a desire for spiritual 
progress. The friends of Mr. and Mrs. 
Spurlock will see in their years of faithful 
work in all forms of religious endeavor, a 
source of present good to the community 
and long after they have entered unto their 
final rest their influence will continue in 
everlasting circles. They are best known, 
however, in connection with Mother's Jewels' 



Home at York, Nebraska, which they have 
so successfully managed for several years, 
and in the establishment of which Mrs. Spur- 
lock took so active and prominent a part. 
They unselfishly devote their entire time 
and attention to this good work, making a 
pleasant home for many orphan children. 
A sketch of this home is given elsewhere in 
this work. 

Mr. Spurlock was born in Wayne coun- 
ty, West Virginia, June 28, 1835, and is a 
son of Wesley and Mary (Booton) Spurlock, 
natives of the Old Dominion. He is also 
a descendant of Isaac Spurlock, one of the 
first chaplains of congress in colonial days. 
The father, who was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, removed to Illinois at an early day, 
subsequently made his home in Iowa, and 
from that state came to Nebraska, spending 
his last days in Nebraska City, where his 
death occurred March 24, 1893. He reared 
a family of nine children, six sons and three 
daughters, all of whom are still living with 
the exception of one son. Burwell Spur- 
lock's early education was secured in the 
common schools of Illinois and Iowa, and 
later he attended the Iowa Wesleyan Uni- 
versity. He began his business career as a 
merchant at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, being 
one of the pioneers of that city, where he 
took up his residence on the ist of April, 
1856, and there he made his home until 
coming to York. He was one of the most 
prominent and influential citizens, and he 
was often called into public life, serving as 
clerk of the county eight years, ex officio 
probate judge and as superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction in connection with that office. 

On the first of November, i860, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Spurlock 
and Miss Isabella Davis, a daughter of 
William H. and Sarah E. Davis, natives of 
Tennessee. Her father was a relative of 
Jefferson Davis, and left the, south on ac- 
count of his views on the slavery question, 
living for some time in both Illinois and 



276 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH2'. 



Iowa, and later at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. 
From that city he removed to Missouri, and 
continued to make that state his home until 
called to his final rest. He engaged in 
farming and in other business enterprises 
and filled several official appointments such 
as sheriff. Mrs. Spurlock was born in Mis- 
souri, and received a liberal education in 
public and private schools. In 1883 she 
entered the missionary field of the Method- 
ist church as special missionary under 
auspices of the Womans Home Missionary 
Society for organization of that work in 
Utah, where she succeeded in inaugurating 
a good work, which has since been carried 
forward. She and her husband have labored 
untiringly for the good of humanity, and 
their noble, christian lives have gained for 
them the love and respect of all who have 
the pleasure of their acquaintance. They 
have one son, George M. Spurlock, now 
county judge of Cass county, Nebraska, but 
are really parents to the homeless little ones 
who have found shelter in " Mother's Jewels' 
Home," and have been so tenderly cared 
for by them. 



CAPT. JOHN L. WILSON.— There are 
plain unassuming men engaged in 
peaceful pursuits to-day, who hide heroic 
hearts behind humble garb. They are the 
men who left everything in the fateful days 
of the great Rebellion to fight and die if 
need be, for the hope of the world. And 
among them Captain Wilson, whose home 
is on section 18, Waco township, York 
county, stands second to none. He was 
early at the front, and made a noble record 
for himself and his company, and did not 
return to his home until the clouds of war 
had rolled away. 

Captain Wilson belongs to a distin- 
guished family of Massachusetts, though his 
father and mother were living in St. Law- 
rence county. New York, at the time of his 



birth, April 18, 1829. Their names were 
John T. and Sarah (Mason) Wilson, and 
the}' were natives of the old Bay state, 
where his grandfather, James Wilson, lived 
and died. The maternal grandfather of 
Captain Wilson came into this country from 
Alsace-Lorraine, a province of France at 
that time, when a boy only sixteen years 
old. He came in company with the Marquis 
De Lafayette, and securing the consent of 
his illustrious patron, enlisted in the Amer- 
ican army. He served throughout the Rev- 
olution, and when peace returned to the 
distracted colonies, made his home in Mas- 
sachusetts, where he lived for many years 
environed in the affection of the people he 
had helped to free. 

John T. Wilson early settled in New 
York, and carried on farming operations in 
St. Lawrence county, where he made his 
permanent home. He was born August 14, 
1783, and died July 29, 1869. His wife 
was born August 8, 1790, and entered into 
rest June 5, 1870. They lived together 
many years, and were the parents of six 
children, of whom Captain Wilson was the 
youngest. Frederick G., the oldest son, 
died a few months ago at the age of eighty- 
three years. Jesse B. and Ann are living 
in New York. Electa E. (Mrs. Day) lives 
in Day county, South Dakota, and Sarah J. 
(Laughlin) has her home in Springfield, 
Illinois. The venerable parents of this 
family were members of the Congregational 
church, and were much respected for their 
genuine character and sterling worth. He 
was a captain in the state militia of Massa- 
chusetts, and took an active interest in pub- 
lic affairs. 

Captain Wilson was reared in the par- 
ental home, and received unusual educa- 
tional advantages. He attended the excel- 
lent public schools of the community in 
which his boyhood was passed, and pre- 
pared for college. He was a student in the 
famous old Amherst College of Massachu- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



277 



setts, and was graduated with the class of 
1855. Leaving the college, he engaged in 
teaching for several years. Indeed he was 
a natural pedagogue, and manifested un- 
usual ability as a teacher, and for eighteen 
years devoted much of his time to that 
noble work. In the latter part of this 
period he taught in a Loys' boarding school 
at Amherst, Massachusetts. And he recalls 
with considerable satisfaction that the pro- 
ceeds of his work as a teacher very largely 
paid his way through college. In 1855 he 
removed to Illinois, and located near Spring- 
field, where the breaking out of the Civil 
war found him very favorably known both 
as a man and a teacher. He promptly 
offered his services to the government, and 
was authorized to raise a company for the 
war. He readily accomplished it and was 
chosen its captain. He enlisted Augusts, 
1862, and his company was designated 
Company G, One Hundred and Fourteenth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry. It was sent 
south and became a part of Sherman's corps, 
of General Grant's army. The old One 
Hundred and Fourteenth had an honorable 
history, and was associated with many of 
the most stirring scenes and events of the 
great war. They were engaged in the first 
battle at Jackson, Mississippi, and in the 
siege of Vicksburg, where it was stationed 
in the first line of attack until the greater 
number of its members had become dis- 
abled. July 3, 1863, General Sherman 
selected this regiment for the special work 
of protecting Messenger's Ford on Black 
river and driving away the advance guard 
of General Johnston's army. It was a dan- 
gerous work, and fraught with possibilities 
of grave disaster, but it was gallantly done. 
After the surrender of Vicksburg, the One 
Hundred and Fourteenth assisted in the 
siege and capture of Jackson, Mississippi. 
It was then sent to Camp Sherman where 
. it was stationed some time for recuperation. 
When it was again in shape it was trans- 



ferred to the Sixteenth Army Corps, and 
came under the command of General Hurl- 
bert. The regiment saw service under him 
at Oak Ridge, Mississippi, and participated 
in several minor battles and skirmishes. 
Captain Wilson was on detached duty for a 
time at Memphis, Tennessee, where he was 
provost marshal for one year and one year 
as assistant, and was mustered out with the 
regiment at Springfield, Illinois, August 15. 
1865. 

Captain Wilson lost no time in resuming 
his work as a teacher, which he followed for 
the next two years. He then went into 
the wholesale hay business at Pana, Illinois. 
In the fall of 1878, he came into Nebraska, 
and located where this history finds him. 
He was married December 5, of the same 
year, to Miss Mary A. Keyes, a native of 
Illinois and a daughter of Gershom and 
Percilla Keyes, but she did not long sur- 
vive her marriage. She died January i, 
1880, and Captain Wilson entered the 
matrimonial relations for a second time, 
October 13, 1881, Mrs. Elizabeth C. 
Bresee {ncc Nolton) being the other con- 
tracting party. She belongs to one of the 
old families of New York, and is a native 
of Lewis county of that state. Her parents 
were George Berrell and Mary Elizabeth 
(Robbins) Nolton. Her father was born in 
Holland Patent, and in his school days was 
a schoolmate of Grover Cleveland. Her 
mother was a daughter of Royal Robbins, 
who came from Connecticut with his 
parents into New York in the days of 
pioneer hardships. They lived at first in a 
little one-room cabin, and had wolves and 
other wild beasts for unpleasant neighbors. 
Her father died January 16, 1892, but Mrs. 
Nolton still survives and lives at the age of 
sixty-eight in Chicago. They were the 
parents of three children, of whom Mrs. 
Wilson is the oldest. George Robbins, the 
second child, has passed on, leaving a wife 
and one child. The youngest daughter. 



278 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Jennie E. (Mrs. Messerve), lives in Chicago. 
Mrs. Wilson married J. H. Bresee in 1875. 
She bore him two children, a son and a 
daughter. Burrill H. was drowned in the 
Blue river August 13, 1S95. The daughter, 
Elizabeth A. , is still with her mother. Mrs. 
Wilson was born December 17, 1854. Mr. 
Wilson has one child by this second mar- 
riage, Lorena M., born May 7, 1886 

Captain Wilson is a man of strong in- 
dividuality, and an impressive character. 
He made a success in school-teaching, and 
when he left the school-room to enter the 
army his pupils in the Pleasant Hill district 
in Sangamon county, presented him with 
a sword, sash and belt, and these tokens of 
a kindly feeling were accompanied with such 
appreciative sentiments and affectionate ex- 
pressions that the sword rarely left his pres- 
ence. He still holds it among his choicest 
treasures. During his entire term of serv- 
ice he maintained a strong and consistent 
temperance position, which gave him a 
reputation in his regiment as that of a man 
with ideals and practices running very 
closely together. Captain Wilson is a 
prosperous farmer, and owns one hundred 
and sixty acres of land, which he has brought 
under a high state of cultivation. He has 
a comfortable home, and ample farm build- 
ings, with orchard and shade trees. He 
carries on general farming. He is a Re- 
publican in his political affiliations, but has 
little liking for official honors. He has 
been township supervisor, and represented 
this district in the legislature of 1887, but 
several times he has declined to accept 
honors and responsibilities that were forced 
upon him. In earlier life he refused a nom- 
ination to the Illinois legislature. He is a 
man of strong religious convictions, and 
was formerly a member of the Congrega- 
tional church, where he served as deacon, 
but is now a member of the Methodist 
Protestant church at Waco. He is a mem- 
ber of the quarterly conference, and a 



trustee of the local church. He is an hon- 
orable and upright man, and well sustains 
the family traditions. 



UO. ANDERSON, the present broad- 
minded and progressive superintend- 
ent of schools for Seward county, is a young 
man, and is hardly past his thirtieth birth- 
day, but he understands the making of a 
good school, and knows very well the con- 
stituent elements of a successful teacher, 
and the people are satisfied that he is the 
right man in the right place. 

Superintendent Anderson was born in 
Lucas county, Iowa, March 26, 1867. His 
parents were William and Margaret (Evans) 
Anderson, and were both born in Pennsyl- 
vania. The father was engaged in a gen- 
eral mercantile business in the state of his 
origin, but in 1866 found it overcrowded, 
and journeyed into Iowa, seeking a good loca- 
tion. He did not find it to his mind, and 
the next year disposed of his interest there 
and came to this county, and engaged in 
farming, making homestead entry to a farm 
two miles west of the city, and died there 
in 1876. His first residence was a dug-out, 
which gave way in the course of a little 
time to a very fair frame house and at the 
time of his death he had one of the finest 
homes in the county. He was the father of 
three sons and four daughters. All the 
boys are living in this county. 

The future superintendent was educated 
in the sod schools of the pioneer days, and 
it is to be presumed that the rude surround- 
ings did not tend to the deterioration of the 
learning that was there imparted. He was 
a determined student, and from the sod 
school he went to the Seward high school. 
He attended the Campbell University at 
Holton, Kansas, and was a student for two 
years at the Lincoln Normal school, at Lin- 
coln, being graduated from that institution in 
1895. During these years he had done much 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



279 



teaching in this county, and in 1891 he was 
first elected superintendent, and served two 
years. He was again elected in 1897, and 
is now filling that responsible position to the 
very general satisfaction of the public. In 
1895 and 1896 he was principal at Valen- 
tine, Nebraska. During this time he was 
elected vice-president of the Lincoln Nor- 
mal, and filled the chair of science in that 
school until his election to his present posi- 
tion. He has taken an active interest in 
political affairs, and holds strongly by the 
principles and doctrines of the Populist 
party. He is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and of the Tribe of 
Ben Hur. He belongs to the State Educa- 
tional Association, and is a power in the 
Nebraska school world. He was married 
September 7, 1898, to Miss I. McCroy, a 
resident of Kearney, Nebraska. 



COLONEL HENRY W. CHASE.— A 
prominent position among the citizens 
of Polk county, Nebraska, is that held by 
the gentleman whose name heads these 
paragraphs. His standing in the commu- 
nity is important in many respects, includ- 
ing as it does his reputation as a private 
citizen, as well as a public servant. He 
was born in Chautauqua county. New York, 
November 15, 1841, and his father having 
been killed when he was two years of age, 
he was adopted by Isaiah G. and Amanda 
(Hoyt) Chase. They were natives of 
Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respectively, 
and were married in the Empire state. 
After their marriage they took up their resi- 
dence in Chautauqua county. New York, 
where they made their home until 1859, 
when they removed to Illinois, and located 
in McHenry county. Our subject was raised 
by them until he had reached a man's es- 
tate, and was able to care for himself. 

Mr. Chase enlisted August 9, 1862, in 
Company F, Ninety-fifth Illinois Volunteer 



Infantry, as a private. The regiment was 
organized at Rockford, Illinois, and was or- 
dered into Kentucky and Tennessee, where 
at Jackson, in the last mentioned state, they 
joined Grant's army. Our subject partici- 
pated in the following engagements: Talla- 
hatchee river and Grant's campaign in 
Northern Mississippi, the siege of Vicks- 
burg, Grand Gulf, Raymond, Champion 
Hill, both charges on the works at 
the capture of Vicksburg and in the 
one which occurred on May 22d; of a 
whole company who charged the works 
only seven men and the captain returned 
unharmed; Natchez, Red river expedition, 
Fort De Russy, Clouterville. Mansouri, 
Yellow Bayou, Guntown, the campaign 
against Price in Arkansas and Missouri in 
1864; the campaign against Hood in Ten- 
nessee, Battle of Nashville, Tennessee, 
which was fought December 15 and 16, 
1864; Mobile, Alabama, Spanish Fort, 
which was taken April 8, 1865, and Fort 
Blakely. Mr. Chase traveled while in the 
service 9,960 miles, and in the fall of 1863 
he was detailed as a scout under Worden. 
He never was wounded, except an occasional 
chance hit by a spent minnie ball, and never 
fell into the hands of the enemy. He took 
an active part in the affairs of his regiment, 
and was promoted to the rank of corporal 
at Vicksburg for meritorious service. He 
was mustered out of the service at Spring- 
field, Illinois, August 17, 1865, and the 
hard service which Mr. Chase saw during 
the war did not seem to have a bad effect 
on him, as at the time of the charge at 
Vicksburg he only weighed ninety pounds, 
while at the present time he tips the scales 
at one hundred and ninety-seven pounds. 

After the close of hostilities he returned 
to his home, and in the spring of 1866 he 
went to northern Michigan, where he se- 
cured a position on the Northwestern R. R. 
He also worked for a time in the company 
store at Escanaba. He then returned to 



280 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Illinois, and worked on the farm there, and 
on December 21, 1868, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Helen Anna Hill. The 
bride was a native of Mc Henry county, and 
was born July 26, 1849. Her parents, Ben- 
jamin and Eliza (Miller) Hill, were both na- 
tives of New York state who settled in Illi- 
nois, and located in Mc Henry county, 
where they were married about 1844. They 
resided on the same farm until their deaths, 
the mother dying October 21, 1862, and 
the father September i, 1863. Mr. and 
Mrs. Chase decided to go west, and they 
arrived at Omaha, Nebraska, February 9, 
1869. They settled in Sarpy county on a 
rented farm, but later purchased a farm 
which comprised the east half of the south- 
east quarter of section 18, township 13, 
range 1 1, upon which they made their home 
for two years. In 1871 they located per- 
manently in Polk county, Nebraska, on sec- 
tion 24, township 14, range i west. The 
land was all wild and unbroken, and at 
this time there were plenty of coyotes and 
antelopes. They made their home in a sod 
house for five years and then built their 
present residence. Mr. Chase had filed on 
his land in March previous to their arrival 
in the county, had the breaking done, and 
raised a crop on fourteen acres. He has 
one hundred and si.xty acres of homestead 
land, all of which is under cultivation ex- 
cept si.xty-two acres. He has made all the 
improvements himself and now has one of 
the most desirable pieces of property in the 
vicinity. Mrs. Chase has one hundred and 
sixty acres of fine land, all of which is under 
cultivation, and is given over exclusively to 
general farming. 

Mr. and Mrs. Chase are the parents of 
five children of whom we give the following 
record :-Eliza Henrietta, the wife of Lloyd 
Jackson Ellyson, a son of a confederate sol- 
dier, who lives in Oklahoma; they have one 
child, upon whom they have bestowed the 
name of Walter; Emma Louisa, the wife of 



William Clyde Hayhurst, residents of the 
county; Glenn Willard; Helen Anna; and 
Maud Estella. Mrs. Chase is a member of 
McPherson Circle, No. 23, Ladies of the G. 
A. R. She is the past president of the same 
and is the present incumbent in the office of 
treasurer. She is also a member of coun- 
cil of administration of the state, and her 
daughter. Miss Helen A. Chase, is secretary 
of the local circle, while another of her 
children, now Mrs. Hayhurst, also acted in 
the same capacity. Mr. Chase is a mem- 
ber of the R. O. D. Cummings Post, No. 
102, G. A. R. at Shelby, Nebraska, of 
which order he has held all of the offices 
except that of chaplain, and has been a 
faithful worker in the interests of the same. 
He is at present a member of the staff of 
National Commander J. P. S. Gobin, with 
the rank of colonel, to which position he 
was appointed on December 29, 1897. ^^ 
is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
Woodstock Chapter, R. A. M., at Wood- 
stock, Illinois, and Blue Lodge at Shelby, 
Nebraska. He has taken a prominent and 
active part in the political affairs of the 
county, in the support of the doctrines of 
the Republican party, and is also a power 
among the state politicians. He has also 
taken an active interest in the educational 
facilities of the county, and has served as 
school director. He is a man of the very 
best character, thorough and systematic as 
a farmer, pleasant to meet, and is pos- 
sessed of an energetic and comprehensive in- 
tellect. He has an excellent farm, and is 
deservedly held in high esteem by all. 



JOHN EBERLY.— When after years of 
long and earnest labor in some honor- 
able business, a man puts aside all cares 
to spend his remaining years in the enjoy- 
ment of the fruits of his former toil, it is cer- 
tainly a well deserved reward of his indus- 
try. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



281 



"How blest is he who crowns in shades like these 
A youth of labor with an age of ease." 

wrote the poet, and the world everywhere 
recognizes the justice of a season of rest 
following an active period of business life. 
Mr. Eberly is now living retired at his pleas- 
ant home in Octavia, and his history is 
one that shows the accomplishment of well- 
directed labor. 

He was born in Lancaster county, Penn- 
sylvania, December 15, 1822, a son of 
Jacob and Anna (Smith) Eberly. The fam- 
ily was founded in that county more than 
four generations ago. At the age of ten 
years our subject removed with his parents 
to Lebanon county, the same state, and 
there grew to manhood, but in 1843 he re- 
turned to Lancaster county, where he mar- 
ried Miss Cassie Rutt, daughter of Jacob 
Rutt, of that county. They began their 
domestic life in Lebanon county, where 
they continued to reside until 1866, when 
they moved to Whiteside county, Illinois, 
locating three miles from Sterling. To them 
were born five children: Clara, now de- 
ceased; Elmira, Levanus, Freeman, de- 
ceased; and Alice. 

The first Pennsylvania family to settle in 
Butler county, Nebraska, was that of Dr. 
Shirk, and in 1875 John Keller also located 
here. From these gentleman Mr. Eberly 
obtained a favorable account of this region, 
and he and his son Levanus came to Butler 
county on a prospecting tour, afterward 
purchasing land here. Our subject has now 
925 acres of valuable and highly productive 
land, most of which he purchased for $6. 50 
to $10.00 per acre, and it is among the fin- 
est property in the Platte valley. On first 
coming to the county in 1882, he located on 
section 17, Bone Creek township, and to the 
cultivation and improvement of his land de- 
voted his energies for some time, but is now 
living retired in the village of Octavia. His 
son Levanus is one of the prominent farmers 
of the county, and he also has one brother, 



Elias Eberly, and one sister, Mrs. A. 
Burkey, living in Savannah township. 

Mr. Eberly and his family are prominent 
members of the Dunkard church, and he has 
contributed largely of his means to all church 
and benevolent work. His earnest, consist- 
ent Christian life has won for him the re- 
spect of all who know him, As a friend he 
is an ardent and constant one, and a friend- 
ship once formed can only be broken by the 
basest ingratitude or treachery on the part 
of one in whom he has reposed confidence. 



HON. JOHN B. CONAWAY, M. D. 
Among the prominent men now living 
in York, Nebraska, who have won an hon- 
orable name as a citizen of that thriving 
town, none are better deserving of repre- 
sentation in a volume of this nature than 
Hon. John B. Conaway. He is possessed 
of an excellent education, and is a success- 
ful physician and surgeon of thirty years' 
experience. He has also interested himself 
in matters pertaining to the state and has 
attained a conspicuous position among the 
leading Republicans of Nebraska, respected 
alike by every one regardless of party affilia- 
tions. 

Our subject was born on a farm near 
Laceysville, Harrison county, Ohio, Sep- 
tember 17, 1840. His parents, Aaron and 
Dorcas (Busby) Conaway, were both natives 
of Harrison county, Ohio. By occupation 
the father was a farmer and also practiced 
law to some extent, and for fifty-two years 
was a justice of the peace. He died in Har- 
rison county, Ohio, in 1896, at the age of 
nearly ninety years, but the mother is still 
living. They reared a family of fourteen 
children, eight sons and six daughters. 

The early life of Dr. Conaway was passed 
upon the old homestead of his father. His 
preliminary education was obtained in the 
district schools of the neighborhood, which 
in those days consisted of very limited ad- 



282 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



vantages in the way of instruction. As a 
young man, he was a fine specimen of man- 
hood, having a physique which suggested 
the athlete that he was. When the war 
came on the enthusiastic and loyal senti- 
ments of a vigorous youth found full sway 
as a member of Company C, Fifth Inde- 
pendent Battalion, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. 
He veteranized later and helped to recruit 
the Thirteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer 
Cavalry, becoming second and later being 
promoted to first lieutenant of Company 
F, of that regiment. From the date of his 
enlistment until the close of hostilities Dr. 
Conaway was continually in active service 
and distinguished himself for bravery and 
great endurance. His promotions were for 
meritorious services from the battle of the 
Wilderness to Appomattox and Jetersville, 
Virginia, being breveted captain of his com- 
pany when he was mustered out at the close 
of the war, in 1865, at Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia. He served under Gen- 
erals Sheridan, Gregg and Custer, and par- 
ticipated in the battles of the Wilderness, 
Old and New Cold Harbor, Deep Bottom, 
Bowling Green, White House Landing, Yel- 
low Tavern, in the trenches before Peters- 
burg from July I, 1864, to April 27, 1865, 
including the battles of Petersburg or the 
Mine Explosion of July 30, 1864, followed 
by the Welden Railroad, Hatcher's Run, 
Pegram's Farm, South Side Railroad, Fort 
Steadman, Five Forks, Virginia, and all 
battles in which his regiment took part, 
from the last-named engagement up to and 
including those of Farmville, Appomattox 
and Jetersville; was three times wounded, 
first at the Mine Explosion, July 30, 1864, 
and receiving his second wound three days 
later. His third wound was received while 
the enemy was in ambush at Black Bayou, 
Virginia, February 6, 1865. The record 
achieved during the war by Dr. Conaway — 
or Captain Conaway, as for years he was 
popularly known by his comrades and friends 



— is a most creditable one, a courageous and 
honorable career which he can look back- 
ward upon with no small degree of pardon- 
able pride. 

After the Rebellion he returned to his 
home in Ohio, broken down in health and 
a mere shadow of his former self. Hard 
physical labor being out of the question, he 
recognized the necessity of more than a 
district-school education. After recuperat- 
ing and calling into activity all of his un- 
spent vital forces, he took a thorough course 
in Hopedale College, an institution which 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of 
A. M. ten years later. After completing his 
literary studies in 1867 he removed to Iowa, 
where he engaged in school-teaching for 
three terms, in the meantime devoting his 
spare time and vacations to the study of 
medicine. He afterward entered the Ec- 
lectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, and 
graduated from that institution May 22, 
1869. He began the practice of his pro- 
fession at Leesville, Carroll county, Ohio, 
and at the end of one year removed to 
Smithville, Jefferson county, that state. 
At the latter place he conducted a success- 
ful general practice until 1887. He then 
pursued a course of lectures in Rush Medi- 
cal College, Chicago, graduating the same 
year, following which he took general in- 
struction in the practice of surgery in the 
hospital and elsewhere under the special 
direction of Professor Chas. S. Parks, for a 
period of six months. 

In 1888 Dr. Conway came to Nebraska, 
and located at York, .where he at once took 
his proper place in the front ranks of his 
profession. During the years that have in- 
tervened he has firmly established himself 
as a physician and surgeon of ability, and 
as such enjoys an extensive practice. He 
is a member of the York County Medical 
Society and also the State Medical So- 
ciety and is a member of the pension board. 
Socially, he affiliates with the Masonic 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



283 



fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. 

As a citizen Dr. Conaway is highly re- 
spected, and he measures his friends by his 
extensive acquaintanceship. Always a man 
of great activity, he has been a conspicuous 
figure in public as well as in private life. 
While not a politician in the literal and par- 
tisan sense that the term is generally used, 
he has been an ardent and active Republican 
and has been called upon by his fellow citi- 
zens to fill positions of honor and trust. In 
the fall of 1894 he was elected to the lower 
house of the state legislature, where he 
served with credit as chairman of the com- 
mittees of engrossed and enrolled bills and 
the relief committee of the House, besides 
being a member of several other important 
committees. While chairman of the relief 
committee over $880,000 was raised for 
the purchase of provisions, clothing, food, 
etc., which was distributed among the 
people of the state residing in the drouth- 
stricken districts, relieving want, distress, 
and in many instances utter starvation. As 
the resolution for the formation of a relief 
committee was originated and introduced by 
Dr. Conaway, it being one of the first pieces 
of legislation to be considered by the house 
during that session, and as much of the 
successful work of the committee was due 
to the untiring efforts of the Doctor, it is no 
wonder that the record he made shines as a 
particularly bright star in his legislative 
career. In recognition of his labors in this 
respect, a resolution was unanimously 
adopted and made a part of the House rec- 
ord setting forth in words of praise, the ap- 
preciation of the people of the state, to- 
gether with the thanks of the House for 
the able and efficient services rendered by 
Dr. Conaway as chairman of the relief com- 
mittee. It was an unusual occurrence and 
therefore the Doctor appreciates it all the 
more. Following his able career as a rep- 



resentative, in the fall of 1896 he was ten- 
dered the nomination of state senator by 
acclamation by the Republicans of York 
and Fillmore counties, and is still repre- 
senting those counties in the state senate. 
In speaking of him, a writer has said: "He 
enjoys the reputation of being a true and 
honorable Republican, is a popular man 
and is worthy of every compliment paid to 
him. He is now in the prime of life, is a 
gentleman pleasing in appearance, a fluent 
speaker and a ready reasoner. He is a 
man of marked ability and uses that ability 
for one people, one country and one flag. 

Dr. Conaway was married in 1868 to 
Miss Matilda Picken, a resident of Mahaska 
county, Iowa. Two daughters of affection- 
ate dispositions and many accomplishments 
complete a most happy family circle. They 
are Jessie F. and Cora F., both of whom 
are graduates of the York high school, Miss 
Jessie being also a graduate of Brownell 
Hall, Omaha. They are both attending the 
Northwestern University, at Evanston, 
Illinois, and will complete their education 
at that institution in the class of '99. The 
family is domiciled in one of the handsome 
residences for which York is famous and 
the home is the center of true hospitality 
and refinement. The Doctor and his fam- 
ily are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, of York. 



HON. GEORGE W. LOWLEY has for 
many years stood very close to the 
head of the Seward county Bar, if indeed 
there is any to precede him. He came to 
this country at an early day, and knows by 
his experience what pioneering means. He 
has grown up with the country, and relates 
many touching episodes of early days. He 
has loved his profession, and made it the 
source of justice and right among men. 
The law in his hands has been something 
of far greater importance than merely per- 



284 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



sonal profit. He has sought to serve the 
right through its potency, and the people 
have been quick to appreciate the spirit of 
his endeavor. He has been a popular citi- 
zen and an honored and respected member 
of the community. 

Judge Lowley was born in Leeds, Eng- 
land, March 8, 1842, and came of an old 
English family. His father, Stephen Low- 
ley, was a tailor by trade, and came to this 
country in 1S46. He located at Pittsburg, 
and died in 1894, at Tipton, Indiana, full 
of years and honor. His children had such 
opportunities of education as the times pre- 
sented and his own circumstances permitted. 
George was sent to the public schools, and 
profited very well indeed by their instruc- 
tion. When his school days were supposed 
to be completed, he learned the printing 
trade, and applied himself to the reading of 
law. He was engaged in this manner when 
the Civil war broke out. He laid down his 
"composing stick," and went immediately 
to Indianapolis, and enlisted in Company 
F, Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. 
Reserved until the fall of 1862, when he 
was mustered out of the service on account 
of the ill effects of what was supposed to 
be a mortal wound, which he received at 
Fort Donelson. He left the army with 
the rank of corporal, and had he been able 
to continue with the regiment might have 
risen to a more important grade. On return- 
ing to Tipton, Indiana, he began the study 
of law in earnest and was admitted to the 
bar in 1863 in that city, and there he prac- 
ticed law until 1870. In that year he made 
his first appearance in this state, coming to 
Lincoln, and spending nearly a year in that 
city. In 1 87 1 he came to Seward, and 
opened an office for professional business, 
which has never been closed to this day. 
Here he has had a large success and has 
won many friends. 

Mr. Lowley was married in 1866 to Miss 
Maggie W. Long, a native of Indiana. 



They have reared an interesting family of 
seven children: Joseph S., May, Stephen, 
John L. , Millie, Earl S. (now a member of 
the Third United States Volunteer Infantry), 
and George W. His first wife died in 1889, 
and three years later he was married to Miss 
Jennie McMullen. He is a Republican, and 
his ability and public spirit have been recog- 
nized repeatedly by his party. He was 
elected county judge in the fall of 1882, and 
served in that capacity for six years. In 
1892 he was elected to the state senate, and 
at different times has been called to fill mi- 
nor positions. He has been chairman of 
the county committee and has served on the 
state central committee, and in every cam- 
paign his voice has been heard and his influ- 
ence felt on the side of the central princi- 
ples of Republicanism. Personally, he com- 
mands the esteem of the community, and 
enjoys a steady and growing business. 



JACOB WEIS. — Everywhere in our land 
are found men who have worked their 
way upward from humble and lowly begin- 
nings to places of leadership in the business 
world and in public life, men who have 
conquered a seemingly adverse fate, have 
triumphed over obstacles, have overcome 
difficulties, and by force of character, de- 
termined purpose and honor in the affairs of 
life won success and the esteem of their 
fellowmen. Of this class Mr. Weis is a 
worthy example. He is now serving as 
county treasurer of Fillmore county and re- 
sides in Geneva. 

Mr. Weis was born in Luxemberg, Ger- 
many, near the river Rhine, August 11, 
1856, and is a son of Peter and Catharine 
(Smith) Weis, also natives of that place. 
The father was a prosperous and enterpris- 
ing farmer in his native land. In 1867 he 
brought his family to i^merica, locating in 
Lasalle county, Illinois, where he carried 
on agricultural pursuits until March, 1871, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



285 



when he came to Fillmore county, Nebras- 
ka. Here he homesteaded one hundred 
and sixty acres of land in Momence town- 
ship, being among the first settlers. A dug- 
out was made in the side of the hill ard 
there the family lived for two years, when 
a substantial frame house was erected. In 
the meantime our subject and his two 
brothers began working on the railroad, for 
money was scarce and business positions 
were few, while many hardships and 
frontier experiences had to be endured by 
the family. In time, however, Peter Weis 
became a prosperous farmer and made his 
home on his original claim until his death, 
which occurred in the spring of 1892. His 
widow is now living with her daughter in 
Momence township. 

Jacob Weis was about fifteen years of 
age when he came to Fillmore county with 
his parents. He attended school in Ger- 
many in his early youth, and after coming 
to this country went to Port Washington, 
Wisconsin, where he made his home with 
an uncle, while continuing his education 
there. After his arrival in Nebraska he 
worked on the railroad two 3'ears, assisting 
in the construction of the main line of the 
Burlington and Missouri River, also the 
branch from Crete to Beatrice, Nebraska. 
He also spent a year at Plattsmouth, Ne- 
braska, working by the month, and through 
these means he secured enough money to 
start in business on his own account. He 
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in Momence township and began farm- 
ing. After a few years of hard work suc- 
cess crowned his efforts, and he is now the 
owner of a valuable farm of three hundred 
and twenty acres in Momence township un- 
der a high state of cultivation and furnished 
with substantial improvements. He has in 
addition eighty acres of land in Clay county 
and one hundred and sixty acres in the 
northern part of the state. He became one 
of the substantial and influential farmers of 



his township, owing to his progressive meth- 
'ods, practical ideas and vigorous industry 
which enabled him to work steadily onward 
and upward until he has attained a position 
among the well-to-do men of the county. 

Mr. Weis was married March 24, 1880, 
to Miss Clara Sampont, a native of Port 
Washington, Wisconsin, and a daughter of 
Jacob and Anna (Strauss) Sampont, the 
former a native of Germany and the latter 
of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Weis now 
have six children, namely: Anna, Rosa, 
Agnes, Walter and Florence, twins, and 
Reno. In public affairs Mr. Weis exerts 
considerable influence and has been hon- 
ored by a number of township offices. In 
the fall of 1897 he was nominated by the 
Democratic party for county treasurer and 
endorsed by the Populists and won the 
election by a majority of two hundred and 
fifty. He is now serving in that capacity 
in a most trustworthy and creditable way, 
showing that the confidence reposed in him 
was not misplaced. 



HON. MATTHEW HOWELL, whose 
home is on section 13, Hays town- 
ship, York county, is one of the represent- 
ative men of Nebraska. He is one of the 
early settlers of the county, having filed a 
homestead claim in February, 1872, to 
eighty acres in section 24. When he lo- 
cated there were few if any settlers to the 
west of him. He built a dug-out, and in 
three months constructed a log-cabin, 1 1 
X 13, with a dirt roof and floor. He broke 
about thirty-five acres the first season, and 
had fifteen in sod corn. He had a fair yield 
and he had ten acres in wheat on rented 
land, which brought him one hundred and 
ninety bushels. After proving up his claim 
he moved across the road in 1877 to sec- 
tion 13. Here he had bought railroad 
land, and on it he put up a frame house, 
16 X 24, with a T-shaped addition, 12 x 18. 



286 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



It was one of the most pretentious and com- 
modious residences in the township at the 
time, and cost him about twelve hundred 
dollars. Here he has kept his home to the 
present time, and has made many substan- 
tial improvements, including a fine modern 
residence and ample and sufficient farm 
buildings. He has added to his farm until 
he owns seven hundred and twenty-two and 
a half acres in this county. He also owns 
a full section of land in Gosper county. 

Mr. Howell was born in Monmouth- 
shire, England, March i8, 1849. His 
parents were Matthew and Jane (Watkins) 
Howell, who were English born and bred. 
They came to this country in i860, and 
spent about six months in New York City. 
From there they journeyed to Clinton 
county, Ohio, where they engaged in farm- 
ing, which they followed until 1868. In 
that year the family removed to Wapello 
county, Iowa, where they made a home on 
a rented farm and cultivated it for some 
years. He moved to Lucas county, where 
he died in 1870. His widow married again, 
and made her home in Nebraska, and died 
at Fairmont in 1891. The junior Matthew 
was about twelve years old when he reached 
this country under the parental care, and on 
account of poverty his previous educational 
advantages had been quite restricted. He 
worked out for his board, and attended 
school during the winter months. He went 
to Iowa, with his parents when he was of 
age. The two-thirds of ten acres of corn 
was the first money he earned himself, and 
from that time he has been greatly pros- 
pered in all his undertakings. He was mar- 
ried February 17, 1870, to Miss Rebecca 
Wrightesman, of Wapello county, Iowa. 
She is a daughter of David and Mary A. 
(Johnson) Wrightesman, both of whom 
died when she was about eleven years. 
They began life on a rented farm, but after 
dividing the crops even with the landlord 
for two seasons, concluded there was a bet- 



ter opportunity for them farther west. In 
the fulfillment of that judgment they set- 
tled in this county. That this judgment 
was correct in this as well as in many other 
things, is evident from the fact that coming 
to this county as a poor man in a short 
time he has risen to affluence, and is now 
rated among the most prosperous and suc- 
cessful business men of the county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Howell are the proud possessors 
of two children, Annie Z. and Nina L. In 
politics he is a stanch Republican, and was 
elected to the senate in 1882, and was re- 
elected in 1884. During his first term he 
was the father of a bill which afterwards 
became a law, creating the office of county 
superintendent of schools, a proposition 
which had not been regarded with favor in 
previous sessions. During his legislative 
career he was a member of several impor- 
tant committees, and was chairman of the 
committee on public lands and buildings. 



JOSEPH E. MARQUIS, one of the most 
enterprising and progressive agricultur- 
ists of Polk county, his home being on sec- 
tion 10, township 13, range 2, Stromsburg 
precinct, is a native of Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, born November 4, 1835, and 
is a son of William and Mary (Lowery) 
Marquis, also natives of the Keystone state; 
the former of Scotch, and the latter of 
Irish descent. About 1850 they removed to 
Hardin county, Ohio, where the mother 
died, but the father's death occurred in Iowa, 
in 1874. Their children were as follows: 
John and Smiley, both deceased; David, a 
soldier in the Civil war and now a resident 
of Colorado; Elizabeth Tennis, deceased; 
Hiram, also a soldier, now deceased; Jo- 
seph E. ; William, deceased; Robert, de- 
ceased, who was a member of Company H, 
Sixty-sixth Illinois Western Sharpshooters; 
Samuel, also one of the brave boys in blue 
during the war; Mary Jane Hurd. The pa- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



287 



ternal grandfather of our subject, David 
Marquis, was a soldier of both the Revolu- 
tionary war and the war of 1812, and was 
wounded at the battle of Lundy's Lane. 
The family has always been a patriotic and 
loyal one, doing their duty in civil life as 
well as on the field of battle. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
were spent in Pennsylvania and Ohio, mostly 
in agricultural pursuits, but after starting 
out in life at the age of twenty-three, he en- 
gaged in clerking in a store for a time. He 
was married March 20, i8s8, to Miss 
Phoebe Jane Stewart, a native of Highland 
county, Ohio, and a daughter of James 
Stewart, now a resident of Polk county, 
Nebraska. They became the parents of 
five children, three still living: William, 
who married Logarda VanDorn, and 
has one child, William J.; Myrtle, wife 
of Frank Hartman; and Charles E. , who 
married Maude Callmore, and has three 
children, Viola, Joseph and Nona Irene. 
Mrs. Marquis was called to her final rest 
September 4, 1871. 

In 1859 our subject removed to Laporte, 
Macon county, Missouri, where he clerked in 
a store until his removal to Newton, Iowa, in 
1 862, being similarly employed at that place 
for a few years and later at carpenter and 
railroad work. While there he received a 
very severe sunstroke. During his residence 
in Missouri after the war broke out, he often 
found notices lo leave posted on his gate, 
but he took no notice of these, and banded 
with the Union sympathizers, withstood the 
bushwhackers. He assisted in recruiting 
the Eleventh Missouri Home Guards, and 
also acted as a scout during those trying 
days. In the fall of 1872 he came to Polk 
county, Nebraska, where he has since made 
his home, and now owns and successfully 
operates a fine farm of two hundred and 
forty acres, all under cultivation with the 
exception of fifteen acres. He was the first 
man to introduce bee culture into the 



county, and for his first hive, purchased in 
1878, he paid fourteen dollars. At the pres- * 
ent time, in the spring of 1898, he has 
fifteen hives and is meeting with good 
success in this branch of his business. In 
1876 on his farm was made the first test in 
killing young grasshoppers. He is one of 
the most progressive, energetic and reliable 
citizens of his community, takes a deep and 
commendable interest in public affairs, and 
gives his support to every worthy object for 
the public good. As a Populist he takes 
considerable interest in political matters, and 
has acceptably served as a member of the 
school board in his district. 

In 1874, Mr. Marquis was again married, 
his second union being with Mrs. Sarah A. 
(Timmons) Wilson, who was born in Ross 
county, Ohio, in 1845, ^ daughter of 
Thomas and Ann (Minchen) Timmons, the 
former a native of Ohio, the latter of Kings 
county, Ireland. The grandfather, Rev. 
Stephen Timmons, was chosen to select a 
place to locate a colony and from his home 
in Maryland rode on horse-back over Ohio, 
finally deciding on Chillicothe, where the 
colony was founded and where he reared his 
family. Upon a farm near there Mrs. Mar- 
quis grew to womanhood and married John 
Wilson, who was a sergeant of Company C, 
Seventy-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and 
was in the service for three years and nine 
months. In 1868 he emigrated to Otoe 
county, Nebraska, and three years later 
come to Polk county, locating on the south- 
west quarter of section 10, township 13, 
range 2, when it was all wild land and there 
were few other settlers here. He and his 
wife first lived in a dugout and later in a log 
house. He died December 8, 1871, being 
accidentally shot while hunting, and was 
the first person buried in the Osceola ceme- 
tery. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were born 
three children: Allison T. , who married 
Emma Burke; Elba T. , who married Retta 
Collins; and Estella Blanche, who married 



288 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGJIAPHT. 



John Hartman and has one child, Edith 
Lyle. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Marquis are Frank Ray, John Ralph, Shasta 
Ethel, Jessie Edith, Joseph Glenn and 
Harry Stanton. 



ANDREW J. KNEPPER, a progressive 
and public-spirited citizen of Butler 
county, who owns and operates a fine farm 
on section 14, Bone Creek township, was 
born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 
1842, and is a worthy representative of a 
highly respected German family, which was 
founded in this county by a gentleman and 
his four sons. One of the latter was the 
grandfather of our subject. The father, 
Andrew Knepper, was also a native of the 
Keystone state, and in early life married 
Mary Ann Read. 

Our subject is one of the sons born to 
this worthy couple and was reared and ed- 
ucated in his native country, remaining 
there until he had attained his majority. 
He early became familiar with every de- 
partment of farm work. From 1863 until 
1869 he spent his time in Ohio and Indiana, 
and in October of the latter year removed 
to Marion county, Iowa, where he was 
married the following year to Miss Mary E. 
Jackson, who was born in Hardin county, 
Ohio, in 1850, but at the age of eight 
years accompanied her parents, George W. 
and Catherine (Copeland) Jackson, on their 
removal to Indiana. Her paternal grand- 
parents, Edward and Margaret (Philson) 
Jackson, were of Scotch-Irish descent, 
while her maternal grandparents, William 
and Mary (Wells) Copeland, came to this 
country from England, their home having 
been near London. The children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Knepper are Ida B., now the 
wife of J. C. Dundore, of Octavia, Nebraska; 
George A. ; William A. ; Cyrus E. ; Harvey 
R. ; Grover C. ; Ruby R. ; and Kittie May. 

The next spring after his marriage Mr. 



Knepper came to Butler county, arriving in 
March, 1871, and honiesteaded eighty acres. 
He brought with him two hundred dollars, 
one-half of which he paid for a claim of 
eighty acres, and he erected thereon a frame 
house twelve by fourteen feet, in which the 
family lived for the first few years. They 
now have a fine, large residence, which is 
surrounded by good and substantial out- 
buildings and well-tilled fields, showing con- 
clusively that the owner thoroughly under- 
stands his chosen calling, and is meeting 
with a well merited success. 

The Democratic party has always found 
in Mr. Knepper a stanch supporter, and he 
has been honored by his fellow citizens with 
several local offices, being a member of the 
county board for eight years, and also 
school director in his township. Fraternally 
he affiliates with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and religiously he and 
his wife are members of the Baptist church. 
A generous hospitality is shown in their 
comfortable home, and few members of the 
community have a wider circle of friends 
and acquaintances than Mr. and Mrs. Knep- 
per. 



WILLIAM E. DAYTON, editor and 
proprietor of the York Republican, is 
one of the prominent representatives of the 
journalistic profession in this section of the 
state. He was born in Pennsylvania, in 
1856, a son of William Dayton, a farmer of 
the Keytone state, who in 1871 came west 
and settled in York county, Nebraska where 
he still makes his home — an honored and re- 
spected citizen. Reared on a farm in his 
native state our subject obtained his educa- 
tion in the public schools of the neighbor- 
hood, and accompanied his parents on 
their emigration to the west. Subsequent- 
ly he learned the printer's trade in Ashland, 
Nebraska, and then entered the Republican 
office at York, as a journeyman printer. 



COMPENDIU.yr OF BIOGRAPfli: 



289 



He has since continued his connection with 
the paper, in which he purchased an inter- 
erest in 1879, and in 1894 bought out his 
partner, M. C. Frank. The paper was 
founded in 1874 by WiUiam E. Morgan, 
who owned it until 1890, and is now pubHsh- 
ing the Leader of Greely Center, Nebraska. 
It has always been Republican in politics, 
and has been one of the leading journals of 
the state, its circulation being twelve hun- 
dred at the present time. Mr. Dayton has 
charge of the entire editorial and business 
affairs of the paper. In his political pro- 
clivities our subject is a stalwart supporter 
of the Republican party and its principles. 
Enjoying a wide acquaintance and marked 
popularity he is quite prominent in business 
circles. 



CHARLES S. NEWTON, a well-known 
grain buyer of Tamora, and one of the 
prominent early settlers of Seward county, 
was born in Painesville, Lake county, Ohio, 
in August, 1854, and is a son of Nathan B. 
and Margaret (Lynch) Newton, the former 
a native of Long Island, New York, and the 
latter of Ohio. The father was a sailor for 
fifteen years on the Atlantic coast, and had 
command of a vessel for one year. From 
New York he removed to Ohio, and in 1856 
took up his residence in Jo Daviess count}', 
Illinois, where he made his home until his 
removal to Seward county, Nebraska, in 
1872, landing here in May of that year and 
driving through with teams. He settled 
near Pleasant Dale on land he had pur- 
chased the year previous, and this he im- 
proved and converted into a good farm, re- 
siding thereon until called to his final rest 
in 1892. He was married in Ohio to Miss 
Margaret Lynch and to them were born nine 
children, six sons and three daughters, but 
only two sons now live in Seward county. 
The mother departed this life in 1890. The 
parents were both earnest and consistent 



members of the Methodist church and were 
held in high regard by the entire community 
in which they lived. 

In Illinois, Charles S. Newton was reared 
and educated, and there followed farming 
until the emigration of the family to Seward 
county, where he continued to engage in 
agricultural pursuits for some years. In 
1880 he commenced buying grain at Pleas- 
ant Dale, where he remained for two years, 
and subsequently was similarly employed at 
Firth, Nebraska. He then removed to Mil- 
ford, where he engaged in milling for two 
years, and next followed the carpenter's 
trade in the mines of Colorado for some 
time. Returning to Seward county in 1892, 
he entered the employ of the Central Grain- 
age Company, of Omaha, and has since en- 
gaged in buying grain for that firm at Ta- 
mora. 

In 1875 ^^r. Newton was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary Her, a daughter of 
James Her, one of the honored pioneers 
of this state. She was run over by a wagon 
while crossing the plains in i860, and her 
mother, who bore the maiden name of Miss 
Foster, was shot by an Indian, the arrow 
passing clear through her body, from the 
effects of which she died a year later. The 
family were attacked by the red men near 
the present city of York while returning 
from the mines, and the father decided to 
remain in this state. Therefore Mrs. New- 
ton grew to womanhood near the place 
where her mother was shot. By her mar- 
riage to our subject she has become the 
mother of four children, Walter J., Estella 
M., Sylvia S. and Vera, all living. She is a 
faithful member of the Presbyterian church 
and a most estimable lady. 

Socially Mr. Newton is identified with 
the Masonic Fraternity, the Modern Wood- 
men of America, and the Woodmen of the 
World, and politically affiliates with the Re- 
publican party. He has filled the office of 
assessor to the entire satisfaction of all con- 



17 



290 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



cerned, and in all the relations of life has 
been found true and faithful to every trust 
reposed in him. 



ALVIN N. STRICKLAND is one of the 
county officials of Fillmore county, 
now filling the position of clerk. For many 
years he has been connected with the agri- 
cultural interests of the community and his 
fidelity to duty and his integrity and honor 
in every relation of life led to his selection 
for public service. His discharge of the 
duties devolving upon him shows that the 
trust reposed in him was well merited, and 
now receives the commendation of people 
of all parties. 

Mr. Strickland is a native of Illinois, 
his birth having occurred in Mercer county 
on the 19th of September, 1S56, his par- 
ents being Ezra A. and Rosilla (Wing) 
Strickland. They were natives of Maine 
and at an early day in the history of the 
Prairie state emigrated to Illinois, taking 
up their residence in Mercer county, where 
the father secured land and carried on agri- 
cultural pursuits until his death. His widow 
is still living and yet makes her home in 
Mercer county. 

It was in that locality that Alvin N. 
Strickland was reared and educated. Amid 
the fields of grain and in the verdant mead- 
ows he spent much of his youth, assisting 
in the farm work until after harvests were 
gathered, when he entered the school of 
the neighborhood, there to pursue his 
studies until returning spring brought again 
the necessity for farm labor. He con- 
tinued his residence in Illinois until the 
fall of 1882, when he came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, and purchased one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of land on sec- 
tion 18, Belle Prairie township. Most of 
this had been broken, but there were few 
improvements on the place in the way of 
buildings or fences. With characteristic 



energy Mr. Strickland began its further de- 
velopment and soon transformed it into 
rich and fertile fields. He also erected sub- 
stantial buildings, and as his financial re- 
sources increased extended the boundaries 
of his farm by the additional purchase of 
a two-hundred-and-forty-acre tract. He is 
regarded as one of the most prosperous, 
progressive and practical farmers of this 
township, following improved methods in 
the care and cultivation of his land and 
exercising great care and 'judgment in his 
work. 

In 1875 Mr. Strickland was united in 
marriage to Miss Sarah A. Epperly, a 
native of Mercer county, Illinois, and a 
daughter of J. C. and Mary E. (Cash) Ep- 
perly. Their union has been blessed with 
three childreen: Vivan L. , Mary E. and 
Vincent L. , all yet at home with their 
parents, and the family is one of prominence 
and social distinction in the community. 

Mr. Strickland is a valued member of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of 
Strang, and of the Knights of Pythias Fra- 
ternity, and Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows of Geneva. In the fall of 1S97 he was 
nominated for county clerk on the People's 
Independent ticket and was elected by a 
majority of two hundred and five, assuming 
the duties of his office on the 6th of Janu- 
ary, 1898, for a two-years term. He is a 
man of sterling worth, straightforward in 
business, loyal in citizenship, trustworthy 
in friendship, and is well regarded as one of 
the representative men of Fillmore county. 



M 



ILTON SOVEREIGN. As an enter- 
prising and wide-awake business man 
of York, and one who, through his own 
efforts, has established himself among the 
prominent and substantial men of the city, 
we take pleasure in giving a brief biography 
of the gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this sketch. For four terms of two 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



291 



years each he was the efficient and popular 
county clerk, and is now one of the leading 
real estate dealers of York. 

Mr. Sovereign was born in Warren coun- 
ty, Illinois, July lo, 1842, and is a son of 
Solomon and Mary J. (Smith) Sovereign, 
the former a native of New jersey, the lat- 
ter of Canada. As early as 1836 the father 
emigrated to Illinois, becoming one of the 
pioneer settlers of Warren county, where 
he engaged in farming for many years. 
Finally he removed to California, where he 
passed away in 1896, at the age of ninety- 
si.x years. 

After attending the public schools of his 
native state for some time, Milton Sover- 
eign entered the Northwestern University 
at Evanston, Illinois, where he was pursuing 
his education when the war came on. In 
1 86 1 he joined the boys in blue as a mem- 
ber of Company A, Thirty-ninth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and was in active serv- 
ice for three years, participating in the bat- 
tle of Winchester, Virginia, the second 
battle of Charleston, South Carolina, the 
engagement at Fort Darling, the siege of 
Petersburg and many skirmishes. For two 
years after his discharge from the service, 
he engaged in farming in Illinois, then re- 
moved to Polk county, Iowa, where the fol- 
lowing three years were passed, and in 1871 
came to York county, Nebraska, taking up 
land in Thayer township, where he resided 
for four years. He continued to engage in 
agricultural pursuits in York county until 
1 88 1, when he was elected county clerk and 
removed to the city of York to assume the 
duties of that office, which he discharged 
with the utmost fidelity and promptness. 
So satisfactory did his services prove that 
he was three times re-elected, serving in all 
four terms. He is now conducting a large 
real estate and loan business, and is re- 
garded as one of the most valued and useful 
citizens of York, taking an active and com- 
mendable interest in all public affairs calcu- 



lated to prove of general good to the com- 
munity. He has served both as a member 
of the board of education and city council 
for two years, being the present incumbent 
in that latter office. Socially he is identi- 
fied with the Grand Army of the Republic 
and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
October 10, 1866, Mr. Sovereign was 
united in marriage with Miss Nancy M. 
Smiley, a resident of Illinois, and they have 
become the parents of six children, four 
sons and two daughters. 



HON. WILLIAM McFADDEN, the well- 
known merchant and postmaster of 
McCool Junction, Nebraska, is not yet an 
old man, but a vast amount of experience 
and observation has been crowded into the 
half-century that has been allotted to him. 
He is a business man of unquestioned hon- 
esty and integrity, and possesses traits of 
character that have lifted him into a well 
deserved prominence. 

Mr. McFadden was born in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1843, 
and is a child of Charles and Eliza (Long) 
McFadden. His father was a mechanic 
and a gunsmith. He died in Pennsylvania 
in 1850, but his wife, the mother of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, died in Livingston 
county, Illinois, in the spring of 1895, at the 
home of her son. She was the mother of 
eleven children, William being the ninth in 
order of birth. He enlisted in July, 1861, 
in Company C, Forty-fourth Illinois V'olun- 
teer Infantry. He was mustered in at 
Winona, and sent to Camp Douglass for 
drilling. He first saw active service in Mis- 
souri, and took part in the battle of Pea 
Ridge, Missouri. He was in that state 
about ten months and passed the winter in 
Rolla. He was with the soldiers that were 
concentrated at Louisville to oppose an ex- 
pected advance of the rebels. He spent 
some months about Nashville and was in 



292 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



that neighborhood until the spring of 1863. 
He took part in the celebrated campaign 
around Atlanta. He participated in the 
battles of Stone River, Buzzard's Roost, 
Cumberland Gap, Peach Tree Creek, Chick- 
amauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge 
and Lookout Mountain, Jonesborough and 
the capture of Atlanta. He was discharged 
September i, 1864, having served three 
years and three months. He was taken 
prisoner at Stone River, but through good 
luck was very soon recaptured. He had four 
brothers in the war. John was in the Fif- 
teenth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Fernan- 
do was in the One Hundred and Fourth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and George and 
Joseph in the Twentieth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry. Joseph was wounded during his 
three-months' service at the battle of Shiloh, 
and received his discharge. The other three 
brothers completed their term of enlist- 
ment. 

After the war was over William returned 
home and farmed until the winter of 1869, 
when he came to this county and secured a 
quarter section of land which eventually be- 
came his under the homestead claim allowed 
old soldiers. He built a log cabin and then 
went back to his Illinois home, and drove to 
this county across the intervening .country 
the following spring. Here he continued to 
live, and as the years went by he developed 
a fine farm. He bought more land in time 
and now owns a highly improved farm of 
three hundred and twenty acres. As he was 
among the first settlers in the township and 
county he was closely identified with the 
various organizations that have promoted 
business and settlement. The township in 
which he lives bears his name. He has 
taken an active part in politics as a Repub- 
lican worker. In the fall of 1894 he served 
one term in the state legislature. He was 
the father of several bills that excited con- 
siderable discussion, and was a member of 
the committees on school and finance. In 



June, 1896, he moved to McCool Junction, 
and engaged in mercantile enterprises. He 
runs a department store, and enjoys an ex- 
tended patronage. The same spring he re- 
ceived the appointment of postmaster. He 
is a member of the Modern Woodmen. He 
was married May 27, 1871, to Miss Mary J. 
Custer, a native of Fountain county, In- 
diana.and a daughter of Isaac and Rhoda J. 
Custer, Kentucky born and bred. Her father 
died in Indiana, and her mother in this 
county. Mr. and Mrs. McFadden are the 
parents of five children: Arthur R., George 
W. , Anna E. , Aletha and Chester. She is 
a member of the Baptist church. 

Fernando McFadden was one of the first 
settlers .of York county, filing a homestead 
claim to the southwest quarter of section 8, 
township 9, range 2, in the spring of 1866. 
He spent some twenty-five years in its occu- 
pancy and tillage, when he sold it and moved 
to Wyoming, where he is now living. He 
was well known as a very successful farmer 
in this county. He was married in Illinois 
to Miss Eliza Stanton, who died about three 
years after their coming to this county. He 
was later married to Miss Hattie Romine, 
and so them six children were born; Ray- 
mond, Walter, Elizabeth, Charles, Henry 
and James. 



CLARENCE C. CALHOUN, an ener- 
getic and wide-awake farmer residing 
on section 21, township 13, range 3, Polk 
county, is a native of St. Joseph county, 
Michigan, born March 18, 1852, and is a 
son of Alvin and Lois J. (Bean) Calhoun. 
The birth of his father occurred in Pittsford, 
Monroe county. New York, September 17,. 
1802, but in 1806 he was taken by his 
father to Monroe, Michigan. At the sur- 
render of Hull, the grandfather, with his 
family, was compelled to flee from his home 
to avoid the Indians, and bareheaded 
and without shoes, made his way to 



COMPENDIU.^r OF BIOGRAPHT. 



293 



Ohio, where they lived for five years, 
and then returned to Monroe. In 1829 our 
subject's father went to St. Joseph county, 
Michigan, and in the midst of the timber 
developed and improved a good farm. He 
served as captain of a company during one 
of the Indian wars, and was a consistent 
member of the Methodist church, to which 
the mother also belongs. He was twice 
married, his first wife being Eliza L. Hunt, 
by whom he had three children, Mrs. Cyn- 
thia Milligan, now a resident of Ord, 
Nebraska; Mrs. Eliza Gray, of Kansas; and 
Charles W., of Oklahoma. One son, Mar- 
tin L. , entered the service of his country in 
the Civil war as private, and was mustered 
out with the rank of captain. For his 
second wife Alvin Calhoun married Lois J. 
Bean, who was born in Chesterfield, Kenne- 
bec county, Maine, March 24, 1820, and 
eight children graced this union, all of 
whom reached years of maturity. They 
are Marcellus P., a resident of Ord, Ne- 
braska; Artellus P., of Polk county; Emma 
I., of Broken Bow, Nebraska; C. C, of 
this sketch; Bingham S., of York county, 
Nebraska; Loea V., of Creston, Iowa; and 
Lawrence and Florence, both of St. Joe 
county, Michigan. The father died January 
25, 1888, but the mother is still living and 
yet makes her home in St. Joseph county, 
Michigan. 

In the county of his nativity, the subject 
of this sketch grew to manhood and ac- 
quired his education in the district schools 
there. At the age of twenty-four he began 
life for himself, and in 1877 went to the 
Black Hills, Dakota, but the following 
sprmg went to Polk county, Nebraska, and 
located upon his present farm, which at 
that time was all raw land. In 1879 he 
constructed a sod house upon the place and 
at once began the improvement and culti- 
vation of his land, but subsequently he 
rented the place for a few years. He is 
now successfully operating it, however, and 



the one-hundred-and-si.\ty-acre tract is un- 
der a high state of cultivation and well im- 
proved with good buildings, which stand as 
monuments to his thrift and enterprise. He 
raises both stock and grain of good grades 
and is meeting with good success at his 
chosen calling. 

On the 27th of February, 1884, Mr. 
Calhoun was united in marriage with Miss 
Tillie Hahn, who was born in Lawrence 
county, Pennsylvania, September 22, 1862, 
and in 1S73 came with her parents, Ezeriah 
and Lorena (Ripple) Hahn, to Pleasant 
Home precinct, Polk county, Nebraska, 
where they still reside. Here Mrs. Calhoun 
was educated in the district schools, and 
by her marriage she has become the mother 
of two children: Glenn F. and Clarence 
L. She is an active and prominent mem- 
ber of the United Brethren church and Sun- 
day school, and has served as secretary of 
the latter. Socially Mr. Calhoun is a 
member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen at Stomsburg, and politically 
was formerly a Republican, but is now an 
ardent Populist. He takes quite an active 
and leading part in local political affairs, has 
been a member of the election board, and 
also a committeeman. 



NELSON M. FERGUSON.— Prominent 
among the pioneers of York county, 
Nebraska, is the gentleman whose name in- 
troduces this article. As a public-spirited 
and enterprising citizen he has borne an im- 
portant part in the development and pros- 
perity of this region, never withholding his 
aid from any object which he believed would 
prove of public benefit. He has filled with 
distinction a number of official positions of 
honor and trust in the county. 

A native of the Empire state, Mr. Fer- 
guson's birth occurred in Rochester, New 
York, March 18, 1840, his parents being 
John M. and Elvira (Crandall) Ferguson. 



294 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



The father, who was a butcher by trade, 
continued to follow that occupation in New 
York until 1857, when he removed to Steph- 
enson county, Illinois, but was not long per- 
mitted to enjoy his new home, however, for 
he died in February, 1857. 

The education of our subject was all ac- 
quired in the schools of New York, for after 
coming west with his parents he assisted 
his father in business and also engaged in 
farming in Illinois. He was among the first 
to respond to his country's call for aid after 
Fort Sumter had been fired upon, enlisting 
in April, 1861, in Company G, Fifteenth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and being mus- 
tered in the following month. The regiment, 
which was assigned to the Army of the West, 
went to the front in August, of the same 
year, but after serving for a short time Mr. 
Ferguson received a sunstroke, and was 
honorably discharged for disability in Janu- 
ary, 1862. In 1864, he again enlisted, 
however, this time becoming a member of 
Company E, One Hundred and Forty-sev- 
enth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which 
he served until February, 1866. From the 
time of the close of the war until he was 
mustered out he was on detached service 
and assisted in the reconstruction of the 
south, being on duty in Americus and Sa- 
vannah, Georgia. 

Returning to his Illinois home, Mr. Fer- 
guson was married February 22, 1866, to 
Miss Elizabeth French, a native of that 
state, by whom he has two children: Herb- 
ert I. and Winifred E. After his marriage 
he engaged in farming in Illinois until 1871, 
when he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and took up a homestead in Bradshaw 
township, which he owned and operated for 
many years. He erected one of the first 
frame houses in the county and took a very 
active part in the early development and 
progress of this section of the state. 

In 1882 Mr. Ferguson abandoned farm- 
ing and moved to the village of Bradshaw, 



where he served as postmaster until 1885. In 
that year he was honored by the election to 
the office of county treasurer, which he 
creditably filled for four years, and he has 
also served as justice of the peace and in 
other minor offices. He is one of the 
leaders of the Republican party in York 
county, and is a prominent member of the 
Masonic lodge and the Grand Army post, 
of York, having served as commander and 
quartermaster in the latter. He is now in- 
terested in the abstract, loan and insurance 
business and in this undertaking is meet- 
ing with a well merited success. His pub- 
lic and private life are above reproach, for 
his career has ever been one characterized 
by the utmost fidelity to duty. The part 
which he has taken in the development of 
the county has impressed his name indelibly 
upon its records and he well deserves men- 
tion among the honored pioneers. 



GAYETTE HOOKSTRA, a properous 
farmer of Bone Creek township, But- 
ler county, and a representative citizen, 
respected alike for his industry and integrity, 
may be properly placed inthe list of self-made 
men who have done so much toward devel- 
oping the resources of this section of the 
state. He was born March 20, 1830, near 
Lewayden, Holland, in which country his 
parents, Henry and Catherine (Lerwerda) 
Hookstra, spent their entire lives. 

Hearing a favorable account of this 
western country where land could be ob- 
tained free, our subject and his brother Ten- 
nis decided to emigrate, and in 1855 sailed 
for the new world. Mr. Hookstra first set- 
tied in Marion county, Iowa, where he en- 
gaged in farming, having previously fol- 
lowed that occupation in his native land. 
There he was married, in October, 1856, to 
Miss Margaret Vierson, also a native of 
Holland, and a daughter of Peter O. Vier- 
son. The children born of this union are as 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



295 



follows: Peter, who married America Wash- 
ington Farrell, daughter of Charles W. and 
Eliza A. Farrell, and has five children — 
Jessie E., George A., Charles G. , Floyd 
E. and Opal P. ; Henry, who married An- 
nie Wallace and has two children — Merle 
and Roscoe; Annie, wife of W. A. Hutch- 
inson; John, who married Sarah Bowden; 
Fred; and Alfred, who married Mabel 
Loomis and has one daughter — Margueriet. 
Mrs. Hookstra died in Butler county, May 
i6, 1895, and was laid to rest in the Edholm 
cemetery. 

It was in the fall of 1866 that Mr. Hook- 
stra became a resident of Butler county, 
and secured a homestead of one hundred 
and sixty acres in Bone Creek township, on 
which he still makes his home. He came 
overland in a wagon drawn by two horses, 
bringing one cow with him, and upon his 
claim he constructed a shanty of poles and 
dirt. During the year 1869 he engaged in 
freighting from Nebraska City to Kearney, 
buying corn in the former place for one dol- 
lar per bushel and selling it in the latter for 
three dollars. He took an active part in 
the early development of this region, and 
voted at the first election held in Butler 
county, it being conducted in the Hartford 
school house. Mr. Hookstra is a Demo- 
crat in politics and an earnest and strong 
advocate of the principles of that party. 
Religiously he is a sincere member of the 
Christian Church, and lives in harmony 
with its teachings. 



TENNIS HOOKSTRA, an old settler of 
Butler county, was born in Friesland, 
Holland, November 13, 1822. In 1850, Mr. 
Hookstra with his wife and brother came to 
America, and settled in Pella, Iowa, where 
his wife died. After her death, Mr. Hook- 
stra sent back to Friesland for an old 
sweetheart, Allie Van Dyke, and married 
her in Pella, June 28, 1856. By her he 



had three children, Henry, John and Kate, 
ail of whom are married and now living in 
Butler county. 

In 1862 Mr. Hookstra enlisted in Com- 
pany H, Fortieth Iowa Volunteers, and 
served three years, leaving behind his 
wife and three children. In 1865 he 
returned from the war and went to Ne- 
braska, to the Platte Valley, where he pur- 
chased one hundred and ten acres of 
land from Obel Fearson. He established 
his family in a log house which he found 
standing on the bank of the river, and oper- 
ated a ferry across the river. This was 
known as the "Shinn Ferry" and he con- 
tinued running it for two seasons. His first 
crop on the new land brought fifty bushels 
of corn to the acre, and this he sold in 
Columbus for one dollar per bushel. His 
resources, after paying for the land, before 
this crop, consisted of one team of horses, 
a wagon, and ten dollars in money. 

Mr. Hookstra is a member of the 
Savannah M. E. church, of which he was 
one of the founders, and of which he has 
been a constant supporter. 



JOHN ROBERTS, deceased, was num- 
bered among the honored pioneers of 
Nebraska, who located in Seward county 
when this locality was a wild and unim- 
proved region. In the work of develop- 
ment he took an active and prominent part 
and aided in opening up the country to 
civilization. As the years passed by he 
faithfully performed his duties of citizen- 
ship and his interest in the welfare and 
progress of the community never abated. 
Becoming widely and favorably known he 
made many friends, and his death was a 
loss to the entire community. 

Mr. Roberts was born in Henry county, 
Kentucky, November 29, 181 3, a son of 
John and Catherine (Lovinggood) Roberts, 
farming people, who were natives of Vir- 



296 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7'. 



ginia and of German descent. Our subject's 
grandmother bore the maiden name of Ann 
Plank. The family were among the first 
settlers of Kentucky, and there the parents 
of our subject continued to make their home 
until 1835, when they removed to Fulton 
county, Illinois, where the father died at 
the age of eighty-one years, the mother at 
the age of seventy-two, honored and respect- 
ed by all who knew them. In their family 
were nine children, four sons and five 
daughters. 

In his native state John Roberts spent 
his boyhood and youth, acquiring his liter- 
ary education in its common schools. In 
1835 he accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Fulton county, 111., where he 
engaged in farming for some years, but in 
1866 he came to Seward county, Nebraska, 
aud took up a homestead, a part of which 
is now within the corporate limits of the 
city of Seward. He assisted in the erection 
of the first building in that place, and also 
platted and sold what is now known as 
Roberts' addition to Seward. He took a 
leading and active part in its upbuilding and 
prosperity, and owned many of its best 
business blocks. He was also one of the 
promoters of the Oatmeal Mills, the Ger- 
man Lutheran College and many other en- 
terprises which tended to advance the in- 
terests of the city. 

In 1836 Mr. Roberts was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Susan Hall, a native of 
Franklin county, Illinois, and a daughter of 
John and Prudence (McFarland) Hall, who 
were born in Georgia and also died in Illi- 
nois. Ten children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Roberts, namely: Lucy J. ; John N. ; 
Mary, deceased; Susan; Jasper, deceased; 
Prudence; James F. ; Marion F. ; Laura I. 
and Douglas H. 

Mr. Roberts departed this life Decem- 
ber 2, 1897, and in his death the commu- 
nity felt that it had lost one of its most val- 
ued and useful citizens. Politically he was 



a supporter of the Democratic party, and 
he was honored with a number of local 
offices in his city. As a business man he 
was honorable and reliable, and due success 
was not denied him. Religiously he was 
for many years an active and prominent 
member of the Hardshell Baptist church, 
in which he served as an exhorter both in 
Illinois and Nebraska, and in 1843 he was 
ordained to the ministry, after which he en- 
gaged in preaching to some extent, and was 
always an untiring worker in the Master's 
vineyard. He succeeded in accumulating a 
handsome property, and left to his family 
about six hundred acres of farm land besides 
city propert}'. The family is one of promin- 
nence, occupying an enviable position in 
social circles. 

HON. MATT MILLER, an attorney and 
old settler of David City, Nebraska, is 
a Scotchman by birth, and first saw the 
light of day in Glasgow, Scotland, February 
9, 1850. His father was a shoemaker by 
trade and at the time of the boy's birth was 
in the wholesale shoe business. He came 
to America with his wife and children when 
the boy Matt was a baby and settled in Por- 
tage City, Columbia county, Wisconsin, 
where he opened a retail shoe store; he soon 
died, however, and the son was placed in 
the hands of a guardian and taken to Cale- 
donia, where he remained for some time. 
He attended the schools there until he was 
thirteen years old, when he enlisted in Com- 
pany F, Forty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteers, 
as a drummer boy and served as a private 
until the close of the war. During this 
time he spent about ten months in New 
Mexico and Colorado in the same company 
and regiment, serving nearly three years. 
He was the youngest soldier in the regiment 
and is supposed to have been the youngest 
in the entire army. During most of that 
time he carried a musket, but was orderly 
for a while, being mustered out as such. 




HON. MATT MILLER. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



299 



After receiving his discharge from the 
army he returned to Portage City and at- 
tended the high school in that place, from 
which he graduated July i8, 1867. After 
leaving school he taught school in Columbia 
county, Wisconsin, until 1870, after which 
he removed to Butler county, Nebraska, and 
engaged in farming. He continued this un- 
til 1878. 

In 1873 he married Miss Sarah C. 
Whipes, a native of Perry county, Ohio, 
where she was brought up, and they had 
one daughter, Maggie M. 

In 1878 he commenced the study of law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1880, at 
which time he went to David City and began 
to practice. In 1884 he was elected to the 
legislature by the Democratic party and 
served his people so well that he was re- 
elected in 1887. 

In 1891 he was appointed district judge 
by Governor Boyd and held this position 
until the next general election. He was 
nominated by the Bar for judge but was 
beaten by the Populists. Since that time 
he has been engaged in the general practice 
of law. Judge Miller is a thoroughly wide- 
awake man and takes an active interest in 
all matters pertaining to his city and coun- 
ty. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. , 
A. O. U. W., and the Woodmen of the 
World. On another page is presented a 
portrait of Judge Miller. 



COL. NELS P. LUNDEEN, who has 
attained distinctive preferment in mil- 
itary circles, and is one of the enterprising 
and representative business men of York, 
has taken an actice part in promoting the 
substantial improvement and material de- 
velopment of the city. An adopted son of 
America, his loyalty is above question and 
his labors in the interests of the city have 
been most effective and beneficial. 

The Colonel was born in the province 



of Skone, Sweden, April 22, 1850, a son of 
Peter and Martha (Benson) Lundeen, farm- 
ing people of that country, where they still 
reside, the father being eighty-one, the 
mother seventy-eight years of age. During 
his boyhood and youth Colonel Lundeen 
pursued his education the in schools of his 
native land, where he remained until he 
attained his majority, coming to the United 
States in 1870. He first located in Gales- 
burg, lUinois, but the following spring went 
to Burlington, Iowa, where he made his 
home until 1878. 

In that year he came to York county, 
Nebraska, as land agent for the Chicago, 
Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and it has 
been mainly through his efforts that the 
county has gained its large Swedish popula- 
tion. A thrifty, industrious and reliable 
race, they make valuable citizens. During 
his entire residence in the new world Colo- 
nel Lundeen has been interested in the 
real estate business, and is now, a member 
of the well-known firm of Daggy & Lun- 
deen, of York, and has sold nearly all the 
lots sold in that city platted by the Platte 
Land Company, which he still represents. 
In connection with this business he has also 
been interested in general merchandising 
and the manufacture of brick, and is ac- 
counted one of the. most progressive, relia- 
ble and enterprising business men of the 
place. 

Colonel Lundeen has been twice married, 
first in 1874, to Miss Anna Broman, by 
whom he had five children. In 1888 he was 
united in marriage with Miss Ellis Nelson, of 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, also a native 
of Sweden, and to them have been born five 
children. 

Colonel Lundeen has always taken an 
active interest in military affairs, assisted in 
organizing the first company of militia in 
York, and is now on the governor's staff as 
inspector-general with the rank of colonel. 
His company was called out for service dur- 



300 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ing the riots at Omaha, and was ordered to 
the Pine Ridge agency during the Indian 
troubles in 1890. His fellow citizens recog- 
nizing his worth and ability have called 
upon him to fill a number of official positions 
of honor and trust, including that of alder- 
man of the city, to which office he was twice 
elected. In 1SS9 he was also elected county 
treasurer, the duties of which he most faith- 
fully and satisfactorily discharged for two 
years. He is a prominent member of the 
Odd Fellows society, is lieutenant-colonel 
of the Patriarch Militant, and also belongs 
to the Knights of Pythias, the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and the Business 
Men's Fraternity of Nebraska, serving as 
secretary of the last named organization. 
His life record is one well worthy of emula- 
tion and contains many valuable lessons of 
incentive, showing the possibilities that are 
open to young men who wish to improve 
every opportunity for advancement. 



JOHN A. TARBLE, a retired farmer now 
living in Shelby, is one of the prominent 
and representative citizens as well as hon- 
ored pioneers of Polk county. Through his 
own unaided efforts he has secured a com- 
fortable competence, which now enables 
him to lay aside all business cares and enjoy 
a well earned rest. He was born July 30, 
1828, in the town of Marathon, Cortland 
county. New York, where his parents, James 
G. and Maria (Hartson) Tarble, made their 
home for many years, dying in that county. 
The mother was a native of Connecticut, 
and the father, who was a son of Eleaser 
Tarble, was a farmer and river pilot by oc- 
cupation. In their family were eight chil- 
dren: Mrs. Almira Vanderbilt, now deceased; 
Mrs. Lydia Taylor; William, deceased; 
John A., of this review; and Andrew; Mrs. 
Sallie Ann Robinson; Mrs. Caroline Seeley, 
deceased, and Maria McDole. 

To a limited extent John A. Tarble at- 



tended the common schools of Cortland 
county. New York, but he had very lit- 
tle opportunity of securing an education. 
After starting out in life for himself, he 
rented the old homestead and, in connection 
with farming, also engaged in teaming, haul- 
ing the last ties for the completion of the 
Syracuse & Bmghampton railroad. In 1854 
he emigrated to Knox county, Illinois, where 
he purchased eighty acres of raw prairie land 
for twenty dollars per acre, and to its im- 
provement and cultivation devoted his time 
and attention until after the Civil war broke 
out, when his love of country would not 
allow him to remain contentedly at home, 

In August, 1862, Mr. Tarble enlisted as 
a private in Company G, One Hundred and 
Twelfth Illinois \'olunteer Infantry, and 
from Peoria, Illinois, went to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and later to Covington, Kentucky. 
He took part in the engagements of Resaca 
and Pumpkin Vine, the siege of Atlanta and 
the operations against Hood. At the bat- 
tle of Franklin he captured a prisoner 
named McMillan, belonging to the Fourth 
Missouri Regiment. Mr. Tarble took part 
in the battle of Nashville, being in the 
skirmish line, was later sent to Columbia, 
Tennessee, then back to Nashville, where 
he remained until the close of the war. He 
had been detached from his regiment to 
serve as a nurse in the hospitals, and as 
such had to go to Washington, District of 
Columbia, but was later transferred to 
Springfield, Illinois. Although he saw three 
years of arduous service, he was fortunately 
never wounded nor captured, and when the 
war was over was honorably discharged in 
July, 1S65, returning to his home in Knox 
county, Illinois. 

Mr. Tarble was married February 13, 
1866, to Mrs. Matilda Tarble, ncc Caul, who 
was born in Winsted, Connecticut, February 
23, 1824, and for her first husband married 
Ferdinand Tarble, a cousin of our subject. 
Coming to Polk county, Nebraska, in 1872, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



301 



Mr. Tarble pre-empted land on section 4, 
township 14, range i, and erected a sod 
shanty, which not only afforded accommo- 
dations for himself but also for four horses, 
while his furniture consisted principally of a 
bed and a stove. Here he spent the time 
during the terrible storm of April, 1872, at 
which time there were only two other set- 
tlers in the township. When his wife ar- 
rived in 1873, he discarded the sod house 
and built a little frame dwelling, 22 x 14, 
which became known as the "big white 
house on the hill," it being the only frame 
house for many miles. The first season 
Mr. Tarble raised a crop of sod corn, but he 
continued the improvement and cultivation 
of his land until he had one of the best 
farms in the locality. Forty acres were set 
out in trees, and an elegant residence 
erected at a cost of three thousand, six 
hundred dollars, while many other im- 
provements were made upon the place, 
adding greatly to its value and attractive ap- 
pearance. At one time he owned one 
thousand acres of land, but has since dis- 
posed of much of his property, still owning 
a little over two sections. He has laid out 
an addition to Shelby, on College street, 
and in that place built his present comfort- 
able home in 1894, at a cost of one thou- 
sand five hundred dollars. Throughout his 
active business career he engaged exclusively 
in farming, and in his undertakings met 
with marked success. 

Mrs. Tarble, who was an invalid for 
many years, departed this life June 28, 
1896, and was laid to rest in Shelby ceme- 
tery. She was a consistent member of the 
United Brethren church, and a most esti- 
mable lady. Having no children of their 
own, Mr. and Mrs. Tarble reared Ettie 
Holbrook, who married George Hubbell and 
died leaving eight children. 

In December, 1876, they were joined in 
their little pioneer home by Henr.y Vander- 
bilt and wife, Laura Martin, who emigrated 



from their native state — Indiana — to Ne- 
braska in 1875, locating at Juniata, Adams 
county, whence they came to the home of 
our subject in December, the following 
year, in an open lumber wagon. Mrs. 
Vanderbilt had traded hershoes for meat, and 
and came all the way barefoot. On their arri- 
val Mr. Tarble went to Columbus, where he 
bought her a new pair of shoes, and also 
some .cotton flannel for herself and three 
little girls. Since his wife's death he has 
lived with Mrs. Vanderbilt, who now has 
two married daughters, Mrs. Emma Hilliard 
and Mrs. Mattie Brigham. One of Mr. 
Tarble's most cherished possessions was a 
little dog — Minnie — who died at the ven- 
erable old age of twenty years. In his po- 
litical affiliations he is a staunch Repulican, 
and he is an honored and prominent mem- 
ber of the Grand Army Post at Shelby, in 
which he has served as quartermaster for 
many years. He has also served as treas- 
urer of the stock company to build the 
G. A. R. hall, and as treasurer of the 
United Brethren church. When the Sons 
of Veterans organized their camp at Shelby, 
March 28, 1898, they named it John A. 
Tarble Camp, No. 4, Sons of Veterans, in 
honor of our subject, who has presented 
them with a beautiful flag. 

He has since sold the section where his 
old homestead was for $22,000. 



THOMAS C. PRATHER.— The common 
place duties of daily life, trivial though 
they may seem to the casual observer, de- 
mand for their proper fulfillment the same 
admirable qualities of character which in a 
higher degree and under other circumstan- 
ces attract universal notice and approba- 
tion. However it may seem to the superfi- 
cial mind, our rural communities furnish an 
excellent field for the development of the 
traits which go to the making of good citi- 
zens and one purpose of this work is the 



302 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



preservation of records which show the in- 
nate worth and dignity of such a life. 
Reared on a farm, Mr. Prather has always 
followed agricultural pursuits, and is now 
one of the most prominent and influential 
citizens of New York township, York coun- 
ty, Nebraska. 

He was born September 12, 1S45, 'n 
Clark county, Indiana, a son of William 
S. and Sarah (James) Prather, who were 
born, reared and married in North Carolina, 
where the father engaged in farming until 
1826. He was then twenty-three years of 
age, and with his family removed to Clark 
county, Indiana, where he followed both 
general farming and dairying. With the 
tide of emigration which was steadily moving 
westward, he went to Adams county, Illinois, 
in 1852, and made his home there until his 
death, which occurred in 1872. Our subject 
is the youngest and the only one now living 
of his family of five children, two sons and 
three daughters. The other son enlisted in 
the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry 
during the Civil war, and died from disease 
contracted in the service. 

During his boyhood and youth, Thomas 
C. Prather pursued his studies in the com- 
mon schools of Illinois, but laid aside his 
text books at an early age to take up the 
more practical duties of business life, work- 
ing as a farm hand until nineteen years of 
age. Coming to York county, Nebraska, in 
1879, he purchased a tract of land on sec- 
tion 12, New York township, which he still 
owns. He is successfully engaged in gen- 
eral farming and stockraising, feeding about 
five car loads of stock annually. 

In 1865, in Adams county, Illinois, Mr. 
Prather led to the marriage altar Miss Sophia 
J. Bennett, a sister of John Bennett, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work. They 
now have a family of si.\ children: Olive, 
wife of James Kibby; Sallie; Alice; Lizzie; 
William E. and Austin J. Mr. Prather and 
his family hold membership in the Method- 



ist Episcopal church and have a host of 
warm friends throughout the county. Since 
attaining his majority he has affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity, and has been a 
member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen eleven years, the Modern Wood- 
men of America eight years, and the Home 
Forum two years. He is a recognized 
leader of the Republican party in this sec- 
tion, has been a member of the county cen- 
tral committee five years, and has done 
much toward insuring its success. He has 
also faithfully served his fellow citizens in 
the capacity of town clerk, and has been 
quite prominently identified with the inter- 
ests of his community. 



HON. THOMAS CARR is one of the 
representative men of Seward county, 
belonging to that class whose ability and 
character have made a deep impression upon 
the life of this rapidly developing country. 
In this broad state with its abundant room 
for individual enterprise, with its hearty ap- 
preciation of personal worth and its splen- 
did opportunities for individual achievement, 
the man of ability finds the very largest 
sphere for usefulness and the gratification 
of personal ambition. His abilities will be 
discovered; his integrity will find apprecia- 
tion; his public spirit will meet with recog- 
nition and he will be forced into prominence 
against his will. Mr. Carr is an illustration 
of this fact. However, he has always been 
ready to respond to any call for public duty, 
either on battle field or in legislative halls. 
Mr. Carr was born in Washington coun- 
ty, Illinois, August 29, 1844, a son of James 
and Maria (Bohen) Carr, natives of County 
Cavan, Ireland. The father, who was a 
carpenter by trade, came to the United 
States about 1825, landing in New York 
City, whence he went to New Orleans, and 
in 1836 he became a resident of Illinois, 
where he engaged in farming until life's 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



303 



labors were over, dying there in 1868. In 
his family were four sons, of whom two en- 
tered the Union service during the Civil war 
and one died in the service. 

The early education of our subject was 
received in the pubHc schools of his native 
county, and was supplemented by a course 
in Washington Seminary, of Richview, Illi- 
nois, from which institutipn he graduated. 
On the breaking out of the Rebellion, he 
responded to the president's first call for 
ninety-day men, becoming a member of the 
Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and 
when that term had expired, he re-enlisted, 
in 1 861, in Company E, Tenth Missouri 
Volunteer Infantry, for three years, partici- 
pating with that regiment in the following 
battles: luka, Corinth, Jackson, Raymond, 
Vicksburgr Champion Hills, Missionary 
Ridge and several skirmishes. He was dis- 
charged in August, 1863, but in February, 
1864, joined the Second United States Vet- 
eran Volunteers and served one year as first 
lieutenant, after which he was transferred 
to the Second United States Regular Infan- 
try, serving until 1867 in Mississippi during 
the Reconstruction period. 

After receiving his discharge, Mr. Carr 
returned to Illinois, where he continued to 
live until 1869, when he came to Nebraska 
and took up a homestead in Seward county, 
on which he still resides. His first home here 
was a rude dugout, but it was soon replaced 
by a good log house with a shingle roof, and 
later by a more commodious and comfort- 
able frame residence. Here he has success- 
fully followed general farming and stock 
raising, and has succeeded in accumulating 
a comfortable competence. 

Mr. Carr was married, in Illinois, in 1867, 
to Miss Mary Adams, a native of Washing- 
ton county, Illinois, and to them have been 
born eight children: Maria, Jennie, Rachel, 
Mary, James, Robert, Roy and Nona, all 
living. The family hold membership in the 
Presbyterian church, while socially Mr. 



Carr belongs to the Grand Army of the Re- 
public, the Masonic fraternity, the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and the Modern 
Woodmen of America. He assisted in the 
organization of the Republican party in 
Seward county, and has always been one of 
its most active and influential members, 
serving for some time on the county and 
state central committees, and rendering 
effective service in the interest of his party. 
For twenty years he has filled the office of 
justice of the peace to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the general public, and in 1885 was 
elected to represent his county in the lower 
house of the legislature, of which he was an 
able member for two years. 



ANDREW F. BLOOMER.— The biogra- 
pher is conscious of a certain degree 
of delicacy in attempting to do justice to 
the subject of this sketch and to the sub- 
ject of lumber — two live, inexhaustible sub- 
jects in one article. To blend them as 
harmoniously in cold type as they have for 
years traveled side by side in every day life 
is a task not entirely within the limits of 
one article and the space allotted to it in a 
work of this character. To write the bi- 
ography of Mr. Bloomer is to write the his- 
tory of the lumber interests of York county 
for the past fourteen years. On the other 
hand, to give a faithful account of the 
lumber interests for a like period would 
savor largely, almost overwhelmingly, of 
Bloomer, the one is so inseparably con- 
nected with the other. 

Early in 1884 Mr. Bloomer located at 
York and established the foundation for his 
present extensive lumber business, which is 
said to embrace one of the largest stocks 
carried west of the Missouri river. Having 
traveled for a year previous to selecting 
York as a basis of his operations, during 
which time he visited the principal points 



304 



Compendium of biographt. 



in the western part of the United States, 
Mexico and British America, he was en- 
abled to select a location intelligently and 
not in a this-or-that-or-anything despera- 
tion. He recognized in York many advan- 
tages in a business way as well as a place 
of residence and substantiated his judg- 
ment by investing considerable sums of 
money, not only in the trade but also in 
property to establish a home. The success 
which has attended his efforts during the 
years which have intervened has proven the 
correctness of his judgement. He is now 
conducting one of the largest lumber es- 
tablishments in the state, doing a wholesale 
as well as a retail business, his sales aggre- 
gating more than three hundred cars per 
year. 

Mr. Bloomer is nothing if not original. 
The many unique and ingenious methods he 
has employed in advertising his business 
have been far-reaching in their results. In 
addition to his name becoming a house- 
hold word and authority on everything per- 
taining to lumber and building material 
throughout York and adjoining counties, it 
has traveled beyond the confines of this and 
surrounding states. Probably the distinct- 
ive feature or trademark of his business in 
this respect is contained in his illustrated 
motto of "Live and Let Live." It ap- 
peared simultaneously with the inauguration 
of his business in York, fourteen years ago, 
and since that time it has been as closely 
associated with the business as Bloomer 
himself. While the illustrated motto first 
appeared upon a calendar he began publish- 
ing in the East and which he has continued 
for many years, it also finds its way into all 
printed matter coming from the Bloomer 
establishment. In an article which appeared 
in a recent issue of the Northwestern Lum- 
berman, published at Chicago, the follow- 
ing appropriate tribute was paid to Bloom- 
er's calendar: "You all know about the 
Monkey-cat-rat calendar. That's Bloomer's 



calendar. He has distributed it for fifteen, 
years and no strange gods in the shape of 
slab-sided sheets of cardboard, with their 
gay girls, yards of roses, battle pictures, 
and big figures, have inveigled him from the 
modest little production which he origi- 
nated years ago. The diminutive menag- 
erie on the calendar may mean one thing 
or another — nobody knows. It is so mod- 
est and unique and has withstood the 
defacing effects of time so well that when 
it reaches an office someone cries out, 
'Here comes Bloomer's calendar!' and it 
suits Bloomer when that cry is raised." 
The above is only one of hundreds of simi- 
lar notices which have appeared in news- 
papers throught the country. The press 
delights to honor Bloomer, and no wonder, 
for there is no responsive chord in his gen- 
erous nature that has been developed to a 
greater extent than his love and apprecia- 
tion of the printer. This sympathy and 
brotherly affection for the craft is perfectly 
natural and no doubt flows from an unseen 
fountain which came into existence years 
ago when he, as a boy, partially learned 
the printer's trade. At any rate it is a fit- 
ting tribute to the memory of a loving 
father's life work. 

There are many characteristics in Mr. 
Bloomer that would be worthy of record, 
but space forbids detail. However, his 
high regard for the comfort of dumb ani- 
mals must not be overlooked and the prac- 
tical manner in which he has emphasized 
his conviction in this respect. Years ago 
he sunk a well at his office doorway and 
constructed a trough which has since over- 
flowed with pure, cool and sparkling water. 
The motto adorning the well ' ' Free drinks 
for man and beast " is well known to every 
inhabitant for miles around, and there are 
probably few horses in the same territory 
that would not rise up in chorus and call 
the promoter Blessed if it were in their 
province to do so. Likewise, also, Mr. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



305 



Bloomer has sheds for the accommodation 
of about half a hundred horses owned by 
his friends and patrons — a service without 
money and without price. 

While Mr. Bloomer has been and is a 
very busy man he has taken time to culti- 
vate the itinerant spirit which has always 
been a pronounced characteristic of his na- 
ture. Although he has traveled quite ex- 
tensively, he has confined his wanderings 
to his native country, feeling a loyalty to it 
in this respect before seeking such pleas- 
ures abroad. During the winter of 1887, 
accompanied by his family, he visited the 
Bahama Islands and brought home many 
valuable and interesting specimens which 
were added to his already extensive col- 
lection from the various states and territo- 
ries. Two years later he made a visit to 
Alaska and brought home many interesting 
souvenirs from that country. 

As a citizen Mr. Bloomer has always 
occupied an influential position among the 
leading business men and residents of York. 
He has ever been loyal to the city's best 
interests and has aided with both time and 
money in the establishment and develop- 
ment of industrial institutions which have 
greatly benefited the city. While some of 
them were not a success financially, their 
inception and continuance at a loss was 
largely a labor of love on the part of pro- 
gressive citizens, who afterward surrendered 
such institutions to private parties and cap- 
ital that had in the meantime been attracted 
to them and which placed them upon a 
successful and profitable basis. In this 
connection it is only necessary to mention 
such concerns as the York Foundry and En- 
gine Company, of which Mr. Bloomer was 
a stockholder and director for several years. 
He was also one of the first stockholders and 
officers of the original board of the York 
Gas and Electric Light Company, and aside 
from being a life member he has for a num- 
ber of years assisted in the maintenance 



of the York County Agricultural Society. 
For a long time he has been an active 
member and stockholder of the York Mu- 
tual Building and Loan Association. The 
Creamery, which was started originally as a 
butter and cheese factory, the Nebraska 
Telephone Company, the sugar beet indus- 
try, all received substantial aid from him 
and he even contributed to a street rail- 
way project. It is due in no small degree 
to the loyalty of such men as Mr. Bloomer 
that the City of York ranks among the best 
in the state, surpassing many places of 
double its population. 

Mr. Bloomer is a native of Orange 
county. New York, where he was born 
August 21, 1851, being a son of Reuben H. 
and Almira (Chase) Bloomer, also natives 
of that state. The Bloomer family num- 
ber among their ancestors participants in 
the Revolutionary war and Almira Chase 
is a descendent of Salmon P. Chase. 
Reuben H. Bloomer, our subject's father, 
was formerly a Methodist minister, but fail- 
ing health compelled him to abandon the 
ministry. In 1855 he established the New- 
berg Times, a temperance paper, which he 
edited and published until his death, which 
occurred in 1886. He was associated with 
Neil Dow and many of the prominent tem- 
perance workers of those days. In politics 
he was a Republican. His son, J. Watson, 
was also interested in that publication for a 
time, which was afterwards merged into 
the Newburg Journal and is still in exist- 
ence. 

The subject of this review grew to man- 
hood in his native state, receiving a liberal 
education in the public schools of Newburg, 
supplemented with a business course in the 
Eastman College. He worked in a printing 
office for a time and partially mastered the 
"Art preservative of all arts," but when 
about eighteen years of age he drifted west 
to Chicago. Here he received his first les- 
sons in the lumber business. For several 



306 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



3'ears he was in the employ of D. F. Chase 
& Brother, extensive lumber dealers of that 
city. In 1877 he entered into the lumber 
business for himself at Wyoming, Illinois, 
and was thus engaged successfully until 
1883 when he disposed of his interests 
there and a year later located in York, 
Nebraska. He has occupied one location 
uninterruptedly ever since, and the success 
with which he has met during a residence 
of fourteen years in York county is only 
measured by his great energy, sound judg- 
ment, and enterprising and commendable 
business methods. He also owns several 
farms in York and adjoining counties, be- 
sides extensive landed interests in Kansas 
and Colorado. In politics he is a stanch 
Republican, although he has not sought 
political preferment nor held office of any 
kind. 

In 1885 Mr. Bloomer was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Eliza P. Miner, a native of 
Illinois, and at that time a resident of that 
state. She is a daughter of William M. 
Miner, a native of Connecticut, and Mary 
(Bushnell) Miner, who was born in New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer occupy one 
of the handsome residences of York and 
their domestic life is an exceptionally happy 
one. Their home is one of genuine hospi- 
tality and its affairs are presided over and 
executed by a hand that savors of educa- 
tion and refinement. 



FRANKLIN SKIPTON.— In the last half 
of the present century the lawyer has 
been a pre-eminent factor in all affairs of 
private concern and national importance. 
He has been depended upon to conserve 
the best and permanent interests of the 
whole people and is a recognized power in 
all the avenues of life. He stands as the 
protector of the rights and liberties of his 
fellow men and is the representative of a 
profession whose followers, if they would 



gain honor, fame and success, must be men 
of merit and ability. Such a one is Judge 
Franklin Skipton, who now occupies the 
bench of Fillmore county, winning high 
commendation by his fair and impartial ad- 
ministration of justice. 

The Judge was born in Henry county, 
Iowa, May 30, 1859, and is a son of Fran- 
cis and Sarah (Winter) Skipton, the former 
a native of Washington county, Ohio, and 
the latter of Lincolnshire, England, whence 
she came to America with her parents when 
eleven years of age. Francis Skipton was 
a farmer and in 185 1 removed to Henry 
county, Iowa, where he cast in his lot with 
its pioneer settlers. He died in that county 
in 1878, but his widow still resides on the 
old homestead there. On that same farm 
Judge Skipton spent the days of his boy- 
hood and youth. He attended the common 
schools and at the age of sixteen entered 
Hows Academy, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 
where he pursued a three-years' preparatory 
course. He pursued his collegiate course 
in the Iowa Wesleyan University and was 
graduated with honors in 1882. 

For some time thereafter Judge Skip- 
ton devoted his efforts to educational work. 
He went to Washington county, Kansas, 
where he engaged in teaching school and 
later removed to Clay Center, Kansas, 
where he took up the study of law in 1884 
under the direction of C. M. Anthony, but 
continued teaching for several years longer. 
In 1885 he was admitted to the bar, and in 
1889 he came to Fillmore county, locating 
in Shickley, where he occupied the posi- 
tion of principle of the schools for eight 
years. In the fall of 1897 he became the 
Populist candidate for county judge and 
was elected by a majority of over three 
hundred, the largest majority accorded any 
any one on the ticket. His election was 
all the more flattering as his opponent was 
a very prominent and popular citizen and 
lawyer. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArilT. 



307 



Judge Skipton was married December 
26, 1883, to Ida T. Stickel, a native of 
Bureau county, Illinois, and a daughter of 
David C. and Rebecca (Lamb) Stickel, who 
are residents of Fillmore county. The 
Judge and his wife have one son, Virgil E. 
Our subject is a valued and exemplary 
member of the Masonic fraternity and has- 
had a marked influence upon the life of 
Fillmore county through his educational 
work and his official service. His well 
spent life commands the respect of all and 
this record would be incomplete without the 
review of his honorable career. 



JAMES D. BROWN.— More than thirty- 
three years have passed since this gentle- 
man arrived in Butler county, and he is 
justly numbered among her honored pio- 
neers and leading citizens. Since locating 
here in May, 1865, he has been prominent- 
ly identified with her agricultural interests, 
his home being on section 23, Oak Creek 
township. His is an honorable record of a 
conscientious man, who by his upright life 
has won the confidence of all with whom 
he has come in contact. 

Mr. Brown was born in Rutherford coun- 
ty, Tennessee, December 15, 1822, a son of 
Thomas B. and Elizabeth (Allerson) Brown. 
The birth of the father occurred in 1787, in 
Culpeper county, Virginia, and the grand- 
father, William Brown, was also a native 
of the Old Dominion. At an early age our 
subject removed with his parents to Mis- 
souri, where he married Miss Phoebe Crow- 
ley, who was born in Ray county, that state, 
December 31, 1826. Her parents, Jeremiah 
and Polly (Carey) Crowley, were natives of 
Kentucky and Virginia, repectively, and her 
grandfather, John Crowley, was also born in 
Kentucky. 

Mr. and Mrs. Brown have become the 
parents of thirteen children, all born in 
Missouri with the exception of A. J., the 

18 



youngest, whose birth occurred after the 
emigration of the family to Nebraska. The 
family record is as follows: (i) Julia is the 
wife of J. C. Hatchett, now a resident of 
Wichita county, Texas, and has twelve 
children — James S., Joel, Sarah, Lovey, 
Mollie, Emma, Ella, Kittie, John, Jerry, 
William and Thomas. (2) Thomas, the 
second, of the family, is now deceased. (3) 
Jerry, also deceased, had three children 
— Marshall, Carl and Bert. (4) Polly died 
leaving one daughter, Lizzie W^arrall. (5) 
William C. first wedded Mary Jimmerson, 
now deceased, by whom he had six chil- 
dren — John; James, deceased; A. J.; Phoe- 
be; William and George. For his second 
wife he married Lottie Conner, and by this 
union has two daughters — Julia and 
Mary. (6) Candas, deceased, married a 
Mr. Riggs, and had seven children — Alfred, 
who married Lakey Bell, and has one daugh- 
ter, Mina; Cora, who married a Mr. Cook 
and has one child, Rosa; James; Orville; 
Ellen; C. H. and Thomas. (7) Joseph A. 
married Martha Dowell, and has three 
children — Aurilla, Ross and Bessie. (8) 
Emma married Thomas Baldwin and has 
three children — Melvin, Paul and Grace. 
(9) Calvin married Mollie Hopkins and has 
five children — Minnie, Chester, Lucy, Eu- 
gene and Dee. (10) John, married Delia 
Skelton and has two children — Roy and 
Ina. (11) George, married Serena Jacobs. 
(12) Ella married William Darnell and has 
eight children — Charles, Earl, Fern, Josie, 
Nellie, Hazel, Judd and the baby. (13) A. 
J. married Metta Cartwright and has three 
children — Ava Lee, Burnie and Mathew J. 
Early in the year 1865, Mr. Brown, his 
wife and twelve children started with a party 
for Oregon, consisting of his son-in-law, J. 
C. Hatchett, with his wife and four chil- 
dren; Jerry Crowley and family; Robert 
Lee and family. Their course lay through 
Butler county, Nebraska, and on arriving 
here they decided to proceed no further, but 



308 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



make this their future home. Mr. Brown 
selected land on what is now section 23, 
Oak Creek township, and that tract of un- 
broken prairie land he has transformed into 
one of the most desirable farms of the county. 
His interests have always been confined to 
farming, wherein he has met with a full 
measure of success. 

Although well advanced in years, Mr. 
and Mrs. Brown are still hale and hearty, 
and in spirit and interests seem yet in their 
prime. Old age is not necessarily a 
synonym of weakness and inactivity. They 
reside on the old homestead where they lo- 
cated so many years ago, and in the broad 
acres under excellent cultivation, and in the 
comfortable home, there is no evidence of 
the wild, unbroken prairies and lonely sur- 
roundings which greeted the little band of 
pioneers on their arrival here. Mr. Brown 
has always taken an active interest in every- 
thing which he believed calculated to ad- 
vance the welfare of his adopted county, 
and he is therefore justly entitled to an hon- 
ored place among the pioneers and repre- 
sentative citizens of this section of the 
state. Of his descendants, who now ex- 
ceed a hundred, many are scattered over 
this and neighboring states, while a large 
number still surround him in his declining 
years. 



JM. STOUT, a well-to-do and prosper- 
ous farmer of Arborville township, York 
county, is one of the men who thoroughly 
understands the business he is pursuing, 
and has succeeded in accumulating a coin- 
fortable competence. He is the architect of 
his own fortune, having started in life with 
but little capital beyond his own industry 
and laudable ambition to rise in the world. 
Mr. Stout claims Ohio as his native 
state, his birth occurring in Butler county, 
August 12, 1 83 1. His parents, John and 
Elizabeth (Freeman) Stout, were natives of 



New Jersey and Vermont, respectively, and 
his father was also an agriculturist. From 
Pennsylvania he removed to Ohio, and later 
became a resident of Indiana, where both 
he and his wife died. Their family con- 
sisted of four sons and three daughters. 

In Indiana, J. M. Stout grew to manhood 
and under his father's able direction ac- 
quired an excellent knowledge of every de- 
partment of farm work. On leaving that 
state in 1874 he came to York county, 
Nebraska, and bought the farm which he 
now owns in Arborville township. He 
erected thereon a small house which has 
long since been replaced by a pleasant 
frame residence, more commodious and sub- 
stantial. Having prospered in his new 
home he is now the owner of three eighty- 
acre tracts of land, all under the plow, and 
yielding to the owner bountiful harvests for 
the care and labor bestowed upon them. 

On the 8th of March. 1855, Mr. Stout 
was united in marriage with Miss Isabel J. 
Primrose, a daughter of Allen and Mary 
(McKain) Primrose, who were natives of 
Scotland and South Carolina, respectively, 
and were early settlers of Indiana. Mr. 
and Mrs. Stout have a family of four chil- 
dren, as follows: John A., Mary E., now 
Mrs. A. Peterson; Annie E; and Sanford B. 
The parents are earnest and consistent 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and in politics Mr. Stout is an independent 
Republican. For five years he has served 
in school offices to the entire satisfaction of 
all concerned, but has never sought official 
honors. He bears a high character for 
sterling integrity and is held in high regard 
by all who know him. 



THOMAS PRICE, one of the self-made 
men of York county, whose early home 
was on the other side of the Atlantic, com- 
menced life in Nebraska with only a capital 
of two hundred dollars, and through his own 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



309 



efforts has attained to a fine position, so- 
cially and financially, among his fellow- 
citizens. His homestead, one of the most 
noticeable in York township, embraces a 
fertile tract of land under thorough cultiva- 
tion. Both as a business man and a citizen, 
the proprietor occupies an enviable posi- 
tion in the estimation of the people of the 
county. 

Born in Wales, March 17, 1852, Mr. 
Price is a son of Benjamin and Ann (James) 
Price, also natives of that country, where 
the father carried on operations as a farmer 
until 1868, when he brought his family to 
the new world, landing in New York City. 
He proceeded at once to Green county, 
Wisconsin, where they made their home for 
five years, and in the spring of 1872 came 
to York county, Nebraska, where he home- 
steaded one hundred and sixty acres on sec- 
tion 2, York township, and took up a tim- 
ber claim on section 12. He made that 
place his home until 1889, when, on ac- 
count of ill health, he removed to Iowa 
Park, Texas, where his death occurred in 
1892. His wife had departed this life in 
York county, in 1880. In their family were 
six sons and one daughter, and all of the 
sons became residents of York county, where 
they continue to live with the exception of 
one now deceased. 

Mr. Price, whose name introduces this 
review, obtained his literary education in the 
schools of his native land, his school days 
being over on his emigration with the fam- 
ily to America at the age of sixteen years. 
In Wisconsin he assisted in the work of the 
home farm, and to some extent also worked 
as a farm laborer for others. In December, 
1873, he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and secured a homestead of one hundred 
and sixty acres on section 2, New York 
township, to which he has added eighty 
acres on section i, and the southwest quar- 
ter of section 36. On locating here the 
land was all raw prairie, upon which he 



erected a sod house that continued to be his 
home for six years, being then replaced by 
a good frame residence. He has also placed 
two hundred and forty acres of his land un- 
der the plow, and is now successfully en- 
gaged in general farming and stock raising, 
feeding all the grain raised upon his farm to 
his stock. 

In 1876 Mr. Price wedded Miss Mary E. 
Denney, a resident of York county, and a 
native of Iowa. They now have an inter- 
esting family of five children, namely: Ann 
A., Evan O., Ralph B., Frank O. and Hes- 
ter A. The parents and children are all 
connected with the Baptist church and in 
the social life of the community occupy an 
enviable position. Fraternally Mr. Price is 
a member of the Masonic order, the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and the Royal High- 
landers. In his political affiliations he has 
always been a Republican, and was one of 
the organizers of the party in York county. 
In the fall of 1892, he was elected sheriff of 
the county, assumed the duties of the office 
January i, 1893, and so acceptably did he 
fill the position that he was re-elected in 
1894, serving in all four years with credit to 
himself and to the entire satisfaction of his 
constituents. 



JOSEPH H. WISE, the present in- 
cumbent of the office of sheriff in Sew- 
ard county, has already proved himself a 
capable official in the few months in 
which he has been before the public. He 
has push and energy, and any duty the 
court puts upon him is done without hes- 
itation. 

Sheriff Wise was born in Luzerne county 
Pennsylvania, September 7, 1856, and was 
a son to Henry and Amelia (VanBuskirk) 
Wise. They were natives of Pennsylvania, 
and were reared to rural pursuits. Very 
soon after their marriage they sought a 
home in Sandusky county, Ohio. But not 



310 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



finding what they desired there, they went 
farther west and pitched their tent in Scott 
county, Iowa, in 1868. There the husband 
and father died in 1885. The wife and 
mother is still living, and makes her home 
with her son, the gentleman whose name is 
introduces this article. They were the par- 
ents of two sons and one daughter, and the 
only one of the children now living is the 
one whose home shelters the aged widow. 
Mr. Wise attended the common schools 
of Scott county, and when his school days 
were over applied himself to the vocation 
of a farmer. In 1878 he crossed the Mis- 
souri, and penetrating far into Nebraska, 
took up a farm in Adams county and there 
he lived for four years. In 1882 he came 
into Seward county and bought a farm in 
precinct N. This was his home until his 
assumption of the duties of sheriff, with the 
exception of about a year and a half which 
he spent in California. In the fall of 1897 
he was elected sheriff of Seward county, 
and he is proving himself a good official. 
He has always taken a lively interest in po- 
litical matters, and in former years has 
been the assessor, clerk, collector and 
treasurer of his township. In fraternal cir- 
cles he is prominent and popular. He is a 
Mason and an Odd Fellow, and also a mem- 
ber of the Knights of the Maccabees. He 
is a man of fine character and has an excel- 
lent reputation for honesty and integrity. 



STEPHEN C. LANGWORTHY, the 
president and founder of the First 
National Bank of Seward, has been associ- 
ated with many of the most important finan- 
cial enterprises in this section of Nebras- 
ka, and stands in the front rank of the 
enlightened and progressive citizens of this 
community. He is known as a shrewd and 
sharp business man and is ever alert to 
every wind that blows upon the world of 
money and commerce. He has been in 



many parts of the country and has done 
business in many places, and wherever he 
has been he has had the standing of an up- 
right and conscientious man who means the 
right, and subordinates everything to the 
consideration of justice and honor. 

Mr. Langvvorthy was born in Morgan 
county, Illinois, in 1824, and is a son of Dr. 
Stephen and Jane (Moreing) Langworthy. 
The father was a native of Vermont and the 
mother of South Carolina, her birthplace 
being near the city of Charleston. The 
Langworthy family in the United States 
sprang from three brothers who emigrated 
from Wales in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century, and settled in the New 
England states. 

Dr. Stephen Langworthy was the eldest 
of five brothers; he was educated in the 
schools of Vermont and it was in that state 
that he first began reading medicine; he 
later entered a medical college in Connecti- 
cut and was graduated from there. He be- 
gan the practice of his profession in the 
western part of New York state; from there 
he removed to Pennsylvania, where he re- 
mained but a short time, and then in com- 
pany with others made his way down the 
Ohio river in a flat-boat and finally settled at 
Jacksonville, Illinois, and there he remained 
for some years. 

From Jacksonville, Illinois, Dr. Lang- 
worthy removed to Dubuque, Iowa, which 
was then but a small trading post, the pop- 
ulation of which consisted of a few adven- 
turous spirits seeking new homes in the 
west, and miners who had been brought 
there on account of the lead deposits. It 
was in this place he passed the remainder 
of his life, dying there in about the year 
1847. During his residence in Iowa, the 
Doctor followed the practice of his profes- 
sion and was well-known throughout that 
section of the state. He took a prominent 
part in the organization of the county, and 
was known as one of the leading men of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



311 



Dubuque. He was twice married, his first 
marriage being to a Miss Massey. during his 
residence in New York state, and who bore 
him eleven children. The Doctor chose for 
his second wife Jane Moreing, who survived 
him many years, her death occurring at Du- 
buque, Iowa, in 1887. 

Stephen C. Langworthy, the subject of 
this article, was reared and educated in 
Morgan county, Illinois; he early in life be- 
came self-supporting and in 1849 we find 
him, in company with many others, bound 
for the gold fields of California. After 
spending some time in the mines and not 
meeting with the success that he had antic- 
ipated, he turned his attention to mercan- 
tile pursuits, and for seven years was en- 
gaged in wholesaling general merchandise. 
At the end of that period he returned east 
and embarked in the grain and lumber trade 
at Monticello, Iowa, and made that place 
his home for many years. He assisted in 
the organization of the Monticello National 
Bank and served as its president during his 
residence there. 

In 1876 he came to Seward county, 
Nebraska, and organized the Seward County 
Bank, and was its president and general 
manager until it was merged into the First 
National Bank in 1882. On the organiza- 
tion of the First National Bank he was 
chosen as its president and still remains at 
the head of that institution. Mr. Lang- 
worthy has assisted in the inauguration of 
many of the most important business enter- 
prises of this county and has ever been 
ready to encourage any plausible project. 
He owns and controls a large tract of land 
in this county and has other real estate in- 
vestments of an extensive character. 

Mr. Langworthy was united in marriage 
in 1858 to Miss Elizabeth C. Bennett, a 
native of New York (further mention of 
whom will be found on another page of this 
volume). To this union have been born four 
sons and two daughters, all of whom are 



now living, except one daughter. William 
E., the eldest son, is now ably discharging 
the duties of cashier of the First National 
Bank. He graduated from the Seward 
high-school in 1884, shortly after which he 
entered the bank and has ably assisted in 
its management. He was married in Jan- 
uary, 1897, to Miss Jessie Tishue, a daugh- 
ter of Joel Tishue, one of the well-known 
business men of Seward. Alice, now Mrs. 
Gillespie, is a resident of Archer City, 
Texas; Stephen C, Jr., is a member of the 
Seward county bar and a graduate of the 
State University and Law School. He was 
admitted to practice in 1892 and was en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession at 
Seward up to May, 1898, when he enlisted 
in Company F, of Second Nebraska Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and served as a member of 
that company until October of the same 
year, when the regiment was mustered out 
of service. Fred B. is now a resident of 
Chicago. Bert S., the youngest son, is fill- 
ing a position of assistant cashier in the 
bank. 

Mr. Langworthy has never taken any 
active part in politics, but is a strong and 
outspoken Republican. The bank over 
which he has so successfully presided has a 
capital stock of $50,000, a surplus of $10,- 
000, carries deposits averaging $134,000, 
and has undivided profits of $9,000; its 
board of directors is composed of the solid 
business men of Seward, among whom may 
be mentioned, Herman Diers, S. R. Doug- 
las, John Zimmerer, and others equally well 
known, and is regarded as one of the solid 
concerns of the state. 

Elizabeth C. (Bennett) Langworthy. 
To attempt to compile a history of the peo- 
ple of this section of Nebraska without mak- 
ing special mention of the important work 
that has been accomplished by the women 
of this state would be erroneous and mis- 
leading. From the earliest settlement made 
on the west banks of the Missouri river we 



S12 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



have found them going side by side with 
their husbands and fathers, enduring the 
hardships of frontier life, exposing them- 
selves to the dangers following the settle- 
ment of a new country, but cheerfully bear- 
ing these burdens that they might build for 
themselves and their children a home. 

In later years, when the country became 
more settled we find them taking a promi- 
nent part in the government of the schools, 
and through their own efforts many of the 
most beneficial organizations in the state 
have sprung into existence. 

Mrs. Langworthy belongs to that type 
of women that possess all the noble quali- 
ties of a true mother but who has found 
time to labor in behalf of her sex and to 
bring the moral and intellectual standard to 
a much higher plane. 

Mrs. Langworthy is a daughter of Jacob 
and Caroline (Valentine) Bennett, she was 
born in Orleans county. New York state, in 
1837. Her parents were both natives of 
the same state but were of Holland-Dutch 
and French parentage respectively. The 
father was a tiller of the soil and followed 
that occupation the greater part of his life. 
He removed from New York to Wisconsin 
in 1849, from there to Minnesota, and later 
to Missouri, in which state he died in 1888, 
aged ninety-one years. He was the father 
of nine children; the wife and mother de- 
parted this life in the same state, aged 
eighty-six years. The grandfather of our 
subject was Jacob Bennett, Senior. He 
was a soldier in the American Revolution, 
was taken prisoner of war by the English 
forces and was held in an English prison 
ship for some time, off the coast of Quebec. 

Mrs. Langworthy was reared to the age 
of sixteen in New York state and there re- 
ceived her early education in the public 
schools of that state. She accompanied 
her parents on their removal to the west 
and completed her education by a course in 
the Hamlin University, then located at Red 



Wing, Minnesota. Her marriage occurred 
at that place in 1858 and by this union she 
has become the mother of six children, men- 
tion of whom is made elsewhere. 

Since becoming a resident of Seward, 
Mrs. Langworthy has taken an active part 
in the club work of the state, and for five 
years served as a member of the school 
board of Seward. She was also appointed 
as a member of the board of associate char- 
ity, and has served in that capacity for a 
number of years. In 1893 she was ap- 
pointed by Thomas W. Palmer as a mem- 
ber of the board of lady commissioners from 
Nebraska to the World's Columbian Exposi- 
tion at Chicago, and was selected as chair- 
man of that board from this state. 

In 1890 Mrs. Langworthy organized the 
History and Art Club of Seward, and later 
took a prominent part in the organization 
of the state federation of clubs. She served 
as its first secretary, and in October, 1898, 
was elected president of that organization. 
To attempt to give in detail the prominent 
part that she has borne in the social affairs 
of the state of Nebraska is not permitted in 
this limited space; suffice to say that she is 
well known not only throughout Nebraska, 
but through the country in general. In 
1894 Mrs. Langworthy spent some months 
across the Atlantic, visiting all the principal 
cities of Europe. She is a woman of broad 
views, and her opinions in matters of art are 
much sought after. 



CHARLES DOUGLAS WHITE.— It is 
a pleasure to record the main events in 
the life of one who has attained an enviable 
position solely through his own efforts and 
exertions, and who, though he has not yet 
completed the ascent of the sunny side of 
the hill of life, has won for himself, his wife 
and his family a very comfortable and pleas- 
ant home. 

Mr. White moved to his present home 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



313 



in Ulysses township, Butler county, from 
Woodford county, Illinois, where he was 
born in 1861. His father, James White, 
was an early settler in Woodford county, 
Illinois, but was a native of North Caro- 
lina. When his parents emigrated from 
the last named state to Illinois, he and an 
older sister went all the way a-foot, follow- 
ing the wagons barefooted. When the 
father died a few years ago, he owned two 
hundred and forty acres of land in Woodford 
county, which was worth one hundred dollars 
per acre, besides much other property. Our 
subject's motherborethemaidennameof Miss 
Rebecca Kirby and was born in Pennsylvania, 
and his brother, W. T. White, moved to 
Nebraska about three years ahead of him. 

When Charles D. White, the subject of 
our sketch, first located in Nebraska, he 
was a poor man, having no capital what- 
ever. He began by working on a farm by 
the month, and, by close attention to busi- 
ness, industry and economy, he was soon able 
to purchase a farm and stock and tools to 
start farming on his own account, and is 
now the fortunate owner of a fine farm of 
one hundred sixty acres, well improved and 
equipped with a comfortable and attractive 
home. Mr. White is a potent factor in the 
prosperity enjoyed by Butler county, and 
has been of great assistance in developing 
and extending its agriculture. He is a man 
of considerable means and popularity, and 
his public spirit has never been called in 
question. He is a man of the very best 
character, thorough and systematic as a 
farmer, pleasant to meet, and is held in 
high esteem by all with whom he comes in 
contact. He has an excellent farm, a cozy 
home and a pleasant family. 

Mrs. White, who was known in her girl- 
hood as Miss Elvina Burge, is a daughter of 
Jeremiah Berg, of Henry county, Iowa. 
Mr. and Mrs. White were married in 1886 
and their home has been blessed by the 
presence of a bright, ' interesting family 



of three children, whose names in the order 
of their birth are as follows: Mabel E., 
James J. and Clara H. 



EDGAR A. WELLS, one of the most en- 
ergetic and prosperous business men of 
Arborville township, York county, has al- 
ways been interested in agricultural pur- 
suits, and in connection with general farm- 
ing has for the past twelve years been 
engaged in feeding cattle on quite an ex- 
tensive scale. He is also a liberal-minded 
aud public-spirited citizen, who ever cheer- 
fully gives his support to those enterprises 
that tend to public development. 

Like many of the best citizens of the 
county, Mr. Wells is a native of New York, 
born in Chenango county, September 23, 
1854, and is a son of Halsey and Lorana 
(Rogers) Wells, also natives of the Empire 
state. The father, who was a farmer by 
occupation, removed to De Kalb county, 
Illinois, in 1854, and there made his home 
until called to his final rest in 1893. He 
reared a family of three sons and two 
daughters, of whom our subject is the 
second son and third child. His boyhood 
and youth were spent in Illinois, where he 
acquired a good practical education in the 
common schools. On starting out in life 
for himself he chose as a life work the oc- 
cupation to which he had been reared, and 
until 1880 followed farming in Illinois. 
Coming west he located in York county, 
Nebraska, and bought a farm in Arborville 
township, where he now owns four hundred 
acres of valuable and productive land, which 
he has placed under excellent cultivation 
and improved with good buildings. As pre- 
viously stated, he has for the past twelve 
years given considerable attention to stock 
raising, and now feeds annually one 
hundred and fifty head. 

During his residence in Illinois, Mr. 
Wells was married, in 1877, to Miss Stella 



314 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



H. Ball, a native of De Kalb county, and 
a daughter of William and Julia (Arnold) 
Ball, natives of Kentucky and Ohio, re- 
spectively. One daughter graces this union 
— Coila M. The parents both hold mem- 
bership in the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and socially, Mr. Wells belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. The 
Republican party has always found in him a 
stanch supporter of its principles, but he 
has never sought political preferment. He 
is widely and favorably known throughout 
his adopted county, and is always mentioned 
among the invaluable citizens of his com- 
munity. 



HON. WILLIAM WELCH, an influen- 
tial member of the agricultural com- 
munity of Polk county, having his home on 
section lo, township 14, range 2 west, 
Osceola precinct, is now representing his 
district in the state legislature with credit to 
himself and to the entire satisfaction of his 
constituents. He is one of the most popu- 
lar men of the community, a leader in 
thought and action, and is devoted to the 
public welfare. His portrait appears on 
another page. 

Mr. Welch was born March 18, 1841, in 
Harrison county, Ohio, and is a son of 
Daniel and Mary (Gray) Welch, natives of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. As 
early as 1802 the father emigrated to Ohio, 
where he successfully engaged in farming 
and the raising of fine stock until life's labors 
were ended, dying there in 1868. The 
mother had passed away in 1848. Both 
were earnest and faithful members of the 
Presbyterian church; the father was a soldier 
of the war of 181 2, and always took an 
active interest in political affairs. Three 
of their sons valiantly fought for the preser- 
vation of the Union during the Civil war, 
namely: John P., who is now deceased; 
Daniel, who was killed in the battle of the 



Wilderness, and William, of this sketch. 
Of their six children, only Margaret E. and 
William are now living. By a previous 
marriage the father had two children: Elias 
B., deceased, and Mrs. Rachel Mayes. 

Upon the home farm in Ohio, William 
Welch passed his boyhood and youth, and 
in the schools of a neighboring village re- 
ceived his education. On the 14th of May, 
1864, he enlisted as a private in Company 
H, One Hundred and Seventieth Ohio Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and with his regiment was 
ordered to Washington, District of Colum- 
bia. They did guard duty at Harper's Ferry 
and in the Shenandoah valley, and partici- 
pated in the battles of Snicker's Gap, Cedar 
Creek, Monocacy Junction and Bolivar 
Heights, but Mr. Welch was never wounded 
or captured by the enemy. On the expira- 
tion of his term of enlistment he was dis- 
charged September 10, 1864, and returned 
home. Soon afterward he went to Marshall 
county, Iowa, where on a farm he exten- 
sively engaged in sheep raising for nine 
years, having a flock of eight hundred. The 
following year he spent in Colorado, and in 
187s he came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
and located on his present homestead, living 
at first in a sod house with no floor. He 
has made all of the improvements upon the 
place, including the erection of an attractive 
residence in 1887, which he surrounded by 
beautiful shrubs and shade trees. The farm, 
comprising two hundred and forty acres, is 
all under a high state of cultivation, and 
with the exception of three years spent in 
Osceola, it has always been his home since 
locating thereon in 1875. 

On the 4th of March, 1875, Mr. Welch 
was united in marriage with Miss Emily T. 
Lodge, who was born in Columbiana county, 
Ohio, January 3, 1847, a daughter of Evan 
and Tirzah (Hale) Lodge, the former a na- 
tive of Virginia, the latter of Ohio. Her 
father, who was a farmer by occupation, re- 
moved to the Buckeye state, and died in 




HON, WILLIAM WELCH. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



317 



Columbiana county, in March, 1893, his 
wife dying in the same county, July 31, 
1888. Five of their eight children are still 
living: David H., Mrs. Lizzie A. Adams, 
Mrs. Welch, Alice and Mrs. Virginia Wat- 
son. Two sons were soldiers of the Civil 
war: Abel C. , who died November 9, 
1876; and Jonathan M., who died in Iowa, 
May 30, 1889. Mrs. Welch was reared on 
her father's homestead, received a good ed- 
ucation in the schools of Ohio, and for a 
time successfully engaged in teaching. She 
came to Nebraska in 1874. By her mar- 
riage she become the mother of three 
children: 'Percy Gray, born August 29, 
1876; died January 5, 1S84; Herman Lodge, 
born May 15, 1878; and Arthur Evan, born 
November 18, 1880. 

Originally Mr. Welch was a Republican 
in politics, and supported Abraham Lincoln 
for the presidency, but is now identified 
with the Peoples' party, and takes quite an 
active and prominent part in political mat- 
ters. In the fall of 1896 he was elected to 
the state legislature, and in the thirty-ninth 
assembly was a member of the committee 
on acts and expenditures, mines and min- 
ing, universities and normal schools, live 
stock and grazing. He is always courteous, 
kindly and affable, and those who know 
him personally have for him high regard. 
It is to such enterprising and progressive 
men as Mr. Welch that the west owes its 
prosperity, its rapid progress and its ad- 
vancement. 



JOHN W. BENNETT.— The subject of 
this sketch is not only one of the lead- 
ing farmers of New York township, but is a 
prominent and influential man in political 
and social circles in York county, and for 
two terms he held the office of treasurer of 
that county. He was born in Clark county, 
Indiana, April 6, 1842, a son of Marcus F. 
and Sarah (Swartz) Bennett. 



Marcus F. Bennett, our subject's father, 
was born in North Carolina, was a farmer 
by occupation, and in 1826 he moved to In- 
diana and settled in Clark county. This he 
made his home until 1852, when he moved 
from thence to Adams county, Illinois, and 
made that his home until 1882, when he 
came to Nebraska. He died at Waco, 
York county, June 13, 1897, at the age of 
eighty-five years. His wife was born in 
Indiana, and is still living. They were the 
parents of a family of eleven children, ten 
of whom are living, and of whom our sub- 
ject is third in the order of birth. 

John W. Bennett, the subject of this 
sketch, was educated in the common schools 
of Indiana and Illinois, and began work on 
a farm at the age of ten years. He made 
his home with his parents until twenty-two 
years of age, and then began life on his own 
responsibility in Illinois. He made his 
home in this state until 1878 and then 
moved to York county, Nebraska, and settled 
at Waco, where he was engaged in farming 
and operating a lumber yard for about two 
years. He then bought his present farm in 
section one. New York township, placed 
upon it the buildings and other improve- 
ments that go to make up a cosy home and 
a valuable farm, and his estate will compare 
favorably with the best farms in this section 
of the country. Here Mr. Bennett carried 
on a general farming and stockraising busi- 
ness until 1882, when he was elected treas- 
urer of York county. After performing the 
duties of that office for a period of four 
years, he again resumed his farming and 
has since devoted his attention to that line 
of work, with the exception of the year 
1 891, which he spent in California. 

Mr. Bennett was married in Illinois in 
1872, to Miss Tillie M. Kendig. She is a 
native of the state of Pennsylvania, and her 
parents, Henry and Mary J. (Walters) Ken- 
dig, were both natives of the same state, 
and were of German descent. They lived 



318 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and died in their native state. Mr. and 
Mrs. Bennett are the parents of a family of 
two sons, Ezra L. and Elton A. The en- 
tire family are members of the Methodist 
church. In politics our subject is identified 
with the Republican party, and has become 
one of the leaders in that organization in 
the county in which he lives. Besides serv- 
ing as treasurer of York county, Mr. Ben- 
nett has held some of the minor offices, 
among them that of supervisor of New 
York township. He has been a member of 
the Masonic fraternity for the past twenty- 
eight years, and for the past nine years he 
has been a Knight Templar in that organi- 
zation. He also affiliates with the Modern 
Woodmen of America. Mr. Bennett has 
been quite successful both as a farmer and 
in his political career and has accumulated 
considerable means, but best of all he has 
made a wide acquaintance and enjoys the 
respect and estaem of all who know him. 



PHILIP BOHL, who is worthy of more 
than a mere mention in a work of this 
nature, is an "Ohio man" in the broadest 
and best sense of that term. He arrived 
in this section of the country when a large 
portion of the soil of York county still rest- 
ed undisturbed by the plowshare, and while 
the primitive dwellings of the settlers were 
few and far between. The township of 
Morton, in which he located, gladly wel- 
comed within its precincts every man who 
was blessed with ambition and brains. In 
this category the subject of this sketch was 
placed at once, and he proved himself equal 
the demands made upon him. 

The childhood home of Mr. Bohl was in 
Washington county, Ohio, where his birth 
occurred February 17, 1847. His parents, 
Nicholas and Mary (Gettle) Bohl, were 
natives of Germany and on coming to the 
United States, in 1834, settled in Washing- 
ton county, Ohio, where the father followed 



farming throughout his active business life. 
He is still living at the advanced age of 
eighty-two years, honored and respected 
by all who know him, but the mother de- 
parted this life in 1897. To them were 
born four sons, of whom three are still liv- 
ing, and two now make their home in Ne- 
braska. 

Reared in Ohio, Philip Bohl obtained 
his education in the public schools of that 
state, and as soon as large enough he began 
to assist in the work of the home farm, re- 
maining with his parents until he attained 
his majority. In 1868 heremoved to Moul- 
trie county, Illinois, where he continued to 
reside until 1871, when he came to York 
county, Nebraske, and took up a homestead 
on section 30, Morton township. He soon 
sold that place however, and purchased his 
present farm on section 28, the same town- 
ship, it being a pre-emption and entirely 
unimproved. He at once turned his atten- 
tion to breaking and cultivating his land, 
and now has one of the best farms in this 
locality. It comprises a quarter- section of 
land and is improved with good and sub- 
stantial buildings. 

In 1884 Mr. Bohl was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Jerusha Brooker, who was 
also born in Washington county, Ohio, and 
is a daughter of Morgan and Maria (Tro- 
bridge) Brooker, natives of Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, respectively. Both died in 
Ohio, the mother in 1873. Mrs. Bohl is an 
earnest member of the Lutheran church, 
and he belongs to the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and the Modern Brother- 
hood of America. In political sentiment 
he is a Democrat, but has never cared for 
the honors or emoluments of public office, 
preferring to give his entire time to his busi- 
ness interests. He is, however, a public 
spirited citizen, and never withholds his 
support from any object which he believes 
will prove of public benefit. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



319 



SWAN AUGUST ANDERSON occupies 
a prominent place as a well-to-do and 
progressive member of the farming com- 
munity of Butler county, in Franklin town- 
ship, of which he has an elegant farm of 
two hundred and forty acres in sections 31 
and 32. He located on this farm in 1881, 
when it was still all prairie, and since his 
residencehere he has placed upon it such im- 
provements as entitle it to rank among the 
finest pieces of property devoted to agri- 
cultural pursuits to be found throughout 
the community, and has been instrumental 
in developing and promoting the growth 
in this section of the county. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Sweden May 
16. 1839, and was reared on a farm in his 
native country. He received his education 
in the common schools of Sweden, and in 
1869 he migrated to America, and located 
at Burlington, Iowa. Here he worked for 
about two years on the railroad which was 
then being constructed, and lived on a 
boarding train, and also worked for a time 
in Missouri, on a railroad, with a team. 
He then went to Jefferson county and oth- 
er counties in Iowa, and has worked at 
different times in nearly every part of the 
state. He went to Butler county, Nebraska, 
in 1876, and located first in David City, 
where he lived five years. He then bought 
the farm he now occupies, moved to it, 
furnished it with a complete line of improve- 
ments and began farming, and in connec- 
tion with that line of work he has been ex- 
tensively engaged in raising, buying and 
shipping stock for sixteen years. He is 
one of the most systematic and successful 
farmers in the county. 

June 26, 1866, our subject was married 
in Sweden to Miss Ida Anderson, also a na- 
tive of that country, and their wedded life 
has been blessed by the presence of a fam- 
ily of four children, as follow: Ollie, wife 
of Peter Johnson, of Olive township, Butler 
county, Nebraska; Arthur Roland, at home; 



Albert and John, deceased. Politically our 
subject is a Republican. He is a member 
of the Lutheran church and was one of the 
organizers of the society in the community 
in which he lives, and helped, both in a 
financial sense and otherwise, in the erec- 
tion of the church building. 

Mr. Anderson's father, Andrew Pearson, 
was also a native of Sweden, and a farmer 
by occupation. He was for four years judge 
of the court in Sweden, and died in his 
native country when our subject was but 
eleven years of age. His wife, Christeena 
(Swanson) Pearson, also a native of Sweden, 
died at the age of fifty-six years, leaving a 
family of seven children, all of whom grew 
to maturity and were married, and three of 
whom are still living, viz: John is living 
in the old country ; Gus A. is living in 
Vermillion county, Illinois; and Swan Au- 
gust, the subject of this sketch. 



HON. R. S. NORVAL easily takes 
rank among the first lawyers of Sew- 
ard county, and for many years has exer- 
cised a very large influence upon legal 
transactions in this part of the state. He 
has his office in Seward, but his patronage 
comes from widely extended sources, and his 
acquaintance throughout the state is very 
flattering to him both as a man and as a 
member of the bar. He has labored hard 
to master the intricacies of his profession, 
and it is the general judgment of the pub- 
lic that he is authority both in its practice 
and theory. 

Mr. Norval was born in Fulton county, 
Illinois, October 18, 1849, and is a son of 
Oliver and Mary J. (Sampson) Norval. His 
father came from North Carolina, and his 
mother from Maryland. They were farm- 
ers, and moved to Illinois in 1835 •" search 
of land for their growing family. The senior 
Norval was born in 1807, and died in Illi- 
nois at the very advanced age of eighty-four 



320 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



years. His mother still survives and makes 
her home on the Illinois farm where she 
has dwelt for more than sixty years. Her 
son, the theme of this sketch, was educated 
in Illinois, and finished his general study at 
Hedding College. He began the study of 
law in 1868, earning the money for his first 
law books by keeping cows for his father. 
An older brother, Judge Nerval, pursued 
his law studies at the same time, and they 
read law so widely and thoroughh' that they 
entered the law department of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan and finished their studies 
at the same time. R. S. Norval entered 
that celebrated institution in 1869, and was 
graduated with the class of 1871, and was 
admitted to the Michigan Bar at Detroit 
the same year. He hung out his shingle 
and practiced law for a few months in Illi- 
nois, but the country was so well filled up 
with old and established attorneys, that a 
young and briefless lawyer seemed to have 
little chance. In March, 1872, in company 
with his brother, he came to this county, and 
formed a partnership which continued un- 
broken until the election of the senior mem- 
ber of the firm to the district bench. 

Mr. Norval was married in 1873 to Miss 
Martha A. Gray, a talented and accom- 
plished lady. She was born in Illinois, but 
is devoted to her Nebraska home. They 
are the parents of six children, Eva M., 
Oliver G. , Ethel L., Leona, Richard S., 
Jr., and Mary M. These children have sur- 
vived the perils of infancy, and give every 
promise of growing up to honorable and 
useful lives. He is an adept in Masonic 
matters, and also has membership in the 
Ancient Order of the United Workmen, 
and the Modern Woodmen of America. In 
all political themes and questions he holds 
to every orthodox Republicanism, and has 
been honored by his party in many ways. 
He was a delegate at large from Nebraska 
to the national Republican convention at 
Chicago that nominated President Harrison 



in 1888. In 1889 he was sent to the state 
senate, and has repeatedly served on im- 
portant committees. He has been on the 
state committee, as well as the congressional 
and county organizations. He is familiar 
with all the details of commercial law. He 
helped organize the Beaver Crossing state 
bank, and was its first president, and for 
some years served as one of its directors. 
He has made a conspicuous success, and 
holds the esteem of the county as few men 
are able to do. 



PO. CHINDGREN.— No foreign ele- 
ment has become a more important 
part in our American citizenship than that 
furnished by Sweden. The emigrants from 
that land have brought with them to the 
new world the stability, enterprise and per- 
severance characteristic of their people and 
have fused thesequalities with the progress- 
iveness and indomitable spirit of the west. 
Mr. Chindgren is a representative of this 
class. He came to America a poor boy, 
hoping to benefit his financial condition, and 
his dreams of the future have been more 
than realized. He now occupies a very 
prominent place in the business circles of 
Polk county, and is also serving as chair- 
man of the board of county commissioners. 
He resides at Swede Home, where he con- 
ducts a large general store and also fills the 
office of postmaster. 

Mr. Chindgren was born in Sweden, 
November 29, 1S51, and in that country 
acquired his education in the common 
schools. It was in 1869 that he crossed 
the broad Atlantic, and after spending one 
year in Galesburg, Illinois, went south, and 
for three years was engaged in farming on 
rented land in Mississippi and Tennessee. 
Returning to Illinois in 1872, he worked for 
different farmers in Mercer, Henry and 
Rock Island counties until coming to Polk 
county, Nebraska, in 1884, and embarked 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



321 



in business on his own account at Swede 
Home. He built a store room, but pur- 
chased his first bill of goods while sitting on 
his lumber pile before the erection of the 
building. He prospered in this undertaking, 
has added to his store, and now carries a 
large and well selected stock of general 
merchandise. Besides his village property 
he owns a well improved farm of eighty 
acres, and is secretary of the Scandinavian 
Mutual Insurance Company, which was or- 
ganized in 1887 with N. P. Hult as presi- 
dent; P. O. Chindgren, secretary; and C. H. 
Anderson, treasurer. 

In 1885 Mr. Chindgren married Miss 
Amelia Johnson, a native of Pennsylvania, 
and they have become the parents of five 
children: Milton D., Mabel E., Herman 
H. , Anton Benjamin and Reuben F. Mr. 
and Mrs. Chindgren are earnest members of 
the Swedish Augustana church, and he is a 
stanch supporter of the Republican party 
being the only representative of that party 
now in office in Polk county — a fact which 
plainly indicates his personal popularity 
and the confidence and trust reposed in 
him by his fellow citizens. In the fall of 
1895 he was elected a county commissioner 
and is now the efficient chairman of the 
board. He has also served as postmaster of 
Swede Home since July 19, 1884, and his 
name is honorably and inseparably con- 
nected with the history of his town and 
county. 



JOHN N. DAVIS, M. D., one of the 
most prominent professional men of 
York, York county, was born in Shelby 
county, Indiana, June 28, 1844. His father 
moved to Burlington, Iowa, in the spring 
of 1845, in which state the Doctor was 
raised. At the beginning of the Civil war 
he enlisted first at Fairfield, but was re- 
jected because of his being under age. 
Later, on January i, 1864, 'he again enlisted 



when he was assigned to Company H,Thirty- 
si.xth Iowa Infantry, in which company 
and regiment he served until the close of 
the war. On April 25, 1864, he was 
taken a prisoner of war at Mark's Mills, 
Arkansas, and was taken to Tyler. Texas, 
where he was confined in a stockade; was 
exchanged at the mouth of Red river, 
February 26, 1865, and was honorably dis- 
charged August 24, 1865, at DeVall's Bluff, 
Arkansas. Upon reaching his home, he im- 
mediately engaged in the general mercan- 
tile business, in which he continued for ten 
years. In the meantime he had taken up 
the study of medicine, and September i, 
1874, entered the medical department of 
the State University of Iowa. On the 23d 
of August, 1875, he engaged in the prac- 
tice of medicine in Carl, Adams county, 
Iowa, and on January 10, 1877, he was 
united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Dean, 
of Iowa City, one year and a half after en- 
tering his professional career. He con- 
tinued to practice medicine in Carl until 
September i, 1878, when he again returned 
to the State University for a second course 
in medicine, remaining in Iowa City until 
September, 1879. He then entered the 
Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and was graduated in June, 1880. 
He returned to Iowa City and remained 
there until June, 1882, when he came 
to York, Nebraska, where he located 
in August of the same year, and has 
since continued in the active practice of 
medicine and surgery. He served four years 
as councilman, and in April, 1894, was 
elected mayor of the city of York, serving 
one term. In 1893, he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the World's Congress of Eclectic 
Physicians and Surgeons at the World's 
Columbian Exposition. He is at the pres- 
ent time a member of the United States ex- 
amining board of surgeons. The Doctor 
has enjoyed a profitable business and is 
comfortably fixed with this world's goods. 



322 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He has been blessed with one son, Elroy 
D. , who is now in the clothing business, and 
one daughter, Iva D., eleven years of age, 
now in school. 

He is a member of the Masonic and In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows fraterni- 
ties, and also of the Robert Anderson Post, 
No. 32, of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, and has always been identified with the 
Republican party. The Doctor has always 
taken an interest in public affairs, and all 
matters affecting the welfare of the city 
and county, and all the honors and posi- 
tions bestowed upon him, have come with- 
out any solicitation on his part. 



FREDERICK P. BLOOM.— While some 
men's lives are quietly and peacefully 
spent within the influence of a home, others 
meet withthe adventures in the course of their 
life which read almost like a romance. Among 
the latter class is the subject of this sketch, 
whose early life was passed amidst exciting 
scenes from choice. Of late years, however, 
he has quietly engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits on section 30, Center township, Butler 
county, Nebraska, where he has made his 
home since 1880. 

Mr. Bloom was born on board a ship on 
the Atlantic ocean, in July, 1836, a son of 
John and Christina Blum, who were on 
their way from Germany to this country, 
where they intended to make their future 
home. For nine years after their arrival in 
the United States, they lived in Dayton, 
Ohio, and then removed to Randolph 
county, Indiana, locating near Winchester, 
where the mother died and was laid to rest. 
Our subject remained with his parents in 
that county until fifteen years of age, when 
he ran away from home, and to avoid being 
intercepted by them he changed his name 
from Blum to Bloom. 

Going to Kentucky his sympathies were 
soon enlisted in the interest of the slaves. 



and he aided many of them in making their 
escape to Canada. This was in 1854, and 
shortly afterward he went to Missouri, 
where he took an active part in the opera- 
tions of the "underground railroad," by 
which means many a poor negro managed 
to gain his freedom by being transferred 
from place to place until he crossed the Ca- 
nadian border. About this time the " bor- 
der ruffians " were making themselves very 
obnoxious to the Kansas free state people, 
and Mr. Bloom soon joined the forces of the 
latter under the noted John Brown, who was 
later executed for his raid on Harper's 
Ferry. Having secured a horse from the 
border ruffians, our subject was soon a lead- 
ing spirit in the adventurous band who did 
excellent service in the cause of freedom 
during the early days of Kansas history. In 
1858 he joined Albert Sydney Johnston on 
his trip to Salt Lake City against the In- 
dians after the Mountain Meadow massacre, 
and assisted in building Fort Douglas, west 
of Salt Lake, returning from this expedition 
to the Mississippi valley in the winter of 
1859-60. 

Mr. Bloom then joined his brother An- 
drew in Stark county, Illinois, where he 
remained until the war of the Rebellion 
broke out. He at once enlisted for three 
months in Company B, Nineteenth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and afterward re-en- 
listed for three years, his regiment being 
assigned to General Tourchen's command. 
His previous training was well calculated 
to make him a valuable soldier, and in the 
events that followed he demonstrated that 
he had been an apt pupil. He participa- 
ted in the battles of Huntsville, Stone Riv- 
er, Chickamauga, as well as numerous other 
engagements, always being found in the 
midst of the fight, where shot and shell 
were falling thickest. Though twice wounded 
and his health shattered by hardships 
and exposure, he remained with his regi- 
ment until the expiration of his term of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



323 



enlistment, being honorably discharged at 
Chicago, July 9, 1864. His is a war record 
of which he may be justly proud. Return- 
ing to Stark county, Illinois, he made his 
home there until coming to this state in 
1880, since which time he has owned and 
operated his present farm on section 30, 
Center township, Butler county. By all 
who know him, he is held in high regard, 
and his friends are many throughout his 
adopted county. 

On the 29th of September, 1864, Mr. 
Bloom was united in marriage with Miss 
Charlotte T. , daughter of Henry Curfman, 
a well-known farmer of Stark county, Illi- 
nois. They have become the parents of the 
following children, all born in Illinois with 
the exception of the youngest, Bertha P., 
who is a native of Butler county, Nebraska. 
In order of birth they are as follows: Laura 
Ann, now the wife of R. B. Cook, of Gar- 
rison, Butler county; Mary E., wife of 
Frank Howser, of David City; Josephine, 
wife of Ernest Cuplean, whose home is on 
section 30, Center township, Butler county; 
Nancy C, wife of Charles Kindler, of the 
same section; Henry Thomas, a resident of 
Garrison; and Charles Frederick, William 
M. and Bertha P., who are all at home. 



THOMAS ATKISON, deceased, was one 
of the honored pioneers and highly re- 
spected citizens of York county, his home 
farm being one hundred and twenty acres 
on sections 19 and 20, Lockridge township. 
He was born in Harrison county, Ohio, 
October 16, 1852, and was a son of Will- 
iam and Mary (Kyle) Atkison, farming 
people, who made their home in the Buck- 
eye state for many years. Later in life 
they removed to Iowa, but the father died 
in Illinois, in 1875, and the mother passed 
away at the home of our subject in Ne- 
braska, in 1S83.* Of their six children, 
five sons and one daughter, all are now 



deceased with the exception of one son and 
the daughter. 

Mr. Atkison, of this review, was prin- 
cipally reared and educated in Iowa, and 
he continued to aid his father in the opera- 
tion of the home farm until 1871, when he 
and a brother came to York county, Ne- 
braska, and homesteaded two quarter-sec- 
tions of laud on section 19 and 20, Lockridge 
township. These tracts were still in their 
primitive condition, but with characteristic 
energy our subject soon converted the raw 
prairie into highly cultivated fields and 
erected thereon a good set of farm build- 
ings. 

On the 8th of December, 1870, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Atkison and 
Miss Hannah Mosgrove, a native of Indiana, 
and a daughter of Watson and Hannah 
Mosgrove, who at an early day emigrated 
to Iowa and later came to York county, 
Nebraska. To Mr. and Mrs. Atkison 
were born two children, Robert A. and 
Cordelia O., both living. The husband 
and father died in November, 1882, leaving 
many friends as well as his immediate 
family to mourn his loss. He was a Dem- 
ocrat in politics and most creditably served 
as road supervisor in his township for five 
years. Religiously he was identified with 
the United Brethren church, and his life 
was ever in harmony with his professions. 
He supported all feasible plans for the 
moral and intellectual advancement of his 
community, and was also an important 
factor in promoting the welfare of the 
township and county. A valued citizen, a 
kind father and affectionate husband, his 
memory is cherished and perpetuated by all. 



DAVID WARNER, an honored veteran 
of the Civil war, and an enterprising 
and progressive farmer residing on section 
22, Chelsea township, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, was born on the 3d of December, 



824 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1828, in Broome county. New York, a son 
of S. S. and Eliza (Doolittle) Warner, the 
former of Welch and the latter of Irish 
descent. His paternal grandparents were 
David and Abigail (Hoyt) Warner, and his 

paternal grandparents were Isaac and 

(Hawley) Doolittle, all of whom were farm- 
ing people. 

Mr. Warner's educational advantages 
were limited to a few months' attendance at 
the district schools, but his business train- 
ing was not so limited, for he worked hard 
upon his father's farm until eighteen years 
of age and then learned the cooper's trade, 
spending a year in the shop of Ammi Palm- 
er. Afterward he worked at his trade 
and also spent some time in the woods, get- 
ting out cooper's supplies. On the 6th of 
February, 1850, he led to the marriage alter 
Miss Lavina A. Kark, who was born in 
Broome county. New York, March 27, 1828, 
a daughter of John and Melissa (Negas) 
Kark, natives of Holland and Massachu- 
setts, respectively. Her paternal grandpar- 
ents were John and Hester Kark. To our 
subject and his wife were born four children, 
of whom three are still living: Eliza M., 
Abbie P. and Walter D. All are now married 
and have homes of their own. 

After his marriage Mr. Warner pur- 
chased fifteen acres of land in his native 
county, erected a shop thereon, and 
eighteen months later embarked in the 
coopering business on his own account. At 
the end of two years he moved his shop to 
a little town near by, called New Ohio, but 
sold out eight months later and bought a 
few acres of land, which he commenced to 
operate. Thinking to better his condition, 
he soon disposed of that place and rented 
his father-in-law's farm for one year. Leav- 
ing his wife with her parents he made a 
trip to Illinois, and on his return home 
bought forty acres of land and embarked in 
farming on a more extensive scale. Two 
years later he again sold out and removed 



with his family to Ridgefield, McHenry 
county, Illinois, where he was in the employ 
of a farmer for one year. 

When the rebels opened fire on Fort 
Sumter, he with thousands of others in the 
north came forward as one man to the res- 
cue of the nation. He enlisted in Company 
B, Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and was sworn into the United States 
service August 27, 1861. From Camp 
Douglas the regiment proceeded to St. 
Louis, and finally was sent in pursuit of 
General Price in Missouri. While the reg- 
iment was on guard duty, June 9, 1862, 
Mr. Warner was wounded by the accidental 
discharge of his gun and the fingers of his 
left hand were so badly lacerated that he 
was sent to the field hospital, later to 
Jefferson Barracks, and from there to the 
convalescent hospital at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, where the examining physician de- 
clared him unfit for further service and he 
was discharged November 14, 1862. Re- 
turning home he embarked in the cooperage 
business at Ridgefield, Illinois, but in 
February, 1864, he again enlisted, this 
time in the Elgin Battery, Fifth Independ- 
ent Light Artillery, which he joined at 
Knoxville, Tennessee. From there they 
to Strawberry Plains, and on to Washing- 
ton, D. C, by way of Louisville, Kentucky, 
then down the Potomac to Morehead City, 
and from there to Kingston, North Carolina. 
They were in camp at Goldsboro, that 
state, until General Sherman came up, and 
with his army started in pursuit of John- 
ston. When the latter surrendered they 
were among those appointed by Sherman to 
secure the arms of the prisoners, and were 
afterward sent to preserve order among the 
citizens of Charlotte, remaining there until 
July 4, when Captain Wood was ordered to 
fire the national salute at twelve o'clock 
noon, which was done. The battery then 
went to Chicago, where it was mustered out 
the same month in 1865. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



325 



Mr. Warner resumed work at his trade 
on his return to Ridgefield, where he made 
his home until 1868, and then moved to 
Iowa, but the 2nd of November, 1872, 
found him located on a farm in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, where he has since re- 
sided. He has a good farm of eighty acres 
under excellent cultivation and well im- 
proved with good buildings, and as an agri- 
culturalist he has met with a well deserved 
success. He has taken quite an active and 
prominent part in local politics, and has 
most acceptably filled the offices of consta- 
ble and road overseer. Religiously he and 
his wife and two children are members of 
the Methodist church, two miles east of 
their farm, and he is now serving as trustee 
of the same. His career has ever been such 
as to commend him to the confidence and 
esteem of all with whom he has come in 
contact, and he has a host of warm friends 
in his adopted county. 



SAMUEL B. FLICIv.— One of the in- 
fluential members of the farming com- 
munity of Arborville township, York county, 
and one of its most highly esteemed citizens, is 
the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. 
He is entirely a self-made man in the truest 
sense of the term, having been the only 
architect of his own fortunes. On his ar- 
rival in the county his cash capital amounted 
to but five dollars, but he has steadily pros- 
pered, aided only by his own strong arms, 
indomitable energy and laudable ambition. 
Mr. Flick was born in Rockingham 
county, Virginia, February 29, 1844, and is 
a son of James and Margaret (Clinefilter) 
Flick, also natives of the Old Dominion. 
His paternal grandparents were David and 
Margaret (Van Pelt) Flick, who, like the 
parents of our subject, lived and died in 
Rockingham county. The father and 
grandfather were both shoemakers by trade, 
and followed that occupation as a life work. 

19 



Samuel B. Flick, who is the third in 
order of birth in a family of eleven children, 
was reared and educated in his native 
state, and at an early age began to engage 
in agricultural pursuits. In 1861 he joined 
the Confederate army as a member of Com- 
pany A, First Virginia Volunteer Infantry, 
and was in the service for two years and 
two months, participating in the battles of 
Brady Station, Upperville, \'irginia, and 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Later he be- 
longed to the Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, 
and with that regiment took part in the bat- 
tle of Williamsport and many smaller en- 
gagements, but fortunately escaped without 
wounds. In 1863 he deserted the Con- 
federate army, and made his way to Peters- 
burg, West Virginia, where he took the 
oath of allegiance to the United States. 

For fifteen months Mr. Flick lived in 
West Virginia, the following three years 
were passed in Ohio, whence he went to 
Indiana, and for five years he made his 
home in Logan county, Illinois, following 
farming all this time. In the fall of 1871 
he came to York county, Nebraska, and 
filed a claim on section 30, Arborville town- 
ship. He drove across the country from 
Logan county, Illinois, and back again, and 
in the spring of the following year brought 
his family to their new home. For nine- 
teen years they lived in a sod house, but 
now have a pleasant frame residence, which 
is surrounded by good barns and outbuild- 
ings, all models of convenience. 

In Huntington county, Indiana, Mr. 
Flick was married, in 1868, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Christian. Her parents, John and 
Nancy (Goodyear) Christian, had removed 
from Pennsylvania to Ohio at an early day, 
but for many years have made their home 
in Huntington county, Indiana, where they 
are still numbered among the highly re- 
spected and honored citizens. Mr. and 
Mrs. Flick have a family of si.x children: 
Arnett F., now Mrs. H. W. Hitchcock; 



326 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Verna B. ; Charles W. ; Samuel L. ; Bertha 
A. and Elizabeth C, all still living. The 
parents are consistent members of the 
Church of Christ, and socially Mr. Flick 
belongs to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. Politically he is a Populist, 
and he has been honored with the offices of 
justice of the peace and township super- 
visor, which he filled with credit to himself 
and to the entire satisfaction of all con- 
cerned. 



HON. THOMAS WOLFE, president of 
the First National Bank, of David 
City, Nebraska, was born in Germany near 
the Rhine, May i8, 1846, came with his 
parents to America in 1852 and located in 
Marquette, Wisconsin, from whence they 
removed to Marathon county, Wisconsin, 
in 1854. At the age of ten years he en- 
tered the force of the Central Wisconsin, a 
weekly newspaper, at Wausau, Wisconsin, 
serving his time as a printer, afterwards re- 
moving to Milwaukee, where he worked on 
the Daily News, and in job offices; from 
thence he went to Chicago, where he was on 
the staff of the Tribune and Journal. On 
g©ing to New York later he was employed 
by the Evening Post and Tribune. He 
then took a westward course to Omaha in 
1864 where he worked on the Republican, 
Herald, Tribune, and Bee, being president 
of the Omaha Typographical Union for 
several years and was for some time superin- 
tendent of the Bee office. 

In 1874 during the printers' strike, al- 
though he was opposed to it, he went out 
with the union men to Seward, Nebraska, 
and bought out the Nebraska Reporter, 
which weekly he published for some eight 
years. 

After this time he removed to Butler 
county, where he was made president of 
the Butler County Bank, in David City, 



in 1877, and remained president of this 
bank until it was converted (1883) to the 
First National Bank, still being its president 
and holding the office ever since. 

Mr. Wolfe was connected with the Ne- 
braska Press Association for several years 
and was president of same from 1879 to 
1880. He represented Seward county in 
the legislature during the years of 1887 
and 1888, having been elected to this office 
by the Republican party, with which party 
he has ever been identified 

In 1893 he established the David City 
Public Library, which contains about four 
thousand volumes. He has been president 
and treasurer of the Butler County Agricult- 
ural Society and also of the Business Men's 
Association of that place. 

In 1896 he married Miss M. Madessa 
Guist, of Titusville, Pennsylvania. 



MYRON N. MYRICK, a worthy repre- 
sentative of the agricultural interests 
of Morton township, and one of the hon- 
ored pioneers of York county, was born on 
the 14th of September, 1841, in Williams- 
ton, Wayne county. New York, and is a son 
of Isaac N. and Mary (Gray) Myrick, na- 
tives of Vermont, where their respective 
parents spent their entire lives. The father 
of our subject, who was a stone cutter by 
trade, and also followed the vocation of 
farming, removed to New York in 1841, 
where he worked at his trade until going to 
Michigan in 1857. From Michigan he 
emigrated to Illinois in 1865, and settled in 
McDonough county, where his death oc- 
curred in 1879. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
were passed in the Empire state, where he 
attended school and also learned the stone 
cutter's trade. He engaged in clerking for 
some years, and later followed farming in 
Michigan and Illinois. In 1861 he re- 
sponded to his cotmtry's call for aid to as- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



327 



sist in putting down the rebellion, enlisting 
in Company B, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, and with that regiment served for 
ten months, principally in Missouri. In 
1864, he re-enlisted, this time becoming a 
member of Company I, One Hundred and 
Thirty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
and serving for five months, during which 
time he participated in the battle of Mem- 
phis and many smaller engagements. Re- 
turning to Illinois, he made that state his 
home until the fall of 1872, when he came 
to York county, Nebraska, and took up a 
homestead on section 4, Morton township. 
The following year he located thereon, and 
in 1874 erected a frame house into which he 
moved his family. To the cultivation and 
improvement of his land he at once turned 
his attention, and in his farming operations 
has met with excellent success, now owning 
six hundred acres of rich and arable land 
under a high state of cultivation. He has 
erected thereon one of the best sets of farm 
buildings to be found in the township, and 
in fact the place is one of the model farms 
of the county. In connection with general 
farming he is also interested in stock raising 
and finds this branch of his business quite 
profitable. On November 20, 1864, in Illi- 
nois, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. 
Myrick and Miss Celestia P. Dickey, a 
daughter of James and Laura (Russell) 
Dickey, natives of Ohio. Her father now 
makes his home in York county, Nebraska. 
Mr. and Mrs. Myrick have a family of five 
daughters, namely: Mary L. , wife of S. 
Thomas; Myra G., wife of Ed Borden; 
Mora O., wife of J. Schultz; Meta D., wife 
of Clyde Stewart; and Mina I. 

Mr. Myrick takes quite an active interest 
in fraternal matters and is a prominent 
member of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
the Modern Woodmen of America, the 
Modern Brotherhood of America, the De- 
gree of Honor, and the Home Forum. In 



political sentiment he is an ardent Repub- 
lican, and has most capably filled the offices 
of justice of the peace, town clerk for three 
terms, and assessor for two terms. His en- 
ergy and industry are proverbial, and he is 
a man who has beeen instrumental in pro- 
moting the progress and prosperity of the 
county. 



WILLIAM O. BACKLUND.— Promi- 
nent among the early settlers of Polk 
county, who have witnessed the marvelous 
development of this section of the state 
during the past quarter of a century, and 
who have, by honest toil and industry, suc- 
ceeded in acquiring a competence, is the 
gentleman whose name introduces this 
sketch. He owns and operates an excellent 
farm on section 4, township 13, range 2, 
His father, Andrew Backlund, was born in 
Ockelbo, Yestrikland, Sweden, in 1827, and 
in that country married Miss Margaretta 
Shostrom, who was born in Yestrikland, in 
1830. In 1856 they emigrated to the 
United States and located in Knox county, 
Illinois, where the father worked as a farm 
hand for a few years. Purchasing a horse, 
he and another man, who also owned one 
horse, rented a farm and in partnership 
conducted it for a time. Afterward he 
rented a farm alone for five years, and then 
purchased a tract of eighty acres in Knox 
county, of a Mr. Rhodes, making his home 
upon that place for seven years. Selling 
his farm he came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
in 1 87 1, and bought the south half of sec- 
tion 5, township 13, range 2, but did not 
bring his family to their new home until the 
loth of April, 1873. They arrived just two 
days before the great snow storm of that 
year. The horses, which had been left out- 
side tied to the wagon were covered with 
sleet and snow, and were afterward crowded 
into George Matson's stable, three in a stall, 
with no hay. The family endured many 



328 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



hardships and privations during those early 
pioneer days. On coming here they trav- 
eled from Columbus to Mr. Matson's home, 
a distance of thirty miles, after dark. Upon 
the north half of the northwest quarter of 
section 4, Andrew Backlund built a frame 
barn, which he divided into two rooms, 
keeping the horses in the east half, while he 
and his family occupied the west half and 
slept in the loft. In May they began the 
erection of a house, hauling all the lumber 
from Seward, a distance of forty miles. This 
dwelling is still the hqme of our subject, but 
the barn was destroyed by lightning in March 
1884. The first year of his residence here 
the father broke twenty acres of his land 
and raised a small crop of oats and sod 
corn; the following year raised four hundred 
bushels of wheat, but the grasshoppers de- 
stroyed all his corn. Upon this place the 
father lived until 1889, and after making his 
home for one year with his children, he re- 
moved to Stromsburg, having traded some 
property in California for property in that 
place. He died there February 26, 1892, 
and his widow is still a resident of Stroms- 
burg. They were earnest and faithful mem- 
bers of the Baptist church, in which he 
served as deacon for many years. 

The subject of this sketch is the second 
in order of birth in the family of four chil- 
dren, the others being as follows: Carrie 
is the wife of John Holinquist, of Stroms- 
burg, and has four children; Nellie, wife of 
Emil Carlson; Lucinda; Ernest and Lulu. 
Helen is the wife of Joseph Carlson, of 
township 13, Polk county, and has six chil- 
dren — Lenora, William, Isadore, Ollie, 
Grant and Erma. Rebecca is the wife of 
Rev. Charles J. Almquist, of Arthur, Iowa, 
and they have an adopted daughter — 
Esther. 

William O. Backlund was born in Wet- 
more, Knox county, Illinois, January 20, 
1859, and obtained the greater part ot his 
education in that state, though he pursued 



his studies for a short time in a dark and 
dismal sod school-house in Polk county after 
coming to this state. He was married, 
January 27, 1885, to Miss Ida C. Adamson, 
a native of Sweden, and they have become 
the parents of five children: Alvin L. , 
Leonard E., Theodore W. , Elvira C. and 
Victor F. 

For four years after his marriage Mr. 
Backlund rented his father's farm, on sec- 
tion 4, and then returned to the old home- 
stead where he still continued to reside. He 
now owns two hundred acres, all under cul- 
tivation with exception of forty acres, and im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings. 
For six years he has been interested in 
stock raising, and now has a fine herd of 
nineteen head of thoroughbred shorthorn 
cattle. He is a member of the Scandina- 
vian Mutual Insurance Company, of Polk 
county, and for a time was district mana- 
ger of the same society in Hamilton county. 
Originally he was a Republican in politics, 
but now gives his support to the principles 
of the Prohibition party, and he and his 
wife are leading members of and active 
workers in the Swedish Baptist Church at 
Stromsburg, of which he is now serving as 
trustee. For six years Mr. Backlund has 
been a member of the school-board in dis- 
trict No. 56, was treasurer of the same and 
has also been road overseer in his precinct. 
As a citizen, friend and neighbor he is true 
to every duty, and justly merits the esteem 
in which he is held. 



AUGUST C. JUNGE is one of the prom- 
inent agriculturists of Thaj'er town- 
ship, York county, Nebraska. The estate 
which he occupies is located on section 20, 
and consists of five hundred and forty acres 
of fine arable land. It presents a very fine 
appearance, being adorned with all the 
modern improvements, and is conducted 
strictly on modern and scientific principles 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



329 



of agriculture. Mr. Junge came to Thayer 
township at a very early day, and has been 
actively engaged in furthering any project 
that would promote the growth of develop- 
ment of the resources of the county. 

Mr. Junge is a son of John H. and 
Christina (Kohlmyer) Junge, who were both 
natives of Germany. The father followed 
agricultural pursuits during life, though 
both he and his wife are now dead. Mr. 
Junge, the subject of this sketch, was born 
in Hanover, Germany in 1840. He received 
his education in the land of his birth, and 
worked at home with his father until 1866, 
when he served for a short time in the 
German Army, during the Franco-Prussian 
war. In 1867 he emigrated to America, 
landed at New York, and came direct to 
Cook county, Illinois, from whence he pro- 
ceeded to Rock Island county, where some 
of his relatives resided. He made that 
place his home for five years, following 
general farming as a means of livelihood, 
both as a laborer and a renter. In 1872 he 
I located in York county, Nebraska, and took 
up a homestead on section 20, of Thayer 
township. He is now the proprietor of one 
of the finest farms in the county, which 
contains five hundred and forty acres of 
fine land. When Mr. Junge took possession 
of his property he built a sod house, in 
which he lived for six years, when he 
erected a more commodious dwelling. 

Mr. Junge was wedded in 1868, to Miss 
Dorothea Conrad, who was a native of 
Prussia, Germany and a daughter of God- 
fred and Dorothy (Betcher) Conrad. She 
came to the United States in 1868 with her 
parents. They brought in all four children 
with them, two sons and two daughters, 
and they first located in Illnois, where they 
resided four years. In 1872 they removed 
to York county, Nebraska, where they 
took up a homestead, upon which they 
made their home until 1S84. In 1894 
Mrs. Conrad removed to Bates county, 



Missouri, where she now lives in company 
with one son, her husband having died in 
1884. 

Mr. and Mrs. Junge are the parents of 
ten children, of whom we have the follow- 
ing record: William, Louis, August W., 
Mary S., now Mrs. Hoffman, Henry G., 
Albert N., Anna P. A., Godfred J., John A. 
O., and Carl Edward, all of whom are now 
living. Mr. and Mrs. Junge are members 
in good standing of the German Lutheran 
church. He is a firm believer in the princi- 
ples of the Republican party, and served 
four years as road supervisor. He has 
been very successful in his life work, and is 
now enjoying the fruits of his labor, sur- 
rounded by his happy family, for whom he 
has provided a good home. He is well 
known and highly respected by all for his 
genial and pleasant manner. 



ROBERT N. McGINNIS, deceased, was 
one of the pioneer settlers of York 
county, and an honored veteran of the war 
of the Rebellion. In the hour of his coun- 
try's peril he went forth to do battle for the 
starry banner and the cause it represented, 
and in times of peace was alike faithful to 
his duties of citizenship. In business cir- 
cles he was esteemed for his honesty and in 
social life his genuine worth won him the 
high regard of all with whom he was asso- 
ciated. 

Mr. McGinnis was a native of Cham- 
paign county, Ohio, born on the 9th of Jan- 
uary, 1833, and was a son of Thomas and 
Lydia (Stevens) McGinnis, both of whom 
were natives of Kentucky, whence they re- 
moved to the Buckeye state. The father, 
however, spent his last days in York coun- 
ty, Nebraska. The subject of this memoir 
was reared and educated in the state of his 
nativity and throughout his entire life fol- 
lowed the occupation of farming. During 
the Civil war, prompted by a spirit of pat- 



330 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



riotism, he offered his services to the govern- 
ment, enlisting in 1861 as a member of 
Company F, Twentieth Ohio Volunteer In- 
fantry, with which command he served for 
three years. He participated in many im- 
portant engagements, including the battles 
of Fort Donelson, Shilo, Stone river, 
Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, the siege 
of Atlanta and was v/ith Sherman on the 
celebrated march to the sea. Although he 
saw much arduous service he escaped with- 
out wounds, and with an honorable military 
record returned to his Ohio home. 

In 1867 Mr. McGinnis removed to Logan 
county, Illinois, where he carried on agri- 
cultural pursuits until the spring of 1872, — 
the date of his arrival in York county. He 
was one of the first settlers of Arborville 
township and from that time until his death 
took a very active and important part in its 
development and advancement. He secured 
a homestead on section 20 and for several 
years resided in a sod house. Acre after 
acre of his farm was placed under the plow 
until his property became one of the most 
valuable and desirable farms in the entire 
country and gave evidence of the thrift and 
enterprise of the owner, who was numbered 
among the most progressive agriculturists 
of the region. His life was a busy and use- 
ful one and he belonged to that class of en- 
ergetic, wide-awake men to whom the ad- 
vancement of a community is always due. 

In 1856, in Ohio, was celebrated the 
marriage of Mr. McGinnis and Miss Caro- 
line Dorsey. They became the parents of 
seven children: Hannah C. , Cynthia A., 
Thomas S., Charles S., Martha N., Ira B. 
and Harley A. Mr. McGinnis was a con- 
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, to which his widow also belongs. 
He continued his association with his old 
army comrades through his membership in 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and gave 
his political support to the Republican party, 
but never sought or desired the honors or 



emoluments of public office. His business 
interests were managed with care, and his 
industry, straightforward dealing and keen 
discrimination brought to him a very com- 
fortable competence. He passed away in 
1893 and all who knew him mourned the 
loss of one whom they had learned to re- 
spect and esteem. 



HON. JOHN B. MITCHELL, a real 
estate and insurance agent of Milford, 
Nebraska, is one of the leaders of the Dem- 
ocratic party in his section, his large ac- 
quaintance and unbounded popularity giving 
him an influential following, while his 
shrewd judgment of men and affairs make 
his counsel of value in all important move- 
ments. In business circles he also takes a 
foremost rank. 

Mr. Mitchell was born in Preble county, 
Ohio, in 1827, a son of Robert and Louisa 
Mitchell, who were of Scotch and Irish 
descent, and soon after the war of 1812 re- 
moved from Virginia to Ohio. Our subject's 
early life was spent upon a farm, but he was 
provided with more than ordinary educa- 
tional advantages, attending first the public 
schools, and later a select school in Cam- 
bridge, Indiana. Subsequently he also took 
a course of lectures at Rush Medical Col- 
lege, Chicago. He was married in Ohio, 
in 1847, to Miss Alciania Hawley, of New 
York state, a daughter of John C. and Eliza- 
beth (Heath) Hawley. The mother was a 
descendant of Lord Heath, of England. 
Four children grace this union: Jeannette 
and Alice, both born in Ohio; and Albert 
R. and Emma, born in Illinois. The only 
son is now a prominent physician of Lincoln, 
Nebraska. 

In 1855, Mr. Mitchell removed to Henry 
county, Illinois, where he soon became 
widely and favorably known. There he en- 
listed, in 1862, in Company C, One Hun- 
dred and Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



331 



and was mustered into service as second 
lieutenant, being promoted in May, 1863, 
to the rank of captain for meritorious serv- 
ice at Monticello, Kentucky, which was his 
first actual engagement. He demonstrated 
his worthiness in more than twenty-five hard- 
fought battles, including the following: 
Monticello, May i, 1863; Richmond, Ken- 
tucky, August 10; Calhoun, Tennessee, 
November 12; Campbell Station, Novem- 
ber 16; Knoxville, November 17 and 18; 
Bean Station, November 15; Kelley's Ford, 
Janunry 4, 1864; Massey Creek, January 15, 
(all in Tennessee); Resaca, Georgia, May 
14 and 15; New Hope Church, June 17; 
Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 19; Lost 
Mountain, June 21; Kenesaw Mountain, 
June 27; East Point, Georgia, August 6; 
Utoy Creek, Georgia, August 8, Jonesboro, 
Georgia, August 31; Columbia, Tennessee, 
November 30; Franklin, Tennessee, Novem- 
ber 30; Nashville, December 14, 15, and 16; 
Fort Anderson, Old Town and Wilmington, 
North Carolina, all in February, 1865; and 
Goldsboro and Raleigh in March, 1865. He 
did gallant and effective service in the At- 
lanta campaign, and during a charge at 
Knoxville, Tennessee, was wounded while 
at the head of his company, against superior 
forces, receiving favorable comment for his 
bravery. He was again wounded at Frank- 
lin, Tennessee, and when the war was over 
he was mustered out at Greensboro, North 
Carolina, in 1865. being discharged at 
Chicago. 

Returning to his home in Henry county, 
Illinois, Mr. Mitchell continued to reside in 
that state until 1880, which year witnessed 
his arrival in Milford, Seward county, Ne- 
braska. Here he conducted a drug store 
for some time, but is now engaged in the in- 
surance and real estate business. He has 
taken an active and prominent part in polit- 
ical affairs, and in 1896 was elected as the 
Democratic candidate for the state legisla- 
ture, being elected by a large majority. He 



proved an able representative of his district, 
and was a popular and prominent member 
of the assembly. 



WESTON W. LA MUNYON has been 
a resident of Butler county, Nebras- 
ka, since February, 1871, and has a pleas- 
ing and remunerative farm on section 28, 
Summit township. He is a fit type of those 
strong and active men who have passed 
through the pioneer days, and live to enjoy 
the results of life in Nebraska. He is hon- 
est and upright, a man of integrity, and 
sure of the good opinion of all his neigh- 
bors. 

Mr. LaMunyon was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, and was taken by his parents to 
Michigan at the tender age of five years. 
There he remained under the parental roof 
tree until he had grown to early manhood. 
And there the outbreak of the Civil war 
found him ready to respond to his country's 
call for help. He was a member of Com- 
pany E, Twenty-ninth Michigan Volunteer 
Infantry. He was only sixteen years of 
age when he enlisted, but he was a brave 
soldier, and did good service for the Union. 
He returned to Shiawasse county, Michigan, 
when the war was over and after a number 
of years was the owner of considerable real 
estate. This he sold, and taking the pro- 
ceeds came into Nebraska, confident that 
such a move would greatly improve his con- 
ditions of success. Bringing his family with 
him he located in the Platte valley, where 
he spent his first winter. He found it de- 
lightful, and has never ceased to sound the 
praise of the Nebraska climate. Securing 
his land he built a frame house, and put up 
the most substantial improvements. And 
here he lives to-day in the enjoyment of the 
rewards of a well spent life. 

In his earlier life Mr. Munyon affiliated 
with the Republican party, but the reform 
movement of recent years found in him a 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



strong advocate. He was one of the lead- 
ing spirits in the organization of the Inde- 
pendent movement in this state, and was 
elected on the county board, where he has 
served for three years. He is now rounding 
out his second year in the responsible office 
of justice of the peace. Mrs. LaMunyon's 
maiden name was Mary J. Snedicker, and 
she is the mother of ten children, whose 
names are Nora, Hattie, Matie, Thomas 
H., Willard W. , Hawley, Bessie, Garrett 
Wyman, Orpha and Justis Howard. His 
father. Ace LaMunyon, was born in Rhode 
Island and is still living. 



CHARLES Y. WARREN is among the 
older men who have made a home in 
Hays township, and is a man of whom 
York county might well be proud. He lives 
on section 17, and has fought a good fight 
against all kinds of obstacles and discour- 
agements in the noble effort to win a home 
for his dear ones out of the wilderness. He 
has splendidly succeeded by dint of pa- 
tience, hard work and persistence. These 
three qualities are woven into the inner- 
most fibre of all successful pioneers, and 
the subject of this article shows them in 
large measure. 

Mr. Warren was born at Cold Springs, 
Putnam county. New York, January 23, 
1835, and is a son of John N. and Rachel 
(Davenport) Warren, who were also native 
to that state. His great-grandfather was 
that General Warren who was killed at the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and a cousin of his. 
General G. K. Warren, won high rank and 
honorable mention in the American Civil 
war. Samuel Warren, a brother of our 
subject, entered West Point at the same 
time. Both were wild and little inclined to 
the monotony of school work, and finding a 
favorable opportunity, ran away. The fu- 
ture general listened to the entreaties of 
his parents and returned to his duty, but 



Samuel was not open to persuasion, and 
would not return. John N. Warren was a 
blacksmith and was injured by a falling 
tree so seriously that his death soon result- 
ed. His son, the subject of this writing, 
was only seven years old at the time of his 
father's untimely passing. He remained in 
his native state until he was twenty-one 
years old, and then came to Leland, Illinois, 
where he engaged in the grain trade with 
an older brother. In the meantime his 
mother had settled in the neighboring town 
of Earlville, where she died in 1868. When 
the war broke out, Mr. Warren, true to the 
soldierly instincts of his blood, promptly 
enlisted in the Federal army. He was a 
member of Company I, Fourth Illinois Vol- 
unteer Cavalry, and served some thirteen 
months, when he was discharged on ac- 
count of serious disabilities. The Friday 
night before the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, while on scout duty, he was shot in the 
right knee, and had his horse killed under 
him. He recovered from the wound, but 
it left him lame for life. He had partici- 
pated in many important battles and skir- 
mishes, and knows the smell of gunpowder 
on the field of battle. 

After being discharged from the service, 
Mr. Warren returned to Illinois and en- 
tered into business at Earlville. He was 
married in 1867 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to 
Miss Emma A. Fuller. She was born at 
DePeyster, New York, and is a daughter of 
John and Marietta (Wilson) Fuller. Her 
parents were native to New York, and 
settled in Michigan at an early day. They 
came to LaSalle county, Illinois, in 1862, 
and engaged in farming. At a later date 
they removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where 
her father died June 7, 1881. Her mother 
passed away June 14, 1868. 

Two years after their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Warren established themselves on a 
farm in Champaign county, Illinois, which 
they bought and retained as their home for 




CHARLES Y. WARREN. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



335 



several years. In 1878 they came into Ne- 
braska and established themselves in Fill- 
more county. There they only raised one 
crop, and not feeling thoroughly satisfied 
with the location, abandoned it and en- 
tered York county, buying eighty acres 
where they are still living. Mr. Warren 
soon added a second eighty to his original 
purchase, and now owns and operates a 
well-appointed farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres. He has in addition to this 
some very desirable real estate in the village 
of Lushton. 

Mr. Warren is an active member of the 
C. W. Hays Post, No. 306, Grand Army of 
the Republic, at Lushton, and is its first 
junior vice-commander, and one of its 
charter members. He took a prominent 
part in the organization of the post, and has 
always exhibited an unselfish interest in its 
success. He was on the building commit- 
tee and did much to secure funds for the 
erection of a hall at Lushton for post pur- 
poses. The hall was recently dedicated 
with imposing and interesting ceremonies. 
Mr. Warren was president of the day, and 
took a leading part in the exercises. Mr. 
Warren is now serving the post as senior 
vice-commander, and is president of the 
board of trustees. He is the father of 
seven children, six of whom are living. 
Millie M., Mrs. S. Shaner, born November 
22, 1867, and Harry F. was born April 2, 
1870, and died January 13, 1873. The 
names and birth of the other children: 
Charles S., September 15, 1874; Pearl E. 
(now Mrs. Ohmar Hager), November 13, 
1876; Susie E,, July 21, 1879; Samuel J., 
October 23, 1881, and Alma J., August 12, 
1884. Mr. Warren is a man who com- 
mands respect wherever he is known. He 
was an old soldier of the union, and can 
feel a noble delight in the service he ren- 
dered in defending the union. He stands 
well in the community, and is known as a 
friend to all enterprises that look to the up- 



building and improvement of the neighbor- 
hood and county in which his home is found. 
His many friends will be pleased to find a 
portrait of this valued citizen on another 
page of this volume. 



AMANDA M. EDWARDS, superintend- 
ent of the Nebraska Industrial Home 
at Milford, is a woman whose influence for 
good is pronounced and far-reaching. The 
home over which she so successfully pre- 
sides is the outgrowth of certain plans and 
purposes of Mrs. Dr. Dinsmore, Mrs. C. H. 
Gere, Mrs. O. N. Humphrey and others of 
Omaha, and was founded and sustained for 
some years by the Woman's Associate 
Charities of Nebraska. It is now a state 
institution, the Board of Public Lands and 
Buildings having assumed full control in 
1897. The present officers of the home 
were appointed by the Governor, and rep- 
resent the most active redemptive agencies 
of the state. Mrs. Edwards is the superin- 
tendent, Dr. Alma L. Rowe is the Home 
physician and Miss Nellie Reed is the 
matron. Mrs. Clara E. Carscadden was 
the retiring superintendent, and did much 
to prepare the way for the recognition of 
the Home as worthy of the name and sup- 
port of the state. 

Mrs. Edwards was born in Montgomery 
county, New York, and is a daughter of 
Isaac and Sarah B. (Bingham) Mereness, of 
that county. Her mother was born in 
Montgomery county, New York, and both 
lines of ancestry run back to Connecticut. 
The ancestors on her father's side trace 
back to Holland and were among the oldest 
Dutch families in New York state. She re- 
ceived her literary education at Ames 
Academy and at the Whitestown Seminary, 
both celebrated New York schools, and she 
is deeply versed in many studies. She 
married DeWayne Palmer in 1870. He 
died at New Hartford, New York, in 1874, 



336 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and she maintained her widowed state for 
four years, when she became the wife of Ira 
Edwards. In 1885 she came to Fremont, 
Nebraska, and there she grew deeply inter- 
ested in stock raising, and under her care 
the East Grove Stock Farm grew into one 
of the famous institutions of the state. As 
its founder and superintendent she was 
widely known throughout the west, and her 
peculiar ability was recognized by her ap- 
pointment from this state as judge of 
awards at the World's Columbian Exhibi- 
tion, where she served with honor and 
distinction. She was the only lady serving 
on the board of agricultural products, farm 
buildings, etc. She is a prominent club 
woman, and is thoroughly advanced and 
progressive in all her ways. It is, however, 
as superintendent of the home that her very 
gifts of heart and brain are displayed. She 
has to deal with wayward dependent girls, 
who are repentant of their evil ways, but 
without resources. She is a fine disciplin- 
arian, and has great executive ability. Her 
sympathies are strong, and she gives her 
unfortunate wards a mother's care. Her 
only son, Everet S., has charge of the farm 
interests of the home, and is a stirring and 
energetic young man of good business qual- 
ities. 



WILLIAM MAPPS, one of York 
county's most successful agricultur- 
ists, was born in Cumberland county, Penn- 
sylvania, in the year 1827. 

His parents, William and Jane (High- 
lands) Mapps, were natives of New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania respectively. The father 
was a cooper by trade and followed that 
occupation, together with farming, during 
the greater part of his life. He went from 
Pennsylvania to Ohio, but after a few years 
he removed to Will county, Illinois, where 
he died at the age of eighty-two years. 

William Mapps, the subject of this 



sketch, was reared and educated in Ohio, 
learned the cooper's trade, and pursued that 
calling for several years in Ohio, and after- 
wards in Illinois, to which state he removed 
in 1848. During a considerable portion of 
the time he followed farming in Will county, 
Illinois, until 1889, when he removed to 
York county, Nebraska, where he had pur- 
chased land as early as 1880. On his ar- 
rival in the county he purchased additional 
lands, and has been very successful, being 
one of the best known men in the county, 
not only on account of his enterprise and 
business ability, but for all those qualities 
which go to make a popular man and good 
citizen. 

September 26, 1850, our subject was 
united in the bonds of wedlock with Eliza- 
beth Kendrick. Mrs. Mapps is a native of 
Indiana. To this congenial couple have 
been born five children, named as follows: 
Samuel T., a sketch of whom will be 
found elsewhere in this volume, John T., 
James W. , Elizabeth and Cora. 



FRANK KOZA is a well-to-do farmer and 
stock raiser on section 8, Skull Creek 
township, Butler county. He is one of the 
earliest settlers of the town, and has taken 
a deep interest in its welfare from the be- 
ginning. He has had many difficulties to 
contend against, and the experiences of a 
poverty-stricken Bohemian lad trying to 
make his way in a strange land are not 
very apt to be rose-colored. It was hard 
enough for those who were born to the soil 
and familiar with its laws and customs to 
make their way in the pioneer times. But 
it certainly required a peculiar heroism to 
undertake and accomplish what the subject 
of this sketch did naturally and easily, as it 
seems in the retrospect. 

Mr. Koza was born in Moravia, Austria, 
in December, 1856, where he passed the 
first fifteen years of his life. He had two 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



337 



younger brothers and five older sisters, and 
in 1 87 1, upon his father's death, these eight 
children accompanied their mother to Ne- 
braska. She saw an opportunity for them 
on this side of the ocean, and though it 
required the undergoing of every kind of 
privation it meant life and knowledge for 
all her children, and she was willing to face 
the dangers of the new world for the sake 
of what it meant in the future for those she 
loved. They were among the earliest set- 
tlers of Butler county, and endured all the 
privations and hardships that were incident 
to those pioneer days, but her action was 
justified in the very substantial prosperity 
and comfort which her boys and girls have 
attained. 

Mr. Koza is located on a fertile farm 
which he has won by his own exertions, and 
where he lives securely intrenched in the 
esteem of his neighbors. Miss Katie Flem- 
ing, a daughter of Frank Fleming, herself 
a pioneer, became his wife in 1885, and has 
borne him three children, Elizabeth, Annie 
and Louis. She is a good housewife and a 
kind neighbor. Mr. Koza has a farm of 
two hundred and eighty acres, which is pro- 
vided with all the modern appliances to 
lighten the labor of the husbandman arid 
increase the productiveness of the soil. He 
is a Republican in his political affiliations, 
and a member of the Catholic church in 
his religious associations. 



WILLIAM M. STRICKLER. —Mr. 
Strickler is a progressive and public 
spirited citizen of York county, and is gen- 
erally recognized as a representative farmer 
of the state. He is the proprietor of a 
farm containing one hundred and si.xty 
acres, which is a delight to the critical eye. 
He is still in the prime of life, and antici- 
pates many pleasant years to be spent by 
him and his family on his highly cultivated 
acres in section 16, Waco township. 



Mr. Strickler was born in Adams county, 
Illinois, January 25, 1852, and the house 
of his nativity was rudely constructed of 
logs with hickory puncheon floors. It was 
but a humble home, and yet it nourished a 
strong man who was able to make a home 
in the fertile regions of a state then given 
over to the Indian and the wild beast. 
His parents, Abraham and Lucinda (Wash- 
ington) Strickler, were both natives of 
Pennsylvania, and there they were mar- 
ried with no capital but trusting hearts and 
brave spirits with which to face the future. 
They loaded their simple outfit for house- 
keeping on a small boat, and pulled around 
to Quincy, Illinois, where they had selected 
a location about thirty miles northeast of 
the city. The young husband had no 
money to pay for cartage and he hoed corn 
at twenty-five cents a day, until he had ac- 
cumulated money enough for transporta- 
tion. He was industrious and persistent, 
and in a few years he became the owner of 
a small farm. In i859,however, he sold it, 
and removed to a stretch of raw prairie in 
the same county, where his money secured 
him a larger and better-located farm. Here 
he remained until his death in 1884, outliv- 
ing his wife twenty-four years. He was a 
man of a strong and positive character. 
He was a member of the Christian church, 
and participated in the Mormon war. He 
was an honest hardworking man all his days, 
and left his children the inheritance of a 
good man. He was the father of five chil- 
dren who lived to attain maturity. Sarah 
Hoyt was the first-born, and the subject of 
this writing was second. Harriet Kerr and 
Caroline Cram are younger daughters, 
while the youngest girl, Amanda, died after 
reaching womanhood. 

William M. Strickler grew to manhood 
under the parental roof and received such 
educational advantages as the rude society 
of the times afforded, which, as may be 
imagined, were neither very broad nor deep. 



338 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



But he made such use of the privileges he 
could command as would fairly fit him for 
the duties of a broader life. He remained 
at home until he had reached his thirtieth 
year, when he came to this state, and mar- 
ried Miss Edna Lancaster, a daughter of 
E. Lancaster, of Waco township. Like 
his father, he was devoted to farming and 
securing a farm established himself where 
he now is. There was nothing on it then 
but about one hundred rods of wire fencing 
with 2x4 posts, and some thirty acres of 
broken ground. He put up a house 14 x 28 
feet the following spring, and twelve years 
ago built his present residence. The farm 
buildings are commodious and sufficient to 
every requirement, and in these present sur- 
roundings he carries on a system of mixed 
farming that gives him the command of the 
market, and he is always ready to profit by 
an upward turn in prices. He has tried a 
specialty of shorthorn fine stock but likes 
general farming better. He is the father 
of two bright boys, Carleton A. and Harry 
Edward. His wife is a member of the 
Baptist church, while he is a loyal and de- 
voted member of the Masonic order at York, 
and of the Modern Woodman of America at 
Waco. He affiliates with the Republican 
party in national affairs, but inclines to 
broad views of home matters, and favors 
good men for town and county offices. He 
has himself served his community as a mem- 
ber of the county board of supervisors and 
as director of school district number 51. 



JOHN LINDQUIST, who is a thorough 
and systematic agriculturist and a man 
of more than ordinary business capacity, 
owns and successfully operates a fine farm 
on section 21, Stewart township, York coun- 
ty. Like many of the best citizens of this 
region, he is of Swedish birth, born Febru- 
ary 26, 1837, in Skarrborsland, Sweden, 
and is a son of Andrew and Anna (Ander- 



son) Siefried, also natives of that place. 
At one time the father owned a good farm 
in his native land, but on selling it purchased 
a smaller place. Both he and his wife were 
faithful members of the Augustana Luth- 
eran church, and are now deceased. Of 
their six children, Anika, Hannah and An- 
ders still reside in Sweden; John is the next 
of the family; Swan lives in Bureau county, 
Illinois; and Jonas in Stockholm, Sweden. 

On the home farm in his native land 
John Lindquist grew to manhood, and in 
the schools of that country obtained a good 
practical education. It was in 1864 that he 
crossed the broad Atlantic and took up his 
residence in Princeton, Illinois, where he 
worked at farming until coming to Nebraska 
in 1880. He secured his present farm, 
which at that time was all wild land, and 
the first year spent here he raised a crop on 
rented land and also broke forty acres of his 
own property. The following year his crops 
were doing nicely until destroyed by a hail 
storm, but since then he has met with suc- 
cess in his chosen calling, and now has 
eighty acres of the one-hundred-forty-acre 
tract under cultivation and well improved 
with good and substantial buildings. He 
began life in this state with five hundred 
dollars in money and a team of horses, and 
the success that has come to him is due en- 
tirely to his own well directed efforts, per- 
severance and industry. 

In 1887 Mr. Lindquist led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss Emma Anderson, a native 
of Sweden, and to them have been born five 
children, namely: Anna Josephine, Ida 
Christina, Harry Siefried, John Emil and 
Frank Arthur. In connection with general 
farming our subject is interested in stock 
raising, and has upon his place four horses, 
twelve head of cattle and seven hogs. He 
advocates the free coinage of silver and re- 
ligiously he and his wife are identified with 
the Swedish Methodist Episcopal church, of 
Gresham, in which he has. held office, and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



339 



is now serving as trustee. The children are 
being well educated in English, and the 
family is one of prominence in the social 
circles of the community. 



HON. DEWITT EAGER, whose home 
is at Beaver Crossing, Nebraska, has 
been a resident of Seward county for some- 
thing like eighteen years, and in that time 
has achieved a large success. He is not 
yet fifty years of age, but in that time he 
has run an extended and exciting career. 
He has tried different occupations, and has 
proved himself a versatile character. In 
him appears the typical American, who can 
do many things well, and is at a loss to 
know what he can do best. 

Mr. Eager was born in Oneida county, 
New York, in 1850, and was a child to 
William and Caroline (Northrup) Eager. 
His father came from Massachusetts, and 
his mother from New York. She died when 
he was less than a year old, and his lines 
fell in unpleasant places. He lived among 
strangers in his youth, and received but a 
limited education. He is a self-made man 
in every respect, and while he is not par- 
ticularly proud of his handiwork, yet he has 
a certain satisfaction in considering the ob- 
stacles that have hindered his progress and 
what he has been able to do in spite of them. 
He was brought to Wisconsin when only 
five years old, and when only eighteen he 
made the trip to Montana, where he spent 
five years in the mines. In 1873 he set foot 
for the first time on the soil of Nebraska, 
and filed a homestead claim in Polk county, 
where he secured a good farm. In 1880 he 
moved into Seward county, and here he 
owns a farm, and is engaged in several im- 
portant business enterprises. He went 
into business at Beaver Crossing, where he 
bought out a general store This store has 
grown under his hands, and has secured a 
wide patronage, making the venture very 



profitable. In 1888 he put up the large 
brick block, which he still occupies as a 
store building, and in which he carries one 
of the largest stock of goods in the county. 
He has recently broadened his interests, 
and is now carrying a large stock of lumber. 
He has gone into it very extensively, has 
put up new buildings, and has one of the 
most complete lumber yards to be found 
along the line of the Elkhorn road. 

Mr. Eager was a newspaper man for a 
number of years and edited and managed 
the Beaver Crossing Bugle for several years. 
He was formerly a Republican, and acted 
with the party until 1890, when he became 
interested in the Independent movement, 
and his recent political activities have been 
along the line that organization travels. 
He has always been a man of large caliber 
and broad views, and has the courage of his 
own convictions. He was elected to the 
state legislature in 1896 on the Fusion 
ticket. He took a leading part in its pro- 
ceedings, and was the author of a bill to 
secure the teaching of music in the public 
schools. He was married at Central City, 
Nebraska, in 1874 to Miss Ella Taylor. 
The fruits of this union are Edna, Elmer, 
Earl, Alta and Oliver. He is an ideal type 
of the western business men, open-hearted, 
brainy, an exhaustless friend and an open, 
candid foe. He has done much to promote 
the growth of the community in which he 
lives, and has the entire confidence of all 
who know him. 



JHONESS is one the representative cit- 
izens of Polk county who devotes his 
energies to agricultural pursuits, successfully 
carrying on operations on section 14, town- 
ship 13, range 4. He was born in County 
Kent, England, in 1831, a son of Robert 
Honess, who came to America in 1843, and 
located in New Jersey, where his death oc- 
curred. The mother died in England about 



340 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1839 or 1840. In native land our subject 
grew to manhood, and at the age of twelve 
years began earning his own livelihood as 
a stable boy, afterward helping the teamster 
to drive four horses. 

It was in 1852 that he crossed the broad 
Atlantic, and for six years he made his home 
with his father in New Jersey, but at the 
end of that time came west, and until the 
outbreak of the Civil war he worked at 
farming in Jackson county, Iowa. On the 
2nd of December, 1857, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Harriet Maria Sealey, 
who was born in Hudson county. New Jer- 
sey, in 1841, and is a daughter of John 
Sealey, a native of Yorkshire, England, who 
in 1854 removed to Jackson county, Iowa, 
and in 1880 came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
where his death occurred in October, 1881. 
After his marriage our subject bought a few 
acres of land in Jackson county, Iowa, and 
erected a little house, in which the family 
made their home while he was away at the 
front. 

In August, 1862, Mr. Honess enlisted in 
Company I, Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry, as a private, and with his regiment 
proceeded to Helena, Arkansas. He took 
part in the battles of Magnolia Church, Port 
Hudson, Champion Hill, Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, and from there went to New Orleans, 
where they spent the winter after having 
participated in the Opelusus raid. After 
the Red River expedition the regiment was 
sent to the Shenandoah Valley, and took 
part in the battles of Fisher Hill, Cedar 
Creek and Winchester. After driving Gen- 
eral Early from the valley, they were or- 
dered to Savannah, Georgia, and with Sher- 
man's army marched to Goldsboro, North 
Carolina, after which they returned to Sa- 
vannah, where Mr. Honess was discharged 
July 17, 1865, being mustered out after his 
return to Iowa, on the 3rd of August. He 
was never wounded nor captured, but at 
Champion Hill had his gun all shattered by a 



musket ball, and it was at this place he was 
promoted to the rank of sergeant for meritor- 
ious conduct and bravery on field of battle. 

Returning to his home in Jackson county, 
Iowa, Mr. Honess continued to live there 
until 1869, when he removed to Lynn 
county, that state, where he purchased a 
farm. There his barn and its entire con- 
tents were destroyed by fire. On selling 
that place he operated rented land in 
Gentry county, Missouri, for three years, 
and in 1872 came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
where he secured the homestead on which 
he still resides. His first home here was a 
rude sod house, which was replaced by a 
better one the following year, at which 
time he also broke some land; in 1874 he 
raised eighty bushels of wheat, but the grass- 
hoppers destroyed the rest of his crops; but 
in 1875 his harvests were good, and he has 
since steadily prospered, so that he is to- 
day one of the well-to-do farmers of the 
locality. His farm comprises one hundred 
and sixty acres of rich and arable land, and 
he has placed one hundred and twenty acres 
under a high state of cultivation, making 
many valuable and useful improvements 
thereon, including his present pleasant 
dwelling erected in 1888. He raises a good 
grade of stock and all the cereals adapted to 
this climate. 

Mr. and Mrs. Honess have a family of 
five children, namely: Hannah May, now 
the wife of John D. Brown, by whom she 
has two children, Irvin and Marietta; Mary 
Luella; Frank J.; Ettie J. and Robert 
William. The parents are active and promi- 
nent members of the Pleasant View Method- 
ist church, in which Mr. Honess serves as 
trustee, steward and Sunday school teacher, 
while his wife is president of the Ladies 
Aid Society, and is also a Sunday school 
teacher. They have provided their chil- 
dren with good educational privileges, and 
he is an efficient school director in district 
No. 26. He is a member of the Grand 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



341 



Army Post of Stromsburg, is an ardent Re- 
publican in politics, and has served as clerk 
of elections. Through his own resources and 
by his own energy and ability, Mr. Honesshas 
prospered financially, and lias not only suc- 
ceeded in acquiring a comfortable home 
and competence, but has also gained the 
high regard of those whom he has come in 
contact either in business or social life. 



ALBERT A. PETERSON is the owner 
of a valuable farm of three hundred 
and twenty acres, pleasantly located in 
Arborville township, York county, and has 
made his home thereon for eighteen years. 
He is therefore accounted one of the 
pioneer settlers of the locality, having come 
to the state when York county was largely 
an unbroken wilderness, the prairies uncul- 
tivated and no improvements made. He 
has been especially active in developing the 
raw land and has ever borne his part in the 
work of progress and advancement. 

Mr. Peterson is a native of Walworth 
county, Wisconsin, born on the 5th of 
October, 1856, and is a son of Oliver H. 
and Mary (Holderson) Peterson, both of 
whom were natives of Norway, whence they 
came to the United States, in 1846 and 
1848, respectively. The father located in 
Wisconsin and still resides there, devoting 
his time and energies to agricultural pur- 
suits. In his family are three sons and one 
daughter. 

In the public schools of his native state 
Albert Peterson acquired his education, and 
at an early age became familiar with all the 
duties and labors that fall to the lot of the 
farmer. He worked in the fields from the 
time of planting until harvesting was com- 
pleted, and with the exception of his expe- 
rience as a miner in the Black Hills, in 
1882-3, he has always followed agricultural 
pursuits. He first came to York county in 
1878 and purchased three hundred and 



twenty acres of land in Arborville town- 
ship from the railroad company. Two 
years later he located thereon and has since 
made it his home, although he made several 
trips to Wisconsin after that. His first 
residence was a sod house in which he lived 
for a number of years. He has undergone 
the usual experiences of the pioneer farmer 
in developing wild land, but as the result of 
his industry is now the owner of a valuable 
property, his well tilled fields yielding to 
him a golden tribute in return for the care 
and labor he bestows upon them. 

In 1 89 1 was celebrated the marriage of 
Mr. Peterson and Miss Mary Stout, a 
daughter of J. M. Stout, a prominent resi- 
dent of the county. They have four chil- 
dren: Volma A., Aivin S. and Orma and 
Orville, twins. The parents hold member- 
ship in the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and Mr. Peterson exercises his right of 
franchise in support of the men and 
measures of the Republican party, but has 
no desire for public office, preferring to de- 
vote his energies to his business interests in 
which he is meeting with excellent success. 
His reputation in business circles is unas- 
sailable and his many social qualities en- 
dear him to a large circle of friends and ac- 
quaintances. 



ELIJAH ARCHER, a prominent farmer 
in section 10, Chelsea township, was 
born August 20, 1835, in Delaware county, 
Ohio. He was a son of Ellison L. and 
Elizabeth (Street) Archer. His father was 
a native of Vermont, and came to Ohio 
when he was quitejyoung. He lived there 
until 1836, and then moved to Coles county, 
Illinois, and purchased a farm near Grand 
View. Our subject received what meager 
education the common schools of the dis- 
trict afforded, and with this and his own 
natural genius, together with the practical 
knowledge that he acquired]in after life, he 



342 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



has made a successful fight with the battle 
of life. He remained at home until he was 
twenty-four years of age, helping his father 
on the farm, but finally the natural desire 
of youth to get away from home came over 
him, and in the autumn of 1859 he pur- 
chased a yoke of oxen and started for Mis- 
souri, where he secured work hauling iron 
ore and charcoal from the Iron Mountains 
to the smelting works at Valley Forge. He 
followed this work until 1862, when that 
part of the state became so thoroughly 
overrun with Confederates and guerrillas 
that a Union sympathizer was constantly in 
danger of his life, and he was compelled to 
abandon his work and go to Pilot Knob. 
Here he made a contract with the quarter- 
master of the Union army to haul supplies 
to the army, and made two trips, hauling 
sutler goods to the army in Arkansas, but as 
the work was so full of danger and hard- 
ship, he gave up the contract and came 
back to Pilot Knob, where he went out into 
the woods and turned his oxen loose, and 
came back and enlisted in Company C, 
Twenty-ninth Missouri Volunteers, which 
was being recruited in and around Pilot 
Knob. His regiment was immediately or- 
dered to Benton barracks, and after spend- 
ing a short time in drilling and preparing 
for active army life they were sent down the 
Mississippi river to Cape Girardeau. They 
were kept there for about a month do- 
ing guard duty, and having an occa- 
sional skirmish with the Confederates, and 
were then sent to Helena and from 
there to the vicinity of Vicksburg and 
placed under the command of General Sher- 
man. The regiment formed a part of the 
detachment that was sent up the Yazoo 
river and attempted to take the fort on that 
side of the city. The Twenty-ninth 
Missouri went into this battle with eight 
hundred and sixty-seven men, and in the 
charge which was made lost all but two 
hundred and fourteen men, three-fourths of 



their number being left on the field of 
battle, killed and wounded. In this charge 
Mr. Archer had several narrow escapes 
from death as one bullet passed entirely 
through his canteen which he was carrying 
in his haversack, and another struck his 
gun, and remained firmly imbedded in the 
stock. The army was then moved and a 
few days later took Arkansas Post. From 
there his company made several moves, be- 
ing sent to Young's Point, Deer's Creek and 
Milligan Bend, where they crossed the river 
and participated in quite a sharp battle at 
Jackson. From there they were sent to 
Vicksburg, crossing the Black river on a 
pontoon bridge. Vicksburg was at that 
time being besieged by the Union army and 
they remained there until that city surren- 
dered in July, 1863. While at Vicksburg 
his health began to succumb before the 
hardships and privations of army life, and 
he was sent to the general hospital at that 
place, and later sent to the hospital at 
Jefferson Barracks, and was there trans- 
ferred to the Second Battalion, Veteran 
Reserve, and did guard duty at St. Louis 
for about seven months, and were then 
sent to the Benton Barracks and remained 
there until June 29, .1865, when he received 
his discharge. He immediately went to his 
father's home in Illinois, and shortly after- 
ward commenced farming in Douglas 
county, where he was married on August 
17, 1869, to Miss Martha Mourer, a daugh- 
ter of Isaac and Sarah (Scheilds) Mourer. 
After farming for two years in Douglas 
county, he determined to try his fortune in 
the west, and gethering together all of their 
goods they loaded them on a canvas-covered 
wagon and started for Nebraska. After a 
long and wearisome journey, accompanied 
by its usual dangers and hardships, he finally 
arrived in Fillmore county, and took a 
homestead in the southeast quarter of sec- 
tion 10, Chelsea township. After building 
a sod house and stable, he commenced the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



343 



task of converting the unbroken prairie into 
a cultivated farm, and by ttirift and industry 
they have got it into a high state of cultiva- 
tion, and is well improved, the sod house 
and stable giving way to large and com- 
modious buildings. He, has also an orchard 
that furnishes an abundance of fruit. 

To Mr. Archer's marriage have been 
born six children, five of whom are living; 
Laura A., who married Jasper Bortner; 
Rosetta, now married to Isaac Lightbody; 
John L., Annis and Frank, the last three 
living at home. He is a prominent mem- 
ber of the Wilson Post 22, G. A. R. 
Polictically he is an ardent Republican, and 
is an active worker in its ranks, and is 
greatly interested in the welfare of his 
county and state. 



HENRY A. SEAVER.— There is peculiar 
interest attached to the history of the 
pioneers of any portion of this great state, 
and particularly with that part of it with 
which we are closely connected. In this 
connection a brief sketch of Mr. Seaverwill 
be of special interest, for he came to Polk 
county in March, 1870, locating on the 
north one-half of the southeast quarter of 
section 30, when there were only about a 
half dozen other settlers in that region. At 
that time wolves, antelopes and deer were 
plentiful, and most of the land was still in 
its primitive condition. He has borne his 
part in the work of development and prog- 
ress which has transformed this section into 
one of the most highly cultivated and thriv- 
ing counties in the state. For over twenty- 
eight years he has now made his home on 
section 29, township 14, range i, where he 
owns three hundred and sixty acres, all im- 
proved, it being one of the best farms in the 
locality. 

His father, Welcome Seaver, was a na- 
tive of Rhode Island, and the son of a Revo- 
lutionary soldier, who valiantly aided the 
20 



colonies in their struggle for independence 
and spent his entire life in Rhode Island. 
The family is of English origin, and was 
founded in that state over one hundred and 
fifty years ago. Welcome Seaver married 
Miss Meloria A. Warren, a native of Wind- 
ham county, Connecticut, and a daughter 
of Artemus Warren, who was one of the 
defenders of his country in the war of 18 12 
and died in the Nutmeg state. The mar- 
riage of this worthy couple was probably 
celebrated in Connecticut, but they made 
their home in Rhode Island, where Mrs. 
Seaver died about 1842, and her husband in 
January, 1859. By occupation he was a 
farmer and painter. Three of their four 
children reached manhood and womanhood, 
namely: Mrs. Sarah A. Chase, who died 
leaving one child, Delano E. ; Henry A., of 
this review, and Albert E. 

In Greenville, Rhode Island, Henry A. 
Seaver was born March i, 1837, and having 
lost his mother at the age of seven years, 
he went to live with his maternal grand- 
father in Windham county, Connecticut, 
remaining there until he attained his ma- 
jority. He received a good practical edu- 
cation in the common schools of that 
county, and early became familiar with all 
the duties which fall to the lot of the agri- 
culturist. At the age of eighteen years he 
started out in life for himself, and came to 
Nebraska in March, 1870, as previously 
stated. In 1867 his brother Albert had 
emigrated to this state, and after spending 
one year with James M. Palmer at Ulysses, 
he came to Polk county, in 1868, locating 
on the south half of the southeast quarter of 
section 30, township 14, range i. Here 
our subject joined his brother, and together 
they kept batchelor's hall, first in a shanty 
and later in a frame house. The second 
year he raised a fair crop, and has since en- 
gaged in both farming and stock raising, 
making a specialty of Poland China hogs. 

On the 4th of December, 1888, Mr. 



344 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Seaver led to the marriage altar Mrs. Sallie 
E. Dennison, nee Blair, who was born in 
Des Moines county, Iowa, March 31, 1854. 
Her parents, John Milton and Eliza R. 
(McClure) Blair, were natives of Pennsyl- 
vania, the former born March 31, 1823, 
the latter November i, 1829, and their 
marriage was celebrated in Iowa, October 
I, 1851. The paternal grandfather, David 
Evans Blair, was from Maryland, and was 
a soldier of the Revolutionary war, while 
the maternal grandfather, William Mc- 
Clure, was from Pennsylvania. Mr. and 
Mrs. John M. Blair continued to reside in 
Iowa until called from this life, and were 
the parents of eight children, of whom six 
reached years of maturity: Mrs. Fannie 
Newkirk; Mrs. Seaver; Bird L. ; Mrs. Susie 
K. Robertson; William and David E. Mrs. 
Seaver was reared and educated in Des 
Moines, and first married Winfield Scott 
Dennison, who died leaving one child — 
Birdie L., born January 26, 1882. By her 
second union she has no children. Mr. 
Seaver is independent in politics. 



HENRY STUHR is a prosperous farmer 
in Beaver township, York county, and 
belongs to the younger generation of 
German-American agriculturists, who have 
exhibited on the soil of the new world many 
of the best traits of industry and society in 
the land across the seas where they tell us 
truth, integrity and honor reign. He re- 
mained in the old country until he was a 
strong and sturdy young man', and then 
came into this country with but little capi- 
tal beyond a clear eye, a ready brain, and a 
strong arm, and now he is sole owner of a 
large estate which requires the labor of 
many men, and produces large results. It 
is a startling change from the penury and 
restriction of pioneer days, and shows over 
again what the career of thousands like 
him have made evident, that America has 



for a hundred years been the hope and re- 
lief of ambitious manhood the world over. 
It has opened the door of opportunity, and 
men like Henry Stuhr have dared to enter 
in and possess the richest treasures ever of- 
fered the poor and unfortunate of other 
lands. And now the closing years of the 
century tell the wonder of it. 

Mr. Stuhr was born in Oldenburg, 
Germany, July 7, 1850, and grew to 
manhood on German soil. He had such 
education as the private schools of his 
country afforded, and when he be- 
came a man applied himself to farming. 
But there was little hope of getting on and 
rising above the restrictions of his early life, 
and being a young man of spirit and resolu- 
tion, he determined to seek the new world for 
that success in business which he knew be- 
forehand was denied him on his native 
heath. He landed in Baltimore, Maryland, 
in 1873, and came immediately to York 
county, Nebraska, where he secured by 
homestead entry part of the large and de- 
sirable farm on which he now lives. The 
original application was made June i, 1873, 
and its retention through twenty-five years, 
many of them full of discouragements, 
shows the stuf? the man is made of and the 
value of the land to which he has clung 
with such tenacity. The year of his ar- 
rival in the United States was signalized by 
his' marriage to Miss Augusta Stoehr, a 
compatriot Oldenburger. They meant to 
succeed, and established themselves in a 
sod-house, which was their home for some- 
thing like a dozen years. It was then re- 
placed by their present comfortable and 
convenient residence, which is considered 
one of the most attractive and well appoint- 
ed farm houses in the county. 

Mr. Stuhr broke the wild prairie in 1873 
and the next year harvested a very profit- 
able crop of wheat. He planted a large 
area of corn, but the grasshoppers attended 
to the harvesting of it. It was a tough time. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



345 



but he pulled through it, and in the large 
success that has attended his twenty-five 
years in the state can afford to smile over 
the hardships of the early days. His mod- 
est holding at the beginning has increased 
to seven hundred and- twenty acres, all 
highly cultivated and very highly improved. 
He rents some land, but farms over four 
hundred acres himself. It is a magnificent 
farm which he has won by hard work and 
adventurous daring, and it puts him among 
the leading men of the county devoted to 
the soil. He is quite interested in blooded 
stock and has some very choice specimens 
of Durham cattle and Poland-China hogs. 
He believes in good blood and is farming 
for profit, and not simply for amusement. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stuhr are the parents of 
nine children, seven of whom are now liv- 
ing: Henry, John, Elbert, Lizzie, Charlie, 
Martha and Annie. They constitute a bright 
and charming family, and give promise of 
future usefulness. The parents are mem- 
bers of the Lutheran church, and the father 
is on the parochial school board. He is a 
trustee of the church, and was its cashier 
for three years. He takes a deep interest 
in the schooling of his children, and sends 
them to both English and German schools, 
desiring that they should have the best pos- 
sible fitting for the trials and responsibilities 
of the future. He acts with the Republican 
party in all matters of political importance. 
He is a man of general good repute, and 
claims many friends in every class of the 
community. The silver wedding of this in 
many respects model couple was celebrated 
May 9, 1898, and was attended by the whole 
German settlement, including at least si.xty 
families. 



HON. WILLIAM E. RITCHIE, who 
owns and operates a line farm on sec- 
tion 14, precinct D, Seward county, is a 
gentleman of high character and a wide 



knowledge of men and the world. His 
place among the leaders of thought and ac- 
tion in this part of Nebraska is unquestioned, 
and in the responsible positions to which he 
has been called he has served his constitu- 
ents with fidelity and success. 

Mr. Ritchie is a native of Waukegan, 
Lake county, Illinois, where he first inhaled 
the vital air October 21, 1847. He is the 
oldest of a family of five children born to 
A. D. and Harriet (Hoyt) Ritchie. His 
father was a native of Scotland, who came 
to Waukegan in 1846, and opened a black- 
smith shop. He was a farmer in later life, 
and came to this state in 1873 and bought 
section 11, of this township, and improved 
it so that it became a very desirable farm. 
Later still he moved to Seward, and died 
there April 25, 1892. His wife still sur- 
vives, and is much beloved and venerated by 
her children and grandchildren. She had 
three sons, William, Alonzo D.,and Richard, 
and two twin daughters, Jennie and Alice. 
It was in Lake county that William passed 
his boyhood and youth, and received a very 
good education in the Waukegan public 
schools. At the age of twenty-three he left 
home and undertook the work of carving a 
fortune for himself out of the varied inter- 
ests of life. He came to this state in 1870, 
and filed a homestead claim on the quarter- 
section where he now lives, and for nearly 
thirty years he has lived and labored in a 
neighborhood that has come to know and 
honor him for his sterling manhood and gen- 
uine character. He was the first settler in 
this region for a wide distance. Ulysses 
had a postoffice and one store, and there 
were only a few buildings in Seward. He 
lived in a sod house, and applied himself 
heart and soul to the making of a home. He 
was married in 1871 to Miss Hattie Radford, 
a native of England and a woman of many 
exxellent traits. They are the parents of 
seven children: John C. , who died in in- 
fancy! George, Charles, Mabel, Elizabeth, 



846 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Alice and Ruth. Mr. Ritchie had a not 
very e.xciting but valuable experience in the 
Civil war. He enlisted in September, 1864, 
in Company D, One Hundred and Forty- 
sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. His com- 
pany was on guard duty along the river, and 
was stationed the greater part of the time at 
Quincy, though he was on detached duty at 
Mt. Sterling. He was mustered out in 
August, 1865. 

As a Nebraska farmer the subject of this 
article has been remarkably successful. 
He owns to-day one thousand and forty acres 
of land, all highly improved and devoted 
to general farming and stock interests. He 
feeds every particle of grain and hay the 
land produces, and takes a justifiable pride 
in his herds of fat cattle. He has a num- 
ber of short horns that are registered, and 
twelve head of high grade that have not yet 
been entered on the stock books, He is 
now farming three hundred and fifty acres, 
and rents the remainder of his farm. He 
has three sets of farm buildings and con- 
templates farther improvements at an early 
day. His own family residence has shown 
the effect of his improvmg fortunes. His 
family lived in a sod house for five years, 
and nine years in a small frame dwelling, 
and in 1884 moved into the very substan- 
tial structure where he is found to-day. 

Mr. Ritchie approaches the questions of 
the day from the standpoint of Democracy, 
and has been a faithful member of the party 
for many years. He has attended several 
state conventions as a delegate, and is wide- 
ly known as a leading spirit in the party 
councils. He was a member of the lower 
house in the state legislature of 1891, and 
is now a member of the state senate, rep- 
resenting Butler and Seward counties. He 
was chairman of the committee on internal 
improvements, and on the committee on 
miscellaneous subjects. At the present 
time he is a member of the committee of 
agriculture, which reported the stock yards 



bill regulating charges. It passed both 
houses, and became a law, affecting favor- 
ably every stockman west of the Missouri. 
He has done well both for himself and for 
the public, and is one of the most popular 
men of the county at the present time. 



HENRY S. GERARD.— The farming in- 
terests of Alexis township, Butler 
county, have a worthy exponent in the 
person of the gentleman above named, who 
operates a farm in section 23. The entire 
tract is improved and tillable, and al- 
together makes up an estate whereon a 
remunerative business may well be done by 
a man who devotes himself closely and in- 
telligently to his work. In the way of 
buildings every arrangement has been made 
for the economical conduct of the farm, and 
for the comfort of the family a nice resi- 
dence has been constructed. 

Mr. Gerard was born near Maysville, 
Allen county, Indiana, May 12, 1858, a son 
of Abner and Hannah (Keys) Gerard. Abner 
Gerard was also a homesteader on section 
22, Alexis township. Our subject moved 
to Butler county, Nebraska, with his par- 
ents in the spring of 1869, from Michigan 
and arriving March 26. Two years pre- 
vious to this they had moved to Quincy, 
Michigan, from Allen county, Indiana. 

Henry S. Gerard, the subject of this 
sketch, is the oldest of the family of which 
he is a member, and he has one sister, 
Mrs. Weitzel, of Bellwood, Butler county, 
Nebraska. Our subject was married in 
Butler county, Nebraska, in 1882, to Miss 
Nettie Curtis, daughter of Henry Curtis, al- 
so apioneer of Butler county, the date of his 
settlement being 1869. To this union have 
been born a family of three children, whose 
names in the order of their birth are, Daisy 
Harvey and Charles. He is a pleasant and 
courteous gentleman and makes friends 
wherever he goes. He is a man of highest 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



347 



character, and is esteemed as awarm friend 
and loyal citizen by all who know him. In 
politics he uses his influence' and elective 
franchises in the support of the candidates 
of the Republican party. 



CHARLES W. PIPER, deceased, had 
been a resident of York county, Ne- 
braska, fifteen years at the time of his death, 
and in that time had become one of the 
most popular and highly respected charac- 
ters of the county. When children die we 
are consoled at the thought of their escape 
from the inevitable trials that are before all 
of us, and when the aged die it seems like 
the garnering of the ripened grain; but when 
a man like the subject of this sketch is sud- 
denly cut down in the prime of his powers 
and at the maturity of his manly vigor, we 
can only say "What a loss!" 

Charles W. Piper was born in Grundy 
county, Illinois, September 12, 1857. His 
parents were John and Susan (Sleezer) 
Piper. The father was born in England, 
and the mother in New York. He was a 
farmer, and brought his family into Illinois 
in 1856. In 1882 he removed to York 
county, where he is now living. His son, 
Charles, was educated in the public school? 
of Livingston county, where the family had 
located during his youth, and began farming 
for himself at a very early age on rented 
ground. He came into this county in com- 
pany with his parents, and bought one-quar- 
ter of section 12 in Morton township. He 
devoted himself to the improvement of this 
estate, and at the time of his death, which 
occurred August 18, 1897, it had become 
one of the choicest farms in the county. 
He was a bright and enterprising man, and 
studied his farm as a man would a profes- 
sion. He raised all the grains and had some 
choice stock on the place, and was planning 
the up-grading of his cattle when he was 
killed by the explosion of an engine oper- 



ated in connection with a threshing machine 
which he had managed for three seasons. 

Mr. Piper was married October 17, 
1880, to Miss Lizzie Morehead, residing at 
that time in Gridley, McLean county, Illi- 
nois. She was born in Ohio, and is a daugh- 
ter of John and Elizabeth (Galbreath) More- 
head, both natives of Ohio. Her mother 
died in Ohio, but her father lived to spend 
some years in this county. She is the 
mother of four children, all of whom are 
living. Their names are Henry G., DeFor- 
est C. , Nellie P. and Nora B. The family 
are members of the Baptist church, and are 
greatly esteemed by their associates in that 
religious order. Mr. Piper was a Repub- 
lican, and took an active part in the general 
working of its various agencies. He took 
much interest in school matters, and in- 
sisted upon a good school in his home dis- 
trict. It should be said that he was a hard- 
working, an honorable and a successful 
man. He made a good home for his fam- 
ily, was a generous provider, and cared for 
his own. But his charity did not stop at 
his doorsteps. He felt himself a part of the 
community, and was ready for every good 
word and work. Long may his good name 
be remembered by those who loved and re- 
spected him. 



MRS. MARY E. BECHTEL, whose 
home is on section 34, Chelsea town- 
ship, Fillmore county, Nebraska, is a most 
estimable lady and a worthy representative 
of one of the honored pioneer fami ies of 
this region. She was born in Ogle county, 
Illinois, December 29, 1846, a daughter of 
Daniel and Mercy L. (Chester) Taylor, who 
were born, reared and educated in New 
York state and throughout life were farming 
people. Of the five children born to them 
only two are now living, namely: Mary E. 
and James F. One son, Ulysses D. Taylor, 
enlisted at Columbus, Ohio, in the spring of 



348 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



1 86 1, for service in the Civil war, becoming 
a member of Company K, Eighteenth 
United States Regulars, and he participated 
in the battles of Bull Run and Chickamauga 
and all other engagements in which his regi- 
ment took part. He was taken prisoner in 
the fall of 1863, and first confined in Ander- 
sonville prison and later in Libby, at Rich- 
mond, Virginia. Here his family lost trace 
of him and it is supposed that he died in 
prison. 

In 1870 Mrs. Taylor and her two chil- 
dren removed from Illinois to Nebraska and 
all located on section 34, Chelsea township, 
Fillmore county, the mother taking the 
southeast quarter, James F. the southwest 
quarter, while Mrs. Bechtel selected the 
northeast quarter and an uncle took the re- 
maining quarter section. As Mary E. Tay- 
lor could not operate her land alone she 
hired Cyrus Bechtel to assist her, and on 
the 1st of January, 1879, they were united 
in marriage. He was born in March, 1848, 
and lived in Iowa until coming to this state 
in 1870. To them were born four children 
but only one is now living, Mary Carrie, 
who is now attending the district schools. 
Mr. Betchel died in March, 1886, since 
which time our subject's brother has lived 
with her. James F. Taylor lived alone 
upon his farm until he obtained a title from 
President Hayes, and then made his home 
with his mother until she was called from 
earth on the 25th of April, 1894, at the 
age ofijcighty-four years. 

When the family located upon their land 
their nearest neighbors were seven miles away, 
the country was all wild and unimproved 
and on the prairies roamed the yelping coy- 
ote, the antelope, deer and elk, but the buf- 
falo or bison had all disappeared two years 
before. Tribes of Otoes and Sioux Indians 
often passed through the county and stopped 
at their little home, but it was not long be- 
fore they sought other camping grounds, 
the wild animals soon disappeared before 



the rifle of the settlers, and the wild flowers 
and prairie grass were soon replaced by fields 
of waving grain as the country became 
more thickly populated. The Taylor fam- 
ily erected for themselves sod houses and 
barns, and in true frontier style began life 
in the west, laboring early and late to make 
for themselves homes, but all enjoyed good 
health, and it was not long before their 
lands were under excellent cultivation and 
and well improved. They still own their 
original farms. Mrs. Bechtel and her brother 
were reared in the Presbyterian church and 
she still adheres to that faith. In politics 
he was a Republican. 



BF. POINTER, a well-known farmer 
residing on the southeast quarter of 
section 8, township 14. range i west, 
Canada precinct, Polk county, was one of 
the brave boys in blue during the war of 
the Rebellion, rendering valuable service to 
his country upon the frontier. He is a na- 
tive of Ohio, born in Highland county, Au- 
gust 26, 1843, aiid is a son of B. F. and Susan 
(Euvard) Pointer, the former a native of 
Virginia, the latter of France. They were 
early settlers of Ohio, where they spent 
their last days. The children born to them 
were B. F., Peter, now deceased, and Will- 
iam, who was also a Union soldier. By a 
former marriage the father had two chil- 
dren who are now living: Noah and Mrs. 
Jane Barr. The paternal grandfather oi 
our subject was one of the defenders of his 
country in the war of 1812 and was killed 
in battle. 

Until eighteen years of age B. F. 
Pointer remained on the home farm in 
Highland county, Ohio, and there secured 
a common-school education. He then en- 
listed October 12, 1861, in Company B, 
Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, as a 
private, and with his regiment was sent to 
St. Louis, then to Fort Leavenworth, Kan- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



349 



sas, from there to Fort Kearney, and on 
to Salt Lake City, guarding the over- 
land mail against the Indians. Our subject 
was one of, twenty-five men detailed to 
guard South Pass, where they built a picket 
fort and remained all winter. As the 
horses' feed had become very low part of 
the men were sent with some of the horses 
to the hills so the animals could graze, leav- 
ing only thirteen to guard the fort. On the 
25th of November, it being very cold no 
picket guard was out, and in the night they 
were attacked by the Sioux and Cheyenne 
Indians, who besieged the fort for three 
days. The soldiers were then re-inforced 
and drove the red men away. They re- 
mained at that place until spring. Here 
Mr. Pointer took the scurvy and was sent 
to the hospital at Platte Bridge. On re- 
joining his company he went to Deer creek 
and Fort Laramie, and was on several ex- 
peditions against the Indians. On one of 
these while guarding an emigrant train to 
Rawhide creek, they discovered an Indian 
camp, took three ponies, buffalo robes and 
the camp outfit. In the winter of 1863-4 
they built Fort Collins, Colorado. The 
following March Mr. Pointer re-enlisted as 
a veteran, and was granted a thirty days' 
furlough, which he^spent at home. With 
his company he returned to Omaha where 
they had left their horses, and at once 
started for Fort Laramie. After scouting 
for some time in the Yellowstone district 
they returned to Laramie. In the fall of 
1864 our subject was attached to Company 
H, which was stationed at Chimney Rock, 
and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. 
At the close of the war he left his horses at 
Omaha, and returned to Columbus, Ohio, 
where he was finally mustered out July 14, 
1866. While at South Pass the Indians 
once attacked his company and killed two 
herders who were guarding the mules while 
pasturing, taking the animals away. On 
learning of this the soldiers started in pur- 



suit, and after following the trail for three 
days caught sight of the red men near the 
head of the Missouri river. The Indians at 
length were forced to abandon the herd, 
which the soldiers brought back to camp. 
While on the frontier they lived principally 
on buffalo meat cooked on sage brush. 

After remaining at home for two months 
and a half, Mr. Pointer went to Iowa in 
October, 1866, and there spent one winter, 
but on the 14th of March, 1867, he went to 
Fort Kearney, where he secured a posi- 
tion with the government train bound for 
Fort Russell. He made several other trips 
the same summer between Laramie and 
Russell, and in November returned to Fort 
Kearney, Montana, where he engaged in 
freighting during the winter. He then 
went to Fort Russell, and in the summer 
took a hay claim and also engaged in gar- 
dening south of Cheyenne. There he and 
J. Dunn opened a ranch, which they finally 
sold, in March, 1869, and on the 28th of 
that month our subject returned to Iowa. 

On the 22nd of April, 1869, Mr. Pointer 
was united in marriage with Miss Abigail 
Farris, who was born in Highland county, 
Ohio, March 14, 1850, a daughter of Uriah 
and Sarah (Roush) Farris, also natives of 
Ohio. Her paternal grandfather, James 
Farris, was one of the first settlers of High- 
land county, that state, and the maternal 
grandfather, John Roush, was also a pioneer 
of Ohio. The father died in February, 
1876, but the mother is still living and now 
finds a pleasant home with our subject. Her 
children are Mrs. Mary Ellen Phifer; Mrs. 
Pointer; Mrs. Becky Barr; James; Mrs. El- 
mira McDaniels, deceased; and John. Mr. 
and Mrs. Pointer have three children: 
Uriah F., Mrs. Sarah R. Zedicher, who 
has three children, Benjamin C, Susan 
Mabel and Pearl; and Mrs. Susan Dexter, 
who has one child, Charles. 

After his marriage, Mr. Pointer lived for 
five ylars in Marion county, Iowa, but since 



350 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1873 has made his home upon his present 
farm in Polk county, Nebraska, having se- 
cured his homestead April 18, 1872, when 
it was all raw land. He now has two hun- 
dred and thirty-one acres under excellent 
cultivation, and improved with good and 
substantial buildings which stand as monu- 
ments to his thrift and enterprise. For- 
merly he was a Republican in politics, but 
now supports the men and measures of the 
People's party, and takes an active interest 
in its success. He has been a member of 
the school board, and was a director in 
school district No. 21, for nine years. He 
is one of the leading and prominent mem- 
bers of the R. O. D. Cummings Post, No. 
102, G. A. R. , of Shelby, and is the pres- 
ent commander of the same. He has al- 
ways been found true and faithful to every 
trust reposed in him, and for bravery re- 
ceived a bronze medal issued to him by the 
state of Ohio. 



EDWARD C. McDonald, one of But- 
ler county's prominent and substan- 
tial citizens and pioneer farmers, has a cozy 
home and profitable farm in section 22, 
Alexis township. He settled here in 1869 
when he filed a homestead claim to eighty 
acres in section 22. 

Mr. McDonald was born in Oswego 
county. New York, July 19, 1836. His 
father, Jacob McDonald, was born in New 
York, in 1776, and died in i860, at the age 
of eighty-four years. He was a butcher by 
occupation, and our subject was reared in 
the city until twenty-one years of age. He 
then went to Michigan and located in Van 
Buren county, in 1857. He lived in Michi- 
gan until the breaking out of the Civil war, 
and in June, 1861, he enlisted in Company 
B, Eleventh Michigan Infantry. He was 
discharged October 4, 1862, and reenlisted, 
during the following December, in Com- 
pany B, Eighth Michigan Cavalrj^ and 



served until November 11, 1864, and was 
mustered out after the Atlanta campaign. 

After the close of hostilities Mr. McDon- 
ald returned to his home in Branch county, 
Michigan, and was there married December 
2, 1864, to Miss Mary Welch, daughter of H. 
S. Welch, of Branch county, Michigan, and 
this union has been blessed by the advent 
of a family of three children, Clara, Albert, 
and John. The oldest was born in Michi- 
igan, but Albert and John were both born 
in Butler county, Nebraska. 

In the winter of 1868-69, Smith Need- 
ham, who had been in Nebraska for a 
few years, returned to Michigan and gave 
such a favorable account of the country 
that he induced many of Branch county's 
citizens to migrate to that state, and our 
subject was one of the first to settle in But- 
ler county. He reached Columbus early in 
March, 1869, and, in company with Abner 
Gerard, forded the Platte river, and came 
afoot to section 22, Alexis township, and 
each located a homestead. Mr. McDonald 
had just seventy-five dollars in cash when he 
reached Columbus with his wife and one 
child, Clara, who was then three years of 
age. He now owns and occupies a pleasant 
and remunerative tract of land on which he 
is pursuing the even tenor of his way, gain- 
ing a good support and is incidentally lay- 
ing aside something for a rainy day. He has 
been a voter of this county ever since its 
organization and has invariably used his 
elective franchise in the support of the can- 
didates of the Democratic party. He has 
also held many of the offices of trust and 
responsibility in the township and school dis- 
trict. 

Our subject's grandfather, John McDon- 
ald, was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and 
came to America about the year 1760, and 
settled in Schoharie county. New York, and 
later served in the Revolutionary war. 
His son, Jacob McDonald, was a soldier in 
the war of 18 12, serving in the United 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



351 



States Light Dragoons, and our subject 
served in the Civil war, as before mentioned. 
Thus each generation of this family, since 
its settlement on this si^e of the Atlantic 
has furnished a soldier for his country's sup- 
port. 



VALENTINE GERLITSoccupies a prom- 
inent place as a well-to-do and pro- 
gressive member of the farming community 
of York county, Nebraska, where he has 
near Charleston as fine a farm of two hun- 
dred and forty acres as the state can show. 
He took it in the raw, has thoroughly im- 
proved it, and put upon it such valuable 
and permanent improvements that it ranks 
among the best farms in the state. And 
the beauty of it all is, that every particle of 
this good fortune has come out of his own 
brain and brawn. No one has given him a 
dollar, or been disposed to help in any way. 
He has simply toiled and struggled on and 
success has waited upon honesty and indus- 
try, economy and persistance. 

Mr. Gerlits was born in Bavaria, May 
22, 1844, and had the usual education the 
German public schools afford. He was a 
son of John and Frances Kohn (Meyers) 
Gerlits. His father was a stone mason, 
and his parents were married in 1843, and 
came to this country when he was still a 
young child. They passed through New 
York and located in Wilksbarre, Pennsylva- 
nia, where they remained for nine years. 
The elder Gerlits was dissatisfied with ma- 
son work, and concluded to seek the com- 
forts of a farm life. He took his family into 
what was the far west, and settled on a farm 
near Iowa City, Iowa. He is still living on 
the Iowa home at the venerable age of 
eighty-one years. Mrs. Gerlits died in 
March, 1889. 

Valentine Gerlits spent his early life at 
home and when he was twenty-one began 
working for himself, sometimes with the 



neighboring farmers, and sometimes at 
other employments. He was careful and 
prudent, and when five years had passed in 
this manner felt warranted in proposing 
marriage to Miss Paulina Ahlbrecht. She 
accepted him and they were married at 
Iowa City, October 27, 1870. They began 
their career as husband and wife by renting 
a farm, on which they remained for nine 
years. But the west drew them, as it had 
thousands of other adventurous souls, and 
they came into York county by wagon road, 
September lO, 1879, and pushed out still 
further west to an eightyacre tract which 
he had purchased from the railroad land 
company the year before. It was the west 
half, southwest quarter of section 13, 
township 10, range 4 west. He built a 
frame house, and settled down to carve a 
home for his family out of the wilderness. 
It was indeed a wilderness. There 
was not a furrow turned, nor a tree 
planted, or the primeval wildness disturbed 
in any way when it became his by purchase 
at the age of thirty-five. He began turn- 
ing over the sod in the spring of 1880. He 
and his sons are caring for one hundred 
and sixty-five acres of grain and ninety-two 
acres of corn in the summer of 1898. They 
have done excellently well, and are proud 
of their twenty years in Nebraska. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gerlits are the parents of 
eleven children all but one of whom are now 
alive and healthy. Of these children. Clara 
L. is the oldest and is the wife of Charles 
Remington, of Smith county, Kansas. The 
oldest son, William H., still lives at home 
and gives his care and interest to the man- 
agement of the farm, and the welfare of his 
younger brothers and sisters. He has con- 
siderable skill with the brush and pencil, 
and his friends say that if he should devote 
his life to art he would not fall to medioc- 
rity. The other and younger children are 
Albert Francis, Edward Charles, Arthur 
John, Mary Francis, Leonie Amelia, 



352 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Gertrude Pauline, Valentine Francis and 
Louis Philip. Mr. Gerlits and his sons are 
members of the Catholic ehurch at York, 
while his wife and daughters are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church at 
Council. He is a member of the fraternal 
order of the United Workmen. They stand 
well in the commmnity. 



M 



HEMENOVER, a worthy representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of 
Precinct D, Seward county, was born in 
Sussex county, N. J., November i8, 1835, 
and his parents, Mathias and Margaret 
(Boyd) Hemenover, were also natives of 
that state, where they continued to make 
their home until 1844, when they removed 
to Fulton county, Illinois, spending their 
last days at that place. By occupation the 
father was a farmer, and he reared a family 
of nine children, three sons, of whom two 
now live in Nebraska, and six daughters. 

As our subject was quite small at the 
time of the removal of the family to Illinois, 
he passed the greater part of his early life 
in that state, attending school in the little 
log school-houses then so common in 
the west. As soon as large enough to 
handle the plow he began to assist in the 
labors of the field, and early became 
familiar with every department of farm 
work. He continued to follow agricultural 
pursuits in Illinois until 1883, which year 
witnessed his arrival in Seward county, Ne- 
braska. Buying a farm in precinct D, he has 
devoted his energies to its development and 
cultivation until he now has one of the best 
improved farms in the county, and it yields 
to him a golden tribute in return for the 
care and labor he has bestowed upon it. 

With the very natural and laudable de- 
sire to surround himself with all the com- 
forts of a home, the most important thing 
was to seek a life companion, who would 
be a true helpmeet to him. Accordingly 



Mr. Hemenover was married in 1858 to 
Miss Annie E. Kerkhuff, also a native of New 
Jersey, and a daughter of Jesse and Car- 
oline (Kerkhuff) Kerkhuff, who were born in 
New Jersey and from that state removed to 
Illinois, where they continued to make their 
home until called from this life. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hemenover have two children: George 
M. and Ina. In his political affiliations our 
subject is a Republican and he always gives 
his support to all measures which he be- 
lieves calculated to prove of benefit to the 
community. 



ISAAC JAMES BEATTIE is a hardwork- 
1 ing and successful farmer, whose home 
is not far from Bradshaw, York county, 
Nebraska, whose history is a highly cred- 
itable one. He has contended in pioneer 
days with every kind of discouragement 
and difficulty, but he never lost heart in the 
future of the state, and is to-day enjoying 
the fruit of an honorable and useful career. 
Mr. Beattie was born January 6, 1856, 
in Kendall county, Illinois, and is a son of 
Joseph and Mary (Wright) Beattie. He 
belongs to an old and reputable Scotch 
family, who came into this country, by way 
of the north of Ireland, bringing with them 
the granite-like honesty and uprightness of 
character that belongs to Scotland, and in- 
fusing it with something of the readiness 
and wit that is associated with the " Emer- 
ald Island." The senior Beattie came into 
the United States in 1847, and located in 
Chicago, where he bought property and car- 
ried on a general store for about four years. 
But he soon became disgusted with a town 
founded on a marsh, where every few rods 
even in the more important streets could be 
seen sticks set up and bearing the legend, 
"no bottom here." He sold out his store, 
and went into Kendall county, where he 
bought land at a dollar and a quarter an 
acre, and engaged in farming, which he fol- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



853 



lowed for many years. The young man 
Issac J., passed his boyhood and youth in 
the Illinois country, and lived with his 
father until he had attained his twenty-fifth 
year. He was then married to Miss Lizzie 
May Hopkins, a daughter of Cary Allen 
and Mary Jane (Cherry) Hopkins, and the 
young couple followed farming a year in 
that neighborhood, and then attracted by 
the stories of the remarkable fertility of 
Nebraska soil, determined to test it for 
themselves. They removed to this state 
and February 25, 1882, settled on the farm 
they now occupy which under their foster- 
ing care has become a model farm. On 
the books it is described as the south- 
east quarter of section 2, township 10, 
range 4 west, but is known far and wide 
as the Beattie farm. On it are ten acres 
of thrifty timber, principally hard wood, 
and an grchard of every kind of fruit the 
climate permits. Mr. and Mrs. Beattie are 
still young in years, and feel that the better 
part of life is still before them. They have 
four children, Carey H., Joseph F. , Murray 
B. and Stella M. These children are con- 
stant attendants upon the instruction of the 
public school, and contemplate special train- 
ing afterwards in literary and scientific di- 
rections as their varying natures may seem 
to demand. For it is deeply impressed upon 
the parental consciousness that these chil- 
dren will be superior farmers if they have a 
larger education than the neighborhood 
affords. No better avocation than farming 
is desired for them, but an educated farmer 
is to be the ruler of the new century ac- 
cording to the ideas that prevail on the 
Beattie farm. Its proprietor is a member of 
no church organization, but friendly to all, 
and looks upon the church and the school 
house as the two foundation stones of Amer- 
ican liberty. Mrs. Beattie is a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church of Brad- 
shaw, and is a woman of popular traits. 
She commands the respect of the commu- 



nity, and is the center of a wide circle of 
friends. Her father and mother were born 
in 1837, he in Ohio, and she in New York. 
Her mother died in 1879, but her father is 
still living in Aurora, Illinois. 

Mr. Beattie has long affiliated with the 
Republican party, but in 1890, driven by a 
profound sense of the need of absolutely new 
ideas in the political world, he left the old 
party, and united with the People's Inde- 
pendent party, and is a strong supporter of 
its principles. He has never taken an active 
part in the working of the party machinery, 
but has been elected three times as the 
treasurer of his school district, for his heart 
is so much in the schools that he could not 
refuse to serve their interest. He comes of 
a long-lived race, and revisits his old home, 
where his father still lives. The family 
may well be proud of its Nebraska represent- 
ative. 



ELIAS FRANKLIN, a well-known farmer 
residing on section 24, Platte township, 
is a worthy representative of one of the 
prominent and highly-respected pioneer 
families of Butler county, and they have 
borne an active and important part in the 
building and development of this region. 
Our subject was born in Will county, Illi- 
nois, March 18, 1856, and was a lad of 
twelve years when brought by his parents, 
Lawson and Amy (Parks) Franklin, to But- 
ler county, in the fall of 1868. This re- 
gion was still in its primitive condition, very 
few settlement had been made, and the set- 
tlers were widely scattered. 

Our subject's father was born in Cayuga 
county. New York, in 18 16, at an early day 
emigrated to Will county, Illinois, from 
there removed to Webster county, Iowa, 
and on leaving that state came to Nebraska. 
He died in Butler county, February 22, 
1876, but his widow is still living here. She, 
too, is a native of Cayuga county, New 



354 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



York, and is a daughter of Ebenezer Parks, 
who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, 
and lived to the extreme old age of one 
hundred and five years. 

The first home of the Franklin family in 
Butler county was a sod house on the north 
side of Skull creek, just opposite to our 
subject's present residence, and one of the 
poles used in its construction is now a large 
willow tree eighteen inches in diameter. 
Elias Franklin was reared amist frontier 
scenes, and early in life became familiar 
with the arduous task of developing the 
wild land into highly cultivated fields. He 
has become a thorough and skillful agri- 
culturist, and now successfully operates the 
old homestead. 

On the 1 2th of October, 1876, in But- 
ler county, was consumated the marriage of 
Mr. Franklin and Miss Catherine Morish, 
who was of Bohemia parentage and died 
September 29, 1887, leaving four children: 
George Albert, William Henry, Edwin 
Walter and Charles Victor. Mr. Franklin 
is a consistent member of the Congrega- 
tional church, and is widely and favorably 
known in the locality. Politically he is 
identified with the Republican party, and 
socially affiliates with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. 



FRANKLIN L. CROWNOVER.— Penn- 
sylvania has contributed a large quota 
of the sturdy, energetic agriculturists of 
York county, and among them are to be 
found men of sterling worth and in- 
tegrity, who have succeeded in life through 
their own energy and perseverance, and not 
as the recipient of any legacy. Among this 
class of citizens is the subject of this notice, 
who by economy and diligence has accumu- 
lated a handsome property, owning and 
occupying a fine farm of two hundred acres 
on section 14, Morton township. 

Mr. Crownover was born in Huntingdon 



county, Pennsylvania, September i, 1842, 
and is a son of Peter and Ellen (Carmon) 
Crownover, who were also natives of that 
state and farming people. In 1859 they 
emigrated to Missouri, but in 1862 were 
compelled to leave their home there on ac- 
count of the bitter feeling against northern 
men in that region. They next lived in Mc- 
Donough county, Illinois, where the father 
died in 1 869. He was twice married, his see- 
on dunion being with Miss Catherine Frank- 
enbery, who died in the same county, in 
1873. He had a family of twelve children, 
four sons and eight daughters. 

The education of our subject was all 
acquired in the schools of Pennsylvania pri- 
or to the emigration of the family to Mis- 
souri. In the latter state he assisted his 
father in the farm work until 1861, when he 
enlisted in Company G, Second Missouri 
Volunteer Cavalry, known as " Merrill's 
Horse." With that regiment he served for 
five months under General Fremont, and 
was then mustered out. In August, 1862, 
however, he again joined the boys in blue, 
this time as a member of Company H, One 
Hundred Nineteenth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and remained in the service until 
hostilities ceased, being honorably dis- 
charged September 12, 1865. He was in 
the battles of Queen Hill and Meridian, 
Mississippi, Fort Derucy, Pleasant Hill, 
Grandy Corps, Cain River, Bayou Le 
Moore, Martsville Prairie, Yellow Bayou, 
Louisiana, Nashville, Tennessee, the siege 
of Mobile, and many engagements of lesser 
importance. He was never wounded, nor 
was he ever off duty for a single day. 
When mustered out he was holding the 
rank of corporal. 

After the war Mr. Crownover lived in 
Illinois for two years, and then returned to 
Missouri, where he made his home until 
1875, when he located permanently in 
York county, Nebraska. The year previ- 
ous he had come to this state and secured 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



355 



a homestead on section 14, Morton l^own- 
ship, where he still resides. Like most 
farmers of this region he is also interested 
in stock raising, and in both branches of 
business is meeting with good success. 

Mr. Crownover was married in Illinois 
in November, 1870, to Miss Mary L. Darr, 
a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Green- 
berry and Martha Darr, who were also born 
in the Buckeye state. Our subject and 
wife have two children: Carrie E. ; and 
Charles E., now a civil engineer with the 
Burlington & Missouri River Railroad. The 
family are members of the Lutheran church, 
and Mr. Crownover also belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Modern Brotherhood of America. He al- 
ways votes the Republican ticket, but has 
never been an aspirant for office, though 
he takes a commendable interest in public 
affairs, and gives his support to all measures 
for the good of his township or county. 



WILLIAM MITCHELL, a wide-awake 
and intelligent citizen of York county, 
and one of the leading farmers of his com- 
munity, makes his home on section 2, town- 
ship 1 1 north, range 4 west. He is a na- 
tive of Indiana, born m Clay county, No- 
vember 6, 1848, and is a son of John Mitch- 
ell, who was born in Virginia, September 
26, 1806, and when a young man removed 
to Kentucky. There he became acquainted 
with Miss Mary Adkins, who was born in 
that state, June 22, 181 1, and when he was 
twenty-one and she fifteen years of age, 
they were united in marriage. A few 
months later this young couple removed to 
Clay county, Indiana, and settled upon a 
heavily, timbered tract of land where they 
made their home for seventeen years. Pos- 
sessed of a large amount of energy and a 
strong determination to succeed they be- 
gan their life in a new state, and by industry 
and perseverance cleared away the forest 



and opened up a fine farm of the richest 
soil the western states could produce. Mrs. 
Mitchell was one of a family of eleven chil- 
dren, and by her marriage became the 
mother of thirteen, twelve of whom reached 
man and womanhood, and have reared 
families of their own, with the exception of 
James, who enlisted in the war of the re- 
bellion and died soon after the great battle 
of Shiloh before his term of enlistment had 
expired. 

In the fall of 1851, the father, with his 
wife and eleven children, left their Indiana 
home and removed to Boone county, Iowa, 
where the subject of this sketch grew to 
manhood. At the age of twenty-seven 
years he was united in marriage with Miss 
Eliza Mitchell, who was then twenty-six. 
She was a native of Cadiz, Harrison county, 
Ohio, and when a few years old was taken 
to Mahaska county, Iowa, by her parents. 
William and Mary Ann (Atkison) Mitchell, 
who later removed to Jasper county, the 
same state, where the mother died at the 
age of forty-six years. Subsequently the 
family located in Boone county, where our 
subject's wife lived on her father's farm 
northeast of Boone City until her marriage. 
They now have seven children, three sons 
and four daughters, who in order of birth 
are as follows: Etta M., now the wife of 
Rev. Richard Richards; Clara N. ; Emery 
L. ; Chester H. ; Mary A. ; F. Guy; and Nellie 
P. With the exception of the oldest daugh- 
ter all are at home. 

Soon after his marriage William Mitch- 
ell, with his wife, started for the new state 
just west of the great river, but found that 
the greater part of Nebraska had been taken 
up by home-seekers who had preceded 
them. In York county he purchased eighty 
acres of his present farm and later bought 
another eighty-acre tract on section 35, the 
same township, from the railroad company. 
This lies directly north of his first purchase, 
and the whole place consists of as fine farm- 



356 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ing land as can be found in the state. Here 
Mr. Mitchell commenced life in earnest, 
breaking prairie, planting trees, and mak- 
ing many other excellent improvements, 
which add greatly to its value and attract- 
ive appearance. He now has a fine bearing 
orchard of cherry and apple trees, which 
give forth in abundance the richest fruits. 
Here Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have found a 
pleasant home since June, 1877, and are sur- 
rounded by a large circle of friends and ac- 
quaintances who appreciate their sterling 
worth and many excellencies of character. 
They are both earnest members of the Bap- 
tist church, and he is identified with the 
Democratic party. Since the erection of 
the gold standard by the Republican party, 
he is willing to affiliate with any party that 
will place the finances of the country back 
to the standard of Washington, Jefferson 
and Lincoln, giving us again the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver. 



JC. BENNETT, well known throughout 
Polk county as one of its most enter- 
prising and progressive agriculturists, owns 
and operates an excellent farm on section 
23, Canada precinct, and also takes an act- 
ive and prominent part in promoting the 
welfare of his adopted county. He is a wor- 
thy representative of old New England stock, 
born in Tolland county, Connecticut, May 
13, 1830, and is a son of William and Har- 
riet J. (Dunham) Bennett, who spent their 
entire lives in that state, the father dying 
there June 5, 1880, aged eighty-four years, 
the mother November 7, 1849, aged fifty. 
They were earnest and faithful members of 
the Baptist church. The paternal grand- 
father of our subject was William Bennett, 
a son of Nathaniel Bennett, and the ma- 
ternal grandfather, who also belonged to an 
old Connecticut family, was Seth Dunham, 
a son of Seth Dunham, Sr. Our subject is 
one of a family of eleven children, who in 



order of birth are as follows: Janes, de- 
ceased; Mary E. and George D., twins, 
both deceased; Theodore P., deceased; J. 
C; Austin, deceased; W. Henry and Aus- 
tania; and Amanda, Seth D. and Charles 
Edgar, all three deceased. Three of the 
sons were soldiers of the Civil war: Seth D. , 
who was a member of the Seventh Connect- 
icut Volunteer Infantry; and George D. 
and Theodore F. , who belonged to the 
Twenty-first Connecticut Regiment, and the 
latter was killed at the battle of Cold Har- 
bor, Virginia. William Traganza, the 
husband of Austania, also died in the service. 

During his boyhood and youth J. C. Ben- 
nett attended the common schools and 
aided in the work of the home farm, re- 
maining in his native state until he attained 
his majority. In 1852 he went to Dela- 
ware county, Ohio, where he engaged in 
teaching for a time, and then removed to 
Marshall county, Iowa, where he made his 
home for twenty-seven years and there 
reared his family. He purchased a tract 
of school land entirely unimproved, and 
also bought a little cabin, which he moved 
thereon in 1856, making that place his 
home from that time until coming to Ne- 
braska in April, 1883. At that time only 
twenty acres of his present farm had been 
cultivated, and there was not a bush or tree 
upon the place, but to-day the entire tract 
of four hundred acres is under fence, and 
one hundred and twenty acres is highly 
cultivated and well improved with good 
farm buildings, all of which have been 
erected by Mr. Bennett. The place is 
pleasantly located eight miles east of Osce- 
ola, and is one of the most attractive and 
desirable farms of the locality. In addition 
to general farming he is engaged in stock 
raising, making a specialty of shorthorn 
cattle. 

In April, 1856, was consummated the 
marriage of Mr. Bennett and Miss Eliza- 
beth Bockoven, who was born in Dela- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



357 



ware county, Ohio, in November, 1833. 
Her parents, Jacob and Eliza (Dalrymple) 
Bockoven, were early settlers of that 
county, where their deaths occurred. In 
their family were eleven children who 
reached years of maturity, namely: William, 
Susan, deceased; Jinks; Maria; Mrs. Ben- 
nett; Martha; George, deceased; Mary; Is- 
rael; Emma and Lucretia, both deceased. 
Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett five are now living: Eliza A., 
wife of Jeremiah Reeder, by whom she has 
one son, Harry J.; George A., who mar- 
ried Laura Hayhurst and has four children, 
Frank R., Grace, Lester and Ruth Esther; 
Seth W. , who married Maud Hayhurst, and 
has two children, Nellie E. and John E. ; 
Hattie J., at home; and Frank, who mar- 
ried Addie Fish, and has one child, Wilbur 
F. The family are connected with the 
Presbyterian church and are widely and 
favorably known throughout the community. 
Politically Mr. Bennett has been a lifelong 
Republican, takes an active part in local 
political affairs, and has frequently been a 
delegate to the conventions of his party. 
While a resident of Marshall county, Iowa, 
he filled the offices of township trustee and 
president of the school board. He was also 
a member of the Union League of that 
state. He is one of the most popular and 
influential men of his community and 
justly merits the confidence which is so 
freely accorded him. Both of his grand- 
fathers, William Bennett and Seth Dun- 
ham, served in the Connecticut legislature 
at the same time, the latter serving two 
terms. 



MARTIN CADY, a farmer by occupation 
in section 28, Alexis township, Butler 
county, was born in Perinton, Monroe county. 
New York, August 10, 1837. He is the son 
of George W. Cady, a native of Montgomery 
county. New York, who was born there 



December 15, 1810, and grandson of David 
Cady, whose birthplace was the little Nut- 
meg state. He was a soldier of the Revo- 
lutionary war and drew a pension for being 
wounded in that struggle for independence. 
The father of David Cady was of English 
descent, Elizabeth Cady Stanton being a 
cousin of his. 

George W. Cady came west with his 
parents to Michigan in 1854 and settled in 
Branch county, where they bought four 
hundred and forty acres of land. He 
was married to Eliza Frederick in 1834 in 
Ontario county. New York. His wife was 
born in Duchess county. New York, and died 
in Butler county, Nebraska, at the age of 
sixty-nine years. 

Our subject has one brother, Henry C. 
Cady, an engineer on the N. Y. C. & H. R. 
R. and a resident of Buffalo county. His 
father, George W. Cady, enlisted in the 
Eighth Michigan Infantry in the Civil war. 
He died in the hospital at Nashville, 
Tennessee, July 4, 1865. 

Martin Cady left Michigan in March, 
1 86 1, and went to California. Was en- 
gaged in mining for a time and later had a 
ranch in Nevada. Lost everything by fire 
and in 1866 returned without anything. 
He was married in Branch county, Michigan, 
December 21, 1857, to Ellen McDonald, a 
daughter of Edward McDonald, of Branch 
county, Michigan. He left Michigan in the 
spring of 1869 and came to the Platte 
Valley, took up eighty acres of land, in- 
creased now to two hundred, showing his 
acquisitive powers and ability to add to in- 
stead of decreasing his store from day to 
day. 

He is the father of two sons, Fred C, 
Geo. M., and one daughter, Mina E. 
(Houston), wife of Harry Houston. He is a 
grand Master Mason, a Democrat in poli- 
tics, a .ember of the Baptist church, one 
of the founders of the First Baptist church 
of Bellwood, a man of strict integrity, re- 



358 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



spected for his efforts and success in lead- 
ing a good, conscientious life, and looked 
upon as one of the most thrifty far..iers of 
his section of the county. 

In the early days of this county he was 
a carpenter by trade, built the first building 
in David City and the first court house 
there; has made it the home of his adop- 
tion, and is one of the leading citizens of 
his community. 



HON. C. E. HOLLAND, attorney-at- 
law, Seward, Nebraska, holds a prom- 
inent place among the members of the legal 
fraternity in this portion of the west. His 
acquaintance extends far beyond the limits 
of Seward county, and he has clients from 
distant parts of the state. He is bright and 
aggressive in his tactics, and not only ex- 
cels in the presentation of his own cases, 
but in the analysis and defeat of hostile 
argument. A portrait of Mr. Holland ac- 
companies this biography. 

Attorney Holland was born in Fulton 
county, Illinois, May 19, 1859. His par- 
ents were Marion and Margaret A. (Wilson) 
Holland, and they were natives of Ohio and 
IlHnois. His paternal grandfather, Zachary 
T. , was a farmer in Virginia, and to this 
occupation he bred his children. The ma- 
ternal grandfather of the Seward attorney, 
Samuel Wilson, came from Glasgow, Scot- 
land, and was a man of great force of char- 
acter and strong convictions. Marion Hol- 
lajnd settled in Illinois in 1856, and is still 
lilting in that state. He spent seven years 
in Iowa, but returned to his home east of 
the Mississippi. He was the father of two 
sons, both of whom are now living in this 
county. 

Attorney Holland received his education 
from the public schools of Iowa, and in Mt. 
Pleasant, Iowa, where he attended Howe's 
Academy, and the Wesleyan Universitj' of 
that place. He was graduated in 1880, 



and three years later received his Master's 
degree from the university. From 1880 to 
1883 he was principal of the city schools at 
Greenfield, Iowa, and proved himself a ca- 
pable and successful teacher. In the fall of 
1879 he began the study of law, under the 
supervision of Woolson & Babb, a well- 
known legal firm of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 
Judge Woolson is now on the United States 
district bench for Iowa, and sustains a rep- 
utation as a fearless and upright member of 
the judiciary. Mr. Holland attended the 
instruction of the law department of Yale, 
and was graduated from that famous insti- 
tution in 1885. He was immediately ad- 
mitted to the state and federal bars of Con- 
necticut, and was regarded with much ap- 
probation by his preceptors. He did not 
however establish himself in the East but 
at once sought a location in the newer re- 
gions beyond the Missouri where a yoimg 
man might be supposed to stand a better 
chance for business. He visited Seward, 
and was so pleased with the outlook that he 
hung out his shingle in this city, and here 
he remains to this day. In 1887 he was 
elected county judge, and served a term 
on the bench with much success. He has 
been mayor and city attorney of Seward, 
and has ever been ready to serve his com- 
munity in any way it might be demanded 
of him. 

Mr. Holland was married in 1881 to 
Miss Sarah L. Chenoweth. She was born 
in Indiana, and is an attractive and cult- 
ivated woman. They are parents of two chil- 
dren, Yale C. and Vivienne, who are both 
living. In a political way Mr. Holland 
votes and acts with the Republican party, 
and has served on its county committee 
four years. He has received many eviden- 
ces of its appreciation of his services, and 
when so many were swept off their feet by 
the Populistic tide, he stood steadfast, and 
is regarded to-day as one of the old and stur- 
dy Republicans of the county. 




HON. C. E. HOLLAND. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



361 



JSANFORD GWALTNEY, M. D., is a 
popular and talented physician and 
surgeon, whose home is in Staplehurst, but 
whose field of practice covers a wide region 
of Seward county. He is now at the prime 
of his powers, and applies himself with 
singular zeal and enthusiasm to his profes- 
sional labors. He has won and holds a 
lucrative practice which is largely among 
the best people of the community. 

Dr. Gwaltney was born in Warrick 
county, Indiana, September 30, 1859, and 
is a son of William and Nancy Gwaltney, 
who are also natives of Indiana. His father 
was a farmer, and parents are living. His 
grandfather came from North Carolina and 
settled in Indiana at an early day. Dr. 
Gwaltney spent his youth and early man- 
hood in the state of his nativity. He at- 
tended the public school, and for two and a 
half years was a student in the Normal Col- 
lege at Danville. He was graduated from the 
teachers' and scientific course of that excel- 
lent institution in 1885-88, and following 
his graduation he taught for some years. In 
1889 he undertook to accomplish the dream 
of years, and began the study of medicine, 
with Dr. Charles Park, of Boonville. He 
spent a year under his direction and then 
matriculated at College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, a famous Iowa school, complet- 
ing the course and receiving his diploma in 
1 89 1, in the Keokuk Medical College. He 
came to this county at once and engaged in 
the profession at Bee, where he remained 
for six months. Staplehurst presented, 
however, a more inviting field and he re- 
moved to that town, and there he has es- 
tablished a very satisfactory business. 

The Doctor is a member of the Seward 
County Medical Society, and is widely recog- 
nized as a capable and progressive physician. 
He was married in 1891 to Miss Mary 
Forseman, who was born and reared in In- 
diana. This union has proved a fortunate 
and happy one, and from it have come two 

21 



children, Bernice and Alice F. They have 
a pleasant home, that is invested with the 
atmosphere of culture and refinement. 



WILTON K. WILLIAMS is a man of 
progressive, enlightened views, and 
his standing as an old settler of the county 
and a citizen of prominence of York is well 
known. There are few more energetic or 
wide-awake men to be found among the 
population of the state than this gentleman, 
and he is deservedly held in high esteem and 
respect by his fellowmen. 

Mr. Williams was born in Onondaga 
county. New York, July i, 1842, a son of 
Kinne and Nancy (Rice) Williams. The 
parents were born in New Hampshire but 
lived the greater part of their lives and died 
in New York. The father was a black- 
smith by trade and followed that vocation 
the most of his life. Wilton K. Williams, 
the subject of our sketch, was educated in 
the district schools of his native county, 
and his first position was that of boatman 
on the Erie canal and while there ac- 
quainted himself with some of the various 
experiences characteristic to "Life on a 
Canal." He was next employed as collec- 
tor on this canal, during which time he was 
stationed at Phoenix, New York, and after 
severing his connection with the canal com- 
pany he opened a grocery business which he 
operated two years. In 1S68 he went to Ro- 
chelle, Illinois, and took charge of a branch 
store at that place, but later bought the 
business and conducted it on his own ac- 
count for seven years. He next located in 
Chicago, and, after being engaged in busi- 
ness two years in that place, he moved to 
Maquoketa, Iowa, and opened a clothing 
house which he conducted five years and 
afterward enlarged into a general store. 
Two years later,, in 1885, he moved his 
stock of clothing to York and has since con- 
ducted a clothing business there. 



362 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



In 1890 he was elected to the office of 
mayor of York on the Democratic ticket, 
and was again elected to that office by the 
Republicans, after joining that party. He 
was also vice-president of the York Na- 
tional Bank for four years. 

In the year 1870, Mr. Williams was 
united in marriage to Miss Lucy Wall, a 
resident of New York state and the family 
circle has been completed by the presence 
of two children, Bert J. and Earl W. Mr. 
Williams is a Mason and one of the organ- 
izers of the K. T. in York, and is the pres- 
ent deputy grand commander of the state. 
He is also a member of the A. O. U. W. 
and the I. O. O. F. In his business affairs 
his character has been beyond reproach and 
in whatever line his faculties have been 
directed he has met with eminent success. 
He is a man of strong character, broad 
ideas, and has a large circle of warm 
friends. 



CHARLES RHOADES, a worthy repre- 
sentative of the early pioneers of York 
county, who has been identified with agri- 
cultural interests of Thayer township since 
1872, was born in Columbia county, Penn- 
sylvania, April 6, 1840, a son of Jesse and 
Annie (Hawk) Rhoades, also nativesof Penn- 
sylvania. The family have for generations 
made their home in the Keystone state and 
have been prominent farming people. Our 
subject's paternal grandfather was Casper 
Rhoades, whose brother was a soldier of the 
Revolutionary war. 

Charles Rhoades was the only child born 
to his parents, and his educational advan- 
tages were such as the common schools of 
his nativestate afforded during his childhood. 
He began work on the home farm, early 
obtaining a thorough knowledge of every 
department of farm work, and he was also 
employed to some extent at carpentering 
until after the inauguration of the Civil war. 



In 1863 he enlisted in Company E, Thir- 
tieth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, for 
si.x months, and assisted in driving Lee out 
of the state. The following year he joined 
Company M, of the Third Pennsylvania 
regiment, and remained in active service 
until the close of th§ war, taking part in the 
engagements in and around Petersburg and 
Richmond. He was wounded in front of 
the latter city. 

On receiving his discharge, Mr. Rhoades 
returned to Pennsylvania, and in that state 
was married December 25, 1870, to Miss 
Mary J. Hartley, a daughter of Sebastian 
and Margaret (Unger) Hartley, both natives 
of Pennsylvania. The children born of this 
union are Annie, now deceased; Luther; 
Emma; Samuel; Emanuel; Clara, deceased; 
George; William and Harry. 

In 1872 Mr. Rhoades emigrated to York 
county, Nebraska, and took up a homestead 
on section 2, Thayer township, on which 
he erected a sod house that continued to be 
the home of the family for eight years, when 
it was replaced by a comfortable frame 
residence. He began breaking and cultivat- 
ing his land with an ox team, and to the 
further development of his farm he has de- 
voted his energies until he now has one of 
the best places of the locality. In religious 
faith he and his family are Lutherans, and 
in political sentiment he is independent, 
always voting for the man whom he believes 
best qualified to fill the office. Although 
he has faithfully served as a member of the 
school board for many years, he has never 
cared for political preferment, and he enjoys 
the respect and esteem of all who know him. 



JOHN CALVIN HAGER, the present ef- 
<J ficient manager of the W. A. Wells 
lumber yards at Bellwood, Butler county, 
has been an honored resident of that place 
since January, 1880, and as one of the 
prominent and influential citizens he has 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



363 



taken quite an active part in public affairs, 
filling a number of important offices of honor 
and trust. 

A native of New York, Mr. Hager was 
born March i6, 1837, in Schoharie county, 
and is a representative of one of the oldest 
families of that state. His grandfather, 
Tunnis Vrooman Hager, secured the land 
from the government on which the old 
Hager homestead in Schoharie county is 
located, it being taken up by him over one 
hundred twenty years ago. Upon this 
farm the birth of our subject occurred, and 
there his father, Jonas V. Hager, was also 
born. In the family of the latter were 
three sons, of whom John C. is the second, 
the others being William H. and J. F. A. 
Hager, both residents of Branch county, 
Michigan. 

At the early age of eleven years John C. 
Hager left his old home in Schoharie county, 
New York, and for a time run a ferry boat 
on the Schoharie creek, and also worked as 
a mechanic, learning the carriage-maker's 
trade in New York. In 1855 he removed 
to Branch county, Michigan, having pre- 
viously traveled over a large portion of that 
state. There he was married in 1862 to 
Mary Jane Welch, who died in September, 
1 87 1. Two children were born to them, but 
Bert is the only one now living. In Butler 
county, Nebraska, Mr. Hager was again 
married in 1873, his second union being 
with Miss Lovica Tower, whose father, 
Samuel Tower, was killed at the battle of 
the Wilderness during the Civil war. She 
died in Bellwood, Nebraska, in 1896, leav- 
ing three children, namely: Jennie, Leone 
and Normie. On the 26th of December, 
1897, Mr. Hager was united in marriage 
with Mary Jane Renwick, his present wife. 

In January, 1880, Mr. Hager emigrated 
to Butler county, Nebraska, and became 
one of the pioneer settlers of Bellwood, 
erecting the first building at that place, with 
whose development and prosperity he has 



since been closely identified. At first he 
was engaged in contracting as a carpenter 
and builder, but for the past eight years has 
held his present responsible position, that 
of manager of the W. A. Wells lumber yard. 
On locating here he also bought a farm 
three miles from Bellwood. 

The Democratic party has ever found in 
Mr. Hager a stanch supporter of its prin- 
ciples, and by his fellow citizens he has been 
elected to the offices of justice of the peace, 
town clerk, and mayor of the city, capably 
discharging the duties of the last named 
position for three terms. Socially he is a 
member of the blue lodge and chapter in 
Masonry. 



JOHN SMITH, a respected resident of 
McCool Junction, and now living in re- 
tirement, is said to be the oldest settler now 
living in York county, he being probably 
the first to take up his residence in that 
county. He was born in Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania, May 25, 1832. 

John Smith's parents were John and Su- 
san (Steward) Smith. The father, a native 
of Pennsylvania, removed to Wisconsin in 
1842, and located at Cassville, on the Mis- 
sissippi river. He was a soldier in the Mex- 
ican war, from which he never returned. 
The mother of our subject married agam, 
her second husband being James Willett. 

At the age of fourteen John Smith left 
home, and after several moves finally lo- 
cated in Missouri, where he entered the 
employ of a stage company. A few years 
later he was employed by the South- 
ern Overland Company, and drove stage 
through the state of Arkansas. While 
thus engaged he met with a serious misfor- 
tune, having dislocated his hip, and falling 
into the hands of an unskillful surgeon the 
case was so badly handled that Mr. Smith 
has been a cripple ever since. At the close 
of the Civil war, he went to Nebraska, and 



364 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



in May, 1865, located in York county, 
about three miles east of the site of the 
present city of York. Here for over one 
year he had charge of the Beaver Dam stage 
station. In September, 1866, he resigned 
his position and and filed upon a homestead 
claim of one hundred and sixty acres, being 
the southeast quarter of section 18, town- 
ship 9, range 2, in what is now known as 
McFadden township. He built a log cabin 
fourteen by eighteen feet, with a dirt roof. 
The necessary lumber for doors and win- 
dows he brought from Nebraska City, over 
one hundred miles, paying seventy dollars 
per thousand feet for it. Some time later 
a sawmill was located at Seward, and from 
this he got enough lumber to put a floor in 
his cabin. He broke part of his land in the 
spring of 1867 and raised about twenty-five 
bushels of sod corn to the acre that season. 
Game was plentiful, so that it was not diffi- 
cult for him to supply himself with meat. 
Buffalo, elk, wild turkey, etc., furnished a 
variety, and in the fall he laid in a supply 
of buffalo meat sufficient to last all winter. 
Indians were numerous, but were trouble- 
some only as beggars. Settlers soon began 
to arrive, and this furnished a good market 
for all surplus products. Mr. Smith im- 
proved his farm, adding needed buildings 
and conveniences from time to time, until 
it was regarded as one of the most valuable 
pieces of farm property in York county. In 
1888 Mr. Smith sold his farm and pur- 
chased residence property in McCool Junc- 
tion, where he has since lived in practical 
retirement. 

In 1 86 1 Mr. Smith was united in mar- 
riage with Sarah Byby, a native of Ken- 
tucky. They have no children of their own 
but gave shelter and a home to two adopted 
children whom they raised to maturity, and 
they now have an adopted daughter, Flor- 
ence. Mr. Smith is a Democrat in political 
views, and is a member of the M. W. A. 
lodge at McCool Junction. 



NFRED CARLSON is one of the prom- 
inent agriculturists of Platte precinct, 
Polk county, Nebraska, where, on section 
28, of township 14, range 3, he has an ex- 
cellent farm. He is one of the first set- 
tlers of the region, and has taken an active 
part in the development of the resources 
of the county. He runs his farm according 
to the most improved and scientific methods, 
which have been adopted by the modern 
agriculturists. Mr. Carlson was born De- 
cember 28, 1852, at Kalmer, Sweden, and 
is a son of Charles Nelson, who was a 
farmer by occupation and died in Sweden 
in 1859. 

Mr. Carlson grew to manhood and was 
educated in his native land, and came to 
the United States in 1869. He first located 
in Marshall county, Illinois, where he re- 
mained for one winter, and then removed 
to Putnam county in the same state. He 
worked out as a farm hand there until the 
spring of 1872, when he came to Polk coun- 
ty, Nebraska, in company with his mother 
and step-father, Carl Parson, who are now 
residents of the county. Mr. Carlson lo- 
cated on his homestead in section 28, and 
built a frame shanty I2x 14 feet, in which 
he made his home until he built his spacious 
residence, which is now the place of his 
abode. He labored incessantly on his farm 
to bring the same to a high state of culti- 
vation, which it afterward attained, under 
his well directed efforts, though the first 
three years of labor were in vain, as he did 
not raise a crop until 1877. His estate 
consists of seven hundred and twenty acres 
of land, all of which is under cultivation, 
with the exception of forty-five acres, and 
the same is adorned with all the modern 
improvements, necessary in the running of 
a well regulated farm. The place is further 
adorned with a fine grove of trees planted 
by our subject, and he also has it well 
stocked with a fine line of high grade ani- 
mals. He does a general farming and stock- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



865 



raising business, in which he has been very 
successful, and has accumulated a cheerful 
competency. He has added largely to his 
original homestead by purchase, a part of 
which he bought of his step-father. 

Mr. Carlson was united in the bonds of 
matrimony to Miss Mary A. Peterson, a na- 
tive of Henry county, Illinois, in 1890. 
There have been three children born to bless 
this congenial union, who have been named 
as follows: Charles E. ; David F. ; and 
Reinholt A. The family are members of 
the Lutheran church at Swede Home, of 
which Mr. Carlson has been a trustee. He 
is a member of the board of directors of 
"the Scandinavian Mutual Insurance Com- 
pany, of Polk county. He has taken quite 
an interest in local political matters and 
has held many minor offices. He is a 
stanch Republican and has been a delegate 
to the county convention of that party. 
He has also held the office of road over- 
seer, and has served as judge of the elec- 
tions. He is well known and highly es- 
teemed, and is always willing to lend his 
influence to anything that will advance the 
interests of the community in which he re- 
sides. 



JOHN B. HAMILTON, a leading busi- 
ness man of Tamora, has for fifteen 
years been prominently identified with the 
agricultural or commercial interests of Sew- 
ard county, and now gives his attention ex- 
clusively to the grain and coal business. By 
his energy, perseverance and fine business 
ability he has been enabled to secure a 
comfortable competence. Systematic and 
methodical, his sagacity, keen discrimina- 
tion and sound judgment have made him 
one of the prosperous citizens of the com- 
munity. 

Mr. Hamilton was born in Harrison 
county, Ohio, in 1862, and is a son of Al- 
exander and Nancy (Hilton) Hamilton, the 



former a native of Pennsylvania, and the 
latter of Ohio. The father, who was a 
farmer by occupation, removed to Ohio at 
an early day, and there made his home un- 
til coming to Seward county, Nebraska, in 
1883. Here his death occurred five years 
later. Of his seven children, five sons and 
two daughters, only our subject and one 
sister are residents of Seward county. The 
mother is still living and makes her home in 
this state. 

John B. Hamilton spent his early life in 
Ohio like most farmer boys, attending the 
district schools and aiding in the labors of 
the field, and on starting out in life for him- 
self he continued to engage in agricultural 
pursuits in that state until the emigration 
of the family to Nebraska in 1883. He 
purchased a farm near Tamora, but gave 
the greater part of his attention to the buy- 
ing of grain in the village in company with 
George W. Lowery, the firm being the first 
to engage in that business here arid the sec- 
ond to erect an elevator. Our subject now 
devotes his time wholly to the grain and 
coal business, and is meeting with a well 
deserved success. 

In 1889 was celebrated the marriage of 
Mr. Hamilton and Miss Eleanora Welch, a 
native of Ohio and a daughter of George 
and Kate Welch, who now reside in York 
county, Nebraska. Three children have 
been born of this union: Clifford and Lloyd 
still living, and one deceased. In politics, 
Mr. Hamilton is a pronounced Republican, 
but he has never cared for the honors or 
emoluments of public office, and in his so- 
cial relations is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America. 



ARMSTRONG HUSTON, a well-known 
and prominent farmer residing on sec- 
tion 17, Chelsea township, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, is one of America's loyal sons 
who devoted the opening years of his man- 



366 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



hood to the service of his country, and made 
for himself a war record both honorable and 
glorious during the dark days of the Rebel- 
lion. In times of peace, too, his patriotism 
has never been doubted for his support is 
never withheld from any enterprise calcu- 
lated to prove of public benefit. 

Mr. Huston was born in Washington 
county, Indiana, December 15, 1840, a son 
of David M. and Elizabeth (Thompson) 
Huston, and grandson of Alexander Huston 
and Thomas Thompson. On both sides his 
ancestors are of Scotch-Irish descent, and 
members of the family have followed vari- 
ous occupations but principally farming. 
The Hustons are supposed to belong to the 
same family as Gen. Sam Houston, of Texan 
fame. 

During his boyhood and youth our sub- 
ject attended the district schools near his 
home, where he learned to read, write and 
spell and also became quite proficient in 
Ray's arithmetic. He was nearly twenty 
years of age at the time of the battle of Bull 
Run, and the defeat of the Northern army 
roused the patriotism in him so that he 
could not remain quietly at home. Accord- 
ingly one July morning, in 1861, found him 
on his way to the city of Salem, Indiana, 
where he enlisted. He was sworn in August 
24, becoming a member of Company D, 
Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
and with his regiment went into camp at 
New Albany, where they drilled until Sep- 
tember and were then sent to Kentucky to 
protect Louisville from a threatened raid. 
Under the command of General Buell they 
went from Muldraugh Hill to Bowling Green, 
Kentucky, and thence to Nashville, Tennes- 
see. In the summer of 1862 they were set 
to guarding railroad stations and commiss- 
ary supplies, with headquarters at Shelby- 
ville, from which place they raided Florence 
on the Tennessee river. By forced marches 
they were sent to threaten Chattanooga, 
and on the return crossed the mountams by 



way of Altamont, reaching headquarters 
some time in June. Ten days later they 
were ordered to Athens, Alabama, by way 
of Pulaski, and from Athens proceeded by 
train to Huntsville, it being the only rail- 
road ride Mr. Huston had during his four 
years' service. The regiment was next on 
picket duty along the river and later guarded 
the railroad between Chattanooga and Nash- 
ville. When General Buell's army returned 
they went to Louisville, and a few days 
later were sent in pursuit of General Bragg, 
whom they overtook at Perryville, where a 
hotly contested battle was fought. Company 
D losing twenty-eight of their fifty men. 
They followed Bragg to Crab Orchard, and 
when they became sure he had passed 
through the Gap they returned to Bowling 
Green and later to Nashville. They were 
sent on a foraging expedition to Springfield, 
Kentucky, where they found a large supply 
of flour and bacon, which they sent back to 
the army at Nashville. They next went into 
camp Andy Johnson, where they remained 
until the last of December, when General 
Rosecrans made a move which brought on 
the battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 
1862, and continued through the ist and 
2nd of January, 1863. They remained at 
Murfreesboro until General Rosecransstarted 
for Tullahoma on the Chattanooga cam- 
paign. At the battle of Chickamauga, Mr. 
Huston was wounded after dark on the night 
of September 19, 1863, being struck by a 
minie ball which lodged under the right 
shoulder blade. It was eight days before 
he reached the hospital and his wound was 
dressed, and after remaining there for six 
weeks he was granted a thirty days furlough 
and returned home. 

In the meantime his regiment had vet- 
eranized, and when he reported for duty at 
New Albany, Indiana, he re-enlisted. In 
thirty days more they were all back in Chat- 
tanooga, where they remained until May 7, 
when they started with General Sherman on 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



367 



the celebrated march to the sea. They 
marched to Savannah, then up the coast to 
Columbia and on to Goldsboro. At the 
battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, the 
captain of Company D was killed, and Mr. 
Huston was promoted from color-bearer, 
over the orderly sergeant, to second lieuten- 
ant of the company, serving as such until 
mustered out at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 
July, 1865. From Raleigh the regiment 
proceeded to Richmond, Virginia, and 
thence to Washington, District of Colum- 
bia, where it participated in the grand re- 
view at the close of the war. 

Returning to his father's farm in Indiana, 
Mr. Huston worked in that vicinity until 
1867. He was married on the 17th of De- 
cember, of that year, to Miss Amanda J. 
Gray, a daughter of Dennis and Catherine 
(Mitchell) Gray. They had played together 
as boy and girl while at schbol and the 
friendship there formed soon ripened into 
love. They began their domestic life on a 
little farm in Indiana, where she died May 
25. 1875, leaving one child, Augusta E., 
who married George Wellman, a farmer of 
Geneva township, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and has two children, Clara and 
Lynn. Mr. Huston was again married Sep- 
tember 16, 1877, his second union being with 
Miss Margaret Mitchell, a daughter of John 
and Mary J. (Herron) Mitchell, the former 
of Irish, the latter of Scotch descent. By 
this marriage there are two children, Dora 
and Nellie, who are being well educated, 
and it is the intention of their parents after 
they have completed the course in the dis- 
trict schools to send them to higher institu- 
tions of learning. 

After his second marriage, Mr. Huston 
spent three years in California, and then re- 
turned to Indiana and took his wife and 
children to the far west, remaining two and 
a half years engaged in railroad work. 
Since then he has made his home in Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, and has devoted 



his time to agricultural pursuits with good 
success. Politically he is a radical Republic- 
an, casting his first vote for General Grant, 
his last for Major McKinley. Although not 
a member of any religious denomination, 
he has led an honorable and upright life, 
and is a believer in Christianity. His wife 
holds membership in the Methodist Episco- 
pal church. 



EVAN A. THOMAS is a leading repre- 
sentative of the business mterests of 
Thayer, York county, where he owns and 
operates a good mill. Of excellent business 
ability and broad resources, he has attained 
a prominent place among the substantial 
citizens of this part of the county, and has 
won success by his well-directed, energetic 
efforts, the prosperity that has come to him 
being certainly well deserved. 

Born in Portage county, Ohio, January 
25, 1840, Mr. Thomas is a son of Francis 
and Ann (Evans) Thomas, who were both 
natives of Wales, where their marriage was 
celebrated. The paternal grandfather, 
David Thomas, spent his entire life in that 
country, engaged in farming. For several 
generations the Evans family followed the 
occupation of milling, and during her girl- 
hood Mrs. Thomas often assisted her father 
in the mill, doing the bolting. 

In 1 83 15 the parents of our subject crossed 
the Atlantic to the New World and first lo- 
cated in New York state, where they made 
their home for three years. Subsequently 
they lived in Portage county, Ohio, and 
from there removed to Rock county, Wis- 
consin, and later in life to Freeborn county, 
Minnesota, where the father died at the ex- 
treme old age of ninety-six years. As a life 
work he engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
Of their eight children, five were born in 
Wales, and three after the emigration of the 
family to America. 

The district schools of Wisconsin fur- 



368 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



nished Evan A. Thomas his educational ad- 
vantages, and when old enough he began to 
work on the home farm, remaining with his 
parents until he attained the age of twenty 
years, when he started out to make his own 
way in the world. He commenced learning 
the millwright's trade, and served a five 
years' apprenticeship at that occupation and 
milling, at which he continued to work until 
1868, when he removed to Mitchell, Iowa, 
where he resided for three years, following 
farming. 

At the end of that period Mr. Thomas 
located in Rockford, Illinois, where he en- 
gaged in milling, and was similarly employed 
at Kirkwood, that state, where the death of 
his mother occurred. In the spring of 1878 
he removed to Seward, Nebraska, but soon 
afterward came to York county, working in 
the mill at Thayer for about a year as mill- 
wright. He then purchased the plant, 
which had been started by Cowgill & Har- 
ris, but was never conducted by them. 
After operating the mill for about four 
years, Mr. Thomas sold it and built a mill 
at Stromsburg, which he conducted until his 
removal to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1887. At 
that place he carried on milling for three 
years and then returned to Stromsburg, but 
in April, 1897, re-purchased his first mill in 
Thayer, which he now owns and success- 
fully operates. Many improvements hav- 
ing been made in the plant, it is now one 
of the best mills in the county, and the 
product turned out is first-class in every 
particular. 

Mr. Thomas was married on the i8th of 
October, 1866, to Miss Jane Davies, a 
native of Oneida county. New York, and a 
daughter of David and Mary (Williams) 
Davies, who were born in Wales and are 
now deceased, the father dying in Rock- 
ford, Illinois, the mother in Stromsburg, Ne- 
braska. Besides Mrs. Thomas they had four 
other daughters, namely: Elizabeth A., now 
Mrs. Underbill, of Stromsburg; Mary E., 



deceased; Sarah, who died in infancy; and 
Catherine E., also deceased. Mr. and Mrs. 
Thomas have three children living: David 
A., William E. and Lula J. Those de- 
ceased are Mary G. and Daisy M., who 
both died in infancy. 

In politics, Mr. Thomas is a pronounced 
Republican, and he has creditably served in 
a number of minor offices in the communi- 
ties where he has at different times made his 
home. He and his wife hold membership 
in the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
enjoy the hospitality of many of the best 
homes in York county. He has made for 
himself an honorable record in business, and 
as a citizen, friend and neighbor he is true 
to every duty, justly meriting the esteem in 
which he is held. 



JOHN BUSH.— In the career of this 
gentleman we find an excellent example 
for young men just embarking in the field 
of active life, of what may be accomplished 
by a man beginning poor, but honest, 
prudent and industrious. Although he came 
to Polk county in limited circumstances he 
is now the owner of a fine farm pleasantly 
situated on section 19, township 14, range 
3, Platte precinct. 

A native of Coshocton county, Ohio, 
Mr. Bush was born November 18, 1842, a 
son of David and Fredericka (Nellinger) 
Bush, the former a native of Maryland, the 
latter of Germany. They were married in 
Maryland, became early settlers of Ohio, 
and later removed to Indiana, settling in 
Owen county, where they spent their last 
days amid pioneer scenes. The mother 
was a consistent member of the Methodist 
church, and both were highly respected by 
all who knew them. In their family were 
the following children who reached years of 
maturity: Andrew, who was sergeant in 
Company H, Ninety-seventh Indiana Vol- 
unteer Infantry, during the Civil war, and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



369 



is now a resident of Hamilton county, Ne- 
braska; Jacob, who also makes his home in 
that county; George E. , who was a sergeant 
in Company I, Nineteenth Indiana Infantry, 
and is still living in Owen county, Indiana; 
David, a resident of Hamilton county, Ne- 
braska, who was also a member of Company 
I, Nineteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 
and at the battle of Gettysburg was shot 
through the back of the neck, and twice 
wounded at Antietam; John, the next of the 
family; James, a soldier in the Fifteenth 
Indiana Light Battery, and now a resident 
of Hamilton county, Nebraska; and Sophia, 
deceased. 

At the pioneer home of the family in 
Owen county, Indiana, John Bush grew to 
manhood with but little opportunity to at- 
tend school; in fact he did not learn his 
letters until after he entered the army. It 
was on the twenth-seventh day of June, 
1 86 1, that he joined the boys in blue as a 
member of Company I, Nineteenth Indiana 
Volunteer Infantry, and was first sent to 
Washington, D. C, where he assisted in 
building Fort Craig, and remained all win- 
ter. Then under General McDowell he 
took part in the engagement at Gainesville, 
Virginia, second battle of Bull Run, and the 
battles of South Mountain, Chancellorsville 
and Gettysburg. At the last named he was 
wounded July i, 1863, by a gunshot 
through the right shoulder, and after being 
sent to the hospital at West Philadelphia, 
gangrene set in, but he was finally able to 
rejoin his regiment at Belle Plains, Virginia. 
Later he participated in the battles of Mine 
Run, the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsyl- 
vania, Bethseda Church, the siege of 
Petersburg, and the battle of Appomattox, 
where Lee surrendered. He belonged to the 
celebrated "Iron Brigade," composed of 
the Seventh, Sixth, and Second Wisconsin 
regiments, the Twenty-fourth Michigan, 
and the Nineteenth Indiana, which under 
command of Colonel Meredith opened the 



battle of Gettysburg and also captured 
Archer's Confederate brigade. Mr. Bush took 
part in the grand review at Washington, 
District of Columbia, and was later discharged 
at Jeffersonville, Indiana, July 15, 1865, 
after four years and one month of faithful 
and arduous service. He was a brave and 
fearless soldier, always found at his post of 
duty, and in July, 1864, was promoted to 
the rank of corporal. After being wounded 
at Gettysburg, he was captured by the 
enemy and held as a prisoner for three 
days. 

When the war was over Mr. Bush re- 
turned to his home in Indiana, but in 1869 
removed to Christian county, Illinois, where 
he engaged in farming until coming to Polk 
county, Nebraska, in 1S73. Here he se- 
cured a homestead consisting of the north- 
west quarter of section 30, township 14, 
range 3, and to the cultivation and improve- 
ment of the wild prairie land at once turned 
his attention, his stock at that time consist- 
ing of only a team of mules and one cow. 
The first year he raised a small crop of sod 
corn, and half of first ten acres of wheat 
which he raised he gave to the man who 
had furnished the seed. He endured all the 
hardships and privations of frontier life, the 
grasshoppers destroyed his crops, and what 
was to him a great trial was the lack of to- 
bacco. In order to support his family he 
was obliged to work for others in addition 
to the cultivation of his own land; but now 
things have changed, — two hundred and forty 
acres of his four-hundred-acre farm are un- 
der a high state of cultivation, yielding 
bountiful harvests in result for the care and 
labor bestowed upon it. The little sod 
house, which was the home of the family 
for nine years, has been replaced by a com- 
fortable frame residence, and everything 
about the place testifies to the industry and 
progressive spirit of the owner. 

On the 8th of April, 1868, Mr. Bush 
was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. 



370 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Hillegas, who was born in Coshocton 
county, Ohio, October i8, 1848, and they 
have become the parents of seven children, 
namely: Horatio, Mrs. Ida Luena Wilson, 
Dora, Rettie, George, Walter and Glenn. 
Fraternally Mr. Bush is a worthy member 
of the G. A. R. post, at Clarks, Nebraska; 
politically is independent, and has served as 
an efficient member of the school board. 



JOHN GROVES.— Among the honored 
pioneers of Nebraska, this gentleman is 
especially worthy of notice in a work of this 
kind. He was one of the first men to lo- 
cate within its borders, and being posessed 
of a rare amount of energy, proved a most 
valuable member of the young and rapidly 
growing state. Here he has made his home 
since the spring of 1S59, and in the spring 
of 1867 located on section 22, Oak Creek 
township, Butler county, where for many 
years he successfully engaged in farming. 
At the present time, however, he is living 
retired in Brainard, enjoying a well-earned 
rest. 

A native of Ireland, Mr. Groves was 
born in County Monaghan, in 18 17, but 
when only four years old was brought to 
this country by his parents, Edward and 
Mary Groves, who located in Canada near 
the Vermont line. Upon the home farm 
our subject grew to manhood and at 
Barneston, Stanstead county, Canada, was 
married, in 1841, to Miss Dorcas M. Han- 
son, a daughter of Benjamin Hanson, of 
that place. Her grandfather, Charles Han- 
son, had removed to Canada from New 
Hampshire. The children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Groves are as follows: Lucy Jane, 
the wife of Solomon Henry; Susan Eliza; 
Mary E., wife of Trimble Biggs; William 
H. H. ; Lois Olivia, wife of William Biggs; 
Helen M.; Henrietta, wife of Benjamin 
Fleek; and Abby A., wife of William Mc- 
Elvain. 



During early life Mr. Groves learned the 
mason'strade, which he followed for two years 
in Jefferson, Wisconsin, having removed to 
that place in 1857. He then came to Ne- 
braska, stopping first at Plattsmouth, where 
he followed farming in connection with 
work at his trade. From there he removed 
to Pawnee Village, where he established a 
ranch and also started a hotel as that place 
was on the Pike's Peak trail, which was 
then in constant use by the gold seekers of 
Colorado. After a residence there of two 
and a half years, the Indians became so 
troublesome that the family were forced to 
leave, and their next home was in Ashland, 
Saunders county, Nebraska, where Mr. 
Groves erected the first brick building in the 
town, it being for the use of the firm of 
Snell Brothers. 

After many years of arduous labor, Mr. 
Groves laid aside all business cares and re- 
moved to the village of Brainard in 1885, 
having previously come to Butler county, 
as before stated, in the spring of 1867. 
Here he successfully followed agricultural 
pursuits until his retirement, and through 
his own unaided efforts in life has secured a 
comfortable competence for himself and 
family. His youthful dreams of prosperity 
have been realized, and in their happy ful- 
fillment he sees the fitting reward of his 
earnest toil. For five years he has most 
capably served as justice of the peace in 
Brainard, and in the Methodist Episcopal 
church of that place he holds a membership. 



GEORGE HENTON, a prosperous agri- 
culturist living on section 34 Baker 
township, is one of the pioneers of York 
county. He was born August 30, 1844, 
at Logansport, Indiana. He is one of 
York county's old soldiers, and has an 
enviable war record. 

Mr. Henton's parents were John R. and 
Mary (McCurry) Henton, the father a native 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



371 



of Virginia, and the mother a native of 
North Carolina. John R. Henton was one 
of the first settlers in the region of Logans- 
port, Indiana, settling there in 1830, when 
the town consisted of two or three log cab- 
ins. He located on a farm there, and re- 
mained for thirty-six years. He removed 
to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in 1866, and 
died there the following year. His faithful 
wife survived him twenty years, her death 
occurring in 1887. 

George Henton was reared on a farm 
until his sixteenth year, when he learned 
the carpenter's trade, and worked at that 
until the breaking out of the Civil war; he 
then enlisted in Company G, Fifteenth In- 
diana Infantry, and was mustered in June 4, 
1 86 1, at Camp Lafayette. He was sent 
with his company to Indianapolis, and after 
about three weeks there, was sent to Vir- 
ginia. After participating in the battles of 
Greenbrier and Elk Water, he went to 
Camp Wickliff, Kentucky. In the spring of 
1862 he was among the first troops to arrive 
at Nashville, and soon afterward proceeded 
to Pittsburg Landing, where he arrived just 
about the time that memorable fight ended. 
He followed Beauregard's retreating army 
to Corinth, and was then sent back to 
Louisville in pursuit of General Bragg. 
When that general turned back across 
Kentucky the sharp engagement at Berry- 
ville took place, in which our subject partici- 
pated. He then went to Nashville where 
he was encamped for some time, his next 
scene of active fighting being at Stone River. 
Being on detached service, Mr. Henton was 
with the Tenth Indiana Battery during the 
first day's fighting but was with his own 
regiment the second day. After this battle 
they went into camp at Murfreesboro, and 
were shortly afterward ordered to Chat- 
tanooga. He took part in the bloody bat- 
tle of Chickamauga, and later at the battle 
of Missionary Ridge. Of the three hundred 
and thirty- four men with whom he went into 



this battle two hundred and two were killed 
or wounded. Of his own company but 
seven men returned to tell the story. 
Shortly after this battle an attack of pneu- 
monia made it necessary for him to be sent 
to the hospital at Nashville, and on his re- 
covery he remained at the barracks at 
Nashville until the expiration of his term of 
enlistment. He was mustered out at Indi- 
anapolis June 25, 1864. He returned home 
and attended school until the spring of 
1865, when he again enlisted, this time in 
the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Indiana 
Infantry. He remained in camp at Indi- 
anapolis until the latter part of April, was 
then ordered to Washington, and then to 
Alexandria, Virginia, for guard duty, but two 
weeks later was sent to Dover, Deleware, 
where he was discharged August 4, 1865. 
Although he saw so much active service and 
participated in some of the fiercest battles 
of the war, he was never wounded or cap- 
tured, although at Missionary Ridge he was 
knocked down by an exploded shell, and he 
came out of the fight with several bullet 
holes in his clothing. 

After the close of the war Mr. Henton 
attended school about two years, and then 
accompanied his parents to Plattsmouth, 
Nebraska, where he worked at his trade un- 
til he went to York county, in 1872. He 
filed a soldier's homestead claim to the north- 
west quarter of section 34, township 10, 
range 3, and has resided upon the same ever 
since. In 1872 this land was all wild, un- 
broken prairie, and he set to work with a 
will to put it into a state of cultivation. 
He erected a frame house fourteen feet 
square, with a shingle roof, it being among 
the first buildings of the kind in the town- 
ship as the early settlers were for the most 
part domiciled in dug-outs at that period. 
He broke about twenty-five acres of land 
the following year and planted some corn, 
which produced a fair crop. He early saw 
the importance of the stock raising industry 



372 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



for that country, and for many years gave it 
much attention. His farm is in a high 
state of cultivation, and in fertility and pro- 
ductiveness is not surpassed by any in the 
township. 

Mr. Henton was married October 6, 
1868, to Lydia Eikenbary. Mrs. Henton 
was born May 11, 1844, in Burlington, 
Iowa, daughter of Samuel and Martha 
(Crawford) Eikenbary, the former a native 
of Preble county, Ohio, and the latter of 
Union county, Indiana. Mr. Eikenbary 
was one of the pioneers of Nebraska, he 
and his wife settling near Plattsmouth in 
1856, where they spent the remainder of 
their lives. Mr. Eikenbary was a member 
of the territorial legislature when it con- 
vened at Omaha. 

Mr. and Mrs. Henton are the parents of 
the following children: Frank E. ; Ethel 
H., wife of Herbert Harris; L. Madge, de- 
ceased; George Earl, of Stockton, Califor- 
nia, where he is studying medicine. Mr. 
Henton is a Republican and takes an active 
interest in political matters. Mrs. Henton 
is a member of the Christian church at 
Charleston. 



JEROME C. FORD, one of the old and 
honored pioneers of Seward county, is 
now living at his home on section 2, pre- 
cinct G, and recalls with satisfaction the 
changes that have since come over the 
face of Nebraska since he first looked upon 
its prairie soil. He has been an active man, 
and has had his full share of the vicissitudes 
and dangers that are common to all men. 
But he has lived through them all and sur- 
vives to contemplate a green and peaceful 
old age. 

Mr. Ford was born in McHenry county, 
Illinois, June 8, 1840, and was a son in the 
home of Cyrus and Amarilla (Brown) Ford. 
They were natives of New York and Ver- 
mont, and following a rural life, moved to 



Illinois, where the husband and father died 
in McHenry county April 10, 1863. Benja- 
min Ford was the grandfather of Jerome, 
and he lived and died in New York. Mrs. 
Cyrus Ford was born November 5, 1805, 
and died March 4, 1897, at the home of her 
son Jerome. He was the youngest of her 
family, and her last days were spent by his 
fireside. 

Jerome Ford received the most of his 
schooling in a log school-house in McHenry 
county, and while the surroundings and ap- 
pointments were rude, yet the instruction 
was good, and there were strong men who 
went out from those pioneer structures. 
The war breaking out just as he was enter- 
ing upon his majority, he hastened to enlist 
in the Union army, and was a soldier in 
Company H, Thirty-si.xth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, and served throughout the war. 
He was at the battles of Pea Ridge in 1862, 
Perryville, and Stone River. In this last 
engagement he was wounded in the hip, 
taken prisoner, and confined in Libby 
prison for some weeks. He was with his 
regiment again in the fall of 1863, in time 
to participate in the romantic struggle of 
Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. 
He fought in the battles around Atlanta and 
was wounded in the head at Kenesaw Mount- 
ain. From this time he was put on de- 
tached duty and was mustered out in 1865. 
He was a brave and efficient soldier, and 
made a record of which any man might well 
be proud. 

At the conclusion of peace the war-worn 
veteran made his way back to his Illinois 
home, and spent a number of years there. 
In 1869, feeling the American hunger for 
land, which is said to be a national charac- 
teristic, he came to this state in search of a 
home, and entered a homestead claim in 
Butler county. He lived there five years, 
and erected the first frame house ever seen 
in that part of the state. In 1874 he 
moved to the city of Seward, and spent the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



373 



next seven years in the milling business. In 
1 88 1 he retired from the mill and purchas- 
ing the land where he now resides, devoted 
himself to making a farm. It is on section 
2, in precinct G, and his assiduous and per- 
sistent labors are evident in the very great 
improvement that has been effected in all 
the appointments of the farm. He was 
married in 1864 to Miss Lorinda Beebe. 
She was a native of New York, and is the 
mother of three sons and one daughter, 
Fred S., Elmer E., Harry E. and Lydia. 
The daughter married a Mr. Miller, and is 
now dead. He is an enthusiastic member 
of the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
has a welcome greeting for any old soldier. 
He is a Republican and has been elected to 
several township offices, and has also 
served on the board of supervisors. 



WILLIAM STEWART.— While "the 
race is not always to the swift nor 
the battle to the strong," the invariable law 
of destiny accords to tireless energy, industry 
and ability a successful career. The truth 
of this assertion is abundantly verified in the 
life of Mr. Stewart, a prosperous farmer re- 
siding on section 8, Waco township, York 
county. 

He was born in County Cork, Ireland, 
18 1 5, and in 1827 came to the New World 
with his parents, John and Eliza (Willis) 
Stewart, the former a native of Scotland, 
the latter of County Cork, Ireland. They 
took up their residence in the county of 
Northumberland, Province of Ontario, 
Canada West, where the father secured a 
valuable tract of one thousand acres of tim- 
ber land. He was a well educated man, and 
in the old country had followed merchandis- 
ing, but in America devoted his energies to 
clearing and improving his land. He did not 
live long, however, to enjoy his new home, 
dying in 1830, at the age of fifty-two years, 
and his sons then took up the work of im- 



provement and cultivation of the home 
farm. His wife died in 1863. Both held 
membership in the Episcopal church, and 
were highly respected by all who knew 
them. Their children were James, Jane 
and Elizabeth, all now deceased; Thomas; 
Mary, deceased; William; Benjamin and 
Ann, both deceased; and John. 

William Stewart was twelve years of 
age when brought by his parents to America, 
and amid scenes of frontier life he grew to 
manhood, aiding his brothers in clearing and 
operating the home farm until he attained 
his majority. He received a fairly good 
education in his native land, but did not at- 
tend school to any extent in Canada. At 
the age of twenty-two he started out to 
make his own way in the world, and at first 
conducted the farm left him by his father, 
operating it quite successfully until coming 
to the United States. 

In 1845 Mr. Stewart was united in 
marriage with Miss Elizabeth Willis, also a 
native of County Cork, Ireland, who died in 
the tall of 1 886, leaving five children, 
namely: John; William, who married Annie 
Hyde and has four children — William J., 
David A. , Mary Elizabeth and Charles H. ; 
Eliza, who first married John Salmon and 
after his death wedded James Anderson; 
Annie, who married Ed Wilson and died 
leaving one son, Leroy Wesley; and David, 
deceased. 

In 1877 ^f"- Stewart came to York 
county, Nebraska, and obtained a home- 
stead on the north half of the southeast 
quarter of section 8, Waco township, on 
which he built a little frame house, 14X 20 
feet. He raised his first crop the following 
year. In 1886 he removed to section 6, of 
the same township, and 1893 located upon 
his present farm. He is now the owner of 
four hundred acres of well improved and 
highly cultivated land, on which are five 
sets of farm buildings. Both sons own one 
hundred and sixty acres each. Aside from 



374 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



voting the People's party, Mr. Stewart 
takes no active part in political affairs, 
while religiously he is identified with the 
Episcopal church. His genial, pleasant 
manner has made him quite popular in both 
business and social circles, and as a public- 
spirited, enterprising man, he is recognized 
as a valued citizen of the community. 



ORVILLE M. MOORE. M. D., mem- 
ber of the firm of Shidler & Moore, 
physicians and surgeons, was born in Rip- 
ley, Brown county, Illinois, July 30, 1859. 
His father, S. V. Moore, was one of the 
first physicians in York county, and his biog- 
raphy will appear on another page of this 
volume. 

Our subject was educated in York coun- 
ty, having moved there with his parents in 
1869. He attended the public schools of 
the district in which he lived and also the 
York Seminary. While not in school, he 
devoted the most of his time to farming un- 
til about twenty-one years of age, when he 
began the study of medicine under Dr. W. 
H. Babcock, of Bradshaw, York county, 
and remained under his direction for three 
years. He then entered the Bennett Medi- 
cal College of Chicago, in 1882, attend- 
ing that institution for one year. In 
1883 he entered the Eclectic Medical Insti- 
tute of Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated 
from same June 3, 1884. He also took a 
special course in diseases of the eye and ear 
at Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati. 

Dr. Moore began the practice of his pro- 
fession in Bradshaw, Nebraska, in 1884, 
and continued in that place until 1896, 
when he came to York and associated him- 
self with Dr. Shidler, and since then they 
have practiced in partnership. Dr. Moore 
is a man of excellent education, and being 
of social turn, has become quite prominent 
in the social circles of the city and vicinity. 
In all matters tending to promote the gener- 



al welfare and to develop the business and 
social interests of his adopted town he has 
taken a hearty interest and has aided mate- 
rially in various ways in the up-building and 
strengthening of good local government. 
He is a member of the York County Medi- 
ical Society, is president of the Nebraska 
State Eclectic Society and a member of the 
National Medical Association. He is a Royal 
Arch member of the Masonic fraternity, is a 
member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. In 1891 Doctor Moore supple- 
mented his medical education by taking a 
course at the New York Post Graduate 
Medical School. As a man he is highly re- 
spected, and as a physician and surgeon he 
ranks among the foremost of his profession 
and enjoys an extensive and ever-increasing 
patronage, both in general practice and sur- 
gery, although the firm makes a specialty of 
surgery. 



WILLIAM J. LANYON, who, as a 
stock breeder and farmer, has been 
prominently identified with the business in- 
terests of York county since 1872, and his 
affairs have been so managed as to win him 
the confidence of the public and the pros- 
perity which should always attend honora- 
ble effort. His homestead is pleasantly lo- 
cated on section 23, Stewart township. 

Mr. Lanyon was born in Linden, Iowa 
county, Wisconsin, February 2, 1843, and 
is a son of Simon and Mary (Batten) Lan- 
yon, natives of the parish of St. Allen, 
Cornwall, England, where they were mar- 
ried June 4, 1838. Soon afterward they 
emigrated to the United States and located 
in Iowa county, Wisconsin, the father fol- 
lowing blacksmithing at Linden until 1853. 
After two years spent at Mineral Point, 
Wisconsin, he returned to Linden, and in 
1864 again went to Mineral Point, where he 
made his home until called from this life 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



375 



March 20, 1889. During the Black Hawk 
war he was called out for drill. His wife 
died November 6, 1892. In their family 
were six children, who reached years of 
maturity; S. H., who died in Pittsburg, 
Kansas; Mrs. Mary A. B. Carter, of Le 
Mars, Iowa; William J., of this sketch; 
Carrie L. Webber, of Pittsburg, Kansas; 
Reuben S., of Joplin, Missouri; and Frank 
W., who died in Pittsburg, Kansas. The 
last named was cashier of the Pittsburg Na- 
tional Bank ;was a thirty -second-degree Ma- 
son and treasurer of the Knight Templars of 
the state of Kansas; was also a member of 
the Benevolent and Patriotic Order of Elks; 
was a World's Fair delegate from Kansas; 
and was the candidate of his party for the 
state senate at the time of his death. 

The subject of this sketch was reared 
and educated in Linden and Mineral Point, 
W^isconsin, and at the age of twenty-nine 
years began life for himself. He was mar- 
ried March 8, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth J. 
James, who was born in Camborne, Corn- 
wall, England, October 26, 1843, a daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Jane (Rogers) James, also 
natives of Cornwall. In 1848 the family 
came to America and settled at Dodgeville, 
Wisconsin, where the mother was ill with 
typhus fever for seven months. She died in 
October, 1861. In 1853, the father, who 
was a miner by occupation, went to Califor- 
nia, and there his death occurred. Mrs. 
Lanyon was the oldest of their three chil- 
dren, the others being Mary A., now the wife 
of Alfred Roberts, of Emporia, Kansas; and 
Joseph H., who was a soldier of the Civil 
war, and died in Streator, Illinois, July 25, 
1872, being buried by the Odd Fellows' fra- 
ternity, to which he belonged. Mrs. Lan- 
yon was reared and educated in Dodgeville, 
Wisconsin, and by her marriage has become 
the mother of si.x children; Mary Luella; 
Irving H., Maurice S. and Reuben J., both 
residents of Pittsburg, Kansas; Emily J., fa- 
miliarly known as Dollie; and W'. John. 



It was on the 14th of June, 1872, that 
Mr. Lanyon and his family arrived in York 
county, Nebraska, and camped on section 
23, Stewart township. A few of the set- 
tlers who were here at that time are still re- 
sidents of the township. Our subject secured 
a homestead on section 24, built thereon a 
good frame house 14x22 feet, and made 
many other improvements, but eleven years 
later sold the place and purchased his pres- 
ent farm. He has three hundred and 
twenty acres of rich and productive land, 
all under excellent cultivation, and im- 
proved with a good residence, and one of 
the best barns in this part of the county. 
In connection with general farming he is 
quite extensively engaged in the breeding of 
horses. He has owned such famous horses 
as Bay Boston, 1031 (4849), which was 
from the best stock of England and im- 
ported by George E. Brown & Company, of 
Aurora, Illinois. He now has a Clydesdale 
stallion — Scotch Miracle — which was sired 
by Scottish Chief, a full blooded Scotch 
Clydesdale, who was sired by King of the 
West, half Clyde and half English coach. 
His granddam was a Black Hawk. At one 
time Mr. Lanyon owned the roadster 
stallion, Peter K., who traces direct to 
Membrino Chief, and his dam was a Ham- 
bletonian mare noted for her speed. He 
now has some very fine specimens of horse 
flesh, including La Nyon, 30440, three years 
old, sixteen and one-half hands high, a 
pure bay and a fine stallion. Besides 
horses, he also raises thoroughbred Red 
Duroc hogs, and some very fine cattle. 

In his political affiliations, Mr. Lanyon 
is a Republican, and has most creditably 
filled the offices of township treasurer, road 
overseer and school director. Socially he 
is a member of the Masonic lodge of 
Gresham, and religiously both he and his 
wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church of that place, in which he has served 
as steward. 



876 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



HON. CHARLES H. SLOAN.— Faith- 
fulness to duty and strict adherence to 
a fixed purpose in life will do more to ad- 
vance a man's interests than wealth or ad- 
ventitious circumstances. The successful 
men of the day are they who have planned 
their own advancement and have accom- 
plished it in spite of many obstacles and 
with a certainty that could have been at- 
tained only through their own efforts. This 
class of men has a worthy representative in 
Hon. Charles H. Sloan, who began life 
amid unfavoring circumstances on an Iowa 
farm and has risen to distinction as an emi- 
nent lawyer and statesman. Although yet 
a young man he has left the impress of his 
individuality upon the policy of Nebraska 
and is regarded as one of the most promi- 
nent and able citizens whose interests are 
linked with those of the Tree Planters state. 
His portrait appears on another page. 

Born near Monticello, Jones county, 
Iowa, May 2, 1863, the subject of this re- 
view is a son of James W. and Elizabeth 
(Magee) Sloan, natives of the north of Ire- 
land. When a child the father came to 
America with his parents, Charles and Jane 
(Weir) Sloan, who were also born on the 
Emerald Isle, and were of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent. They spent their last days in Phil- 
adelphia, Pennsylvania, where James Sloan 
was reared to manhood and learned the 
weaver's trade. In that city he married 
Elizabeth Magee, who had come to America 
alone when about fifteen years of age, and 
after their marriage they emigrated west- 
ward, locating on a farm near Monticello, 
Iowa. They now reside in Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska. Believing education to be 
one of the best preparations for the respon- 
sible duties of life they made many sacrifices 
in order to give their children good school 
privileges, the mother frequently saying that 
a good education was worth more than a 
quarter-section of land. 

Charles H. Sloan spent his early boy- 



hood days on the farm in Jones county, and 
acquired his education in Monticello. About 
si.x months before the time of graduation he 
began teaching in that county, and on the 
1st of March, 1881, resumed his own stud- 
ies in the State Agricultural College, of 
Ames, Iowa, where he completed a four- 
years course in three and a half years, grad- 
uating when twenty-one years of age. He 
made his way through college by teaching 
in vacations and working nights and morn- 
ings during the school year. He won dis- 
tinction during his collegiate course both as 
a scholar and athlete, was the popular edi- 
tor of the college paper, a favorite on the 
campus, a leading member of the Delta Tau 
Delta fraternity and was graduated with the 
highest oratorical honors of his class. Sev- 
eral time has he returned to his alma mater 
to deliver addresses before the college, at 
the request of the faculty or societies. 

In the fall of 1884 Mr. Sloan was elected 
principal of the public schools of Fairmount, 
Nebraska, where he remained three years, 
during which time he greatly raised the 
standard of the schools, making them very 
efficient as an educational center. During 
his principalship he devoted his evenings to 
the study of law under the direction of John 
P. Maule, and in 1887 was admitted to the 
bar, after which he formed a law partner- 
ship with his former preceptor which con- 
tinued until January, 1891, the senior part- 
ner having removed to Lincoln in 1888. Mr. 
Sloan was not long in demonstrating his 
ability in the conduct of important litiga- 
tion and became especially prominent as a 
trial lawyer, owing to his keen power of 
analysis and his splendid gifts of oratory. 
He was retained as advocate and counsel on 
many suits heard in the state and federal 
courts and for two or three years was city 
attorney. In the fall of 1890 he was 
nominated on the Republican ticket without 
a dissenting vote for county attorney and 
was the only Republican elected. He 



« 




HON. CHARLES H. SLOAK. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



379 



served in that position for two terms, the 
second time being elected by a vote of three 
hundred above that given any other Repub- 
lican candidate on the ticket. After the 
first year there was no man acquitted who 
was placed on trial and no charge that he 
filed was ever quashed. During his term of 
office many intricate problems arose for 
solution and were satisfactorily disposed of, 
his service at all times being most com- 
mendable. On the 6th of July, 1893, he de- 
livered the oration at the laying of the cor- 
ner stone of the new court house, address- 
ing the largest crowd ever assembled in the 
county. In 1890 the Populists had carried 
the county by one thousand majority, and 
three years later there was a hot fight to 
elect county officers to occupy the new 
temple of justice. After one of the most 
bitter contests in the history of this locality, 
the Republicans elected their entire ticket 
and all agree that the result was largely due 
to the efforts of Mr. Sloan. 

In the fall of 1894, just prior to the ex- 
piration of his term of service as county at- 
torney, he was nominated to represent the 
twenty-fourth senatorial district, comprising 
Fillmore and York counties, in the general 
assembly. He made a thorough canvass of 
both counties, running against one of the 
strongest Populists in the district, and was 
elected by a majority of seven hundred and 
forty-three. In the senate he supported by 
vote and influence John M. Thurston, who 
was elected United States senator. He 
served as chairman of the committees on 
constitutional amendments and federal re- 
lations and was chairman of the committee 
on privileges and elections and a member 
of the judiciary, agriculture, enrolled and 
engrossed bills, educational asylums, labor 
and public lands and building committees. 
As charman of the constitutional amend- 
ment committee all amendments that year 
submitted to the people were by him intro- 
duced into the senate and house. He was 

22 



the author of and introduced the anti-oleo- 
margarine bill, of which he was in charge 
until it was incorporated on the statute 
books of the state. He was also the author 
of the resolution whereby the name of Tree 
Planters state was adopted, and his speech 
in connection therewith was one of the 
most popular, entertaining and patriotic de- 
livered at that session. Si.x bills introduced 
by him, besides amendments to the consti- 
tution, became laws, a record unparalleled 
by that of any other member during that 
term. He attained high reputation as one of 
the orators and wits of the senate and was 
popular with both parties on account of his 
genuine worth and his fidelity to the causes 
and measures in which he believed. He is 
justly regarded as one of Nebraska's fore- 
most orators and his services are much in 
demand on public occasions. He delivered 
the oration at the state fair at Omaha in 
September, 1S96, before the Pioneers' As- 
sociation and the same was published in 
full in many of the daily papers of Nebras- 
ka, receiving many flattering comments 
from the state press. On the 15th of June, 
1898, he was the orator at the Trans-Mis- 
sissippi Exposition for the grand jurisdic- 
tion of the Masonic fraternity, and again 
his address awakened the most compliment- 
ary comment. 

It is Mr. Sloan's intention to devote his 
time almost exclusively to his profession, 
and at the bar has gained a position second 
to none in his district. He is remarkably 
strong as a trial lawyer, and has also won 
some notable victories in the supreme court. 
He has one of the largest and finest law 
libraries in this part of Nebraska and his 
knowledge is comprehensive and accurate. 
One of his distinguishing characteristics, 
which has contributed in a marked 'degree 
to his success in law and politics is his 
splendid command of language, his forceful 
arguments and his aggressive yet courteous- 
utterances. He is an indefatigable worker 



380 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and everything that he undertakes receives 
his best efforts. Financial success has also 
crowned his labors and he has made judi- 
cious investments of his means, owning some 
handsome residence property, a section of 
land in Fillmore county and other western 
realty. He is also a stockholder in two 
banking institutions and has the executive 
ability and sagacity of the men in com- 
mercial life. 

On the 1st of October, 1889, Mr. Sloan 
was united in marriage, in Woodbine, Iowa, 
to Emma Porter, who was born near that 
place, her parents being Frank and Lucy 
(Frances) Porter, the former of Irish and 
the latter of French descent. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sloan were in college together, the latter 
completing the course a year later than her 
husband, after which she was engaged in 
teaching prior to their marriage. She is a 
cultured and refined lady who presides with 
gracious and pleasing hospitality over their 
home. She is especially prominent as a 
promoter of the literary interests and tastes 
of Geneva and is a member of the P. E. O., 
a western literary and social organization. 
Four children have been born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Sloan: Ethel, eight years of age; 
Blaine, si.x years old; Charles Porter, a lad 
of four; and William McKinley, a babe. 

Mr. Sloan is a Royal Arch Mason and a 
valued member of the Knights of Pythias 
and Modern Woodmen societies, and of the 
latter was the first venerable consul of the 
county. He is a man of high intellectuality, 
broad human sympathies and tolerance, 
and imbued with fine sensibilities and 
clearly defined principles. Honor and in- 
tegrity are synonymous with his name and 
he enjoys the respect, confidence and high 
regard of the people of his adopted state. 



JOHN W. KINGSTON has the distinc- 
tion of being the first settler of Arborville 
township, and has been an active participant 



in the development of York county. He was 
one of the brave defenders of the Union 
during the Civil war; is to-day one of the 
most useful and highly respected citizens of 
this section of the state; and on the rolls of 
York county's most honored pioneers his 
name should be found among the foremost. 

Jefferson county. New York, was his 
early home, hs birth occurring there Febru- 
ary 19, 1832, while his parents, John and 
Betsy A. (Spofford) Kingston, were natives 
of England and New Hampshire, respect- 
ively. The father came to the United 
States in 1805 and settled in New York, 
where he made his home until his death. 
By occupation he was a farmer and potash 
boiler. In his family were five children, 
three sons and two daughters. 

Until twelve years old John W. King- 
ston remained in New York, but in 1845 
removed to Branch county, Michigan, and 
later to Van Buren county, same state, 
where he was residing when the Civil war 
broke out. Filled with patriotic ardor he 
enlisted in 1862, in Company G, Nineteenth 
Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the 
service until hostilities ceased, being honor- 
ably discharged June 10, 1865. He took 
part in the battles of Thompson Station, Ten- 
nessee, Resaca and Cassville, Georgia, 
Kenesaw Mountain; Lost Mountain; Burnt 
Hickory; Burnt Pines; and Peach Tree 
Creek; after which the regiment was 
on detached duty until the march to the sea. 
After participating in the grand review at 
Washington, D. C. , they were mustered 
out. At Thompson Station, Mr. Kingston 
was captured by the rebels and confined in 
Libby prison for one month. 

At the close of the war he returned to 
Michigan, .where he continued to reside 
until June, 1870, when he removed to Sa- 
line county, Nebraska. The following 
November, however, he came to York 
county, and located upon a homestead in 
Arborville township, when his near neigh- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



381 



bor was twelve miles away. In the little 
dugout he constructed he lived for three 
years, when it was replaced by a better 
dwelling, and in 1891 his present resi- 
dence was erected, it being one of the best 
homes in the county. To the improvement 
and cultivation of his land he has devoted 
his energies with good results, and now has 
two quarter-sections of land under a high 
state of cultivation. In connection with 
general farming he is also interested in 
stock raising. 

In 1858, in Michigan, Mr. Kingston 
married Miss Lucinda Hunt, who died in 
that state, and the only daughter born of 
this union is also deceased, but two sons, 
L. P. and R. C. , still survive their mother. 
Mr. Kingston was again married, March 14, 
1872, his second union being with Miss 
Mary E. Shultz, a native of Pennsylvania, 
by whom he has four children: Jessie B., 
William D., Essie M. and A. J., all living. 

In his political afBliations Mr. Kingston 
is a Republican, and has acceptably filled 
the office of justice of the peace many years, 
and has been a member of the school board 
twenty-five years. He is an honored mem- 
ber of the Grand Army of the Republic and 
enjoys the respect and esteem of all who 
know him. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON McKNIGHT, 
an honored veteran of the Civil war, is 
now a leading grocer of Brainard, Nebraska, 
and as a public-spirited citizen is thoroughly 
interested in whatever tends to promote the 
moral, intellectual and material welfare of 
the community. 

Mr. McKnight was born December 27, 
1840, in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, a 
son of Miles and Joannah McKnight, and 
brother of J. T. McKnight, a prominent 
banker of Brainard. The family is of Scotch 
origin and was established in this country 
by three brothers, one of whom settled in 



Michigan, the second in Pennsylvania and 
the third in Virginia. Our subject belongs 
to the Virginia branch, and in Washington 
county, that state, his father and also his 
grandfather, Anthony McKnight, were born. 
By occupation they were farmers. At the 
age of eighteen Miles McKnight went to 
Tennessee, where he was married about 
1827, and in 1837 emigrated to Wisconsin, 
settling in Lafayette county, where the sub- 
ject of this sketch was born, reared and ed- 
ucated. 

Hardly had the echoes from Fort Sum- 
ter's guns died away when Mr. McKnight 
offered his services to his country, enlisting 
May 29, 1862, in Company D, Twentieth 
Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which was 
attached to the Thirteenth Army Corps, 
Second Brigade, Second Division. The 
first year was spent in Missouri and Ar- 
kansas, and our subject took an active part 
in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, 
where he was wounded. He was also in a 
skirmish on White river, where he witnessed 
the death of Quantrall, the famous guerrilla 
leader. Later he was sent to Vicksburg, 
where he arrived about May 26, 1863, par- 
ticipating in the siege at that place until its 
surrender on the 4th of July. Under Gen- 
eral Herron he went up the Yazoo river and 
assisted in the capture of Yazoo City, from 
there went to Port Hudson and New Or- 
leans, and in October crossed the Gulf to 
Point Isabel, Texas. At Brownsville, that 
state, the troops remained during the winter, 
Mr. McKnight having command of the mail 
guard at that point. In the spring of 1864 
he was sent to New Orleans, where he was 
on provost guard duty until the following 
November. During the winter of 1864-5 
he did garrison duty at Detroit, Michigan, 
and in May of that latter year was honor- 
ably discharged. He was twice wounded 
and twice taken prisoner, but managed to es- 
cape both times. 

After the war Mr. McKnight returned to 



882 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his Wisconsin home and resumed farming. 
He was married April 14, 1866, the lady 
of his choice being Miss Anna Scott, and 
they have become the parents of six children, 
one son and five daughters, namely: Mar- 
tha J., now the wife of William Gladish, 
of Omaha; Nora A., wife of George Per- 
kins, of Shelby, Polk county, Nebraska; 
Emma M., wife of Thomas Stoddar, of 
Omaha: Alcena E., wife of J. B. Slade, of 
David City; Rebecca I., wife of Fred Hurst, 
of Omaha; and James W. , who is now nine- 
teen years of age, and is at home with his 
parents. 

In 1875 Mr. McKnight removed to Mills 
county, Iowa, where he was engaged in 
farming and the grain business until coming 
to Butler county, Nebraska, in 1885. Be- 
ing a carpenter by trade, he worked at that 
occupation here up to within the past three 
years, since when he has successfully con- 
ducted a grocery store in Brainard, having 
by fair dealing and courteous treatment of 
customers succeeded in building up a large 
and profitable trade. He has ever taken a 
prominent part in fraternal matters, and is 
one of the influential and honored members 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Blue Lodge of the Masonic Fraternity, 
the Order of Ben Hur, and the Grand Army 
of the Republic, being at present second 
officer in his post. In religious belief he is 
a Methodist. 



JACOB H. COLEMAN, the well-known 
proprietor of the Headlight, is one of 
the most popular and influential citizens 
of Stromsburg, Polk county, with whose 
business and political interests he has been 
prominently identified since 1881. He was 
born in Rock Island county, Illinois, No- 
vember 5, 1841, his parents, John and Sarah 
(Hesser) Coleman, being early settlers of 
that county. With the pioneer history 
of that state the father, who was a farmer 



and carpenter, was closely identified, build- 
ing the first frame house in Chicago, and 
serving as a soldier in the Black Hawk war. 
He dited in 1891, and his wife passed away 
the following year. They were the parents 
of eight children, namely: Mrs. Harriet 
Murray, Jacob H., Mrs. Mary Jones, Mrs. 
Lydia Duck, Alexander, Mrs. Annie Skel- 
ton, Mrs. Ella Pitsenbarger and Mrs. Rachel 
Hereendeen. 

During his boyhood and youth, Jacob H. 
Coleman accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Madison county, Illinois, and 
later to Macoupin and Green counties, the 
same state. He was reared to farm life 
and acquired a fair education in the district 
schools. On the 9th of August, 1862, he 
enlisted in Company I, Ninety-first Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and was first sent to 
Louisville, and afterward to Perryville, 
Kentucky. At the battle of Multro's Hill, 
he was captured, and sent as a paroled 
prisoner to the parole camp at Benton Bar- 
racks, St. Louis, where he was subsequently 
exchanged. Later he took part in the siege 
of Vicksburg and then went to Port Hudson, 
New Orleans and Chaplie river, participat- 
ing in the skirmish at the last named place. 
He went on the Banks expedition to 
Brownsville, Texas, and then returned to 
New Orleans. He spent one year in the 
Lone Star state as a cowboy in the employ 
of the United States government, and after- 
ward participated in the Mobile campaign, 
and the siege of Spanish Fort and Fort 
Blakely. His term of enlistment having ex- 
pired, he was mustered out at Mobile and 
returned home. 

For three years Mr. Coleman continued 
a resident of Illinois, and then removed to 
Dallas county, Iowa, where he was first en- 
gaged in farming and later in the drug busi- 
ness until 1 88 1. That year witnessed his 
arrival in Stromsburg, Polk county, Ne- 
braska, but after working for seven years 
at the carpenter's trade there he went to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



383 



Colorado, where he secured and improved 
a homestead, making that state his home 
for three years. During his residence in 
Stromsburg he organized Company I, of the 
Second Nebraska Militia, but resigned his 
commission as captain at the end of one 
year. On his return to Polk county, he en- 
gaged in farming until 1892, when he pur- 
chased the Headlight plant, and has since 
engaged in the publication of that journal. 
The paper was established by I. D. Cham- 
berlin, May 14, 1885, and is now one of 
the leading newspapers of this section of the 
state. Mr. Coleman has two children: Ada 
M. and Chattie. 

Fraternally Mr. Coleman is a member 
of the blue lodge of the Masonic Order, in 
Stromsburg; the Knights of the Maccabees, 
in which he has served as sergeant; the 
Home Forum, of which he has been presi- 
dent since its organization; and the Busi- 
ness Men's Fraternity, of which he is vice- 
president. He is one of the ' ' charter mem- 
bers" of the People's party, and is one of 
its most active and influential workers in 
this section of the state. He has been hon- 
ored with a number of official positions, 
having been a member of the city council, 
mayor of Stromsburg two terms, police 
judge six years and justice of the peace four- 
teen years. 



PHILANDER CHURCH, a farmer of 
good standing in Arborville township, 
York county, successful as a tiller of the 
soil, and one who has been prominently 
identified with local affairs, is the proprietor 
of a good farm on section 8. A native of 
New York, he was born in Jefferson county, 
October 24, 1841. His parents Philander 
and Elizabeth Church, were born in Ireland 
and New York, respectively, and on coming 
to the United states in 1840 settled in 
Jefferson county, New York, but in 1854 
removed to Iowa. In the latter state our 



subject was reared and educated, and at an 
early age began life for himself. 

On the twentieth of August, 1861, Mr. 
Church responded to his country's call for 
aid to assist in putting down the rebellion, 
and enlisted in Company K, Twelfth Iowa 
Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the 
battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and 
at the latter place the regiment was 
captured, being held as prisoners of war 
from April to November, 1862, during 
which time they were confined in all the 
southern prisons, including Libby. The 
regiment was reorganized on being released, 
and again entered the service in January, 
1863, taking part in the battle of Jackson, 
Mississippi, and the siege of Vicksburg. 
They were then sent on the Arkansas 
campaign, and were later in the battles of 
Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Missis- 
sippi, and the siege of Mobile and Spanish 
Fort. During the reconstruction period 
the regiment was on duty in Alabama, and 
was honorably discharged January 20, 1866, 
after four years and a half of arduous serv- 
ice. Mr. Church participated in every en- 
gagement in which his company took part 
and escaped with a slight wound at the 
battle of Shiloh. At the close of the war 
he was mustered out with the rank of first 
corporal and returned to his home in Iowa. 

In 1867 he moved to Omaha, but after- 
ward returned to Iowa and did not locate 
permanently in Nebraska until coming to 
York county in February, 1871, when he 
took up a homestead on section 8, Arbor- 
ville township. He was the second settler 
in this part of the county J. W. Kingston 
located here a short time before. Upon his 
place he erected a sod house with a shingle 
roof, hauling the lumber for its construction 
from Lincoln. In the fall he brought his 
family to the home he had prepared for 
them, and in that house they continued to 
live foi: eight years, when it was replaced 
by a more substantial and modern dwelling. 



384 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He began life here in earnest, and now has 
his farm under a high state of cultivation 
and well improved with good buildings. 

In Iowa, Mr. Church was married, in 
1868, to Miss Alice Hurlbutt, a daughter of 
William and Sarah Hurlbutt, natives of 
Connecticut, who emigrated to Iowa in 
1852, and in 1880 took up their residence 
in Arborville, York county, Nebraska, where 
they still continue to reside. Of the six 
children born to our subject and his wife 
three are still living, namely: Nellie A., 
Jennie E. and Julia M. 

Fraternally Mr. Church affiliates with the 
Grand Army of the Republic and the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, and politically 
is identified with the Republican party. He 
has been an important factor in the devel- 
opment of the county, assisted in the or- 
ganization of Arborville township, has most 
capably and satisfactorily filled all the local 
offices, and for three terms was a member 
of the board of county supervisors, serving 
from 1888 to 1894. 



RC. GOULD, assistant cashier of the 
Platte Valley State Bank, at Bellwood, 
Butler county, is one of the ambitious and 
enterprising young men of that portion of 
Nebraska who bid fair to become one of its 
substantial and worthy citziens. 

Mr. Gould was born in Michigan City, 
Indiana, May i, 1865, a son of Zebina 
Gould, a history of whom will appear in the 
sketch of George S. Gould, on another page 
of this volume. After receiving a liberal 
education in his native state, our subject 
moved west and located in Omaha in 1865, 
and accepted a position with the McCormick 
Harvester Company, under his brother, H. 
R. Gould, who was then general agent for 
that company. In October, 1891, our sub- 
ject resigned his position with the Harvest- 
er Company, and has since been engaged 
in the Platte Valley State Bank and in buy- 



ing grain for the Gould Elevator, in Bell- 
wood. 

Mr. Gould is a man of excellent business 
capacities, having met with eminent success 
in all the business enterprises in which he 
has embarked. He is a man of strict in- 
tegrity, careful and methodical in his busi- 
ness habits, and carries these characteristics 
into all the details of his life. At whatever 
lines of business he has been engaged he has 
made many friends by his push and energy. 
Although he is comparatively a young man 
he has gained a position of prominence and 
is recognized as one of the rising young men 
of the community, and is very popular in 
social as well as in business circles. Mr. 
Gould is a bachelor. 



HENRY BEDFORD, one of the pushing 
and prosperous business men ot Seward 
county, has recently made his home in Bee, 
and his coming to this bustling town made 
a very valuable addition to its business 
force. Although he is drawing near the ac- 
cepted span of life his natural force is not 
abated, nor do the fires of hope and enter- 
prise burn less brightly in his heart. He is 
one of the pioneer settlers in this region, 
was among the first to break the soil in Bee 
township, and knows by experience what it 
means to open a new country to civilization. 
Henry Bedford was born in Huntington- 
shire, England, April 27, 1834. His par- 
ents, Henry and Elizabeth (Bass) Bedford, 
were of English ancestry, and belonged to 
families long native to the soil. They lived 
and died in the country of their birth. 
Henry Bedford spent the first nineteen years 
of his life in his native town, and emigrated 
to America in 1853. He landed in New 
York and went to Evansville, Indiana, 
where he remained two years. The soil and 
climate did not please him, and so he re- 
moved his residence to Marshall county, 
Illinois. In 1874 he became a resident of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



385 



Seward. In 1876 he took a farm some 
miles north of the city, and he was occupied 
in farming until 1894. As a farmer he was 
eminently successful, and accumulated very 
substantial savings, with which he was able 
to leave the farm and reside in Lincoln. 
He spent two years in the capital city and 
in 1896 came to Bee and opened a general 
store in a building of his own erection. He 
became a popular and successful tradesman, 
and combines with his mercantile labors the 
buying and shipping of grain. He is a good 
man with whom to deal, and people have 
learned to know him as honorable and re- 
liable. 

Mr. Bedford was united in marriage in 
1859 with Miss Catherine E. Molton. She 
was born in Illinois, and the wedding oc- 
curred at the home of her parents in that 
state. They have had seven children, 
whose names are Mary C, Henry S., 
Oliver C. , Martha B., Katy Bell, Francis 
E. and George Leslie. They are a bright 
and attractive family and are making place 
for themselves in the world. Mr. Bedford 
takes strong ground as an advocate of the 
Populist party, and while he has no hunger 
for office nor ambitious for the honors of 
politics, he has served a two-years' term on 
the board of supervisors. He has been very 
successful in his business enterprises, and his 
general business capacity may be judged 
from the fact that when he set foot in In- 
diana he did not have five dollars to his 
name, and to-day, aside from many im- 
portant mercantile and stock and grain in- 
terests, he holds an unclouded title to 
eighteen hundred acres of choice land. 



THOMAS KERBY, whose home is on 
section 18, Beaver township, belongs to 
that countless host that is the pride and 
glory of Nebraska, who began life with 
nothing, and come, long before their natural 
forces is abated and the eye has lost its lus- 



ter, to possess honor and independence 
through their own worth, and not by any 
accident of fate or fortune. He is a solid 
man in every sense of the word, and is the 
unchalleneged proprietor of a farm that 
consists of hundreds of tillable acres. The 
career of such a man should be studied and 
understood. 

Mr. Kerby is a native of the Emerald 
Isle, and was born near the city of Dublin 
in 1844, and was brought to this country 
when a mere baby under the care of an 
uncle. His first years were spent in the 
city of New York, but his education was 
mostly acquired in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
He was very early thrown upon his own 
resources and at the age of fourteen years 
assumed the responsibility of his own main- 
tenance. He found work and wages among 
the farmers for the ne.xt five years, though 
he did some railroading in that period of 
his life. He came to Nebraska in 1869, 
and located in York county where he re- 
sides to-day. He secured his first land 
under the homestead law, and has since 
added to it until he has now over five hun- 
dred acres of good farm land. When he 
appeared in the county it was nearly all 
wild land. There were no neighbors in 
sight, and the lonely pioneer must have had 
many dreary days. But he buckled to and 
constructed a dug-out for his first abode. 
This was followed by a log house and then 
a frame house, and in the summer q{ 1890 
his present well appointed family mansion 
arose. In 1869 he had no crop to gather, 
and the next year but a small yield. He 
was quick to take advantage of every op- 
portunity to earn a dollar outside. He 
helped on the survey of the Burlington road 
from Crete to Kearney, and has extensive 
interests in cattle in this state. 

Mr. Kerby was married in 1882 to Miss 
Millie E. Nichols. She was a native of 
Wisconsin, and died in 1884, leaving one 
child, now dead. He again entered into 



886 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



matrimonial relations in October, 1893, 
Miss Lizzie . L. Hoffman uniting her desti- 
nies with his. He is a man of extensive 
business connections. He has three hundred 
and fifty, acres under cultivation, and this 
work is all done by renters. He is a direct- 
or in the First National Bank of York. He 
belongs to the York lodge of the Order of 
Odd Fellows, and in politics votes and acts 
with the Republican party. Mrs. Kerby is 
a member of the Lutheran church, and is a 
lady of much force of character, and at- 
tractive social qualities. 



WILLIAM J. PARKER.— Failure is a 
natural sequence of the lack of cer- 
tain well-known characteristics; success the 
result of the possession of these qualities. 
It is not genius or the favoritism of fate 
that brings prosperity, but earnest effort, 
close application and undaunted persever- 
ance, and the life-record of Mr. Parker 
stands in incontrovertible evidence of this 
fact. Entering upon his business career 
without capital, he has by his own labors 
won a place among the substantial citizens 
of York county, and is accounted one of 
her leading agriculturists. 

He was born in Tazewell county, Illi- 
nois, December 30, 1843, his parents being 
Joseph C. and Sarah (Loomis) Parker, the 
former a native of New Jersey and the lat- 
ter of Ohio. From the state of his nativity 
the father removed to Ohio and thence to 
Illinois, locating near the present site of the 
city of Peoria in 1830. There he spent 
many years, his death occurring in that lo- 
cality in 1865, in which year his wife also 
passed away. In his last years he followed 
the plasterer's trade, but had previously en- 
gaged in farming. 

William J. Parker is one of a family of 
four sons and two daughters, and was edu- 
cated in the schools of Illinois. He received 
ample training at farm labor and devoted 



his energies to the cultivation of the fields 
until July 9, 1862, when prompted by a 
a spirit of patriotism he responded to his 
country's call for aid, and in his nineteenth 
year entered the service as a member of 
Company G, Sixth Illinois Infantry. He 
participated in the battle of Perryville, Ken- 
tucky, was stationed at Nashville for ten 
months, took part in the siege of Atlanta 
and all the engagements in which Sher- 
man's troops participated on the celebrated 
march to the sea, and on the 9th of May, 
1865, received an honorable discharge. He 
was also in the grand review at Washington, 
where wave after wave of bayonet-crested 
blue passed by the place where the presi- 
dent viewed the victorious army. 

Returning then to his Illinois home, Mr. 
Parker continued farming in that state until 
February, 1869, when he removed to Dal- 
las county, Iowa, and from there to Mis- 
souri. In the spring of 1872 he went to 
Omaha, Nebraska, and in the autumn of 
that year came to York county, where he 
entered the claim upon which he now lives, 
having made a permanent location thereon 
in 1873. His first home was a sod house, 
which continued to be his shelter for ten 
years, when he erected a commodious and 
modern frame residence. He has made 
other excellent improvements on the farm, 
which is now supplied with all the acces- 
sories and conveniences of the model farm 
of the nineteenth century. He is very in- 
dustrious and energetic and to-day ranks 
among the leading agriculturists of the com- 
munity whose well-directed efforts have 
brought them success. 

In August, 1868, Mr. Parker married 
Miss Ellen Simpson, a native of Indiana, 
and they have two children, William T. 
and Joseph E. They have also lost six 
children. Theirs is a pleasant and hospit- 
able home and they enjoy the warm regard 
of many friends. In his political views Mr. 
Parker is a Populist, and in 1891 was elect- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



387 



ed to the office of assessor. He has always 
discharged his duties of citizenship with the 
same loyalty that marked his course when 
on southern battle fields he followed the 
stars and stripes to victory. 



NATHAN FELLOWS.— In the respect 
that is accorded to men who have 
fought their way to success through un- 
favorable environments we find an uncon- 
scious recognition of the intrinsic worth of a 
character which can not only endure so 
rough a test, but gain new strength through 
the discipline. The following history sets 
forth briefly the steps by which our subject, 
now one of the substantial agriculturists of 
Polk county, overcame the disadvantages 
of his early life. He is now engaged in 
farming on section 24, township 13, range 3. 
Mr. Fellows was born in August, 1834, 
in Jefferson county, Ohio, and is the only 
child of William and Catharine (Jacobs) 
Fellows, natives of Ohio and Virginia, re- 
spectively. The father, who was a farmer 
by occupation, died in his native state, in 
1834, and the mother passed away there 
several years later. Our subject was reared 
by strangers in the county of his nativity, 
and received a very limited education. As 
soon as large enough to handle a hoe, he 
was set to work, and has since been depend- 
ent upon his own resources for a livelihood, 
working as a farm hand by the month after 
he attained his eighteenth year. In 1856, 
he married Miss Eliza Jane Toole, who was 
born in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1838, 
and they became the parents of three chil- 
dren: Marion, Albert and Rosie. In March, 
1874, he was again married, his second 
union being with Miss Mary A. Stewart, 
whose birth occurred in Pennsylvania, in 
1846. Five children blessed this marriage: 
Mary Catharine, William Isaac S., Homer, 
Orange and Ray. All have been provided 
with good school privileges. 



In August, 1861, Mr. Fellows joined the 
boys in blue as a private in Company F, 
Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and 
after going to Paducah, Kentucky, took 
part in the following engagements: the 
two days' battle of Shiloh, the sieges of 
Corinth and Vicksburg, and the battles of 
Jackson, Mississippi, and Missionary Ridge. 
On re-enlisting he was granted a thirty 
days' furlough, and afterward was all 
through the Atlanta campaign, was with 
Sherman on his march to the sea, and after 
the battle of Savannah went by boat to 
Beaufort, and on to Goldsboro and Raleigh, 
North Carolina, being at the last named 
when Johnston surrendered. The troops 
then marched to Washington, District of 
Columbia, where they participated in the 
grand review, and then proceeded to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, whence Mr. Fellows was 
sent home. He was discharged at Colum- 
bus, Ohio, in July, 1865. The first day of 
the battle of Shiloh he received a gunshot 
wound in the left leg, and at Jackson, Mis- 
sissippi, was wounded by a piece of shell, 
which injured his left shoulder and broke 
the collar bone, but fortunately he was never 
captured by the enemy, although several 
times he narrowly escaped. 

After the war Mr. Fellows continued to 
live in Ohio for three years, and then re- 
moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where been gaged 
in farming for the same length of time. It 
was in 1872 that he came to Polk county, 
Nebraska, and located his homestead on 
the southwest quarter of section 24, town- 
ship 13, range 3. All that summer he had 
but five dollars which he had borrowed, to 
support himself and team, and his first din- 
ner eaten in the county consisted of a 
watermelon. The logs for his little shanty 
he hauled from the Platte river, a distance 
of eighteen miles. The first year spent 
here he rented a piece of ground, on which 
he raised some corn, and in 1874 raised 
500 bushels of wheat, but the grasshoppers 



388 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



destroyed his crop of corn and oats. In 
1895 he removed to the northwest quarter 
of the same section, and now has 305 acres, 
all under cultivation and well improved, it 
being one of the best farms in the locality. 
Mr. Fellows and his family hold mem- 
bership in the United Brethren church, in 
which he is serving as steward and trustee, 
and also takes an active part in Sunday 
school work. He is one of the most promi- 
nent members of the Grand Army Post at 
Stromsburg, in which he has twice served 
as commander and filled all the other of- 
fices. His wife and daughters are con- 
nected with the Womans' Relief Corps, and 
Mrs. Fellows has been president of the 
same. The family is one of prominence 
in the community where they reside, and at 
their pleasant home they delight to enter- 
tain their many friends. Politically Mr. 
Fellows is an unswerving Republican, takes 
an active interest in the success of his party, 
and has served several terms as school di- 
rector in district No. 35. 



JOHN B. DEY is the editor and pro- 
prietor of the Bradshaw Republican, 
published in Bradshaw, York county. An 
enterprising newspaper that is thoroughly 
alive to the interests of a community has 
probably more to do with the advancement 
and progress of that community than any 
other one factor, and through the columns 
of the Republican Mr. Dey has become the 
exponent of every movement for the public 
good and the general welfare. He pos- 
sesses the true western spirit of progress 
and indomitable energy, and his well di- 
rected labors have made his journal a pay- 
ing investment. 

Mr. Dey was born in Shelby county, 
Ohio, October 14, 1845, and is a son of 
Lewis and Polly M. (Valentine) Dey, the 
former a native of New Jersey and the lat- 
ter of Ohio. The father was a farmer and 



a blacksmith, and removed from the Buck- 
eye state to Iowa in 1847, and to Seward 
county, Nebraska, in 1871, making his 
home there until his life's labors were 
ended in death in 1894. His widow is 
still living. 

The subject of this review was educated 
in the common schools of Iowa, and when 
in his eighteenth year responded to his 
country's call for troops, enlisting in April, 
1863, as a member of Company F, Eighth 
Iowa Cavalry. He was at the front until 
the following September, and participated 
in the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, where 
he was wounded, Buzzard's Roost, Dalton, 
Tunnel Hill, Resaca, Burnt Hickory, 
Franklin, Nashville, and all the lesser en- 
gagements of that campaign. On being 
mustered out he returned to Iowa, where 
he continued to make his home until 1870, 
when he removed to Seward county, Ne- 
braska, and secured a homestead claim, on 
which he carried on agricultural pursuits for 
five years. He went through the grass- 
hopper siege and other hardships while de- 
veloping that land, and after a time he 
abandoned farming, removing to Stromsburg, 
where he worked at the carpenters trade, 
and also engaged in real-estate dealing to 
some extent until 18S4. In that year he 
was made deputy postmaster, in which ca- 
pacity he served for five years. He also 
filled the office of village clerk and justice 
of the peace, and in 1891 he established the 
Surprise Herald, a newspaper, which he 
conducted for a short time. In 1892 he 
founded the Ulysses Monitor, which was 
later consolidated with the David City 
Tribune. 

From 1893 until 1896 Mr. Dey resided 
in York and during that time established 
and conducted the Vidette. In September 
of the latter year became to Bradshaw, and 
established the Bradshaw Republican, which 
he is now publishing. He has secured a 
liberal patronage, and a good advertising 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



389 



list, and the enterpise is meeting with suc- 
cess. He is a wide-awake man, in touch 
and sympathy with the needs of the com- 
munity, and is found as a promoter of ev- 
ery interest designed for the pubhc good 
along educational, moral, material or social 
lines. 

In August, 1866, Mr. Dey was united in 
marriage to Miss Sarah J. Hall, a native of 
West Virginia, and they have six daughters, 
Laura, now the wife of D. D. Bloom; 
Rhena, Lillie, Alta, Iva and Pearl, all at 
home. Mr. Dey and his family hold mem- 
bership in the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and he is a member of the Masonic lodge, 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics 
he is an unfaltering advocate of the principles 
of the Republican party, and in 1887 and 1888 
he was postmaster of the state senate. He 
is a man of social manner, courteous de- 
meanor and genial disposition, which taken 
in connection with his genuine worth makes 
him a favorite in all classes. 



WILLIAM MORFORD.— Not only is 
there particular interest attaching to 
the career of this gentleman as one of the 
honored and highly esteemed citizens of 
Seward connty, but in reviewing his genea- 
logical record we find his lineage tracing 
back to the colonial history of the nation 
and to that period which marked the in- 
spection of the grandest republic the world 
has ever known. He was born in West 
Carlisle, Ohio, February 8, 1835, a son of 
William and Mary (Fulks) Morford, and on 
both sides is of English descent. His 
paternal grandfather, John Morford, was 
one of the men who so valiantly fought for 
the freedom of the colonies, and our subject 
well remembers hearing him tell of his ex- 
perience at the battle of Monmouth under 
command of General Washington and of 
other noted engagements including the first 



skirmish at Lexington. He also remembers 
the great rifle which he carried through the 
whole of the Revolutionary war. Our sub- 
ject's father was a volunteer in the war of 
1 81 2, belonged to the army of the Chesa- 
peake and served until the end of the strug- 
gle. At its conclusion he and his young wife 
made their way to Newark, Ohio, but after- 
ward removed to Carlisle, Coshocton, county 
that state, where he died at the age of eighty- 
four years. Our subject's maternal grand- 
parents were Jacob and Priscilla Fulks. 

During his youth Mr. Morford, of this 
review, learned the wagonmaker's trade in 
his father's shop and also attended the pub- 
lic schools conducted in the little log school 
house of the district, with its huge fire place 
over five feet wide. Later an old tin plate 
stove was put in. In this institution of learning 
he arrived at a certain kind of proficiency 
in the branches of study known as the 
" three R's," reaching the single rule of 
three in arithmetic. At the age of fourteen 
he turned his back forever on the school 
room and commenced the battle of life in 
earnest, working for his father until twenty- 
two. 

Coming to the conclusion that it was not 
best for man to be alone, Mr. Morford was 
married December 24, 1857, to Miss Mary 
E., daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Groves) 
Severns. Her paternal grandparents were 
Joseph and Mary Severns, natives of this 
country, and her maternal grandparents 
were John and Ann Betsey Groves, natives 
of Germany. Her paternal grandfather and 
two brothers did duty as soldiers against the 
Indians and British in the war of 181 2 and 
all were over eighty years of age at the time 
of their deaths. She remembers the har- 
rowing stories about the Indian raids which 
so frightened her in her childhood. Both 
grandfathers were farmers by occupation 
and right well did they till the soil of the 
old Ohio hillsides and valleys, both becom- 
ing quite rich in this world's goods. 



S90 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Mr. and Mrs. Morford began their do- 
mestic life upon a farm in Ohio which she 
inherited from her ancestors, and there they 
continued to live for about twenty years, 
with the exception of a short time spent in 
Indiana. Selling their little farm in 1880, 
they removed to Effingham county, Illinois, 
where they purchased property, but as the 
climate did not agree with their health they 
soon sold and went to Hiawatha, Kansas, 
remaining there, however, only six months. 
We next find them in Wahoo, Saunders 
county, Nebraska, where they lived for one 
year, and then came to precinct N, Seward 
county, purchasing from George B. France 
his old pre-emption claim, a fine farm of 
one hundred and sixty acres in the beautiful 
valjey of the northwest branch of the Big 
Blue river. Here they have since made 
their home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morford have become the 
parents of seven children, all born in Ohio, 
but only three are now living, (i) Arena is 
now the wife of Douglass Tipswood and they 
live on a farm within a mile of the old home- 
stead. Of their five children, three are still 
living: Sarah E., William A. and Roland, 
who are attending the district school and 
are a joy and comfort to their grandparents. 
(2) Jacob C, a farmer residing near the old 
home on section 18, N precinct, married 
Elizabeth Rains, daughter of Richard Rains, 
who now lives on section 7, the same town- 
ship, and to them have been born three chil- 
dren, two of whom are living: William and 
Earl. The elder is a bright lad who is mak- 
ing excellent progress in his studies. (3) 
James, now twenty-three years of age, has 
grown up a stout, healthy young man. 
When war was declared between Spain and 
America, he donned a soldier's uniform, 
joining Troop K, United States Volunteer 
Cavalry, under Captain Culver, formerly a 
soldier of the great Rebellion, mounted his 
horse and was off to Camp Thomas, but the 
war ended before he was called into active 



service and he was discharged at Chatta- 
nooga, Tennessee. He is now with his par- 
ents and is determined if he cannot be a 
soldier he will be a well educated man. 
When his school days are over he intends 
to study law and make himself useful to his 
day and generation. The parents take a 
just pride in their children, both sons being 
strictly temperate, not using either intoxi- 
cating drinks or tobacco in any form. They 
are especially proud of their soldier boy who 
has passed through all the temptations of 
army and camp life unsullied. 

In politics Mr. Morford is independent, 
at all times voting for principle and the best 
men, rather than for party. He is a firm 
believer in bimetalism, and is willing to sup- 
port any party which will raise the standard 
of silver to the place it occupied during the 
days of Abraham Lincoln. He and ' his 
wife are prominent and active members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church at Goehner, 
and she also takes a leading part in temper- 
ance work. When thirty-five years of age 
she joined the temperance " crusaders " who 
did such a grand work in Ohio, and was al- 
ways faithful to the trust reposed in her by 
her sister crusaders, giving freely of her 
time and money to the cause of aggressive 
temperance. She was with them when 
they first started the Good Templars and 
she is still willing to devote her energies to 
the great work. During the days of the 
crusaders Mrs. Morford used to spend weeks 
away from home in that work, coming home 
only for a short stay when relieved, then 
hasten back to take up the work again. 



BENJAMIN C.McCASHLAND.— A rep- 
resentative of the agricultural class, 
and one who has met with good success in 
his independent calling, we take pleasure in 
giving a brief sketch of the gentleman whose 
name appears at the head of this notice. 
He is one of the worthy pioneers of Fillmore 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



391 



county, having made his home on section 
1 8, Geneva township, since the spring of 
1872, and is also an honored veteran of the 
Civil war. 

A native of Kosciusko county, Indiana, Mr. 
McCashland was born May 17, 1845, ^i^<^ is 
a son of Benjamin and Harriet (Foster) 
McCashland, who were born in Virginia and 
were among the early settlers of Kosciusko 
county. They spent their last days, howev- 
er, in Nebraska, where the father died in 
January, 1889, the mother in November, 
1893. At the age of seven years our sub- 
ject was taken by his parents to Livingston 
county, Illinois, where he grew to manhood 
upon a farm. 

Although not quite eighteen years of age 
Mr. McCashland enlisted in February, 1863, 
in Company I, Fifty-third Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, and participated in the en- 
gagements at Atlanta and Jonesboro, was 
with Sherman on the celebrated march to 
the sea and in the battles of Fayetteville, 
Bentonville and Raleigh, and present was at 
the surrender of General Johnston. When 
the war was over and his services no longer 
needed he returned to his home in Living- 
ston county, Illinois, where he was married 
in 1868 to Miss Cynthia L.Myers, a native of 
Shelby county, Indiana. Her parents, John 
H. and Sarah (McConnell) Myers, were na- 
tives of Virginia and Ohio, respectively, and 
were pioneers of La Salle county, Illinois, 
whence they removed to Livingston county, 
where the father died in 1882, the mother 
in 1892. The children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. McCashland are as follows: Frank 
W., Charles I., NoraB., Clyde, Walter H., 
Ethel I., James R. and Ivan L. 

After his marriage Mr. McCashland con- 
tinued to live on rented land in Illinois until 
coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, in the 
fall of 1 87 1, when he filled a soldier's home- 
stead claim to one hundred and sixty acres of 
land on section 18, Geneva township, where 
he now resides. He then returned to Living- 



ston county, Illinois, but the following Febru- 
ary brought his family to this state, driving the 
entire distance. For si.x weeks the family 
lived in their covered wagon, but as soon as 
the frost was out of the ground a sod house, 
12 X 16 feet was erected. This served as their 
place of abode for about three years, when it 
was replaced by a larger and more preten- 
tious sod house, in which they lived until 1882, 
when a good frame residence was built. On 
arrival here Mr. McCashland had no capi- 
tal, but owned a team and possessed an 
abundance of energy. He experienced 
many hardships and difficulties, but steadily 
overcame these, and to-day is the owner of 
a valuable farm under a high state of culti- 
vation and well improved — the result of his 
own industry, enterprise and successful man- 
agement. Socially he is a member of James 
Shields Post, No. 32, G. A. R., at Grafton, 
and in political sentiment favors the free 
coinage of silver. 



REV. C. S. HARRISON, of Boston, 
Massachusetts, now located in York, Ne- 
braska, as agent for the Oklahoma College, 
is the founder of the Congregational church 
of York, Nebraska, of which he was the be- 
loved pastor for ten years. He was born in 
Otsego county, New York, in November, 
1832, and when a lad of ten years accom- 
panied his parents, Stephen and Sarah 
(Sears) Harrison, on their removal to Illi- 
nois. His father subsequently came to 
York, Nebraska, where he died in 1887. 

During his youth C. S. Harrison attended 
the public schools and academy of Chicago, 
for a time, and was later a student in Beloit 
College, of Beloit, Wisconsin, after which 
he engaged in teaching school for some 
years. In 1859 he was ordained a minister 
of the Congregational church, and was first 
assigned to work in Minnesota. Returning 
to Illinois, he filled the pulpit at Huntley for 
some years, and afterward had charge of 



892 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



congregations in Iowa and Illinois until com- 
ing to York, in 1871. Here he organized 
the Congregational church, but spent 
another year in Illinois before he took 
charge regularly here. During the ten years 
of his pastorate here, he not only built up 
the church, but also took an active interest 
in the welfare of the city, and it was 
through his untiring efforts that York is now 
one of the pleasantest and best shaded cities 
in Nebraska. He was also the founder of 
the York Academy, which existed here for 
some time, and gave his support to all 
measures calculated to advance the moral, 
educational or material welfare of the com- 
munity. On leaving York, he removed to 
Pueblo, Colorado, and was later was pastor 
of the church at Franklin, Nebraska, where 
he also took an active interest in the acad- 
emy. He was a great temperance worker, 
being one of the principal workers in. the 
interests of that cause in the state. Two of 
Mr. Harrison's sons are still residents of 
York, and are conducting one of the best 
known nurseries in the west. 



LUCIUS A. WARREN, president of the 
Bank of Surprise, has demonstrated 
the true meaning of the word success as the 
full accomplishment of an honorable pur- 
pose. Energy, close application, persever- 
ance and good management — these are the 
elements which have entered into his busi- 
ness career and crowned his efforts with 
prosperity. 

Mr. Warren was born April 15, 1850, in 
Windham county, Connecticut, a son of 
Edmund L. and Lucretia (ParkhursI;) War- 
ren, well-known farming people of that 
state. His grandfather, Artemus Warren, 
was a son of Cleveland Warren, and was 
captain of a company in the war of 18 12. 
The family was one of prominence in the 
community where they resided, and among 
the earlier settlers of eastern Connecticut. 



During his boyhood and youth, Lucius 
A. Warren received a liberal education 
which well fitted him for the teacher's pro- 
fession, which he successfully followed for 
some years. On coming to Butler county, 
Nebraska, in the fall of 1871, he located on 
section 13, Read township, and for some 
time taught school during the winter months, 
while the summer season was devoted to 
farming. In the spring of 1879 he became 
interested in the hardware business in Rising 
City as a partner of C. E. Wilcox, 
whose interest he purchased in 1882, be- 
coming sole proprietor. He continued to 
successfully engage in business along this 
line until December, 1887, when he sold out 
his hardware business and with A. Roberts 
he founded the Bank of Surprise, Mr. 
Roberts becoming president and Mr. War- 
ren vice-president. A year later our subject 
purchased the interest of his partner and 
has since had control. The bank is one of 
the most reliable financial institutions in 
Butler county, and as a financier Mr. War- 
ren ranks among the ablest. He has made 
good use of his opportunities throughout 
life, has prospered from year to year, has 
conducted all business matters carefully and 
successfully, and in all his acts displays an 
aptitude for successful management. In 
advancing his own interests he has not dis- 
regarded the rights and privileges of others, 
and has taken a commendable interest in 
public affairs, acceptably serving as one of 
the first trustees of Rising City, and as a 
member of the school board for fifteen 
years. 

Mr. Warren has .been twice married; 
first in 1877 to Miss Esther Thomas, who 
died after a short married life of one year, 
leaving one child, Eddie L., that survived 
her about six months. Subsequently he 
wedded Miss Jennie M. Carpenter, of 
Aurora, Illinois, by whom he has nine chil- 
dren, viz: Lewis A., Merritt C. , Elizabeth 
L. , Willard B. and Henry C, now living, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



393 



and Marion D. , Frank A. , Edmund C. and an 
unnamed infant, all dying in infancy. In 
social circles the family occupy an enviable 
position. 



OSCAR M. BOND, an enterprising and 
energetic farmer residing on the south- 
west quarter of section 31, township 13, 
range i, Polk county, was born on the 19th 
of November, 1854, in Cattaraugus county. 
New York. His parents, Henry F. and 
Martha (Ingalls) Bond, were also natives of 
the Empire state, the former born in Farm- 
ersville, January 16, 1823, the latter, De- 
cember 7, 1824, and their marriage was 
celebrated in 1844. Henry F. Bond was 
reared and educated at Farmersville, New 
York, and there learned the harness maker's 
trade, and followed that calling for nearly 
twelve years. He also operated a foundry 
at Franklinville, for nearly three years, or 
until 1856, when he removed to Delaware 
county, Iowa, and engaged at farming 
there until 1881, when he came to Polk 
county, Nebraska, and died there in Feb- 
ruary, 1897. He took an active interest 
in politics, and was an ardent Republican, 
and filled some minor offices while residing 
in Iowa. He was married in 1844 to Mar- 
tha Ingalls. He lived to celebrate his 
golden wedding, at which all of their chil- 
dren were present, and twenty-two grand- 
children. His widow now make her 
home with her children. He was an act- 
ive and prominent member of the Bap- 
tist church, to which church she also be- 
longs, and wherever known they are held 
in regard. The paternal grandparents of 
our subject were Ora and Laura (Carpen- 
ter) Bond. Ora Bond was born at Rutland, 
Vermont, in April, 1798, moved to New 
York about 18 19, and settled in Cattarau- 
gus county, and cleared a farm there. He 
held the office of justice of peace at Farm- 
ersville, New York, for nineteen years, and 



also filled other offices. He was a promi- 
nent Whig in politics. He was married in 
that county in about 1821, to Laura Car- 
penter, a native of Massachusetts. They 
had six children, three sons and three daugh- 
ters, five of whom grew to maturity as fol- 
lows: Henry F. , Eliza A., Mary E., Marshall 
O. , Adrain (deceased) and Laura M. All are 
dead but two, Mary E. and Laura M. 

The maternal grandfather of Oscar M. 
Bond, was Amos Ingalls, who was born at 
Acworth, New Hampshire. He was the 
son of Jonathan Ingalls, who was a native 
of New Hampshire also. Amos Ingalls 
was a brickmaker by trade. He came to 
New York in 1820, and followed his trade 
in that state until his death at Lockport in 
1827. He married about 1820 to Louisa 
Ann Flagg, who was born in Canada, but 
came to Vermont when quite young. They 
had four children born to them as follows: 
Louisa A., who died in infancy. Oscar P., 
who died in Washington, D. C. Martha, 
now living in Nebraska, and Robert E. , 
who died in infancy. His widow married 
again, and became Mrs. P. Brown. She 
came to Nebraska, and died in York coun- 
ty, in 1886. 

Oscar M. Bond is the fourth in order of 
birth in a family of seven children, of whom 
the eldest is Mrs. Josiah Locke. Henry L., 
a member of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry dur- 
ing the Civil war, was born February 26, 
1847, and was married December 20, 1870, 
to Luella Cruise, by whom he has two chil- 
dren — Oscar and Louise. Leoni M., born 
March 17, 1851, was married August 10, 
1873. to William Perry and has three chil- 
dren — Maud, Bessie and Joy. Frank O., 
born July 11, 1857, married Jennie Roth, 
and has five children — Ralph, Perry, Byron, 
Maud and Harold. Coleman E., born No- 
vember 15, 1863, married Edith Roe, and 
has three children — Leon, Bertha and Earl. 
Fred I., born December 24, 1867, married 
Lesta Walker and has one child — Joy. 



394 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



The subject of this review was reared in 
much the usual manner of farmer's sons, 
attending the common schools near his home 
and aiding in the labors of the fields and 
meadows. He remained under the parental 
roof until he attained the age of twenty- 
three years, being married November i8, 
1877, the lady of his choice being Miss 
Mettie Thompson, who was born in Kane 
county, Illinois, January 30, 1857. Her 
parents, George and Cynthia (Serbaugh) 
Thompson, were both natives of Virginia, 
and early settlers of Kane county, Illinois, 
whence they removed to Buchanan county, 
Iowa, in 1865, locating on a farm, where 
the father died in January, 1890. The 
mother still survives. Their children were 
as follows: Mary is the wife of August 
Preussner and has four children — Mrs. Mat- 
tie Morris, Fred, Albert and Emma. Mar- 
tha is the wife of Aaron Conner and has 
two children — Arthur and Mrs. Ina Larson. 
Henry married Maggie Carr and has nine 
children — Mrs. Jennie Kehr, John, Harry, 
Japeth, Maud, Nellie, Bernard, Howard 
and Gladys. Bina is the wife of Edward 
Brigham, and has eight children — Guy, 
Grace, Leon, Roy, Robbie, Leslie, Earl and 
Dorr. Perre married Ella Tickner and has 
four children — Lulu, Orma, Nellie and Inez, 
Mrs. Bond is the next in order of birth. 
John married Sadie Coloney and has two 
children — George and Mary. 

In February, 1878, Mr. and Mrs. Bond 
came to Polk county, Nebraska, and the 
following year purchased their present farm, 
which at that time was all unbroken prairie 
land, with the exception of a few acres he 
had placed under the plow in 1878. He 
erected thereon a frame residence which 
has since been enlarged and remodeled, 
making a good, comfortable home. His en- 
ergies are devoted to both farming and stock 
raising, and he has prospered in his under- 
taking, being now the owner of a fine tract 
of two hundred and forty acres, all of which 



are under a high state of cultivation, yield- 
ing golden harvest in return for the care and 
labor bestowed upon them. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Bond has 
been brightened by the presence of nine 
children, namely: George H. ; Roy O. ; 
Claud A. ; John O. ; Ora E. ; Merle I. ; Fay 
C. and Fern M., twins; and Fred E. The 
parents are both devoted members of the 
Wayland Christian church, and Mrs. Bond 
has been a teacher in the Sunday-school. 
Socially Mr. Bond affiliates with the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen at Gresham, 
and he has been a member of the school 
board in district No. 33, and treasurer of 
the same for four years. Politically he is 
independent, always endeavoring to cast his 
ballot for the man best qualified to fill the 
office, regardless of party ties. 



JOHN W. HOFFMASTER, an in- 
telligent and enterprising farmer carry- 
ing on operations in his chosen calling in 
Thayer township, York county, Nebraska, 
is a native of Maryland, born February 17, 
1827, at Pleasant Valley, Washington 
county, and is a son of George and Eliza- 
beth (Eckle) Hoffmaster, who were also 
born in that county. From there they re- 
moved to Pennsylvania, and in 1840 went 
to West Virginia, settling near Charlestown, 
where they spent their last days. By trade 
the father was an iron worker, but also 
followed the occupation of farming. 

The subject of this sketch is the eldest 
in a family of nine children — six sons and 
three daughters — and accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Pennsylvania, 
where he was reared and educated. In 
early life he was employed as overseer on a 
farm in Virginia until the outbreak of the 
Civil war, when he joined the Confederate 
army, enlisting in the fall of 1861 in Com- 
pany B, Twelfth Virginia Cavalry, and 
serving under General Jones and General 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



395 



Kosser. He was in many important en- 
gagements in Virginia and around Richmond 
but fortunately he was never wounded. 
Just before the close of the war he was cap- 
tured by the Federal troops and held a 
prisoner until hostilities ceased. He con- 
tinued to make his home in Virginia until 
iSSi, when he came to York county, Ne- 
braska, and purchased a tract of railroad 
land in Thayer township, to the cultivation 
and improvement of which he has since de- 
voted his energies. The well-tilled fields 
and neat and thrifty appearance of the place 
testifies to his skill and ability in his chosen 
calling, and also to his perseverance and 
good management. 

Mr. Hoffmaster was married in Virginia, 
in 1852, to Miss Rebecca Kirk, a native of 
the Old Dominion, and a daughter of Charles 
Kirk. Six children were born to them, of 
whom three are still living, as follows: 
Horace W., William J. and Laura. The 
wife and mother was called to her final rest 
February 15, 1898. She was an earnest 
and consistent member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, with which Mr. Hoff- 
master and his children are also connected. 
In politics he is a Populist, and has most 
faithfully served his fellow citizens in the 
capacity of justice of the peace and as a 
member of the school board. During the 
seventeen years of his residence in York 
county, he has made a host of warm person- 
al friends, and gained the confidence and 
esteem of all with whom he has come in 
contact. 



WILLIAM V. POWELL.— The history 
of this gentleman, who is one of the 
leading agriculturists of Thayer township, 
York county, is a forcible illustration of the 
exercise of perseverance and resolution 
under the pressure of financial disaster as 
well as amid the sunshine of prosperity. 
He first opened his eyes to the light of day 

23 



in Fayette county, Ohio, March 20, 1836, a 
son of John T. and Mary (Miller) Powell, 
both natives of Virginia. As a means of 
livelihood the father always followed the 
vocation of farming, first in Ohio and later 
in Indiana, finally coming to Nebraska in 
1 87 1. He spent his last days in Grand 
Island, this state, where his death occurred 
in 1884. His father was a native of Wales. 
The mother of our subject died when he was 
only one year old. 

In the schools of his native state W^ill- 
iam V. Powell began his literary education, 
and after removing to Indiana with his 
father he attended school in that state. 
During the Civil war he was numbered! 
among the boys in blue, enlisting in August,. 
1861, in Company A, Thirty-ninth Indiana 
Volunteer Infantry, and participating in the 
battles of Shiloh, Stone River and Perrys- 
ville. At the end of eighteen months of 
service, however, he was honorably dis- 
charged on account of physical disability 
and returned to his home in Indiana. In 
1863 he removed to Jefferson county, Iowa, 
and resided there until coming to York 
county, Nebraska, in 1872. Here he secured 
a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres 
on section 6, Thayer township, which he 
still owns, but to-day it bears little resem- 
blance to the wild tract on which he first set- 
tled, for a wonderful transformation has 
taken place. Now waving fields of grain 
are seen on all sides and the land is all under 
a high state of cultivation. The little sod 
house, which was the home of the family 
for nine years, has been replaced by a com- 
fortable frame residence, and everything 
about the places denotes thrift and pros- 
perity. 

Mr. Powell was married in Iowa, in 
September, 1864, to Miss Sarah A. Fansher, 
a native of Ohio and a daughter of Isaac 
Fansher. They now have a family of eight 
children, namely: Mary E., Charles, Jennie, 
Fred, Frank, Estella, James H. and Mag- 



396 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



gie. Since 1866 Mr. Powell has been a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and has been indentified with the 
Republican party since its organization, but 
has never cared for official honors. He has 
not only gained a home and competence 
since coming to this state but has also 
widened the circle of his friends and ac- 
quaintances, for he is well and favorably 
iknown throughout York county. 



JAMES AHERN. — Among the self-made 
men of Seward county — men who have 
accumulated a comfortable competence 
through their own energy and thrift — may 
be numbered the gentleman whose name 
heads this sketch. He is also one of the 
honored pioneers of this region and on sec- 
tion 34, precinct N, has developed a fine 
farm. He not only began life in this coun- 
try empty-handed, but also had to battle 
with new customs, for he is a native of the 
Emerald Isle. 

Mr. Ahern was born in the province of 
Munster, County Limerick, Ireland, Decem- 
ber 29, 1837, a son of Michael and Kate 
Ahern. He learned to read in the schools 
of his native land, but his educational priv- 
ileges were meagre, and at the early age of 
twelve years began working as a farm hand, 
being thus employed for five years. His 
older brother, who had come to America 
some years before, then sent him a ticket 
to cross the ocean in a ship belonging to the 
firm of Topscot & Company, on which he 
sailed from Liverpool, May 13, 1854, and 
after a long and stormy passage of forty- 
two days he landed at New York. One 
sailor was lost on this voyage during a 
heavy storm in mid-ocean. Having lost 
the letter containing his brother's address, 
Mr. Ahern sought employment on reaching 
New York and immediately wrote home for 
the address. Possessed of more than ordi- 
nary self-reliance, he went to New Jersey 



and hired out to work for a farmer, with 
whom he remained for ten months. In the 
meantime learning the whereabouts of his 
brother he paid him a visit, and on leaving 
the farm he obtained a position in Brooklyn 
with a contractor engaged in making streets, 
remaining with him six months. During 
the following three years he worked for a 
farmer in Kings county. Long Island, New 
York, and after disagreeing with his em- 
ployer he worked for George Benson one 
month at fifteen dollars. His next em- 
ployment was in loading and unloading 
ships at the wharf, and was later with the 
Camden & Amboy railroad for about seven 
years. 

While with that company Mr. Ahern 
was married, April 26, 1864, to Miss Mar- 
garet Hickey, whom he had known for 
about five years, and who is a daughter of 
James and Ann (Malone) Hickey. After 
leaving the railroad he and his wife removed 
to Wisconsin, where he worked at whatever 
he could find to do, being for some time in 
the employ of the Milwaukee & St. Paul 
Railroad. Leaving his. wife in that state 
he came to Nebraska, reaching Plattsmouth 
November 17, 1869, and in April, 1870, he 
selected a homestead on the east half of the 
northwest quarter of section 34, township 
N, Seward county, and made a dugout. 
He then sent for his wife who arrived in 
September of that year, but spent the win- 
ter in Lincoln while he built a frame house 
and broke twelve acres of land. In the 
spring of 1871, however, they began life in 
earnest at their new home and both set to 
work to redeem the raw prairie from a wil- 
derness of sunflowers and blue grass, trans- 
forming it into highly cultivated fields. They 
also planted trees and erected good and 
substantial buildings which stand as monu- 
ments to their thrift and enterprise. Their 
fine orchard is now about ten years old, 
contains many varieties of fruits. To the 
original farm Mr. Ahern has added from 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



397 



time to time as his financial resources 
would permit until he now has two hun- 
dred and forty acres of valuable and pro- 
ductive land. 

Nine children have been born to our 
subject and his wife and eight are still liv- 
ing. George on leaving home went to Om- 
aha, learned bookkeeping and shorthand, 
and is now employed as express messenger 
by the Adams Express Company. He de- 
votes all his leisure time to the study of law 
and expects soon to be admitted to the bar. 
He married a Miss Kail, by whom he has 
one son, Raymond F. , and they live in Lin- 
coln. (2) Mary is at home. (3) Eliza is 
the wife of James McElvany, a farmer of 
Saline county, and they have three chil- 
dren: Mary, Beatrice and James Francis. 
(4) John went to Kilbourn City, Wisconsin, 
after leaving school, and entered a railroad 
telegraph office, where he learned telegraphy 
in about ten months. He then worked as 
an operator at different places for fourteen 
months, but becoming tired of this wander- 
ing life he returned home, and it is now his 
intention to attend school and perfect him- 
self in the commercial branches. (5) Thomas 
L. is at home. (6) Kate is now with her 
brother George, in Lincoln. She has suc- 
cessfully taught several terms of school and 
is now pursuing a more advanced course of 
study than previously taken and also short- 
hand. (7) Maggie and (8) Alice are both 
at home. The family is one of prominence 
in the county, and parents and children all 
hold membership in the Catholic church at 
Friendville, Saline county. Mr. Ahern 
votes the Fusion ticket and advocates the 
free coinage of silver. 



CLINTON C. COBB.— The pioneers of 
a country, the founders of a business, 
the originators of any undertaking that will 
promote the material welfare or advance the 
educational, social and moral influence of a 



community, deserve the gratitude of human- 
ity. The name of C. C. Cobb at once sug- 
gests the early days of York for he is one of 
the pioneer merchants of that city, where 
he still carries on operations, and to-day 
ranks among the most prominent business 
men of this section of the state. 

Mr. Cobb is a western man by birth and 
training, for he was born March 15, 1842, 
in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, and in 
that state was reared to manhood. His 
parents, George N. and Liny L. (Perry) 
Cobb, were natives of New York and Ver- 
mont, respectively, and in 1835 emigrated 
to Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, where the 
father erected the first frame building in the 
town of Oak Creek. Subsequently they re- 
moved to Oconomowoc, that state, where 
they made their home until called from this 
life. By occupation, Mr. Cobb was a farm- 
er, and his upright, honorable life gained 
him the confidence and esteem of all with 
whom he came in contact. 

The subject of this review is indebted to 
the common schools of Wisconsin for his 
educational privileges, and during his minor- 
ity he remained upon the home farm, gain- 
ing a good practical knowledge of agricult- 
ural pursuits and honorable business meth- 
ods under the able guidance of his father. 
His loyalty to his native land was manifest 
in 1862 by his enlistment in Company C, 
Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infan- 
try, and during his two years and five months' 
service he took part in the battle of Helena, 
Arkansas, and many skirmishes in the 
southwest. He held the rank of sergeant 
and was mustered out as such. 

Returning to his Wisconsin home, Mr. 
Cobb resided there until 1871, when he 
came to Butler county, Nebraska, and se- 
cured a homestead. In April, 1873, how- 
ever, he removed to the city of York and 
opened a general store, which he conducted 
as such until 1884, since which time he has 
handled nothing but dry goods. In business 



398 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



affairs he is energetic, prompt and notably 
reliable, and his career proves that the 
only true success in life is that which is ac- 
complished by personal effort and consecu- 
tive industry. 

In 1866, Mr. Cobb was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Eusebia M. Wells, also a 
native of Wisconsin, and to them has been 
born one daughter, Mabel. Mr. Cobb has 
never taken any active part in political af- 
fairs aside from casting his ballot for the 
men and measures of the Republican party, 
preferring to give his undivided attention to 
his business interests. He is a prominent 
member of the Masonic Order, having taken 
Knight Templar degrees, and in social as 
well as business circles, his genial, pleasant 
manner has made him popular. 



GEORGE H. MILLER.— Among the 
business enterprises that contribute to 
the welfare of the city of Surprise, in Butler 
county, the mills of which Miller Brothers 
are proprietors are certainly deserving of 
mention. This mill was the first building 
erected in the present town of Surprise and 
was built by our subject's father. This en- 
terprise, from which the name of the village 
was afterwards taken, derived its name 
from its founder's expression of surprise 
that there was water enough at that point 
to run a mill. Although these mills are 
not of such dimensions that they are sup- 
plying a vast amount of territory, yet as far 
as they are known they have an enviable 
reputation for the excellent quality of their 
product. 

George H. Miller, the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Peoria county, Illinois, 
March 18, 1858. His father, George Miller, 
was born in Cumberland county, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1823, and in early life he learned 
the shoemaker's trade. He was mar- 
ried in Pennsylvania just before moving 
to Illinois, in 1852, to Miss Elizabeth 



Herford. Upon reaching Illinois he imme- 
diately began the milling business in Peoria 
county, and was thus engaged ten years. 
He then went to Lagrange county, Indiana, 
and was engaged in milling there for ten 
years. He then moved to Seward county, 
Nebraska, in 1872, with the expectation of 
discontinuing the milling business and de- 
voting his time to farming. In a short 
time, however, he resumed his former occu- 
pation and from 1875 until 1878 he 
operated the Ulysses mill. In 1881 he 
built the mill at Surprise and turned it over 
to his sons, George H. and Frank G. The 
father, George Miller, was accidentally 
killed in this mill in 1888. He had retired 
from active business and was visiting in the 
mill vyhen his clothes became entangled in 
the gearing. The present firm of Miller 
Bros, is composed of George H. , the sub- 
ject of this sketch, and Frank D. Miller. 
Prior to the death of their father the mills 
were operated under the firm name of Mil- 
ler & Sons. 

Our subject was married in Merrick 
county, Nebraska, in 1881, to Miss Anna 
Cummings, and their wedded life has been 
blessed by the presence of two children, 
Nellie M., who is now twelve years of age, 
and Earl Roy, eight years of age. The 
Miller Bros, laid out a part of the town of 
Surprise and have also been potent factors 
in its growth and development. In politics 
Mr. Miller is a stanch Democrat and for 
many years he has performed the duties of 
the office of township treasurer. Socially 
he is a Master Mason and also a member of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



GEORGE P. CHESSMAN.— This gentle- 
man is entitled to distinction as one of 
the most progressive and enterprising busi- 
ness men of York, and has since 1873 been 
identified with this section of the state. 
Upon the commercial activity of a com- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



399 



munity depends its prosperity and the men 
who are now recognized as leading citizens 
are those who are at the head of extensive 
business enterprises. He is a man of broad 
capabilities who carries forward to success- 
ful completion whatever he undertakes. 

Mr. Chessman was born in Cumberland 
county, New Jersey, December 20, 1835, 
and is a son of William and Lydia (Griffith) 
Chessman, the former a native of Wales, 
the latter of New Jersey. In 1852 they 
emigrated to Illinois and located near Chi- 
cago, where their deaths occurred. The 
father was a shoemaker by trade, but fol- 
lowed farming the greater part of his life. 
In the family were seven children, five sons 
and two daughters, of whom George P. is 
the fourth in order of birth, and he and one 
sister are the only ones who make their 
home in York. In the district schools of 
New Jersey and Illinois he obtained a fair 
education, and he spent his early life in farm 
work. Later he learned the carpenter's 
trade, which he was following when the 
Civil war broke out. 

In response to his country's call for aid 
in putting down the rebellion, Mr. Chessman 
enlisted as a private September 18, 1 861, in 
Company D, Eighth Illinois Cavalry, and 
was in active service until the war ended, 
being honorably discharged in July, 1865. 
With the Army of the Potomac, he partici- 
pated in the seven days' fight in front of 
Richmond; was in the engagement at Wil- 
liamsburg, Virginia, the battles of Freder- 
icksburg and Chancellorsville, and was 
then on detached duty, taking part in a 
great many skirmishes. He was always 
found at his post of duty, and was once 
wounded. 

At the close of the war Mr. Chessman 
returned to his Illinois home, where he en- 
gaged in farming until 1873, and then came 
to York count}', Nebraska, where he pur- 
chased land and has since made his home. 
In connection with farming he engaged 



in the lumber, grain and agricultural imple- 
ment trade until 1877, when he turned his 
attention to the grain business exclusively, 
and is now the owner of seven elevators on 
the B. & M. R. and Northwestern railroads. 
He continued in active business until 1890, 
but is now practically living retired in the 
city of York. A man of keen perception, 
of unbounded enterprise, his success in life 
is due entirely to his own efforts, and he de- 
serves prominent mention among the lead- 
ing and representative business men of the 
county. In his political views he is a stanch 
Republican, but he has never cared for the 
honors or emoluments of public office. 

Mr. Chessman was married October 31, 
1865, to Miss Martha Harrison, a resident 
of Bloomingdale, Illinois, but a native of 
New York. They have no children. 



JOHN SKINNER.— It gives us as much 
pleasure to place in this volume a brief 
record of this gentleman, who occupies an 
important position among the pioneers of 
Polk county, and who is now successfully 
engaged in general farming on the north- 
west quarter of section 20, township 13, 
range i west, Hackberry precinct. He was 
born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, 
May 30, 1844, a son of James B. and Nancy 
(McClintock) Skinner, who were married in 
that state. The mother died when our sub- 
ject was a small child, and three of her six 
children are also deceased. Those living are 
John, Edward, and George L. , the two latter 
residents of Venango county, Pennsylvania. 
The father is a native of New York, and a 
son of James B. Skinner, Sr. He has been 
twice married, his second wife being Sophia 
Hall, who died leaving no children. Until 
the war he engaged in farming in Venango 
county, and then sold his first farm and 
purchased another in the same county, 
making his home upon it for several years. 
He has also been interested in the oil busi- 



400 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ness since the early '60s, and still owns 
and operates oil lands and wells, and also 
has considerable farming property, but he 
has retired from active labor and, at the 
age of eighty-four years, is living retired in 
Pleasantville, Pennsylvania. He is a con- 
sistent member of the Presbyterian church, 
and highly respected by all who know him. 

Reared on a farm, John Skinner ob- 
tained a thorough knowledge of agricultural 
pursuits and a fair literary education in the 
district schools of the neighborhood. In 
February, 1862, he enlisted as a private in 
the Third Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, 
but was assigned to Battery L, Fourth 
United States Light Artillery, which he 
joined just before the campaign in the Wil- 
derness, in which he took part. He was in 
the battle of Spottsylvania and was then lo- 
cated near Dutch Gap Canal, remaining 
with the Army of the James until after Lee 
surrendered. With his command he was 
stationed at Richmond, Virginia, until No- 
vember, 1865, was then sent to Fortress 
Monroe, and from there to Philadelphia, 
where he was honorably discharged on the 
29th of that month. Fortunately he was 
never wounded nor taken prisoner. 

After one year spent at his old home in 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Skinner removed to Cedar 
county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming 
until coming to Polk county, Nebraska, in 
1872. He located upon his present farm 
on the 6th of June, of that year, constructed 
a sod house and began breaking prairie. 
During those early days he used to go to 
Seward, a distance of thirty miles, and Lin- 
coln, a distance of si.xty miles, to do his 
trading. He was in rather limited circum- 
stances, and in common with the early set- 
tlers endured all the hardships and priva- 
tions incident to pioneer life, but he steadily 
overcame all obstacles in the path to pros- 
perity, and is now the owner of a fine farm 
of one hundred and sixty acres, all under a 
high state of cultivation with the exception 



of ten acres. The buildings upon the place 
are in perfect harmony with the well-tilled 
fields and everything betokens thrift and 
prosperity. 

In February, 1882, Mr. Skmner was 
united in marriage with Miss Anna Belle 
Anderson, who was born in Crawford 
county, Pennsylvania, December 11, 1856, 
a daughter of William H. and Marian 
(Negus) Anderson, also natives of Pennsyl- 
vania, where they spent their entire lives, 
the mother dying in 1883, the father in 
1887. They were farming people and the 
parents of nine children, namely: Frank, 
Mrs. Emma King, Mrs. Sarah Kelly, Mrs. 
Skinner, John, deceased, Mrs. Rosie Smith, 
Mrs. Ida Baltzer, deceased, Mrs. Melda 
Weed and Mrs. Myra Perkins. Mr. and 
Mrs. Skinner have three children: Marian 
Pearl, Mabel Sophia and Nellie June. The 
parents are leading members of the Way- 
land Christian church, take an active part 
in its work, are teachers in the Sunday 
school, and Mr. Skinner is serving as deacon 
and trustee. He was the first commander 
and is the present quartermaster of B. F. 
Stephenson Post, No. 132, G. A. R., of 
Gresham, and is one of the prominent and 
influential members of the Republican party 
in his section of the county. He has been 
a delegate to a number of county and state 
conventions, and has served as a justice of 
the peace, and as a member of the school 
board in district No. 33, discharging his 
duties with promptness and fidelity. 



JOHN NELSON, an active and enter- 
prising agriculturist residing on section 
17, Stewart township, York county, is a 
native of Engleholm, Sweden, born Novem- 
ber 2, 1849, and is a son of Nels Swanson, 
a farmer by occupation. His parents spent 
their entire lives in Sweden, but our subject 
resolved to try his fortunes in the new world 
where he believed better opportunities were 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



401 



afforded ambitious and industrious young 
men for advancement, and accordingly at 
the age of eighteen years emigrated to this 
country and first located in Chicago, where 
he was employed for seven months in the 
nursery of P. S. Peterson, at Rose Hill. 
He then worked on a farm at Belvidere, 
Illinois, for a year and a half, and then en- 
gaged in house-moving and later in teaming 
at Evanston, that state. After the great 
fire in Chicago he worked at the carpenter's 
trade there until 1872, when he made a 
trip to Colorado, but returning to Evanston, 
he continued to work at the carpenter's 
trade until 1885. 

That year witnessed Mr. Nelson's arrival 
in York county, Nebraska, and he located 
on section 19, Stewart township, where he 
had purchased land some years before. 
Twenty-five acres were already broken and 
during the five years he resided thereon he 
made many improvements upon the place. 
At the end of that time he traded that 
property for his present farm of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres, all of which is now 
under excellent cultivation with the excep- 
tion of eight acres. He has rebuilt the res- 
idence, so that he now has one of the best 
homes in Stewart township, has also erected 
corn cribs and made other improvements 
amounting to twelve hundred dollars. Since 
coming to this state he has given the greater 
part of his time to agricultural pursuits, but 
has also worked some at the carpenter's 
trade. 

On September 23, 1874, Mr. Nelson 
was united in marriage with Miss Lena 
Maria Johnson, who was born in Swe- 
den, in 1855, and they have become the 
parents of seven children : Charles Al- 
fred, Edward Frederick, Frank William, 
John Ernest, Wendel Monroe, Harry Bern- 
hart and Victor Nathaniel. The parents 
are sincere and active members of the 
Swedish Methodist church, of Stromsburg, 
in which Mr. Nelson is serving as trustee 



and class leader, and they also attend Eng- 
lish services of the same denomination at 
Gresham. They are members of the De- 
gree of Honor at that place, and he also 
affiliates with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and belongs to the Swedish Mu- 
tual Benefit Society. Politically he is a 
Populist, has been a delegate to the con- 
ventions of his party, was director of school 
district No. 55, for three years, and is at 
present road overseer. Industry, energy 
and economy are his cardinal virtues, and 
have brought a merited success to crown his 
efforts in business life. The genial, gener- 
ous and sociable character of both himself 
and wife have endeared them to all with 
whom they have come in contact, and they 
merit and receive in the highest degree the 
respect and confidence of the community 
in which they live. 



HON. WILLIAM A. BROKAW.— One 
of the active, prominent and enter- 
prising citizens, as well as one of the 
honored pioneers of Seward county, is the 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch, 
and who is at present engaged in agricultur- 
al pursuits on section 14, J precinct. He 
made his first appearance upon the stage of 
life in Fairview, Illinois, June 12, 1843. 
His father, Isaac I. Brokaw, was born in 
Somerset county. New Jersey, January 21, 
1800, and at an early age enlisted in the 
United States army; serving as lieutenant 
when only eighteen years old, and later as 
captain and major. In 1824 he was one of 
General La Fayette's escort on his last 
visit to this country. He was married in 
New Jersey, in 1825, to Miss Alletta 
Schanck, a daughter of Josiah Schanck, who 
served as baggage master in George Wash- 
ington's army. Our subject is the sixth 
in order of birth of the seven children born 
of this union, of whom four are still 
living. 



402 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



William A. Brokaw is indebted to the 
common schools of Illinois for his educa- 
tional privileges, and his business training 
was obtained upon the home farm. On 
the 14th of October, 1863, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Jane A. Hageman, of 
Fairview, Illinois, by whom he had four 
children, namely: Frank H., Alletta, Addie 
C. and Willie H., all of whom are married 
and living in Seward county with the excep- 
tion of Willie H. who is now twenty-one 
years of age and is at home. Mrs. Brokaw, 
who was a devoted wife and loving mother, 
was called to her final rest March 12, 1894, 
and was buried in Mt. Pleasant cemetery. 
Our subject was again married July 3, 1898, 
his second union being with Albina Cox, of 
Seward county, a daughter of Jefferson 
Cox. 

It was in 1869 that Mr. Brokaw came 
to Nebraska and took a homestead of eighty 
acres in J precinct, but he now has three 
hundred and twenty acres of the finest land 
in Seward county, it being under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved with 
good buildings. His first home here was a 
dugout, and he was compelled to haul his 
lumber from Nebraska City, the round trip 
being one hundred and fifty miles. It was 
therefore slow work to get a building 
erected. Groceries could be bought in 
Lincoln, but a railroad had not yet been 
built, the first road into that city being com- 
pleted in 1870. The town of Seward con- 
tained only a few stores and Milford was 
somewhat the larger at that time, while the 
few settlers were widely scattered over the 
prairies of Seward county. In 1874 the 
grasshoppers entirely destroyed the corn 
crops, and the following year the wheat 
crop was destroyed by the same insects. 

Mr. Brokaw has ever taken an active 
and prominent part in public affairs, and 
has filled a number of local offices, such as 
treasurer of his township, assessor, super- 
visor two terms and school district treas- 



urer for twenty-five years. In 1S95 he was 
also the choice of the people to represent 
the twenty-ninth district of Nebraska in the 
state legislature, and filled that position 
with credit to himself and to the entire 
satisfaction of his constituents. As a citi- 
zen he ever stands ready to discharge every 
duty devolving upon him and justly merits 
the esteem in which he is uniformly held. 



DR. JOHN HERSCHEL EAST, whose 
portrait appears on another page, 
readily takes his place as a leading physi- 
cian of Rising City, Nebraska. While it 
would be invidious to attempt to award 
first place and rank to any one member of 
the profession in this part of the state, yet 
no one would deny a high standing to this 
enterprising and capable physician and 
druggist, who has solved that problem that 
so many find impossible, how to combine 
the keenest professional skill and devotion 
with a practical business sense. He is a 
physician of acknowledged ability, and a 
business man whose success speaks for him. 
Dr. East is a native of the state of Iowa, 
and was born in Elvira, Clinton county, De- 
cember 14, 1857. He received instructions 
in the higher range of learning at Carthage, 
Illinois, and at the State Agricultural Col- 
lege, where he was graduated in the literary 
course. He received his medical degree 
from the Iowa Medical College with the class 
of 1S83. He did post-graduate work at the 
New York Polyclinic, and also at the Chi- 
cago Polyclinic, and has recently completed 
a post-graduate course at the Polyclinic 
College of Philadelphia. He began the 
practice of his profession at Dayton, Iowa, 
where he remained one year. He saw busi- 
ness possibilities in Nebraska, and collect- 
ing all his accumulations he came to Rising 
City with two hundred and fifty dollars, 
which was borrowed money, and an old 
horse and buggy. He has achieved a re- 




DR. J. H, EAST. 



i 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



405 



markable success. He is regarded as one 
of the leading physicians of this part of the 
country, and has very extensive property 
interests. He owns four hundred acres near 
Rising City, and is the proprietor of the 
South Side drug store, a fine brick block 
of modern construction, and occupies one 
of the finest residences in the city. He 
owns a far western ranch of something over 
three thousand acres. He keeps pace with 
all that is new and best in his profession, 
and has done much to lift the practice of 
medicine up to high standards in Butler 
county. 

Dr. East belongs to an ancient Scottish 
family, who trace their ancestry back to 
Norman-French origin. His father,. Thomas 
East, was born in Edinburg, and his mother, 
Anna Killham, in Northumberland, England. 

Dr. East was first married in 1884 at 
Marshalltown, Iowa, to Miss Eva M. Emer- 
son. They had three children, two of 
whom, L. May and John H., are now living. 
Their mother died January 12, 1898. The 
Doctor was again married in July, 1898, to 
Miss Emma Tolman, a native of New Hamp- 
shire, and a daughter of Daniel and Mary 
(Reed) Tolman. Her father's people came 
from England in 1650, and the farm on 
which she was born has been owned by the 
family for two hundred and twenty years. 



FRANK P. HAWLEY is the owner of a 
fine farm of one hundred and twenty 
acres of highly productive and fertile land, 
on section 7, Stewart township, York 
county, which he has by industry and good 
management, with its attendant hard labor, 
brought to a high state of cultivation. The 
buildings which he has erected are of a neat 
and substantial character, and all the im- 
provements are made with a view of con- 
venience in his business. 

In Wirt county. West Virginia, Mr. 
Hawley was born July 6, 1853, a son of A. 



and Pamelia (Van Valkenburg) Hawley, 
both of whom were natives of New York. 
They removed to Marshall county, Indiana, 
at an early day and there the father 
taught school before the Indians left that 
region to seek homes farther west. He 
also engaged in the boot, shoe and leather 
business at Plymouth, the same county, for 
fifteen years, and was numbered among the 
most reliable and highly respected business 
men of that locality. He died in 1892 or '3, 
but his wife is still living and now makes 
her home in LaPorte county, Indiana. She 
is a member of the Methodist church. They 
reared a family of six children, namely: 
Mrs. Mary Funk; Calvin, who served for 
three years and a half in the Union army 
during the Civil war; James, deceased; 
Mrs. Jennie Stevens; and Frank P. 

The subject of this sketch was princi- 
pally reared in Indiana and acquired his 
education in the district schools of that 
state. On leaving home in 1873, he came 
to Nebraska, where he worked by the 
month as a farm hand for nine years, and 
then purchased eighty acres of land on sec- 
tion 6, Stewart township, York county. In 
1884 he married Miss Ellen White, a na- 
tive of Wisconsin, and they made that farm 
their home until 1890, when he traded it for 
his present property, which at that time 
was only partially improved. He now has 
one hundred and five of the one hundred 
and twenty acres under cultivation, has en- 
larged the house and barn, and has also put 
in a tubular well. In connection with gen- 
eral farming, he is also interested in stock 
raising, and has upon his place a fine herd 
of shorthorn cows. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Hawley have been 
been born three children: Calvin, Charles 
and Harry Delos. Socially he is a member 
of the ancient order of Ancient Order of 
United Workmen at Gresham, and politic- 
ally is identified with the Republican 
yarty. He has capably filled the office of 



406 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



road overseer in his township. His up- 
rightness, integrity and public-spiritedness, 
have won him the confidence and esteem 
of his neighbors, and he is classed among 
the most respected representative citizens 
of his community. 



PETER D. WEIS.— Among the sturdy 
and stalwart citizens of Fillmore 
county, whose place of birth was the far- 
away German Fatherland, and who, with 
the industry and thrift so natural to the 
people of that country, are rapidly progress- 
ing toward that financial condition so much 
coveted by all, is the subject of this person- 
al history. For many years he was promi- 
nently identified with the agricultural in- 
terests of the county, but is now successfully 
engaged in the livery business in Geneva. 

Mr. Weis was born in Luxemburg, Ger- 
many, October 5, 1859, and was a lad of 
ten years when he came to America with his 
parents, Peter and Katrina (Schmidt) Weis, 
landing in New York City in the spring of 
1869. After visiting relatives in Wisconsin, 
the family proceeded to Henry, Marshall 
county, Illinois, and finally located in La 
Salle county, that state, where the father 
engaged in farming for two years. In the 
spring of 1871 they started for Nebraska 
and arrived in Fillmore county. May i. 
The father homesteaded a tract of land on 
section 14, Momence township, and was as- 
sisted by our subject in improving and 
cultivating the land for about eleven years, 
at the end of which time the father gave to 
him one hundred and si.xty acres of land and 
he began farming on his own account. For 
about seven years he and his brother worked 
together in the operation of their farms. 

On the 7th of January, 1878, Peter D. 
Weis was united in marriage with Miss 
Susan Sampont, a daughter of Jacob and 
Anna (Strauss) Sampont. They have be- 
come the parents of four children, named as 



follows: Charles J., Arthur, Lawrence, 
Peter and Cordilla. The two oldest are 
now attending the schools of Geneva and 
are making rapid progress in their studies. 
After his marriage Mr. Weis continued 
to work with his brother for a year, and 
then built a house and located on his own 
farm, to the further improvement and culti- 
vation of which he devoted his energies for 
nine years. Since then he has made his 
home in Geneva and engaged in the livery 
business, having purchased a stable which 
he has stocked with a good line of carriages 
and fine horses. He and his wife have 
labored hard to secure a home and com- 
petence and the success that has crowned 
their combined efforts is certainly well de- 
served. Both are devout members of the 
Catholic church, Mr. Weis having been con- 
firmed at Sutton, Clay county, Nebraska, 
his wife at Port Washington, Wisconsin. 
They now attend church at Turkey Creek 
or Geneva as the opportunity presents itself. 



WILLIAM A. CARPENTER, vice presi- 
dent and manager of the South Platte 
Creameries, one of the largest and most 
widely known butter-manufacturing institu- 
tions in Nebraska, is the pioneer creamery 
man of York county. 

Mr. Carpenter was born in Rhode Island, 
in 1846, was educated in the high schools 
of his native state, and made his home there 
until twenty-four years of age. He then 
operated a dairy farm near Worcester, Mas- 
sachusetts, and was bookkeeper for a pro- 
duce firm in that city for a number of years. 
In 1878 he moved to Monticello, Iowa, and 
bought an interest in a creamery in Jones 
county, and operated same for three years. 
He then returned to Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, and for several years operated a dairy 
farm near that city. 

In 1882 Mr. Carpenter again went to 
Iowa and engaged in the creamery business 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



407 



at New Hampton for one year, and in 1884 
he moved to Sutton, Nebraska, and assisted 
in the founding of the Sutton creamery, 
which was among the first in the state. Our 
subject was connected with this institution 
until 1889, when he went to Aurora, Ne- 
braska, and organized a creamery company 
at that place. Then in company with J. 
H. Smith and E. J. Hainer, he organized 
the South Platte Creamery Company. The 
officers of this company are as follows: Je- 
rome H. Smith, president; William A. Car- 
penter, vice-president and manager; and E. 
J. Hainer, secretary and treasurer. The 
general office is at Aurora, Nebraska, and 
the general manager's office is at York, Ne- 
braska. The first plant was erected at 
Aurora, and since then plants have been 
purchased and erected at the following 
places: Osceola, Wahoo, Ulysses, York 
and Arborville, in addition to several other 
smaller plants at various places. These 
plants are among the largest in the West, 
and the most modern and up-to-date in op- 
eration. They produce over one million 
pounds of butter per year and find market 
for their produce in Boston and other east- 
ern cities, as well as Denver and many of 
the western cities. 

Mr. Carpenter is not only the pioneer 
creamery man of York county, but is also 
one of the pioneers of Nebraska, and has 
done much to develop and build up these 
interests in the West. He is a member of 
the State Dairyman's Association and has 
filled the office of president and director of 
that organization. He is also a member of 
the Masonic fraternity and the Royal 
Arcanum. Mr. Carpenter is a man of ex- 
cellent executive ability and understands 
thoroughly the intricate affairs of the busi- 
ness with which he is connected. He has 
been very successful in all the business en- 
terprises in which he has embarked and has 
become very popular throughout the county 
and many parts of the state as one of its 



leading and most prominent business men, 
but has taken little interest in politics. 



ALBERT WALKER MAINE.— When a 
good man dies the entire community 
suffers a loss, although he may leave an in- 
fluence that widens as the years roll by, 
through the better lives of those who were 
directly benefitted by him. So when the 
late Albert Walker Maine was called from 
time to eternity, many felt a personal sense 
of loss due to their knowledge of his unas- 
suming piety, good-citizenship, and habits 
of industry and prudence. An old settler of 
Butler county, he had become known to a 
large circle, and had pursued a career that 
had won an abundant reward in a financial 
sense. 

Mr. Maine was born in Windham county, 
Connecticut, June 11, 1843, and his father, 
Jonathan W., and also his grandfather, 
Fenner, were both natives of Connecticut. 
Our subject's mother was a lineal descend- 
ant of John Robinson, of colonial fame. 
The early life of our subject was spent in 
teaching school, but he was later employed 
by the Willimantic Linen Company in the 
capacity of bookkeeper. He was married, 
April 30, 1873, to Miss Lois Palmer, of 
Windham county, Connecticut, a daughter 
of Alfred and Caroline (Parkherst) Palmer, 
the latter a descendant of Lord Percy, of 
Wales, and the former a son of Ephraim 
Palmer and a grandson of Joseph Palmer, 
who served in the Revolutionary war. The 
last-named was a son of Seth Palmer and 
a grandson of Walter Palmer, who came 
from England in the colonial days and set- 
tled in Stonington, Connecticut. 

In January, 1883, Mr. Maine came to 
Nebraska with his family to visit relatives, 
and upon examining the country he decided 
to locate there. He accordingly purchased 
a farm in Ulysses township and improved 
it, but a year later he moved to the town of 



408 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Ulysses, and purchased an interest in a 
banking business and was thus engaged until 
death, which occurred March 30, 1889. 
Too much cannot be said of the executive 
ability of Mr. Maine as exhibited in the man- 
agement of his own private business, and 
the more intricate affairs of the banking in- 
stitution with which he was connected. He 
had a brilliant education and was a man of 
excellent abilities, and thoroughly under- 
stood the details of the institution of which 
he was the head. In all public matters 
and in all projects tending to the develop- 
ment and improvement of Ulysses he has 
taken an active interest, and during his life 
in Butler county he was closely identified 
with its growth and development. His wife, 
Lois (Palmer) Maine, and his three daugh- 
ters, Flora, Beulah and Ida P. , survive him. 
In politics he was a Republican, and 
served for several years as a member of the 
board of county supervisors and was chair- 
man of the same for some time. 



ISAIAH PAISLEY, who was one of the 
1 brave defenders of the Union during the 
dark days of the Civil war, and is now 
a leading farmer of Polk county, Ne- 
braska, residing on the southwest quarter 
of section 2, township 14, range i west, 
is one of the honored sons of Ohio, born 
in Harrison county, January 25, 1843. 
His parents, Hugh Curley and Mary Ann 
(Haines) Paisley, were natives of the 
same county, the former a son of John 
Paisley, who was born on the ocean while 
his parents were emigrating from Scotland 
to America, and the latter a daughter of 
John Haines. On leaving Ohio in 1851, 
Hugh C. Paisley, with his family, removed 
to Clark county, Illinois, and three years 
later went to Louisa county, Iowa, where 
the mother died, being laid to rest in the 
cemetery at Morning Sun. Subsequently, 
in 1882, the father came to Nebraska, 



where his death occurred, and his remains 
were interred at Shelby, Polk county. In 
their family were ten children, of whom 
nine reached years of maturity, namely : 
Samuel F. , who died June 20, 1862, at 
Corinth, Mississippi, while a soldier in the 
Union army; Isaiah, of this review; Francis 
T. , who was a member of the Eighth Iowa 
Cavalry during the Civil war, and is now a 
resident of Morning Sun, Iowa; Ezra S. ; 
Mrs. Eliza Jane Dodson; Ira; Mrs. Mary 
Lockhart; Mrs. Annie Peel, and John 
Henry. 

Isaiah Paisley accompanied his parents 
on their removal to Illinois, and later to 
Iowa, and most of his education was acquired 
in the schools of Morning Sun. Prompt- 
ed by a spirit of patriotism, he enlisted 
October 4, 1861, in Company C, Sixteenth 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and his first en- 
gagement was the two-days battle of Shiloh 
under General Grant, which was followed 
by the siege of Corinth, the battle of luka, 
the race against Price and Van Dorn at 
Corinth and the battle at that place, and 
the engagements at Bolivar Heights and 
Holly Springs. He spent Christmas at 
Memphis, and then, with his regiment, went 
by boat to Milliken's Bend and back to 
Vicksburg, participating in the entire siege 
of that place. After the battle of Meridian, 
Mississippi, under General Sherman, they 
returned to Vicksburg, where they re-enlist- 
ed for the remainder of the war and were 
granted a thirty days' furlough which Mr. 
Paisley spent at his home in Iowa. After 
rejoining Sherman's army at Big Shanty, 
Georgia, he took part in the battle of Chat- 
tahoochie, and was in all the engagements 
leading up to Atlanta. On the 22nd of July, 
1864, his regiment was surrounded by the 
enemy, and after using up their one hundred 
rounds of cartridges the Rebel regiments in 
front threw down their arms, raised a white 
flag and surrendered. A company from the 
Sixteenth Iowa Regiment was detailed to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



409 



march the prisoners to the rear, but here the 
Rebel force was so strong that they retook 
their men and also the company guarding 
them. They next surrounded the remainder 
of the Sixteenth, including our subject and 
captured them all. They were first taken to 
East Point, Georgia then marched to Griffin, 
that state, and by cars were sent to Anderson- 
ville, where Mr. Paisley was confined from 
July 22, 1864, until the 19th of September, 
following. He has often seen men shot down 
on the dead line, and saw the poor starving 
fellows eat beans that had passed through 
other men. The death rate here was about 
one hundred every twenty-four hours, and he 
contracted chronic diarrhoea besides losing 
many pounds in weight. He was exchanged 
at Rough and Ready, Georgia, under the 
arrangement of General Sherman and Gen- 
eral Hood, and was then with the former 
commander on his celebrated march to the 
sea. They supported Hazen's brigade on 
the charge on Fort McAllister and were in 
the Carolina campaign. At Newburn, North 
Carolina, Mr. Paisley was sent to the con- 
valescent camp and later to Troy, New 
York, and on leaving there rejoined his 
regiment at Washington, District of Co- 
lumbia, where he participated in the grand 
review. At Louisville, Kentucky, he was 
mustered out, and discharged at Davenport, 
Iowa, in August, 1865, with the rank of 
second corporal. His regiment was a part 
of Crocker's brigade, and was composed of 
as brave and fearless men as could be found 
anywhere in the service. 

For some time after the war, Mr. Paisley 
traveled a great deal through Iowa, Kansas, 
into the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, back 
again to Kansas, then to Southwestern Mis- 
souri, and finally returned to Iowa. In Feb- 
ruary, 1873, he came to Polk county, Ne- 
braska, and the following April secured a 
homestead — the farm on which he is still 
living. At that time there was but one 
frame house between Blue River and The 



Bluffs. He erected a sod house and at once 
began the improvement and cultivation of 
his place. He owns a quarter section, of 
which one hundred and thirty acres are now 
under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings. 
At Christmas, 1892, he removed to the vil- 
lage of Shelby, and the following May was 
appointed city marshal, a position he accept- 
ably filled for three years and ten months. 
On the 1st of March, 1897, he returned to 
the farm, which he is now successfully oper- 
ating. 

Mr. Paisley was reared in the Presby- 
terian faith, and socially is a member of R. 
O. D. Cummings Post, No. 102, G. A. R. , 
of Shelby, in which he has served as com- 
mander for four years. He has been a 
stanch Republican in politics since casting 
his first vote for Abraham Lincoln when only 
twenty years of age, while in Georgia during 
the war. He has always taken an active 
and commendable interest in public affairs, 
was the first constable of Canada precinct, 
which office he filled for six years, and he was 
also elected justice of the peace, but re- 
fused to qualify. He is one of the most 
valued and honored citizens of his commu- 
nity. 



WILLIAM UFFELMANN is a farmer 
and the owner of a well-kept place 
on section 2, Beaver township, and has 
done his share in converting a flower-loaded 
prairie into a grain-bearing garden of the 
world. He has lived in York county for 
nearly if not quite a quarter of a century 
and in that time has witnessed a magical 
change. In 1872 a cautious student of the 
west might have been willing to concede its 
settlement in a hundred years, but he would 
have insisted upon time as the first requisite 
in making an empire west of the Missouri. 
But the door was opened, and the word 
went out, that homes and farms were wait- 



410 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ing for a nation and the rush began. Al- 
most before people were done coming to 
seek new homes the state was filled, and 
the great transformation completed. 

William Uffelmann, as his name might 
indicate is of German extraction, and is a 
native of the kingdom of Prussia, where he 
was born October 13, 1844. He reached 
the years of maturity while still in his 
Prussian home, and after having good ed- 
ucational advantages he was sent to learn 
the trade of a baker. He did in old coun- 
try fashion, and when he was a journeyman 
baker came to America. This was in 1868. 
He remained in New York one year, and 
followed his trade. He spent some time in 
St. Louis, and then, feeling that his trade 
was too close and confining, engaged in farm 
work in Missouri. In 1872 he entered this 
state and made a homestead entry of the 
farm which he owns and occupies at the 
present moment. He threw up the inevit- 
able sod house, and in 1875 erected a neat 
frame house. This was anticipatory of his 
marriage with Miss Matilda Schmidt, which 
occured the same year. She is a sister of 
Mrs. J. H, Naber, and has been a good wife 
to the man of he rchoice. 

Mr. Uffelmann raised a little sod corn 
in 1873 and the next year harvested quite a 
yield of wheat. In 1 887 he had grown so 
opulent that he felt warranted in the erec- 
tion of his present family residence at an ex- 
pense of eleven hundred dollars. It is a mod- 
ern house, and is a credit to the town. He 
has now a farm of four hundred acres, well 
improved and equipped with modern ma- 
chinery. He raises grain and sends it to 
market in the shape of beef and pork, and 
is a capable and progressive farmer. He 
is the father of nine children: Clara, Au- 
gust, Carl, Helena, Arnold, Frederick, Ern- 
est, William and Theodore, and four that 
are dead. He and his good wife are mem- 
bers of the Lutheran church, which he has 
served as treasurer for several years. He 



has voted and acted with the Republican 
party in recent years, and has been road 
overseer. He has been on the school board 
of the district in which he lives. His chil- 
dren attend both the German and English 
schools, as he wishes them to keep the lan- 
guage of their parents. 



WILLIAM Q. DICKINSON, a prosper- 
ous farmer and highly esteemed citi- 
zen of the city of Seward, Seward county, 
belonged to an old and honored Virginia 
family of Scotch and English descent. His 
grandparents, Eligah and Anna (Quarles) 
Dickinson, were both natives of the Old 
Dominion, the former born in 1795. The 
father. John Q. Dickinson, was born in 
Kentucky, July 7, 1820, and on reaching 
manhood married Miss Eliza J. Major, who 
was of French descent. Her parents were 
Chastine and Johanna (Hopkins) Major, the 
latter a daughter of Captain Hopkins, of 
Christian county, Kentucky. Her father 
was born May 25, 1800, and was a son of 
John Major, who settled at Stouts Grove, 
McLean county, Illinois. It was in 1835 
that the Dickinson and Major families emi- 
grated to Illinois, the former locating at 
Walnut Grove, Woodford county, and their 
members became quite extensive farmers 
and stock raisers of that state. John Q. 
Dickinson is still living and now makes his 
home in California, but his wife, the mother 
of our subject, died September 9, 1890, and 
was laid to rest in the cemetery at Danvers, 
Illinois. 

For several years John Q. Dickinson was 
one of the leading breeders of high grade 
horses and cattle in the state of Illinois, and 
was a wealthy farmer and one of the most in- 
fluential men of his community, taking great 
interest in public improvements and new 
inventions and encouraging every enter- 
prise calculated to advance the general wel- 
fare, especially along educational lines. He 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



411 



and his wife were both devoted members of 
the Christian church, took an active part in 
its work and assisted in every possible way 
in advancing its interests. She was a faith- 
ful wife and loving mother, who always had 
a smile and a word of kindness for those 
around her and looked carefully after their 
spiritual as well as their physical welfare, 
instilling the highest type of morality into 
their minds. She made for her family a 
model home, but when he who giveth and 
taketh away called her to the home beyond 
she was prepared to go, leaving a world of 
care for a brighter one on high. Although 
a native of one of the southern states the 
father was a very strong advacate of anti- 
slavery and on the formation of the Re- 
publican party joined its ranks. At differ- 
ent times he filled all of the township offices 
with credit and honor to himself and to the 
satisfaction of his constituents. He can 
look back over a long and useful career with 
no regret for duties left unperformed or for 
any important errors committed, as his life 
has ever been such as to commend him to 
the confidence and esteem of all with whom 
he has come in contact either in business or 
social life. 

William Q. Dickinson is one of a family 
of nine children, one of whom, Harry, 
died when quite young, prior to the mother's 
death. Besides our subject his brother 
James M. and sister, Mrs. Ellen B. Johns- 
ton live in Seward county, Nebraska; Mrs. 
Isabelle Rowell and Edwin J. reside in 
Fresno county, California; Annie C, Frank 
H. in Illinois and Charles H. lives in I\an- 
sas City, Missouri. 

Mr. Dickinson, of this review, was born 
near Danvers, McLean county, Illinois, 
August 25, 1853, and at the age of seven 
years commenced assisting in the labors of 
the farm, driving a one-horse cultivator with 
which he had to make two rounds for a single 
row of corn. Farm work was much more 
ardous in those days than at the present 



time with the improved machineryof to-day. 
He obtained a good practical education by 
attending the public schools of Danvers and 
also spent one year in college. Until he at- 
tained his majority he remained on the old 
homestead and later operated rented land 
in Illinois until the fall of 1878, when he 
was attacked with western fever and came 
to Nebraska on a prospecting trip through 
Seward and Butler counties. While here 
he met with a rather unpleasant experience. 
One day he and three friends, Messrs. Phil, 
and Nick Wullenwaver and Andrew Short- 
hose, went to David City, and on their 
return home a prairie fire was observed. 
The following day Sheriff Hill, of Butler 
county, arrested the three young men for 
starting the fire. They appealed to the 
county court and Mr. Dickinson asked for a 
separate trial. The jury found him guilty 
and he was sentenced to thirty days in jail 
and a five-dollar fine was imposed. The case 
was then appealed to the district court, but 
on account of the jurisdiction of the lower 
court in such cases it was ruled out and 
nothing more was ever done about the mat- 
ter. They were then sued for damages in the 
sum of fifteen hundred dollars. This case 
was fought for two years when it was dis- 
missed, the plaintiff paying all costs. This 
did not deter Mr. Dickinson from locating 
in this section, and in 1879 he purchased at 
a sheriff's sale eighty acres of land for five 
hundred and fifty dollars. After living 
upon the place for two years, he exchanged 
it for two hundred and forty acres of land 
in K precinct, Seward county, where the 
former tract was also located, and to the 
cultivation and improvement of the latter 
has since devoted his energies with marked 
success, converting it into one of the most 
attractive and desirable farms of the com- 
munity. He is a pleasant, genial gentle- 
man, very popular with all who know him. 
In politics he is a Republican and has filled 
a number of township offices and has served 



412 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in all nine years on the board of county 
supervisors and was chairman two years. 
He has also served on the Republican county 
central committee. He was married Feb- 
ruary lo, 1 88 1, to Miss Bell Warlow, a 
native of McLean county, Illinois, and a 
daughter of Richard A. and Elvina (Bo- 
zarth) Warlow. They came from New 
York and Kentucky, respectively. 



WILLIAM L. KIRKPATRICK, although 
he is still a young man and has been 
but a short time engaged in the practice of 
his chosen profession, has gained quite a 
conspicuous position among the members of 
the bar, in York county, and is recognized 
as one of the young men who will some day 
be one of the prominent attorneys of that 
section of Nebraska. 

Mr. Kirkpatrick was born in DeKalb 
county, Illinois, October 26, 1868, a son of 
Smiley and Anna Kirkpatrick, the father of 
Scotch descent and the mother a native of 
Pennsylvania. Smiley Kirkpatrick was a 
farmer by occupation, moved to Illinois in 
1850, and is now living in Mendota, of that 
state, retired from active life. 

Our subject was educated in the common 
schools of Aurora, Illinois, and after gradu- 
ating from the high school of that place, he 
spent three years at home. In 1892 he 
went south and attended the University 
of Tennessee at Knoxville, and graduated 
from the law and literary departments of 
that institution in 1895. He began the 
practice of law in Chicago. In 1896 he 
went to York, Nebraska, and has since 
been engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion in that city. He was first admitted to 
the bar in Tennessee in 1895, ^"^^ later in 
that year was admitted to the bar of Illinois, 
and to the bar of Nebraska after locating in 
York. Mr. Kirkpatrick is a man of marked 
ability, is enterprising, intelligent and pro- 
gressive, and every enterprise calculated to 



benefit his adopted city or county receives 
his earnest support and encouragement. 
He is a man of high moral character, and 
strict business integrity and has been quite 
successful in all his undertakings. 



JAMES S. CAYWOOD, who has for 
many years been a resident of section 8, 
Hays township, is one of the oldest pioneers 
of York county, and has been identified 
with its progress and growth since May 31, 
1 87 1. His homestead claim to the eighty 
acres where his residence stands bears date 
of filing, June 2, 1871, and through all the 
intervening years he has lived and labored 
with credit to himself and honor to his 
community. He drove through from Butler 
county, Iowa, and had the company of his 
wife to lighten the monotony of the journey. 
It was a wild and yet an inviting country 
that met their eyes when they drew near 
their future home. The prairie was beauti- 
ful with wild flowers, and deer and antelope 
could be seen in great numbers not far 
away. Mr. Caywood at once began the 
making of a home. He built a board 
shanty i2x 18 feet, and added to it the 
following year a sod addition 12 x 14 feet. 
This, as all the homes of that day in this 
country were, was a crude affair, but it 
sufficed, and presently gave way to a much 
more commodious and attractive home in 
which the family may now be found. Mr. 
Caywood now owns two hundred and forty 
acres, the greater part of which is under a 
high state of cultivation. With the excep- 
tion of about fifty acres he has broken and 
improved his land from raw prairie, and the 
farm as it stands to-day represents a vast 
amount of hard labor and untiring zeal. 
He has had hardships to undergo, and hard 
times to pass through, but he has kept on 
laboring and the day has dawned for him. 
James S. Caywood was born in Che- 
mung county. New York, September i, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



418 



1849, 3^nd is a son of David and Mary 
(Boyer) Cay wood, who were New Yorkers 
born and bred. In the fall of 1864 his 
parents removed to Butler county, Iowa, 
where they spent their remaining years in 
peace and comfort. He was about fifteen 
years old at the time of their westward 
movement, and finished his school days in 
his adopted state. He was bred a farmer, 
but learned the trade of a carpenter under his 
father's instructions. He was married Sep- 
tember I, 1870, to Miss Hannah E. Mambert, 
in Butler county, Iowa. She was a daugh- 
ter of Van Rensselaer and Mary (Davis), 
Mambert, and was born in Hudson county. 
New York. Her parents were also natives 
of the same state. She was the mother of 
two children, Mary June and Francis 
Marion, and died in this county June 19, 
1889. Mr. Cay wood subsequently married 
Mrs. Lillie A. Hecox Palmer, widow of the 
late James S. Palmer. She is a lady of re- 
finement and strong character, and has 
helped make her husband's home attractive 
and welcome to a wide number of friends 
and well wishers. He is a man of social 
instincts, and delights in the company of 
men, and is a Mason, a Modern Woodman, 
and a member of the Home Forum. He is 
a Populist, and has taken a deep interest in 
the steps of the progressive development of 
that party. He has served several times as 
a delegate to its various county and state 
gatherings. During the days of the Farm- 
ers' Alliance he at one time was president 
of the Hays township organization. He is 
a man of more than ordinary ability and is 
very highly spoken of by all who know 
him well. 



J 



AMES MILLER PALMER.— An honor- 
able position among the farmers of 
Ulysses township, Butler county, is willingly 
accorded to this gentleman by his associates. 
He occupies one of the well-developed farms 

24 



of the county and his home, which is one of 
the most pleasant and attractive in the 
township, is situated just outside the cor- 
poration of the town of Ulysses, and he is a 
man who is greatly respected in the com- 
munity where he has spent more than a 
quarter century of his life. 

Mr. Palmer was born in Windham 
county, Connecticut, January 27, 1835, a 
son of Alfred Palmer, a native of the same 
county, born in the year 1807. Our sub- 
ject's grandfather, Ephraim Palmer, was a 
son of Joseph Palmer, who was a soldier in 
the Revolutionary war. He was a de- 
scendant of Seth Palmer, whose father,, 
Walter Palmer, came from England and set- 
tled in Stonington, Connecticut, in colonial 
days. Our subject's ancestors were en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits on the old 
farm, which consisted of one hundred acres, 
and on which our subject was born, but the 
land was very stony and he desired to ob- 
tain a farm that was more tillable. Accord- 
ingly, when he obtained his majority, he left 
the old home, went west, and located in 
Clayton county, Iowa, where he worked in 
a saw mill one winter. In the following 
spring he started with an ox team for Min- 
nesota and filed a claim to a piece of land in 
Blue Earth Valley. This tract of land did 
not prove satisfactory, however, and the 
following year he moved to Cass county, 
Nebraska. This was in the spring of 1857, 
and upon reaching that county he became 
acquainted with the Towner family, the head 
of which was the father of Abe Towner, with 
whom he afterward went to California. 

Two years after his settlement in Cass 
county, our subject started, in company 
with Abe Towner, for Pikes Peak over the 
old Pikes Peak trail, which passes through 
Butler county, Nebraska. This was our 
subject's first acquaintance with this county, 
and while it was not very extensive, it fur- 
nished a general knowledge of the character 
of the land which was destined to become 



414 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



his future home. At that time there was 
no evidences of civihzation or settlement 
there whatever, but was a wild and unde- 
veloped prairie. As they continued their 
journey to Pikes Peak they continually met 
people who were returning and reported 
unfavorably until they reached Fort Kear- 
ney, when they decided to change their 
course and make up a train for California, 

Our subject stopped in the Rogue river 
valley in Jackson county, Oregon, and en- 
gaged for a time in the stock business, 
meeting with varied success and much ex- 
perience. At one time he met with and 
vanquished the "King of the Mountains," 
a grizzley bear, and years afterward, while 
traveling through the same territory on a 
pleasure excursion with his wife, he pointed 
out to her the exact spot where the battle 
occurred. After spending about nine years 
in the west, Mr. Palmer returned, overland, 
to Nebraska, and when he reached Butler 
county, he found his old friend, Abe Town- 
er, married and settled on a farm in the 
Big Blue Valley, and he, thinking it a wise 
course, decided to follow his example. Ac- 
cordingly in May, 1867, he filed a home- 
stead claim to a portion of section 22, town- 
ship 13, range 2, now Ulysses township, 
and built upon it a log cabin out of the tim- 
ber which grew plentifully in this locality. 
Here he lived alone for a time, or until in 
July, 1868, when he was united in marriage 
with Miss Prudence C. Roberts, whom he 
had met the previous winter at the home of 
his neighbor, Mr. Shields, where she was 
visiting. Her home was near Seward, 
where her father, John Roberts, had settled 
in 1866. 

At the time of Mr. Palmer's settlement 
in Butler county there were but three other 
families in this part of the county, viz: 
Shields, Towner and Reeds. While he has 
been across the plains and has had much 
frontier experience, he unhesitatingly states 
that this was at that time the most dreary 



country he has ever seen. For the first 
year in the county he paid no tax, as the 
county had not yet been organized, an ex- 
perience that has not been repeated. The 
log cabin which he first erected on his 
farm was his home for several years and his 
oldest son, Alfred R. , was born in it; but 
it, too, had to give place to the evidences 
of the growth of the country and prosper- 
ity, and its place is now occupied by a fine 
modern farm residence which stands just 
outside the limits of the town of Ulysses. 
Notwithstanding the prosperity which has 
been the lot of our subject and the neat and 
attractive home which he has won as a re- 
sult of years of persistent and well-directed 
effort, he holds that the happiest hours of 
his life were spent under the roof of his old 
log house. 

Mr. Palmer's family consists of three 
sons, Alfred R., Frank and James M., Jr., 
who died in 1892, and two daughters, Car- 
rie, wife of George Dobson, and Blanch G., 
who is attending school. Mr. Palmer was 
one of the founders of the town of Ulysses, 
has been prominently connected with many 
of its leading enterprises, and in many ways 
has been identified with the growth and de- 
velopment of the county since its early set- 
tlement, and at one time served as county 
commissioner. He is a member of the 
Congregational church. 



JOSEPH A. BUCKMASTER.— There 
are numerous fine farms in York 
county which will compare favorably with 
any others in the state as regards production 
and also as to the improvements which have 
been made upon them. Many of these 
places are owned by men comparatively 
young in years, who started in the world 
with but little more than an unlimited 
amount of energy and perserverance, and are 
succeeding to an eminent degree in building 
up a comfortable home and competence. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



415 



As a representative of this class of agri- 
culturists we take pleasure in presenting 
Mr. Buckmaster, whose home is on section 
6, Baker township. 

He was born in Adair county, Missouri, 
February 25, 1861, a son of George W. 
and Sarah (Chantry) Buckmaster, the 
tormer a native of the state of Delaware, 
the latter of Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
In 1839, when a young man, the father re- 
moved to Iowa, being among the pioneers 
of that state, and there he was married. 
He engaged in farming in Van Buren county. 
Iowa, for some time, and from there went 
to Missouri, where he also followed agri- 
cultural pursuits until the Rebellion. Join- 
ing the Union army in 1861, he was 
wounded in the battle of Shiloh, being shot 
in the leg, and died from the effects of his 
wound at a hospital in St. Louis, May 13, 
1862. He left a widow and eight children, 
four sons and four daughters, of whom our 
subject is the youngest. In the fall of 
1862, Mrs. Buckmaster with her children 
removed to Guthrie county, Iowa, where 
they resided until the fall of 1870, coming 
to York county, Nebraska, in October ol 
that year. She homesteaded the northeast 
quarter of section 6, Baker township. At 
that time only two buildings were standing 
on the site of the present city of York, one 
of sod, the other frame. The Buckmaster 
family lived in a sod house for a few years, 
and in common with the other early settlers 
endured all the hardships and privations 
incident to pioneer life. Their first crops 
was destroyed by hail and grasshoppers; 
their nearest railroad point was Lincoln, 
and during the first winter spent in Ne- 
braska, corn and feed for the stock had to 
be hauled from Weeping Water, a distance 
of seventy-five miles. Mrs. Buckmaster 
finally sold her farm, which at that time 
was well improved, and now makes her 
home with her children, who are located in 
different states. 



Joseph A. Buckmaster was only ten years 
old when he came with the family to York 
county, and his work here was herding cat- 
tle on the prairies. He remained at home 
assisting his mother until twenty-four years 
of age, having charge of the homestead 
from the time he was sixteen years old. He 
than bought eighty acres on section 6, Baker 
township, and farmed the same for three 
years in connection with the operation of 
the old homestead which he rented from his 
mother. In 1893 he bought eighty acres, 
upon which his residence now stands, and 
has made his home thereon since the fall of 
1894. He now owns one hundred and sixty 
acres, all under a high state of cultivation, 
and also has a steam thresher and corn 
sheller, and does an extensive business in 
that line. He is one of the most energetic 
and successful farmers of his community, 
and as an upright, honorable business man 
commands the respect and confidence of all 
with whom he comes in contact. In 
politics he is an independent Republican, 
has acceptably filled several township offices, 
and socially is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen at Charleston. 

On the 31st of December, 1889, was cel- 
ebrated the marriage of Mr. Buckmaster 
and Miss Ella M. Selover, a native of Iowa, 
and daughter of Martin and Julia H. (Spald- 
ing) Selover. Four children bless this union: 
Lloyd M. , Percy A., Esther B. and How- 
ard E. 



BIRNEY S. WISE, a representative and 
prominent agriculturist of Seward coun- 
ty, successfully following his chosen calling 
on section 7, I precinct, was born in Oak- 
land county, Michigan, December 3, 1846. 
His father, Thomas Wise, was a native of 
Pennsylvania and a miller by trade. He 
married Miss Marietta Bartley and to them 
were born five children, three sons and two 
daughters. From Pennsylvania, the father 



41G 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



removed to Illinois and later to Michigan, 
but subsequently returned to the Prairie 
state, where he spent the remainder of his 
life engaged in agricultural pursuits. He 
died at the age of eighty-two, his wife at 
the age of sixty-nine, and both were laid to 
rest in Union cemetery, Winnebago county, 
Illinois. 

Birney S. Wise was reared on a farm 
and pursued his literary studies in the schools 
of Michigan and Illinois. On the 14th of 
July, 1875, was celebrated his marriage 
with Miss Ida Green, who was born in Ste- 
phenson county, Illinois, November 17, 1858, 
and was educated in the public schools of 
that state, completing her studies in Davis, 
Her father, William Green, was born in 
Ohio, in March, 1831, was educated in the 
public schools of that state, and learned the 
carpenter's trade. He married Samantha 
Harvey and to them were born twelve chil- 
dren, of whom eleven are still living. For 
thirty years the parents made their home in 
Davis, but are now living in Rockford, Illi- 
nois, the father at the age of sixty-seven, 
the mother fifty-nine. Their children are 
all married and have good homes of their 
own. 

In the fall of 1875, Mr- Wise and his 
bride came to Seward count}', Nebraska, 
where he purchased one hundred and sixty 
acres of railroad land in I precinct at seven 
dollars per acre. The railroad had just 
been completed to Seward, but the country 
round about was mostly wild and unim- 
proved and our young couple experienced 
many hardships in their attempt to make 
for themselves a home in this new country. 
Their first residence here was a little house 
14 x 20 feet, but at length prosperity crowned 
their combined efforts and their land was 
freed from debt. In 1892 Mr. Wise 
bought an adjoining eighty acres for two 
thousand eight hundred dollars, and now 
has an excellent farm of two hundred and 
forty acres which he has placed under a 



high state of cultivation and converted into 
one of the most attractive and best im- 
proved places in I precinct. In their beautiful 
home he and his estimable wife delight to 
entertain their many friends. Politically 
he is an ardent Republican and cast his 
first presidential vote for U. S. Grant. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wise have two sons: Vic- 
tor Ward, born May 20, i876;and Guy Ev- 
erett, born June 12, 1877. The older com- 
pleted his education in the Lincoln Normal 
University and now devotes his time and 
attention to the operation of the home 
farm. Guy Everett is one of the most suc- 
cessful teachers of Seward county and stands 
second to none in his profession. He was 
principally educated in the schools of Sew- 
ard, but was also a student in the Lincoln 
Normal University, where he completed the 
first year's work in eight months, and the 
second in two months. Mr. and Mrs. Wise 
take a just pride in their children, who are 
now filling useful and honored positions in 
life. Socially the family is one of promi- 
nence in the community in which they live. 



JOHN H. PARKER.— Among the men 
who are gaining a good support by tilling 
the soil of Thayer township, York county, 
and incidentally laying aside something for 
a rainy day, there is no better representative 
than the gentleman whose name introduces 
this brief sketch. He is one of the pioneers 
of York county. 

Mr. Parker was born in Woodford coun- 
ty, Illinois, May 18, 1838, a son of Wanton 
and Rosanah (Lemon) Parker, both of whom 
were born in Ohio. Our subject's grand- 
father, Archileous Parker, was a native of 
New York. Wanton Parker was a physi- 
cian and surgeon by profession, was reared 
and educated in Ohio, and began practice in 
1819. He afterward moved to Illinois and 
continued in practice there until his death, 
which occurred as the result of an attack of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



41 



the cholera in 1849. Of his family, two 
sons and three daughters are now living. 
The mother died in Illinois, in the year 
1838. 

Our subject was educated in Illinois and 
began farming when quite young. August 
I, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Ninety- 
fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and serv- 
ed until August 9, 1865. During his service 
he participated in the following engage- 
ments: Prairie Grove, Choffeli, siege of 
Vicksburg, Fort Morgan, Brownsville, Tex- 
as; Peninsula, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; 
Spanish Fort. Mr. Parker served in the 
capacity of corporal, and returned to his 
home at the close of the war without a 
wound. In the following spring he remov- 
ed from his home in Illinois, to Iowa coun- 
ty, Iowa. He made his home in Iowa for 
three years, and in 1868 he came to Ne- 
braska, and the following spring settled in 
York county, located a homestead in sec- 
tion 34, Thayer township, and still owns 
this property. He has placed upon it a 
fine line of improvements, placed it in a 
high state of cultivation and is now the 
owner of one of the fine farms of Thayer 
township, on which he is carrying on a gen- 
eral farming and stock raising business. 

The estimable lady who presides over 
the household affairs of our subject, bore 
the maiden name of Miss Sarah Price, and 
became his wife September 8, 1859. She 
was formerly married to David Stillwell, 
who died soon after their marriage. Mr. 
and Mrs. Parker are the happy parents of a 
family of four sons and two daughters, upon 
whom they have bestowed the following 
names; Lemon H., John H.. Orin H., 
Rosie M., Albert L. and Edith L., now 
Mrs. R. Chambers. The above named 
children are all living, but one, Sarah B., 
who was born in i860, died at the age of 
five weeks. The family are all members of 
the Christian church. In politics, Mr. 
Parker is a Republican and has performed 



the duties of some of the local offices, among 
them being the office of justice of the peace. 
Our subject was one of the earliest settlers 
of York county, assisted in the organization 
of the county, holds the first tax receipt 
issued by the county and the first ballot box 
used in York county and the first election 
was held in his home. As a farmer he has 
been quite successful, is a very pleasant 
neighbor, genial, warm-hearted, and has an 
agreeable family. 



SAMUEL E. CAIN, a worthy representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of New 
York township, York county, is a native of 
Illinois, born in De Kalb county, September 
10, 1859. His parents, Samuel and Ann 
(Cox) Cain, were both natives of Ireland, 
and were brought by their respective families 
to the United States at an early day. The 
paternal grandparents of our subject 
were born in England, whence they removed 
to Ireland, and it was in 1832, that they 
crossed the Atlantic and took up their resi- 
dence in Washington county. New York, 
where they engaged in agricultural pursuits 
for several years. About 1857 they re- 
moved to De Kalb county, Illinois, where 
the grandfather's death occurred. In his 
family were four sons and two daughters 
who reached years of maturity. 

Our subject's father, Samuel Cain, Sr. , 
was reared and educated in the Empire 
State and was there married to Ann Cox. 
He, too, went to De Kalb county, Illinois, 
and in 1885 came to York county, Nebraska, 
where he engaged in farming for one J^ear, 
but now makes his home in the city of York. 
Our subject is the only one of his three 
children now living. 

Samuel E. Cain, of this review, is in- 
debted to the schools of Sandwich, Illinois, 
for his educational privileges. During his 
youth he learned the carpenter's trade, 
which he continued to follow in his native 



418 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH2'. 



state until 1882, when he came to York 
county, Nebraska, and bought the farm in 
New York township, on which he still re- 
sides. He has been very successful in his 
farming operations, and his place is now 
one of the most highly cultivated and best 
improved farms in the locality. 

On the 7th of of March, 1882, in Illi- 
nois, was consummated the marriage of Mr. 
Cain and Miss Emma Ehrler, a daughter of 
William and Minnie (Decker) Ehrler, both 
natives of Germany and still residents of 
Illinois. The father came to the new 
world in 1848, the mother in 1852, and he 
aided his adopted country in her successful 
struggle to preserve the Union, being a 
member of an Illinois regiment. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Cain were born two children, but 
Harry V. is the only one living. 

Mr. Cain is a man of remarkably good 
judgdment, sound common sense and abil- 
ity, which traits have made him prosperous 
and influential. In politics he is a hearty 
supporter of the policy of the Rupublican 
party, and has efficiently served as towship 
treasurer and filled other minor offices. He 
is a Knight Templar Mason, belonging to 
Joppa Commandery, of York. 



DENNIS A. STUBBS is one of the act- 
ive, prominent and enterprising citi- 
zens of Baker township, York county, being 
successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits 
on section 5. He comes from the far-away 
state of Maine, his birth occurring in Han- 
cock county, December 14,1848. His par- 
ents, Reuben and Margaret (Varnum) 
Stubbs, were also natives of the Pine Tree 
State, and the former was of English descent, 
and a farmer by occupation. In October, 
1853, they removed to La Salle county, 
Illinois, but the following spring took up 
their residence in Lee county, that state, 
where the father purchased a farm. Three 
years later he sold that place, however, and 



moved to Carroll county, Iowa, where he 
also bought a farm. In 1869 he located 
upon a farm in Montgomery, Iowa, and 
there passed his remaining years, dying in 
February, 1881. His widow has since be- 
come the wife of Charles D. Jackson and 
resides in Bradshaw, York county, Ne- 
braska. 

Mr. Stubbs, whose name introduces 
this review, was about five years old when 
the family removed to Illinois, and his boy- 
hood and youth were passed in much the 
usual manner of farm boys of his day, his 
education being acquired in the common 
schools. Leaving home at the age of 
twenty-three years, he went to Montgomery 
county, Iowa, where he purchased a farm 
and continued to reside until February, 
1880, when he removed to Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. The following October, how- 
ever, he took up his residence in York 
county, purchasing one hundred and sixty 
acres on section 5, Baker township, on 
which he has since lived. Only about forty 
acres had been broken at that time, but no 
other improvements made. To its develop- 
ment and cultivation he has since devoted 
his energies with most gratifying results, 
and today the entire tract has been placed 
under the plow with the exception of thirty- 
five acres used as pasture land. A comfort- 
able residence has been erected, a good 
orchard set out, and many other improve- 
ments have been made which add greatly 
to its value and attractive appearance. In 
political sentiment, Mr. Stubbs is a free 
silver Republican. 

On the 26th of October, 1876. was 
celebrated his marriage with Miss Jeanette 
Downey, who was born near Quincy, 
Illinois, a daughter of Augustus and Nancy 
(Ludington) Downey, the former a native of 
Canada. As her mother died when she was 
an infant, she lived with her grandmother 
in McDonough county, Illinois, until about 
four years old, when she returned to her 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



419 



father, who had married again. She taught 
several terms of school and while following 
that profession in Montgomery county, 
Iowa, became acquainted with Mr. Stubbs. 
They have become the parents of eleven 
children, all living at home, namely: 
Florence E. , now Mrs. J. E. Selver; Sadie 
L. , Clarence E., Lola L., Perry F. , 
Kenneth R. , Gertrude, Nellie, Esther, 
Bernice and Downey. 



JACOB D. BAER, oneof Butler county's 
well-to-do and popular citizens, who is 
now making his home and base of operations 
in section 6, Olive township, settled in this 
county in the spring of 1876. He was born 
in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, August 
II, 1844, a son of Jacob T. Baer, who 
was also a native of Pennsylvania, being 
born in that state in the latter part of the 
last century, and was a soldier in the war of 
18 12. The Baer family is of Swiss origin. 
The mother of our subject, who bore the 
maiden name of Miss Elizabeth Grimm, was 
of German descent, and was a sister of 
Joseph Grimm, a minister of the United 
Brethren church, who was for many years 
connected with the Baltimore conference. 
Jacob D. Baer, the subject of our sketch, 
is the second son and seventh child in the 
order of birth in the family of which he is a 
member. He has one brother, David W. 
Baer, living in Butler county. When he 
was a mere boy, seventeen years of age, he 
enlisted in company E, One Hundred and 
Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania infantry, and was 
mustered into the service three days prior 
to his eighteenth birthday, and was attached 
to the Third Division, Fifth Army Corps, 
under Fitz John Porter. 

From Arlington Heights, where he was 
in reserve, he was sent south along the 
Orange & Alexander Railroad, where he re- 
ceived his first experience in actual warfare. 
He did not participate in the battle of 



Antietam, and his first hard fought battle 
was at Fredericksburg, where his corps 
made its memorable charge, losing nearly 
half its force. Mr. Baer also participated 
in the battle of Chancellorsville, in which 
Stonewall Jackson was killed. Mr. Baer's 
term of enlistment had expired before this 
battle, but he prolonged the time to nine 
months and twelve days to cover this en- 
gagement. Being discharged from the 
regular service, he then for a time occupied 
positions in the quartermaster's department 
and in the commissary department, but de- 
siring more active service he re-enlisted, this 
time in Company G, Seventeenth Pennsyl- 
vania Cavalry, and was mustered in August 
24, 1864. He was now in the First division, 
cavalry corps, under Sheridan, and was one 
of the company who escorted Sheridan to 
the fort at Cedar Creek on his heroic ride 
from Winchester, of which the poet wrote, 
" Up from the South at break of day," etc. 
From here our subject followed up the 
Cumberland Valley, and at Gordenville he 
had a horse shot under him. His command 
reached Waynesboro, Virginia, too late to 
effect Early's capture, and from here the 
cavalry was sent to join Grant at Peters- 
burg. Our subject was mustered out of 
service at Clouds Mills, Virginia, and re- 
turned to his home in Pennsylvania in June, 
1865. 

December 19, 1867, Mr. Baer was united 
in marriage with Miss Anna M. Miller, of 
Washington county, Maryland, and they 
have become the parents of a family of 
eleven children, five of whom were born in 
Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and the 
others in Butler county, Nebraska. They 
are as follows: Elizabeth C. , now the wife 
of Jonas Eshleman, of Butler county, Ne- 
braska; Martha A., wife of Jacob Eshle- 
man, of Polk county; John Wesley, now 
living on the home farm; Mollie V., now 
now the wife of George W. Morgan, of 
Wheeler county ; and Eva E., wife of 



420 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



George J. Whitney, of Butler county, 
Nebraska. Those born in Butler county, 
Nebraska, are as follows: Emma Lela, 
wife of John Lawson, of Butler county, 
Nebraska; Jacob Leslie, Joseph E. , Har- 
vey Erastus, Ella and Benjamin Harrison. 
Upon arriving in Butler county, Nebraska, 
Mr. Baer at once filed a homestead claim 
to the farm he now occupies. He is public 
spirited and progressive and has aided ma- 
terially in many ways in developing the 
community in which he has lived and the 
upbuilding of its better interests. He has 
always affiliated with the Republican party 
and on that ticket has been elected to va- 
rious offices in the township and school-dis- 
trict. Socially he affiliates with the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen, and is a 
charter member of the A. Lincoln Post No. 
lo. Grand Army of the Republic, of David 
City. 



JUDGE THOMAS H. SAUNDERS.— 
Deeds are thoughts crystallized and ac- 
cording to their brilliancy do we judge the 
worth of a man to the country which pro- 
duced him, and in his works we expect to 
find the true index to his character. The 
study of the life of the representative Amer- 
ican never fails to offer much of pleasing in- 
terest and valuable instruction, developing 
a mastering of expedients which has brought 
about most wonderful results. The subject 
of this review, Judge T. H. Saunders, is a 
worthy representative of that type of Amer- 
ican character and of that progressive spirit 
which promote public good in advancing in- 
dividual prosperity and conserving popular 
interests. His portrait is presented in con- 
nection with this sketch. 

The Judge is a native of Troy, New 
York, born April 2, 1837. His parents 
were Thomas and Helen (Hannigan) Saun- 
ders, the former a native of New York and 
the latter of Connecticut. For many years 



they were residents of Troy, New York, 
where the father followed the shoemaker's 
trade until his death, which occurred in 
1849. His wife, long surviving him, passed 
away in 1889. They were the parents of 
four children, namely: John, deceased; 
Catharine; Thomas H.; and Jennie. 

In the city of his nativity Judge Saun- 
ders was reared to manhood, and acquired 
a limited education in the public schools 
and under private instruction. However, 
observation, extensive reading and a reten- 
tive memory have made him a well-informed 
man and he is now a gentleman of broad 
general culture. At the early age of twelve 
years he started out to make his own way 
in the world and served an apprenticeship 
to the carriagemaker's trade. Through the 
years of his early manhood he followed that 
pursuit, and his business career was marked 
by abiding industry and resolute purpose. 
He was married September 27, 1858, to 
Mary E. Hayner, a native of New York and 
a daughter of Nicholas Hayner, also of the 
Empire state. They resided on a little 
farm near Troy at the time of the breaking 
out of the war of the Rebellion, which event 
in the history of the nation changed the en- 
tire current of the life of Judge Saunders. 

Responding to his country's call for 
troops, September 27, 1861, he became a 
private of Company F, Second New York 
Infantry, was sent to Newport News and 
then, under command of General Wool, 
went to Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia. 
He was under General McClellan in the 
Peninsular campaign and took part in the 
battles of Seven Pines, the Wilderness (in 
which battle he was wounded by a gunshot 
through the left arm), Malvern Hill and 
Chancellorsville, together with all other en- 
gagements of the Army of the Potomac un- 
til May II, 1863, when he was transferred 
to Company D, First Regiment, Excelsior 
Brigade of New York troops, commanded 
by General Daniel E. Sickles. Thus he 




HON. T. H. SAUNDERS. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



423 



served until December 31, 1863, when he 
was mustered out, but re-enhsting the same 
day at Brandy Station he became a member 
of Company A, Eighty-sixth New York 
Veteran Volunteers, and continued with 
that regiment until March 31, 1865, when 
he was wounded .in the right thigh by a 
piece of shell in front of Petersburg. Not 
only this but from the effect of sciatica- 
rheumatism he has lost the use of his left 
leg and side, compelling him to go on 
crutches the remainder of his life. After a 
short time spent in the hospital at City 
Point he rejoined his command and at the 
close of the war participated in the Grand 
Review in Washington, D. C, although he 
had to walk on crutches. He was finally 
discharged and paid off at Elmira, New 
York, July 4, 1865, after nearly four years 
of valiant service, and though twice wounded 
he was in active duty during the greater 
part of the time, valiantly defending the 
starry banner. 

For two weeks after his return home 
Judge Saunders attempted to work at his 
trade, but his health was so impaired he 
found it impossible, and he accepted a posi- 
tion at light work in a shop in Spencerport, 
but again finding himself unequal to the 
task he removed to a little farm upon which 
rested an indebtedness of twelve hundred 
dollars. At length, determining to try his 
fortune in the west he came to Nebraska in 
1 87 1 and as soon as the pontoons were 
placed so that he could cross the river he 
located in Polk county. Securing a home- 
stead eight miles north of the town, he 
built a little cabin twelve by fourteen feet, 
residing therein for four years. In 1876 he 
removed to Colfa.x county, where he pur- 
chased a farm, which he operated one year. 
He then lived in David City for nine months, 
on the expiration of which period he re- 
turned to his present home. 

In 1885 his fellow-townsmen, appre- 
ciating his worth and ability, elected him 



county judge of Polk county, and while 
serving in that capacity he took up the 
study of law. Later he studied under the 
direction of Hon. E. L. King, of Osceola, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1887 by 
Judge T. L. Norval. He was also admitted 
to practice in the supreme court of the 
state and before all the departments 
of Washington, District of Columbia, 
and has been connected with much of the 
important litigation heard in his district. 
He has a keenly analytical mind, is a close 
reasoner, logical in his deductions and his 
arguments before court and jury are force- 
ful and convincing. Aside from his duties 
on the bench he served as clerk of the dis- 
trict court for four years, and was door- 
keeper in the lower house of the Nebraska 
legislature in 1879, 1881, 1883 and 1885. 
He took a very prominent part in political 
aiTairs in Monroe county, New York, before 
coming to the west, and has always been a 
stalwart Republican since casting his first 
presidential vote for John C. Fremont when 
nineteen years of age. 

The Judge and his wife are the parents 
of three children: Horatio B., who is 
postal clerk on the railroad; Frankie, de- 
ceased; and Charlotte. The family is 
one of marked prominence in this locality 
and their circle of friends is very extensive. 
For twenty-eight years the Judge has been a 
local preacher in the Methodist church and 
is a very prominent Mason, having been 
identified with that order since February 13, 
1864. He belongs to Osceola Lodge, No. 
65, in which he has served as Master nine 
years; Orion Chapter, No. 18, R. A. M., in 
which he has been Master of the Third 
Veil; Joppa Commandery, No. 17, K. T., 
of York, Nebraska. He also belongs to the 
Odd Fellows Lodge, at Osceola, has passed 
all its chairs and has been district deputy 
grand master of the state. He maintains 
his relations with his old army comrades 
through his membership in the Grand Army 



424 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of the Republic, has served several times as 
commander of the local post, and is senior 
vice-commander at the present time. His 
life has been an industrious, upright and 
honorable one, devoted to all that tends 
toward the best development of the country, 
and his name is closely interwoven with its 
history. He has justly won the proud 
American title of self-made man, and while 
gaining a fair competence he has also won 
the unqualified regard and respect of all with 
whom he has been brought in contact. 



CH. CARLSON.— The story of the 
wonderful physical resources of Amer- 
ica and of the opportunities offered to hon- 
est industry to gain a footing in business and 
society has attracted hither many natives of 
the Scandinavian Peninsula. And it affords 
us great pleasure to devote a few brief para- 
graphs to the record of the life of one of 
those sturdy pioneers, who has been instru- 
mental in the building of a nation. Mr. 
Carlson is successfully pursuing the occupa- 
tion of a farmer on section 28, of township 
14, range 3, in Platte precinct, Polk coun- 
ty, Nebraska. He was born August 31, 
1847, in the state of Kalmer, Sweden, and 
is a son of Charles Johnson, who died in the 
old country. He was a farmer by occupa- 
tion and cultivated a farm which he owned 
there. The mother of our subject is still 
living and makes her home in Sweden on 
the old homestead. 

C. H. Carlson received his education 
and grew to manhood in his native land. 
He emigrated to the United States in the 
fall of 1868, and settled in Marshall county, 
Illinois. He secured a position to work by 
the month, which he retained until 1872, 
when he located in Polk county, Nebraska. 
He took up a homestead claim to the farm 
on which he has resided continuously ever 
since, which at the time he took possession 
of it was all wild and unbroken. He kept 



bachelor's hall on his homestead, in a small 
frame house 12x14 feet, which he built on 
his land. The first year he raised sod, corn 
and potatoes, and the second year he raised 
a crop of eight acres of wheat. In 1874 he 
received a visit from that terrible pest, the 
grasshoppers, which took all of his crop, but 
notwithstanding all the hardships and priva- 
tions through which Mr. Carlson has gone 
he is to-day one of the most substantial 
farmers of this locality. The first two years 
of his residence in Nebraska he was com- 
pelled to work for others, though he had a 
team of his own. His estate now comprises 
two hundred acres of excellent land, one 
hundred and thirty-five acres of which are 
under the plow and the balance is used for 
meadow and pasture. 

The neat and comfortable appearance 
of his place is entirely due to the persistent 
endeavors of our subject, who has expended 
many hours of toil upon the same to accom- 
plish the present results. He has followed 
agricultural pursuits exclusively, and is in 
all respects a modern and scientific farmer, 
who takes considerable pride in the im- 
provements and workings of his farm. In 
1882 he built his present cosy and comfort- 
able home, which is located near a grove 
and orchard which he planted himself. He 
has also added an addition to his home at a 
cost of $600. Mr. Carlson passed through 
the terrible blizzard of 1873, and experi- 
enced many sufferings in the same. 

Mr. Carlson was married in 1877 to 
Miss Ida Anderson, who was born in Lein- 
cherpin, Sweden, and came to the United 
States when she was eight years of age. 
They are the parents of four children, upon 
whom they bestowed the following names: 
August F. ; Charles Elmer; Effiie Alida; 
and Lillie H. All of the children are being 
given the advantages of good educations, 
which will enable them to battle success- 
fully through life, which, with the aid of the 
Christian faith, in which they are all firm 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



425 



believers, will make them respected and 
exemplary citizens. The family are all 
members in good standing of the Lutheran 
church, of which Mr. Carlson is a trustee, 
and has also been treasurer of the same for 
six years. He is a member of the Scan- 
dinavian Mutual Insurance Company of 
Polk county, of which he was at one time 
one of the directors. He uses his elective 
franchise in the support of the principles of 
the Republican party. He is well known 
and highly respected throughout the pre- 
cinct in which lives for his many sterling 
traits of character. 



JAMES H. DAVIDSON, one of the best 
known men in Seward county, Ne- 
braska, and one of its earliest settlers, was 
born November 26, 1843, '" Hardin county, 
Ohio. 

The parents of our subject were Patrick 
and Elizabeth (Matthews) Davidson, to 
whom three children were born, two girls 
and one boy. James H. received a com- 
mon school education such as were furnished 
in those days, and at the age of eighteen 
years enlisted in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, 
under Colonel Porter and Captain Miller, 
at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, February 24, 
1862. He was transferred to the south, 
and took part in the battles at Port Gibson, 
also at Jackson, Mississippi, two engage- 
ments, and served at the siege of Vicksburg. 
At the battle of Granada he was taken pris- 
oner by the Confederates and confined in 
the famous Libby Prison for a period of six 
weeks, and then was sent to Belle Isle. 
Here he was kept about three weeks, and 
then to the horror of himself and his com- 
panions they were taken to Andersonville, 
where they endured all the sufferings and 
vicious brutality for which that prison has 
become famous in history. His confine- 
ment there dated from March 8, 1864, to 
September 1 1 of the same year. Having 



about this time been put under parole of 
honor, he escaped his guard during a dark 
night, with twenty other Union soldiers, 
traveled about one hundred miles by night, 
exposed to privations and suffering from 
hunger and anxiety until, at the end of 
twelve days, they were recaptured by the 
use of bloodhounds, and were imprisoned 
at Milan, Georgia. November 23, 1864, 
he was released on parole and sent to the 
Union lines, where he arrived three days 
later. The stories related of his sufferings 
and ill-treatment during this unfortunate 
period are worthy of a place in the annals 
of the war of the Rebellion. In 1868 he 
was called to Washington as a witness in 
the trial of the notorious Henry Wirz, 
keeper of Andersonville prison, who was 
convicted and hanged. Mr. Davidson says 
that his rations consisted of a cup of corn 
meal which he was compelled to eat with- 
out cooking or else starve. His normal 
weight before his imprisonment was one 
hundred and sixty-seven pounds. Upon 
his release his weight was ninety-seven 
pounds. While at Andersonville he shared 
his sufferings with forty-two thousand Union 
soldiers, eighteen thousand of whom died 
from starvation and ill-treatment during the 
time. 

Mr. Davidson returned to Washington 
county, Iowa, after his army service, and 
was employed in a vineyard until 1870, 
when his marriage occurred. The lady of 
his choice was Miss Emma F. Jobes, a na- 
tive of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, born Sep- 
tember 12, 1852, and being at the date of 
her marriage to our subject but seventeen 
years of age. 

Soon after their marriage in the spring 
of 1870, our subject and his young wife re- 
moved to Seward county, Nebraska, where 
they took up a homestead claim to eighty 
acres. In 1883 their home was destroyed 
by fire, this misfortune occurring on our 
subject's birthday, November 26. They 



426 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



soon rebuilt their residence, and lived in 
happy contentment until the spring of 1884, 
when the death of Mrs. Davidson cast a 
deep shadow over the home. Her remains 
rest in the Milford Cemetery, Seward 
county, Nebraska. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Davidson seven chil- 
dren were born, namely: William Henry, 
Elmer, Lena May, Edna Lillian, Mary Lucy, 
Nellie Helen, and Frank Patrick. The last 
named died in infancy. All the others live 
in Seward county. Upon their settlement 
in Nebraska Mr. and Mrs. Davidson expe- 
rienced all the inconveniences and trials 
which that state bestowed upon its pioneers, 
but they overcame all, and the family now 
live in comfort. Mr. Davidson is an hon- 
ored member of the G. A. R. 



AUGUST MARKWARTH, whose home 
is on section 21, of McFadden town- 
ship, is one of the older settlers of York 
county, and bears the burden of years and 
the weight of long and hard labor, but is 
still strong and vigorous. He was born in 
Germany, May 22, 1838, and is a son of 
Ernst and Maria (Uda) Markwarth. They 
were born, lived and died in Germany 
His father was a weaver, and devoted him- 
self to the care and nurture of his children, 
providing for them in every way that was 
possible within his means. August had a 
fair education and began the weavers trade 
at eighteen, and worked at it until his ar- 
rival in America. He sailed from Bremen, 
June 25, 1868, on a sailing vessel and seven 
weeks and four days were consumed in the 
passage. The ocean was very rough dur- 
ing the greater part of this protracted voy- 
age. He landed in New York with his wife 
and one child, and went immediately to the 
home of his brother-in-law in Carroll county, 
Illinois. He rented a piece of land in his 
neighborhood, and farmed it for eleven 
years. By this time he had saved a little 



money, and decided to invest in a Nebraska 
home. His landlord was reluctant to have 
him go, but his mind was set and he came 
to York county in 1879 and bought one hun- 
dred and sixty acres in McFadden township. 
He engaged a man to break twenty acres, 
and went back to harvest his crops in Illi- 
nois. He returned with his family in Feb- 
ruary, 1880, and took up his abode on the 
farm, where he has since resided. He lived 
for a time with his brother-in-law, Louis 
Ebbeka, while he was building a house for 
his residence. He owns at the present 
writing two hundred and forty acres, and is 
one of the substantial farmers of the town. 
Mr. Markwarth was married to Miss 
Mina Ebbeka in Germany in 1865. They 
have three children, August, Mary, and 
Charles. They are all living in this town- 
ship, and have families of their own. Mrs. 
Markwarth died July 29, 1895, and since 
that bereavement her husband has lived 
upon the homestead, and is still engaged in 
its cultivation. He is a Democrat, and is a 
member of the Lutheran church. 



JOHN ARCHER, who resides on Sec- 
tion 10, Chelsea township, is one of the 
representative farmers of Fillmore county. 
He was born January 9, 1845, in Coles 
county, Illinois, and is a son of Ellison and 
Elizabeth (Street) Archer, who were farmers 
of Coles county. He was reared and educat- 
ed in the common schools of his district, ac- 
quiring such an education as the schools 
of that time afforded. He lived with his 
parents until he was twenty years of age, 
when he was married April 7, 1864, to Miss 
Rachel J. Raines, a daughter of Samuel and 
Lydia (Young) Raines who was also farmers 
of Coles county. After his marriage he 
rented a part of his fathers farm, and by 
carefully saving his money, he was enabled 
the next autumn to buy forty acres of land, 
paying five hundred dollars in cash, and get- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



427 



ting time on the balance. They then moved 
on their own farm, but only lived there a 
few months, when the house was completely 
destroyed by fire, and they barely escaped 
with their lives. This loss embarrassed 
him so much financially that he was com- 
pelled to sell his land in order to relieve the in- 
debtedness that was hanging over it. Truly 
life was not opening very promising for them, 
and he was very much discouraged, but it 
seems that the darkest clouds always have a 
silver lining, and it is always darkest just be- 
fore the break of day. Just at this critical 
time in their affiairs, Mrs. Archer oppor- 
tunely received her portion of her deceased 
fathers estate, and she came heroically to 
the assistance of her husband. With this 
money they bought a small but extremely 
valuable tract of land, and after a few years 
of hard work and carefully saving their 
money, they were enabled to buy an ad- 
ditional twenty acres of land. They lived 
on this farm until 1871, when they deter- 
mined to try their fortune in the west. 
They loaded all their goods in a canvas 
covered wagon and started for Nebraska, 
and after a long and tiresome journey they 
finally reached Fillmore county, and pur- 
chased a farm in section 10, Chelsea 
township. Here they erected a sod house 
aud stable, and covered them with shingle 
roofs. The land was unbroken and they 
set to work with a will to convert the roll- 
ing prarie into a cultivated farm. Fortune 
finally smiled on them, and in a few years 
they were able to add an addition of eighty 
acres to their farm, and they now have a 
good, fertile and well cultivated farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres of land, which is 
well improved in every respect. 

To their marriage have been born sixteen 
children, eleven of whom are still living. 
George B., who married Miss Jennie Falk- 
ton, Samuel E., who married Miss Carrie 
Tuttle, Lydia M. , who married Henry 
Hennecamp, Ellen J., who married Frank 



Brewer, Emery, who married Miss Grace 
Bland, Mary E., who married Relphkin 
Shuffler, John W., Arthur, Anna May, 
Hattie Eva, Minnie Viola. Five died in in- 
fancy. Mr. and Mrs Archer are both mem- 
bers of the United Brethren Church, and 
are active workers in church matters. 
Politically he is a member of the Populist 
party, and is an ardent believer in its 
principles. 



ADAM HALL, one of the oldest settlers 
of Butler county, was born in Ross 
county, Ohio, near Chillicothe, October 2, 
1830. He was the son ot Elisha Hall, of 
English and German descent, a native of 
New York, who was an early settler of Ross 
county, Ohio, and also a pioneer of Pulas- 
ki county, Indiana, having moved near 
Logansport in 1831, when our subject was 
one year old. 

He was the son of Hannah Kilbourne, a 
native of New York, in which state she 
grew up, and her parents were both Amer- 
icans. Both of his parents lived long and 
useful lives, his father dying at the age of 
sixty-five years, in Iowa county, Iowa, to 
which place he had gone in 1853. His 
mother lived to the age of seventy-eight 
years. 

Mr. Hall was the youngest of seven 
children, and when one year old removed 
with his parents to Cass county, Indiana, 
where he grew up and was educated in the 
common schools of that county. 

In 1853 he was married to Rosanna 
Bowers, who was also a native of New York, 
but had spent most of her life in Ohio. 
She was the daughter of Jacob and Melissa 
Bowers. She was the mother of four chil- 
dren, only two of whom are now living, 
Henry C. , of Salt Lake City, Utah, and 
George N., of David City. In 1853, the year 
of his marriage, Mr. Hall removed to Iowa 
county, Iowa, where he purchased a farm 



428 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



form the government, paying one dollar and 
twenty-five cents an acre for the same. He 
made great improvements upon the place and 
remained there engaged in general farming 
until 1865, when he went to West Liberty, 
Muscatine county, Iowa, still continuing in 
the occupation of general farming, and 
afterward engaging in the lumber and 
butcher business. 

In 1870 he transferred his interests to 
Butler county, Nebraska, and took up a 
homestead in section 25, Oak Creek town- 
ship. On this land he erected a house, 
considered the finest in the county at that 
time, one and one-half stories high, the 
main part 16x26 feet, with a wing 16x16 
feet. He steadily improved the place and 
continued to reside here for ten years, en- 
gaged in general farming and stock raising, 
at the end of which time he removed to 
David City, where he went into the livery 
business, which business he has followed in 
this place ever since, with the exception of 
five years, when he retired temporarily. 

In 1863 he was married for the second 
time to Nannie Bozarth, a native of Vir- 
ginia, who has spent most of her life in 
West Liberty, Iowa, her parents having re- 
moved there when she was three years of 
age. They were the parents of three chil- 
dren: Jessie, who is now teaching in the 
high school in David City ; Artie, wife of 
Philip Krofft, of David City, and Bert, who 
married Miss Aggie Miller and resides in 
David City. 

In 1862 he enlisted in Company B, 
Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, as 
a private, but was at once promoted to the 
office of sergeant and served until 1863, 
when he received his honorable discharge 
on account of disability. He was the wit- 
ness, during this year, of many fierce skir- 
mishes, and was with General Smith on his 
expedition up the Red River. 

Mr. Hall was twice a commissioner of 
Butler county and has been a member of 



the town board a number of times. He is 
a member of the Prohibition party, a mem- 
ber of G. A. R. Post, No. 10, also of I. O. 
O. F., Harmony lodge. No. 31, of David 
City, and has always taken an active inter- 
est in local affairs and is highly esteemed 
and honored as a worthy citizen and pro- 
moter of the interests of his fellow men. 



pLLWOOD THOMPSON is one of the 
\S leading farmers of Baker township, 
and his farm shows what York county farm- 
ers can do in the way of admirable and suc- 
cessful tillage of the soil. It is managed 
in the latest fashion, and is equipped with 
all the economical appliances for the saving 
of time and labor. He has done well in the 
years that are passed, and is to-day enjoy- 
ing the fruits of industry, economy and an 
intelligent administration of his time and 
strength. 

Mr. Thompson was born in Morgan 
county, Ohio, November 4, 1847, and at- 
tained his manhood in the home of his 
parents, William B. and Eleanor (Thorp) 
Thompson. His father was born in Har- 
rison county, Ohio, and was a farmer all 
his life. He died at the home of his son, 
the subject of this article, in York county, 
in 1890. Mrs. Eleanor Thompson was 
born in Pennsylvania, and died at her Ohio 
home in 1870. Her son Ell wood received 
such advantages as the public schools of 
his neighborhood afforded, and took his 
place as a worker on his father's farm when 
he reached the age of labor. When he 
reached his twenty-first year he struck out 
for himself, and worked by the month for 
five years among the farmers of Clark 
county, Ohio. By this time he had accumu- 
lated funds enough to warrant the rental 
of a farm and its operation on his own ac- 
count. In 1883 he bought a quarter sec- 
tion of as good land as may be found in 
York county. It was just west of Brad- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



429 



shaw, and under his intelligent management 
yielded rich returns. He sold it in 1892, 
and with his family spent a year or more 
visiting in his old Ohio home, taking in the 
World's Fair on the way. On his return 
to this county in the fall of 1893 he bought 
two hundred and forty acres in Baker town- 
ship, and here he has an elegant country 
home. The family residence is a modern 
structure, and the farm is provided with the 
necessary farm buildings that satisfy every 
need of an advanced and progressive ag- 
riculture. 

Mr. Thompson was married in 1873 to 
Miss Sarah Weymer. She is of German 
nativity, and is a daughter of Jacob and 
Margaret Weymer. She came to America 
with her parents when only four years old, 
and her first home was in the city of New 
Orleans. She was left an orphan when 
only seven years old, and was taken into 
the home of relatives who lived in Ohio. 
She is the mother of the following named 
children: Abbie L. , Edgar, and Arthur, 
and one dead, Walter H. Mr. Thompson 
is a member of the order of the Home 
Forum, and is a Republican. He has been 
an honest, hard-working man, and is uni- 
versally respected. 



ROBERT W. HOPPER, a well-to-do 
farmer and highly respected citizen of 
New York township, is one of the early settlers 
of York county, who has been an important 
factor in its upbuilding and prosperity. He 
is a native of Belmont county, Ohio, and 
made his first appearance upon the scenes of 
this life May 18, 1829. His parents, William 
and Phebe (Lewis) Hopper, were both born 
in Pennsylvania, but the grandfather, Rob- 
ert Hopper, was a native of Ireland, and 
was a farmer and weaver by occupation. 
As early as 1798 William Hopper removed 
to Ohio, where he engaged in agricultural 
pursuits until called to his final rest in 1872. 



He reared a family of nine children, five 
sons and four daughters, of whom three 
sons and three daughters are still living. 

The subject of this sketch began his 
education in a little old log school-house, 
which had been constructed without the 
use of a single nail, and the furniture was 
also of the most primitive kind. When his 
school-days were ended he turned his atten- 
tion to farming, and assisted his father in 
raising tobacco. Leaving the Buckeye 
state in 1856, he removed to Christian 
county, Illinois, where he worked as a farm 
laborer until after the inauguration of the 
Civil war. In response to the President's 
call for volunteers to aid in putting down 
the rebellion, he enlisted at Taylorville, 
111., in July, 1861, and the following Au- 
gust was mustered into the United States 
service at Decatur, that state, as a member 
of Company G, Forty-first Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry. For three years and one 
month he was in the service, and partici- 
pated in the battle of Fort Dondelson, 
where he was wounded in the foot, dis- 
abling him from active duty for sixty days. 
On rejoining his regiment he took part in 
the battles of Coldwater and Big Hatchie 
the siege of Vicksburg, and went with Sher- 
man as far as Marietta, Ga., where he was 
stationed when his term of enlistment ex- 
pired. At the battle of Jackson, Miss., he 
was a second time wounded. 

Returning to civil pursuits Mr. Hopper 
continued to reside in Illinois, until 1871, 
when he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and secured a homestead — the northeast 
quarter of section 12, New York township 
— being among the first to settle in this 
section of the state. This wild tract he 
has transformed into an excellent farm, 
whose well tilled fields and substantial im- 
provements indicate the supervision of a sys- 
tematic, industrious and progressive owner. 

Mr. Hopper was married in Illinois, 
February 18, 1866, the lady of his choice 



430 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



being Miss Kate Cowgill, a daughter of John 
and Catherine Cowgill, natives of Dela- 
ware and Maryland, respectively, who, in 
1854, had emigrated to Illinois. Five chil- 
dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hop- 
per, namely: Pehbe M., Charles L. , Helen, 
Grace and Maggie. The family are regu- 
lar in their attendance on church services, 
some belonging to the Presbyterian and 
others to the Methodist Episcopal church. 
Politically Mr. Hopper is identified with 
the Republican party, but has never sought 
official preferment, though he takes an act- 
ive interest in public affairs. He has 
achieved success by unremitting toil, di- 
rected by sound business principles, and has 
accumulated a comfortable property. 



THOMAS H. BISHOP, a wealthy and 
prosperous farmer residing on section 
10, precinct P, Seward county, was born in 
Troy, Rensselaer county. New York, August 
23, 1842, but when only two years old was 
taken to Wisconsin by his parents, Joseph 
and Emeline (Potter) Bishop. The father 
was born in England, but the paternal 
grandfather, Thomas Bishop, was a native 
of the north of Ireland. The Bishop family 
emigrated to the United States and located 
in Rensselaer county, New York, at an early 
day. 

In the public schools of Wisconsin the 
subject of this sketch acquired his literary 
education, while his business training was 
obtained upon the home farm, becoming 
thoroughly familiar with all the duties which 
fall to the lot of the agriculturist. His love 
of country was manifest in August, 1862, 
when he enlisted in Company H, Thirty- 
third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He 
participated in the siege of Vicksburg, under 
General Sherman, was in the engagements 
at Jackson and Holly Springs, and under 
A. J. Smith was in the Red river expedition. 
When the war ended he was stationed at 



Mobile, Alabama, and was there mustered 
out. Returning to his home in Wisconsin, 
he remained a resident of that state until 
coming to Seward county, Nebraska, in the 
fall of 1873, being influenced to locate in 
this region by his cousins, Thomas and Ed- 
ward Healey. After securing a homestead 
he returned to Kenosha county, Wisconsin, 
where he was married that winter to Miss 
Annie E. Smith, by whom he has nine chil- 
dren: Carlton O. , Clarence P., Nelson E., 
Julia May, Emery M., Florence, Rufus R., 
Maud R. and Ralph S., all born in Ne- 
braska. 

After his marriage, Mr. Bishop brought 
his bride to the home he had secured, and 
in Seward county has since successfully en- 
gaged in general farming and stock raising. 
He now has one of the most attractive and 
best cultivated farms in the county, com- 
prising four hundred and forty acres of rich 
and arable land, improved with excellent 
buildings, which stand as monuments to his 
thrift and enterprise. He is widely and 
favorably known throughout this section of 
the state, and has the respect and confi- 
dence of all with whom he comes in con- 
tact either in business or social life. His 
political support is always given the men 
and measures of the Republican party, and 
he has ably served as a member of the 
county board. Socially he affiliates with 
the Masonic fraternity, the Modern Wood- 
men of America and the Grand Army of the 
Republic. 



ELI L. SHOTWELL, an old settler of 
Butler county, and a farmer living on 
section 21, Franklin township, was born in 
Genesee county. New York, November 29, 
1847, a son of Zachariah P. Shotwell, a na- 
tive of the same county, in New York, and 
a farmer by occupation. The father was 
reared and married in his native county, and 
in 1849 he moved to Canada, and settled on 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY:. 



431 



a farm near the city of London, and died 
tliere at the age of eighty-four years. His 
father, Thomas Shotwell, was also a native 
of the state of New York, a farmer by occu- 
pation and of EngHsh descent. Our sub- 
ject's mother bore the maiden name of- Miss 
Margaret Zavitz, and was also a native of 
Canada and was* reared in the province of 
her nativity. Her father, Jacob Zavitz, is 
supposed to have been born in Canada of 
German descent. Mrs. Margaret Shotwell 
died in 1861. 

Our subject is the sixth child and fourth 
son in the order of birth of a family of eight 
children, all of whom grew to maturity. He 
was two years of age when he moved to 
Canada with his parents, and was there 
reared and received a common-school edu- 
cation. From Canada he moved directly to 
Butler county, Nebraska, in 1869, and first 
took a claim in section 14, Union township. 
This tract of eighty acres he improved and 
made his home until 1875, and then moved 
to Nance county, and made that his home 
for one year. He then returned to Butler 
county and lived in different places until 
1892, and then located on the farm he now 
owns and makes his home. This farm com- 
prises one hundred and twenty acres of fine 
land, which is all improved and in a high 
state of cultivation. Mr. Shotwell also still 
owns the old homestead in Union township. 

December 25, 1875, our subject was 
united in marriage with Miss Leah L. Bunt- 
ing, a native of Mercer county, Illinois. 
She is a daughter of Ebeneser and Susan 
(Moore) Bunting, a sketch of whom will ap- 
per on another page of this volume. Mrs. 
Shotwell was educated in the public schools 
of Mercer county, Illinois, and moved with 
her parents to Butler county, Nebraska. 
She is the eighth child and the third daugh- 
ter in the order of birth in the family of 
which she is a member. Mr. and Mrs. 
Shotwell have no children. They are both 
members of the Society of Friends, and 

25 



Mr. Shotwell is also a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Harmony 
lodge. No. 31, of David City, and of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, No. 124, 
David City. In political views, our subject 
is a Republican. 



DAVID PRICE.— This gentleman, who 
throughout his active business career 
has mainly engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
now owns and operates his father's olcJ 
homestead in New York township, York, 
county. A man of great energy and more 
than ordinary business capacity, his success 
in life has been largely due to his own ef- 
forts and the sound judgment by which he 
has been enabled to make wise investments 
and take good advantage of his resources. 
Mr. Price was born in Wales, May 25, 
1855, and is a son of Benjamin Price, who 
is mentioned more fully in the sketch of 
Thomas Price on another page of this vol- 
ume. Our subject acquired the greater 
part of his eduation in the schools of Wis- 
consin, but continued his studies after com- 
ing to York county, Nebraska, with his 
brother in 1873. For some time after 
coming to this state he worked by the 
month as a farm hand, but in 1S76 pur- 
chased a tract of wild land on section 11, 
New York township, which he improved 
and continued to cultivate for a few years. 
On selling that place he purchased the land 
on which the present village of Thayer has 
since been laid out, and he sold it to the 
Thayer Town Site Company. He then 
bought his father's old homestead, consist- 
ing of a quarter section in New York town- 
ship, and is now successfully operating the 
same, in connection with the feeding of live 
stock. 

In York county, Mr. Price was mar- 
ried, in 1878, to Miss Sarah E. Denney, a 
native of Iowa, who the year previous had 
came to Nebraska with a married sister. 



432 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Her parents, David and Mary (Comer) Den- 
ney, are natives of Ohio and Indiana, 
respectively, and in 185 1 emigrated to 
Iowa, where they still continue to reside. 
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Price 
are as follows: Nettie A., deceased; Clyde 
B., Harry C. , Iva L. , Homer O. and Hol- 
land D. The mother and children are con- 
nected with the Methodist Protestantchurch, 
and the family is one of social prominence 
in the community. Politically Mr. Price is 
a stalwart Republican, and socially is a 
worth member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and the Modern Brotherhood of 
America. 



JOSEPH NEVILLE.— Amongthe sturdy, 
energetic and successful farmers of York 
county, who thoroughly understand the vo- 
cation which they follow, and are conse- 
quently enabled to carry on their calling 
with profit to themselves, is the subject of 
this sketch. He is actively engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits on section 35, Leroy town- 
ship, where he owns a fine farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres. 

Mr. Neville is a native of the Emerald 
Island, born May 4, 1847, '^^ Kings county, 
Ireland, and in 1855 was brought to America 
by his parents, Abraham and Margaret (Ma- 
loy) Neville, who first settled in Albany, 
New York, but a few years later removed to 
Quebec, Canada, where the father died. 
The mother is still living and now makes her 
home in York county, Nebraska. 

Coming to this coutitry at the age of 
eight years, Joseph Neville grew to manhood 
on this side of the Atlantic, and received a 
common school education, as he says 
" very common at that." He accompanied 
his parents on their removal to Canada, but 
when about twenty-two years of age he re- 
turned to the United States, and lived for a 
time in Vermont. Subsequently for several 
years he resided in Michigan, where he en- 



gaged in farming, teaming and lumbering. 
It was in March, 1875, that he arrived in 
Nebraska and bought one hundred and sixty 
acres of railroad land in York county, on 
which he still resides. To the cultivation 
and improvement of the wild tract he at 
once turned his attention, erecting thereon 
a small frame house with a large sod addition, 
and also a sod stable. As the years have 
passed he has placed acre after acre under 
the plow, has built a more comfortable and 
modern residence, good barns and other out- 
buildings, and now has one of the most de- 
sirable farms of its size in the township. 
As a result of hard work, economy and good 
management he has secured a comfortable 
competence which ranks him among the 
well-to-do citizens of the locality. 

November 25, 1879, was celebrated the 
marriage of Mr. Neville and Miss Elizabeth 
Foley, who was born in Peoria, Illinois, a 
daughter of John and Ellen (Donevan) 
Foley, natives of Ireland. One daughter, 
Mary, graces this union. The family are 
communicants of the Catholic church at 
York, and in the social circles of their com- 
munity occupy an enviable position. Mr. 
Neville casts his ballot with the Democracy, 
and has acceptably served his fellow citizens 
in the capacity of town treasurer. 



LIEUT. JOSEPH MILLER, whose home 
is on section 32, township 15, range 2, 
Platte precinct, is one of the prominent and 
representative citizens of Polk county, who 
as a Union soldier during the dark days of 
the Rebellion made for himself a war record 
both honorable and glorious. He was born 
July 29, 1842, in Fayette county, Pennsyl- 
vania, a son of Peter and Nancy (Bradman) 
Miller, also natives of the Keystone state, 
and the former of Quaker stock. The 
father died in 18 — , the mother in 1875. 
Both were lifelong members of the Method- 
ist church, took an active part in its work, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



433 



and had the respect and confidence of all 
who knew them. Their children were Jona- 
than, who was a member of Battery C, First 
Illinois Light Artillery, during the war; 
Mary Ann Swartwood, deceased; Joseph; 
William S., a member of Company G, 
Seventy-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; 
James D. ; and Mrs. Rachel Elizabeth Wark, 
a resident of Jackson county, Kansas. Joseph 
Miller was reared on a farm and educated 
in the district schools. In i856Jhe ac- 
companied his parents on their removal to 
Noble county, Ohio, and remained under 
the parental roof until he reached the age of 
nineteen, when he resolved to strike a blow 
in defense of the Union, enlisting as a pri- 
vate November 29, 1861, in Company G, 
Seventy-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. 
During the battle of Fort Donelson, his 
regiment was sent to that place, later camp- 
ed for a time at Fort Henry, and]was then 
ordered to Crump's Landing. As a part of 
General Lew Wallace's division they.^.next 
went to Adamsville, where they were sta- 
tioned during the first day of the fight at 
Shiloh, but after a forced march they arrived 
on that famous battle field about ten o'clock 
that night, and participated in the engage- 
ment all the next day. Here Mr. Miller 
had his lip cut by a bullet. This-Jwas 
followed by the siege of Corinth, [[and the 
battle of Jackson, Tennessee, underQGen. 
J. A. Logan. With his command our sub- 
ject then engaged in scouting all over Ten- 
nessee, and in chasingguerillas and Jackson's 
"cowtails". He was then in a number of 
engagements in Mississippi and Tennessee 
going as far south as Coffeyville, and later 
returned to Grand Junction. From there 
the regiment proceeded to Moscowiand went 
into winter quarters at Memphis. 

On the way to Vicksburg they cut the 
canal through to allow the water to run 
from the river into Lake Providence, and 
then marched to Bruinsburg, crossed the 
Mississippi and on to Vicksburg, where they 



arrived in time to participate in the siege. 
The brigade to which Mr. Miller belonged 
met Gregg's Texas brigade in battle at Ray- 
mond and came off victorious. They then 
recaptured Jackson, were in the battle of 
Champion Hills, the engagement at Black 
River, and the charge on Vicksburg, May 
22, 1862, remaining there during the siege. 
In the meantime, however, they drove the 
rebels from Yazoo City, and were afterward 
placed under Sherman's command to watch 
General Joseph E. Johnston. They were 
on guard duty at Clinton, and again met 
Jackson's cavalry in battle. While in camp 
at Vicksburg they took part in many en- 
gagements all over the country and drove 
the enemy from Monroe City. After spend- 
ing a thirty days' furlough at home, Mr. 
Miller again reported for duty, and went on 
the Meridian raid, and was in the Baker's 
Creek skirmishes. He assisted in recover- 
ing guns which had been stored at Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, then took the cars for Cairo, 
Illinois, by steamer went up the Ohio to the 
mouth of the Tennessee and then up that 
river to Clifton, where he started out in 
search of Sherman's army, overtaking them 
at Ackworth, Georgia. He was in the en- 
gagement at Bush Mountain east of Big 
Shanty, and was all through the Atlanta 
campaigns ending with the fall of that city 
July 22, 1864. His regiment then followed 
Hood's army north to Galesville, Alabama, 
after which they returned to Atlanta and 
started on the celebrated march to the sea. 
At Savannah they took boats for Beaufort, 
South Carolina, whence they marched to 
Pocataligo and on to Goldsboro, where they 
participated in a fierce engagement, and 
later captured Columbia, South Carolina. 
At Raleigh Johnston surrendered, and the 
Union troops then marched by way of Rich- 
mond to Washington, District of Columbia, 
taking part in the grand review there. 
With his regiment Mr. Miller then pro- 
ceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, and later 



434 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



to Columbus, Ohio, where he was mustered 
out July i6, 1865, with the rank of first 
lieutenant, having been promoted from 
private to corporal, then sergeant, later 
orderly sergeant and finally first lieutenant 
of Company F, though he remained with 
Company G. He was forage master of his 
regiment on the march to the sea and also 
the march to Goldsboro, and was one of the 
most brave and fearless soldiers of the com- 
mand, always being found at his post of 
duty. 

On receiving his discharge Mr. Miller 
returned to his Ohio home, but in August, 
1865, went to Owen county, Indiana, where 
he operated a farm until 1870, and then 
spent the following year in Andrew county, 
Missouri. Coming to Polk county, Nebraska, 
in 1 87 1, he located on the southwest quar- 
ter of section 30, township 15, range 3, 
where he made his home until the fall of 
1895, when he removed to his present 
farm. Here he owns one hundred and 
sixty acres of land, all improved and under 
excellent cultivation. 

In February, 1867, Mr. Miller was 
united in marriage with Miss Martha E. 
Scott, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of 
Oliver and Hannah (Graham) Scott, now 
deceased. One child graces this union — 
Angle E. The parents are active and 
prominent members of the Fairview Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, of which Mr. Miller 
is a trustee, and for years he has also been 
a class leader. Both have also been teach- 
ers in the Sunday school, and he has served 
as superintendent of the same. He is also 
one of the most prominent members of 
Ellsworth Post, No. 29, G. A. R. , at Silver 
creek, of which he is a past commander, 
and is senior vice of Platte Valley District 
Reunion. He is a recognized leader in the 
ranks of the local Republican organization, 
takes an active and influential part in cam- 
paign work, and in the fall of 1896 erected 
a bulletin board, 16x7 feet, in his front 



yard, on the top of which was displayed a 
picture of McKinley, and underneath all 
kinds of quotations appropriate to the oc- 
casion. For years he has been an efficient 
member of the Republican central com- 
mittee of Polk county, has been the candi- 
date of his party for the state legislature, 
and in the fall of 1896 he was honored with 
the nomination for the office of state senator. 
He served as a county commissioner, and 
his public service was most exemplary. As 
a citizen he ever stands ready to discharge 
every duty devolving upon him, and 
throughout the county he is honored for his 
sterling worth and exalted character. 



JACOB FRIESEN, a well-known and 
prominent farmer of York county, was 
born in the south of Russia, February 23, 
1 841, a son of Jacob and Katrina (Fast) 
Friesen, and grandson of Gerehardt and 
Katrina (Montlar) Friesen. Our subject's 
immediate ancestors were all farmers in 
Germany and Russia with the exception of 
his grandfather, who was a tailor in the for- 
mer country. The family originally lived 
in Holland, but the King of Prussia, whom 
the common people called "Old Fritz" in- 
duced them to remove to Germany. They 
settled in Prussia, but in course of time 
were obliged to leave, as the Germans made 
a law requiring all Mennonites to do service 
in the army and war was in opposition to 
their religious convictions. Russia, wishing 
to secure a good class of farmers, offered 
them land if they would settle in that coun- 
try, which they did, becoming a good class 
of industrious citizens. Later for the same 
reason they were obliged to leave that coun- 
try. Hearing favorable accounts of the 
United States, they sent delegates to differ- 
ent parts of this country, among the rest 
the great western state of Nebraska, to see 
if good homes were to be had in this young 
nation. The committee reported favorably 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



435 



and soon many families, among them Jacob 
Friesen and wife, came to America in the 
good ship Teutonia, landing in New York 
City, whence they proceeded by train to 
Lincoln, Nebraska. From that city thirty- 
six of these families set out for York county, 
and the other sixty-five families started for 
Kansas. The former party located in the 
southwest corner of York county, Nebraska, 
where they bought railroad land on ten 
years' time, paying six per cent, interest, 
and it was not long before each family had 
a good home. 

Having saved some money in Russia, 
Mr. Friesen paid cash for his land, the rail- 
road company discounting to him forty per 
cent. Upon his place he built a sod house, 
twenty-two by thirty-two feet, with walls 
three feet in thickness. At this time he had 
two horses, a wagon, two cows, but not a 
cent in money, and his family consisted of 
wife and three children. There was not a 
tree or shrub in sight and the sod had never 
been disturbed by a plow, but he went to 
work with the determination to make an- 
other home in this new country and success 
at length crowned his efforts. He now 
owns eight hundred and eighty acres, all 
free from indebtedness, and under excellent 
cultivation. The orchard upon his home 
place contains over two hundred apple 
trees, two hundred cherry trees and other 
fruit trees in abundance, especially grapes, 
from which he manufactures the best of 
wine. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Friesen were born ten 
children, of whom seven are still living: 
John W. , who married Katrina Dick and 
lives a mile and a half east of the home 
place; Anna, wife of David D. Johnson, who 
lives only twenty yards from the old home; 
Jacob J., at home; Katrina, wife of John 
H. Pankratiz, who lives two and a half 
miles west of her father's place; and Peter, 
Isaac and George, who are still under the 
parental roof, and all assist in the work of 



the farm. The oldest son rents his land 
and is successfully engaged in teaching 
school, having been educated for that pro- 
fession. The family are all faithful and 
earnest members of the Mennonite church. 
Mr. Friesen cast his first presidential vote 
for Hayes and the last for Bryan, believing 
in voting for the best man rather than for 
party. 



JAMES PRESTON CORWIN is a wealthy 
and prosperous farmer and the proprie- 
tor of an extensive farm, principally in sec- 
tion lo, precinct E, Seward county. He 
knows by experience the possibilities of Ne- 
braska for a poor man, and though he is 
now rated among the prominent farmers of 
the county, when he made his appearance 
in the state all his resources in the world 
were comprised in the clothes on his back, 
and fifteen dollars in money. Like thousands 
of others he has toiled and labored, denied 
himself, and saved, that now while still 
almost a young man he might possess an 
ample competence. 

Mr. Corwin was born in Knox county, 
Ohio, October 5, 1852, and is a son of 
James and Margaret (Barcus) Corwin, 
natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respect- 
ively. They remained in Knox county until 
1854, when they were carried along by a 
flood of western settlement, and made their 
home in Fulton county, Illinois. There 
the paternal Corwin entered the Union 
army in the spring of 1862, enlisting in the 
One Hundred and Third Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry. He was a valiant soldier and died 
in the service, passing away September 21, 
1863, at Camp Sherman, Black River, 
Mississippi. His widow still survives, and 
makes her home with her children. She is 
the mother of seven children, whose names 
are Edith (Mrs. Rector), Elmore H., Mere- 
dith W. , James P., Alice (Mrs. Liester), 
Alonzo J. and Leonard S. Elmore was a 



436 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



soldier in the Seventh Illinois Volunteer 
Cavalry, and was wounded at the battle of 
Nashville where the rebel General Hood 
was so badly defeated. 

James Preston Corwin was reared to 
manhood in Fulton county, and had his 
education very largely from the Illinois 
public schools, though he has kept his eyes 
open as he has journeyed along life's way. In 
the fall of 1873 he came into this country, 
and secured employment as a farm hand 
for a few months, and in the following 
February became the proprietor of an 
eighty acre tract of wild prairie land, the 
east half of the northwest quarter of section 
15, precinct E. That year he broke twenty 
acres, and in 1875 settled upon the land, 
raised a crop, and broke a second twenty 
acre piece. He boarded during the summer, 
and was married on the twenty-fourth of 
the October following to Miss Mary H. 
Oliver, who was born in Winona, Minne- 
sota, May 29, 1856. She is a daughter of 
A. J. and Pheba Ann (Gray) Oliver, who 
settled in Minnesota in 1855, where they 
remained for fourteen years when they 
entered upon a homestead in this county, 
and here they are still living. Mrs. Corwin 
is the mother of one son, Warren, and is a 
lady of many excellent traits and social 
qualities. 

Mr. Corwin moved to Utica in 1883, 
and was away from his farm a year, but 
came back again to rural life, and has won 
a large success as an enterprising and pro- 
gressive farmer. He is the owner of seven 
hundred and eighty-four acres, all of which 
is under cultivation except one quarter 
section. He has two sets of buildings, and 
ample improvements of every kind of labor 
he may find it necessary to do. He is a 
general farmer, and devotes much attention 
to grain and stock. He belongs to several 
fraternal orders, and much enjoys the 
intimacies of lodge relations. He belongs 
to the Utica lodge of the Independent 



Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen and the Modern Wood- 
men of America, of which last order he is 
a local trustee. With his wife he belongs 
to the Rebekahs, where he has served as 
trustee. Mr. Corwin is an earnest and 
wide-awake Republican, and is the local 
justice of the peace. For three terms he 
has been treasurer of school district number 
59, and is a man of whom his fellow towns- 
men speak uniformly well. 



HORACE S. OVERSTREET,one of the 
well known and highly respected resi- 
dents of Lockridge township, has had per- 
sonal experience in the making of not a little 
of the history of York county. 

Mr. Overstreet was born in Galesburg, 
Illinois, November 28, 1849. His parents 
Milton L. and Catherine (Martin) Over- 
street, were of English descent and settled in 
Kentucky, and followed the occupation of 
agriculture until 1841. In that year he re- 
moved to the vicinity of Galesburg, and 
presently became a resident of that city, 
and there he is still living. He was mar- 
ried in Kentucky in 1838, and his wife's 
father, Joel Martin, later became a resident 
of Illinois. 

Horace S. Overstreet was the fifth in a 
family of eight children. He was educated 
in Illinois and at an early age began farm- 
ing. When he was seventeen he superin- 
tended a farm. He followed that occupa- 
tion in his native state untill 1884, when he 
purchased a farm on section 28, Lockridge 
township. When the land passed into his 
possession it was devoid of improvements, 
and by unremitting toil he has brought it up 
to a high pitch of fertility. He owns two hun- 
dred and forty acres of land and follows 
every kind of farming and stock-raising. 

He was married September 24, 1873, to 
Miss Rebecca Cox, a native of Missouri. 
Her parents Tarleton Y. and Cynthia Cox 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



437 



were from Virginia and Kentucky, and after 
their marriage settled in Sedalia, Missouri. 
Mrs. Overstreet is the mother of two chil- 
dren, Clifford C. and Susie E., both of whom 
are living. She and her family are mem- 
bers of the York Methodist church. Mr. 
Overstreet has been a Democrat for many 
years and has filled several minor offices of 
township and school district. He is a 
successful farmer and holds the respect of 
his own neighborhood. 



ALFRED H. BURGE is a leading spirit 
in the farming community of Plum 
Creek township, Butler county, Nebraska. 
He is the proprietor of an extensive farm, 
which he operates in an up-to-date manner, 
and is known far and wide as a representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of Nebras- 
ka, of whom the state need not be ashamed. 
Mr. Burge was born in Henry county, 
Iowa, August 2, 1857, and is the only son 
of J. J. and Mary A. Burge. His father 
was a native of Ohio, and his grandfather 
was born in Green count)', Pennsylvania. 
Jacob Burge, a native of the old Keystone 
state, early followed the tide of westward 
emigration and located in Ohio. But the 
tide was ever flowing on, and it carried him 
farther west into Illinois, and finally into 
Iowa, where he died in 1876. He was born 
February 13, 1804, and was taken by his 
parents into Licking county, Ohio, in 181 2. 
There he grew up, and was married July 
29, 1824, to Rachel Neel. Nine years later 
he moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, and 
in 1835 took up a homestead near New 
London, Henry county, Iowa, where, as al- 
ready noted, the remainder of his life was 
spent. The venerable partner of his long 
and active life is still living, and is tenderly 
regarded by those who have come after her. 
Her son, the father of our subject, died 
January i, 1898, in Ulysses, Butler couuty. 
He was of a somewhat adventurous disposi- 



tion, and went to California in 1850 in 
search of the golden fleece. Perhaps he 
did not find all the wealth he looked for in 
that land of promise, but he was fairly suc- 
cessful, and after a stay of four years came 
back and bought four hundred acres in Iowa- 
Alfred H. Burge grew up to manhood 
under the parental roof-tree and was a farm- 
er both by instinct and education. When 
he reached his twenty-first birthday he was 
the owner of eighty acres of land in Henry 
county, Iowa, which he very successfully 
operated for the next three years. In 1879 
he became the head of a family, Miss Alice, 
a daughter of J. H. Argersinger, then of 
Henry county, Iowa, but now of Omaha, 
uniting her destinies with his. Two years 
after this happy event Alfred H. Burge and 
his father came to Butler county, and bought 
section 26, of Plum Creek township at the 
rate of seven dollars and eighty cents an 
acre, and the same winter, in company with 
his father and his brother Jeremy, bought an- 
other section in the same township. In the 
life-giving atmosphere of the new west the 
intellectual activities of men are quickened, 
and the Burges did not sit down on their 
new possessions to be hewers of wood and 
drawers of water for all who might seek to 
burden them. To them agriculture was as- 
sociated with the most vital interests of the 
community, and the nation, and they early 
began to think and act along independent 
lines. Alfred Burge realized that the time 
had come for something new and different 
to be done in the field of political activity, 
and welcomed the formation of the People's 
party, in the days when it required a strong 
character to be independent. He has won 
the regard of his fellow townsmen, and is 
now serving his second year as a member 
of the Board of Supervisors. They know 
him as a man of character and ability, and 
are disposed to demand his service in other 
and more responsible positions. He is still 
young, and will be heard from in the future. 



438 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



He is a Master Mason, and is a popular and 
efficient worker in tliese fraternal circles. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Burge have been born two 
children, both daughters, Laura A., a na- 
tive of Iowa, and Ethel M., who was born 
in Nebraska. He has provided a fine home 
for his charming family, and evidences of 
taste and refinement abound on every hand. 



JAMES HENRY BELL, a prominent 
farmer living in section I2, Chelsea 
township, Fillmore county, was born June 
20, 1837, in the northern part of Ireland. 
He was one of a family of seven children. 
The entire support of this family was de- 
rived from a small tract of four acres of 
land. James was educated in the common 
schools, and the first twenty years of his life 
were spent in his father's home. Many 
times stories of the New World reached his 
ears, and his mind opened to the possibilities 
which might lay before him if he were only 
there to take advantage of them. When he 
reached the age of twenty years, he deter- 
mined to come to America, and so gathered 
together his effects, which were few in num- 
ber, and he, accompanied by a younger 
sister, who also determined to try her 
fortunes in the New World, went to Liver- 
pool, England, and took passage on a ship 
bound for New York. The ship was fitted 
with sails, and as the weather was very 
rough and stormy, the voyage required nine 
nine weeks to accomplish it. 

Immediately on his arrival at New York, 
they went to Elizabeth Port, N. J., where 
they both secured employment, he in trim- 
ming vessels, and his sister as a domestic. 
She only remained here about eleven 
months, when she returned to the old 
home. While James was was at Elizabeth 
Port, he took the necessary steps to become 
an American citizen. He remained there 
for two years, and then went to visit some 
of his relatives who lived in Canada, and 



worked for an uncle there for two years. 
One day his uncle, who was an extensive 
land-owner, offered him one hundred and 
fifty acres of land if he would clear it off. 
After inspecting the land, which was cov- 
ered with a heavy growth of beech, birch, 
pine, etc., some of them four and five feet in 
diameter, he came to the conclusion that he 
was not equal to the task of converting that 
veritable forest into a farm suitable for cul- 
tivation and declined the offer. On De- 
cember 20, 1862, while he was yet visiting 
in Canada, he was married to Miss Bridget 
Welch, who was a daughter of Antone and 
Sarah (McDonald) Welch. She was born 
July 12, 1843, in the southern part of Ire- 
land, and came to Canada with her parents, 
who purchased a small farm there. Mr. 
Bell lived in Canada until 1865, when they 
moved to Iowa, where he secured a position 
on the railroad, and by carefully saving his 
money he soon had enough to buy forty 
acres of land. He lived there until 1871, 
when, selling his land to good advantage, 
they loaded all of their effects in a canvas 
covered wagon, and started for Nebraska. 
The journey was long and tiresome, and 
accompanied by many dangers and hard- 
ships. On one occasion, while fording a 
river, the wagon was overturned by the 
swifty flowing current, and had it not been 
for the prompt action of Mr. Bell, they 
would have lost everything they had. But 
finally, three weeks after the time they 
started, they arrived in Fillmore county. 
Finding a suitable location for a farm in 
the west half of the southwest quarter in 
section 12, Chelsea township, he went to 
Beatrice and took out his homestead pa- 
pers. His first dwelling was a hole dug in 
the bank large enough to accomodate his 
family, and in this he lived for one year, 
when he erected a sod house, the floor and 
roof being made of boards. By hard work 
and economical living he served enough in 
the course of a few years to buy an addi- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



439 



tional eighty acres of land from the railroad, 
and then he had a nice farm of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of good, fertile land. 
By thrift and industry Mr. Bell and his 
family have greatly improved this land, and 
it is now a model, well cultivated farm. 

To Mr. Bell's marriage have been born 
nine children, seven of whom are still living, 
as follows: Milliard W. , who married Miss 
Emma Rhoda, a daughter of Fred and 
Sophia Rhoda; Lizzie, who married Syl- 
vester Irelan, and who is living in Mexico; 
Frances, who married Dennis Hennessey, 
and is now living in Deadwood, S. D.; 
Hattie E., who married Earnest Rakestraw, 
and is now living in Fillmore county; Irvine 
J., Luella and Alvin S., the last three 
named living at home. 

Formerly Mr. Bell voted the Repub- 
lican ticket, and for many years stood in 
the ranks of that party, but in 1896 when 
the money question figured so prominently 
as an issue in the campaign because of the 
Republican party adopting the gold platform 
he renounced his allegience to that party, 
and joined the ranks of the Independent 
party, and has since been an ardent believer 
in its principles. By his sterling integrity 
and his strict adherence to duty as an 
American citizen he has won the confidence 
and esteem not only of his neighbors and 
friends, but of all who know him. He and 
family are not members of any religious de- 
nomination and have no ideas or beliefs as 
to our future conditions. 



FRANIv LAIRD is a prominent and rep- 
resentative farmer of York county, Ne- 
braska. His home is near Bradshaw, on 
land which he has converted from an un- 
broken wilderness into a fertile and highly 
productive farm in twenty years. He is of 
Scotch descent, and is a man of character, 
integrity and honor. The tilling of the 
soil is to him the noblest of all occupations, 



and the farmer a prince and a king among 
his fellows. It hardly need be said that he 
largely lives up to these great ideals. 

Mr. Laird was born in Knox county, Il- 
linois, November 9, 1853. His father, Ho- 
mer Laird, was a native of Trumbull coun- 
ty, Ohio. He conducted a livery stable in 
Illinois for many years. He entered the 
United States service in 1863 as a veterin- 
ary surgeon, and was attached to the Elev- 
enth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. He died 
in the army from disease contracted in the 
course of his duties. The grandfather of 
our subject, Justin Laird, came from Scot- 
land, and while moving his family by boat 
from Ohio to Illinois, disappeared one 
night before the boat had left the Ohio 
river, and was never seen again. He is 
supposed to have been murdered and his 
body thrown into the water. The bereaved 
family went on to Illinois, and settled in the 
southern part of that state. They after- 
wards went north into Stark county, and 
then penetrated the western part of Iowa, 
and made a home near Council Bluffs. But 
that region was then all too wild and tur- 
bulent, and the Laird family returned to 
Illinois, and located in Knox county, where 
they were at the time the subject of this 
writing was born. 

Frank Laird had the privilege of good 
schools in the progressive region in which 
he was born, and he was an attendant upon 
their instruction until he had reached the 
age of fifteen years. His widowed mother's 
straitened circumstances compelled him to 
earn his own support and if possible con- 
tribute something to the family purse, and 
we find him at tkat early age working for 
the neighboring farmers at fifty cents a day. 
As he grew older his wages were raised un- 
til he received twenty-five dollars a month 
and his board. He continued as a journey- 
man farmer until he reached the age of 
twenty-three, when he married and set up 
a home for himself. His wedding with Miss 



440 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Lydia E. Jackson occurred July i, 1877. 
She was a daughter of John Jackson, and 
Ann Mahany, and hence has both Irish and 
German descent. She was educated in the 
Stark county pubHc schools, and finished in 
the high school at Toulon. The following 
winter the young man and his wife, feeling 
that Illinois no longer presented the oppor- 
tunities for getting ahead that they could 
find in a newer state, left it and came into 
York county, Nebraska, where prosperity 
has greatly crowned their labors. They 
reached the county January 24, 1878, and 
purchased the southeast quarter and the 
south half of the northeast quarter of section 
I, township 10, range 4, west. It was rail- 
road land, and was an untrodden wilderness. 
Mr. Laird immediately broke it up, and the 
first year turned over one hundred and 
twenty acres, and the following year, eighty 
acres more. He put up a little frame house, 
16 X 20 feet, and only one story high. Here 
he has toiled and labored, paid out large 
sums towards the indebtedness on the farm, 
kept his family, and improved his environ- 
ments, until the place is practically paid for, 
and has become a cultivated and valuable 
property. 

Mr. and Mrs. Laird are the proud par- 
ents of a family of nine children, all of 
whom are living and enjoying good health. 
Their names are Ethel G., Arthur H., Edith 
L. , Eva B. , Frank W. , Clarence W., Edna 
v., Charles M. and Elva M. They attend 
church and Sunday-school, are regular in 
their work in the common school, and are 
ready and willing assistants of their father 
and mother in the multiform cares of a farm 
life. They are fast growing up to be men 
and women, an honor to their parents and 
an ornament to the society of which they 
form a part. Mr. Laird was "born and 
raised a Republican," as he said, "but 
when the party went after the English 
golden calf he left it, and now votes an in- 
dependent ticket." He is a member of the 



Ancient Order of United Workmen, and his 
wife has joined the degree of Honor con- 
nected with society. They hold to the 
Congregational faith, and are proud of and 
loyal to the state in which their lot is cast. 



HORACE WOLVIN, who owns a good 
farm on section 23, precinct E, Seward 
county, is a good representative of the 
farming interests of Nebraska. He is an 
industrious and hard working man, of much 
intelligence, and a sound and rugged integ- 
rity that will tolerate no sort of tricky deal- 
ing. He is devoted to the soil, and holds 
no career so worthy of regard as that calling 
which he follows. 

Mr. Wolvin is a native of St. Clair 
county, Michigan, and counts his age from 
May 31, 185 1. He is a son of Peter and 
Mary Ann (McCartney) Wolvin, who were 
early settlers in that county, and came orig- 
inally from Cayuga county, New York; his 
father was a soldier in the Union army, and 
served in Battery H, Michigan Heavy Ar- 
tillery, and later transferred to the Light 
Artillery. He served over three years and 
made an honorable record. Both he and 
his wife are now dead. Horace passed his 
boyhood and youth in St. Clair county, and 
was one of a family of six sons. The eld- 
est of these, Joseph, was a soldier in the 
Union cause, and is now dead. Cornelius 
also followed the flag. Horace, Peter and 
Charles were younger sons, and the young- 
est of the family, Henry, is dead. Horace 
was reared on a farm, and had a very good 
common school education. When he became 
a man, he worked among the farmers of Oak- 
land county for some five years, and came to 
this state in 1878. He bought a quarter of 
a section of railroad land. He reached the 
county with a yoke of oxen and thirty-six 
dollars in his pocket, but he was strong of 
heart and arm, and the difficulties have 
vanished before him. He now owns, clear 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



441 



of all encumbrance, a half section of fine 
farming land. He has considerable real 
estate outside the county, one hundred and 
sixty acres in Kearney connty, and eighty 
acres in Johnson county, Kentucky. He 
has made extensive improvements, and has 
a farm to-day in this county that compares 
with any. 

Mr. Wolvin was married in Michigan in 
the fall of 1877, Miss Frances Miller, Mich- 
igan born and bred, becoming his wife. 
She is a member of the Baptist Church, and 
is a woman of much character and attain- 
ment. He is a member of the Utica camp 
of the Modern Woodmen of America, and 
is an enthusiastic wood-chopper and log- 
roller for the order. In political matters he 
holds to populistic ideas, and earnestly sup- 
ports the doctrine of free silver. He is a 
man of standing in his own neighborhood, 
a fact that is made evident by his election 
to the responsible position of justice of the 
peace, and his continuation in the office for 
six years. It is also evident by the farther 
fact that he has been director of the 
school district almost continually since his 
location in it years ago. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wolvin are the parents of 
four living children, Clyde, Grace, Nina and 
Raymond. They are attending the district 
school, and are bright and ambitious young 
people. 



CHARLES AXEL MORGAN, a thrifty 
and successful Swedish American resi- 
dent of Bradshaw township, York county, 
Nebraska, was born April 30, 1857, in Kris- 
dale, Sweden, and came to his country when 
only ten years old with his brother Frank, 
and his sister Clara. Their father, Samuel 
Mungusson, had died when they were all 
very young, and hearing of the inviting pos- 
sibilities of America, they determined to 
cross the ocean and seek an opportunity for 
a broader and larger hope than seemed pos- 



sible in the mother country. They landed 
in New York June 23, 1868, and immedi- 
ately made their way to Galesburg, Illinois, 
which had already become quite a Swedish 
center, and where they had an older broth- 
er. Swan, already established in business, 
who gave them a glad welcome. Under hjs 
fostering care they attended school, and 
worked as they could, and were quite ready 
to do their part in the work of the world by 
the time they reached their majority. 

Charles Axel Morgan did his first work 
for the surrounding farmers at a salary of 
three dollars a month, but as he became 
familiar with the ways of the country his 
wages increased until he commanded as high 
as twenty-five dollars a month. He won 
for himself a reputation as an honest and 
capable young man, who could be trusted 
with farm work, and was not disposed to 
lightly change employers. So it is said that 
for the eleven years during which he was 
engaged in farm labor near Galesburg he 
only had four different employers. After 
the passage of these years he went into 
Henry county, Iowa, and made his head- 
quarters at Sweedburg, where he continued 
in agricultural pursuits, working for neigh- 
boring farmers until the year 1878. 

This is a memorable year in the history 
of the Morgan family, for it was then that 
our subject, in company with his two 
brothers, gathered all their possessions, and 
stowing them away in two wagons, started 
for Nebraska with ten horses. They reached 
York county, February 17, 1S78, and were 
so much pleased with its promise, that they 
determined to go no farther, but made con- 
tracts for the purchase of land. Charles 
secured the southeast quarter of section 36, 
township II, range 4 west, where he at 
once erected a frame house, and proceeded 
to the cultivation of his land. He set out 
many trees, and made the farm attractive, 
but lived alone until he married some ten 
years after his arrival in the county. Miss 



442 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Mary Etta Burke, who lived with her 
father, not far away from Mr. Morgan, be- 
came his wife, and has made him the father 
of six children, Frederick S., Eva C. , 
Esther V., Ralph E., Reuben T. , and Etta. 
The two older children of this interesting 
family are attending both the Swede and 
the American schools, and the others will 
follow in due time. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan are members of 
the Lutheran church, and stand well in the 
community. He is a member of the in- 
surance order of the Modern Woodmen, and 
has always voted the Republican ticket. 
They are devoted supporters of the public 
schools, and have an undaunted faith in the 
future of Nebraska as the greatest farming 
and stock raising state of the Union. 



GEORGE ZAHLER occupies a pleasant 
rural home in section 24, Reading 
township, Butler county, Nebraska, which 
he secured under the homestead law in 1 87 1 , 
and which he has tilled for twenty-seven 
years, making it a delight to the critical eye, 
and a source of profit to his careful man- 
agement. His early life was spent in Ger- 
many, and he has brought to his work in Ne- 
braska old world thoroughness and the 
enthusiasm of youth, and a very large 
measure of success has crowned his labors. 
Mr. Zahler was born in Prussia in 1844, 
and when he had reached the age of thir- 
teen accompanied his mother to this coun- 
try. His father had been killed by a kick- 
ing horse when young George was only two 
and a half years old. He was her only 
child, and the companionship between them 
was very close and cordial. They made 
their home in Stephenson county, Illinois, 
where they lived until 1871. Mr. Zahler 
desired to have a home and own a farm, and 
he felt he could most successfully struggle for 
it m a new state. By this time he was 
twenty-seven years old, and had a wife and 



three children. On their account as well as 
his own, he struck out for the west and 
when he reached Butler county had five dol- 
lars in his pocket. It was a small sum with 
which to undertake the founding of a home 
and the winning of an independent fortune. 
Yet it was enough. And his is the story of 
many thousands who faced the same ob- 
stacles, met the same discouragements, and 
overcame them in the same bold and hardy 
spirit. He built a sod house, and lived in 
it until he could earn money to put up some- 
thing better. When he had money he 
bought what the family absolutely needed, 
and when he was without money he did not 
buy. His wife, Mary Lapp, was born in 
Ohio, and is of German extraction. Her 
father, John Lapp, was a shoemaker, and, 
moving west from Pennsylvania, spent some 
years in Ohio. And from that state he re- 
moved to Illinois, where he kept a shoe 
shop at the house for many years. She 
was the mother of eight children. Three 
of these, Elizabeth, John and Annie, were 
born in Illinois, and five are natives of Ne- 
braska, Grace, Charles, Alfred, Francis, and 
Edward L. Mr. Zahler is a Democrat, and 
takes a strong interest in the welfare of the 
Dublic schools. 



PHILANDER M. COLBY, is a native 
of Embden, Somerset county, Maine, 
where he was born May 22, 1825, and a 
son of Ambrose Colby. His great-grand- 
father, Benjamin Colby, was a native of 
Glasgow, Scotland, and about 1760 emigrat- 
ed to America with his two sons, one of 
whom was Benjamin Colby Jr., the grand- 
father of our subject. At the age of nine- 
teen years the latter joined the Continental 
army, and for seven years most valiantly 
fought to free the Colonies from the yoke of 
British oppression, remaining in the service 
until Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. 
He was an orderly at the battle of Bunker 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



443 



Hill, or more properly speaking at Breed's 
Hill, June 17, 1775; was in the detachment 
that attacked the British war vessel, the 
Boxer, and carried it into the harbor of 
Portland, Maine. He also took part in the 
battle of Monmouth and wintered with the 
American army at Valley Forge. During 
his service he was wounded in the leg by a 
ball, which remained imbedded in the flesh 
as long as he lived. After the Revolution 
he settled on a farm near the town of Anson, 
in Somerset county, Maine, where he con- 
tinued to live with his oldest son until death 
claimed him at the extreme old age of 
ninety-four years. In his family were six 
children, five sons and one daughter, of 
whom three sons were soldiers of the war 
of 18 12. These included the father of our 
subject, who returned to Somerset county, 
Maine, at the close of the struggle, and there 
engaged in farming the rest of his life. He 
was married after the war to Miss Almira 
Holden, a daughter of Captain Samuel Hol- 
den, of the same county, who formerly 
hved in Groton, Massachusetts. By this 
union four sons were born — Philander M., 
Jonas H., Spencer and Helon — and two 
daughters — Jane, who married Walter 
Walch and removed to California; and 
Almira Ann, who married C. J. Talbot, 
who served two terms in the United States 
Senate, was afterwards revenue collector 
at Portland, Maine, and was railroad com. 
missionerof that state until his death, which 
occurred in 1883. 

The subject of this sketch passed his 
boyhood and youth upon his father's farm 
in Maine, and on reaching man's estate he 
was married, November 28, 1846, to Miss 
Mary Ann Holden, by whom he has eight 
children, four sons and four daughters, 
namely: Matylom W., Ambrose S., Emma 
U., George C, Ellen C, OrrinP. , Gertrude 
B. and Almira J. All are still living with 
the exception of Orrin P. 

Mr. Colby continued to engage in farm- 



ing in his native state until 1865, when he 
removed to Michigan, and carried on the 
same occupation there until coming to York 
county, Nebraska, in 1872, taking a home- 
stead on section 24, township 12 north, 
range 4 west. Here agricultural pursuits 
also claimed his attention until 1887, after 
which time he made his home in Bradshaw 
and was engaged in buying and selling stock 
until about three years ago. He is an en- 
terprising and progressive business man of 
known reliability, and commands the 
respect and esteem of all with whom he 
comes in contact either in business or social 
life. 



HENRY BARGHAHN is one of the many 
residents within the bounds of Seward 
county who started out in life with naught 
but an abundance of determination and in- 
defatigable industry, and a strong and 
healthy constitution, and who have suc- 
ceeded through their own diligence, energy, 
and economy. He is now actively engaged 
in agricultural pursuits upon his fine farm 
of one hundred and sixty acres in precinct C. 

Mr. Barghahn is a native of Germany, 
born September 5, 1840, and is a son of 
Fredrerick and Mary (Lutzhia) Barghahn, 
who, as farming people, spent their entire 
lives in that country. There our subject 
was reared and educated in the usual man- 
ner of farmer's sons, and on starting out to 
make his own way in the world worked 
for fourteen dollafs per year. 

With the hope of bettering his financial 
condition he came to America in 1870 and 
settled in Clayton county, Iowa, where he 
worked by the day for three years. In 
1873 he became a resident of Seward coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and took up a homestead in 
precinct C. He had borrowed some money 
of his father-in-law, and with this he built 
a small frame house upon his place. Be- 
ing industrious, persevering and energetic, 



444 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



he has made a noble record as a successful 
farmer, and stands to-day one of the sub- 
stantial and reliable citizens of the county. 
His farm of one hundred and sixty acres is 
now under a high state of cultivation. 

In Germany Mr. Barghahn was married, 
in 1867, to Miss Catherine Maak, who died 
in Nebraska in 1874, leaving one daughter, 
Elizabeth, now Mrs. Clabber. He was 
again married, in 1875, his second union 
being with Miss Dora Rahsa, who was also 
born in Germany, and the children born to 
them are Leana, Fredie, Henry, Vena and 
Johnnie. The parents belong to the Ger- 
man Lutheran church, of which Mr. Barg- 
hahn was one of the founders. In politics 
he is independent, always voting for the 
man whom he thinks best qualified to fill 
the office, and for several years he was 
most creditably served as road overseer. 



FREDERICK C. POWER is one of the 
pioneer attorneys of York county, and 
one of the ablest and best known lawyers in 
the city of York. Mr. Power became a 
Nebraskan in the year 1879, and since that 
time has been an active figure in the law 
courts of the state. He was born in Louis- 
ville, St. Lawrence county, New York, 
June 3, 1855, and is the son of John and 
Jane (Mulholland) Power, both natives of 
Ireland, who came to this country in child- 
hood. John Power was a farmer by oc- 
cupation, and died in the Empire state in 
1873. Jane Power, who was the mother of 
five children, resides in York, Nebraska, 
with another son and daughter. Fred- 
erick, the fourth child, obtained his educa- 
tion in the common schools of his native 
state and at the academies of Antwerp and 
Massena, New York. He began the study 
of law in 1876, under the direction of Judge 
Neary, of Gouverneur, in the same state, 
and three years later went west, settling at 
York, Nebraska. He was there admitted 



to the bar in 1880 and in January, 1882, 
formed a partnership with Judge S. H. 
Sedgwick and commenced practice. This 
firm continued until 1896, when Judge 
Sedgwick was elected a member of the dis- 
trict bench. Since that Mr. Powers has 
practiced alone. He is politically a repub- 
lican, and has always taken a leading part 
in county and city affairs. In 1890 he was 
appointed county attorney, and subsequent- 
ly twice elected to that office, serving in all 
five years. Our subject is a member of the 
A. O. U. W., M. W. of A. and A. F. & A. 
M., blue lodge, chapter and commandery. 
In 1884 he married Miss Annie M. Snaith, 
a resident of Massena, New York, and a 
daughter of Frank A. and Jane (Home) 
Snaith. Mr. and Mrs. Power are the par- 
ents of one child, a daughter, Jessie H. 
Mr. Power has been quite successful and en- 
joys a splendid practice. He is a man of 
excellent education and liberal views, while 
his geniality and whole-souled manner have 
contributed in no small degree to his wide 
popularity. York county likes to honor her 
prominent men, and when the history of the 
lawyers is written, Mr. Power's name will 
not be far from the top on the list. 



JAMES L. EMERSON. — Prominent 
among the energetic, far-seeing and suc- 
cessful business men of Seward county is 
the subject of this sketch, a well-known 
grocer of Tamora. He carries a large and 
well selected stock, and by his courteous 
treatment to his customers has built up an 
excellent trade. He claims Indiana as his 
native state, his birth occurring in Wayne 
county, August 13, 1854. 

The parents of our subject were Charles 
and Lorenda E. (Sanders) Emerson, the 
former a native of Preble county, Ohio, the 
latter of Indiana. At an early day the father 
accompanied his parents, Herman and Lu- 
cinda Emerson, on their removal to the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



445 



Hoosier state, where he was reared and ed- 
ucated. He was bound out to learn the 
trades of a carpenter and millwright, which 
he continued to follow in Indiana until 1861. 
He then responded to his country's call for 
aid, enlisting in Company H, Eighty-fourth 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and remained 
in the service for three years and eight 
months, participating in the following bat- 
tles: Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, 
Lookout Mountain, and Nashville, where 
he was under fire for some days, but for- 
tunately escaped without wounds. When 
discharged he held the rank of corporal. 
After the war he continued to live in Indi- 
ana until the spring of 1870, when he came 
to Seward county, Nebraska, and took up a 
homestead on section 24, L township, which 
he developed into a good farm, continuing 
its cultivation for some years. He spent 
the last twelve years of his life in Tamora 
and for four years most acceptably served 
as postmaster at that place. He died De- 
cember 16, 1897, and his wife in 1891, 
honored and respected by all who knew 
them. In their family were ten children, 
six sons and four daughters, of whom three 
sons and two daughters are now residents 
of Seward county. 

The subject of this sketch acquired his 
education in the schools of his native state. 
Coming with his father to Nebraska, he fol- 
lowed farming here for two years, and then 
accepted a position as clerk in a store in 
Tamora, where he remained for eight years. 
He also spent two years in Seward, but in 
1896 embarked in the grocery business in 
Tamora, which he has since successfully 
carried on. In 1882 he led to the marriage 
altar Miss Lorinda Cromwell, a native of 
Kansas and a daughter of William and 
Mary (Pierson) Cromwell, who were born 
in Indiana. The children born of this union 
are Eva A., Cline L. , Clarence, Ruby and 
Ray S., all living. The parents are lead- 
ing and prominent members of the Presby- 



terian church of Tamora, while socially Mr. 
Emerson belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and the Woodmen of the 
World. In political sentiment he is an 
ardent Republican, and is now efficiently 
serving his fellow citizens as a member of 
the school board and as town treasurer. 



JOHN A. BURKE.— Among the energetic 
and enterprising farmers of York county, 
as well as those who have been successful, 
and whose efforts through life thus far, 
through their own perseverance, have 
borne ample recompense, is the subject of 
this personal history. This well known 
farmer of Lockridge township was born in 
Sweden, August 12, 1850, and was a child 
of six years when brought by his parents 
to the United States. A sketch of the fam- 
ily is given in connection with that of 
Gusta F. Burke on another page of this 
volume. 

Our subject passed his boyhood and 
youth in Illinois and Iowa, and obtained his 
education in the public schools of Jefferson 
county, the latter state. At an early age 
he became thoroughly familiar with every 
department of farm work, and is now ac- 
counted one of the most skillful agricul- 
turist, of his community. In 1875 he first 
came to Nebraska and bought a farm in 
Lockridge township, York county, but did 
not locate thereon until the following spring 
His land is now under a high state of 
cultivation and improved with good build- 
ings. 

In Iowa, Mr. Burke was married, in 
1873, to Miss Tillie Swanson, who died 
February 12, 1877, leaving one child, Ella, 
who is still living. Mr. Burke was again 
married, in 1879, his second union being 
with Miss Emma Peterson, a native of 
Sweden, and this wedding was celebrated in 
York. To them have been born four sons, 
as follows: C. Edwin, Frank, Walter and 



446 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Irven. The family hold membership in the 
Swedish Lutheran church, and Mr. Burke 
was a liberal contributor to the erection of 
the house of worship in York. He is an 
ardent Republican in politics, and is an 
honored member of the Highlanders so- 
ciety. 



THOMAS W. SMITH, the Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Blue River State Bank, 
and one of the most widely known business 
men of McCool Junction, Nebraska, has 
reached, his present enviable position by his 
own industry and enterprise. No helping 
hand has pushed him forward, and no door 
has been opened for him, save he lifted the 
latch himself. He has extensive grain, 
coal and cattle interests, and owns five 
hundred and five acres of fine farming land. 
Half of this he farms himself, and the other 
half he has put into the hands of renters. 
And this very substantial standing has been 
accomplished without help and without the 
aid of fortune. A portrait of this enter- 
prising citizen appears on another page. 

Mr. Smith was born near Montreal, 
Canada, November 12, 1853, and is a son 
of Patrick and Catherine (Coughlin) Smith. 
They were natives ot Tyrone and Cork, 
Ireland, and emigrated to Canada long 
before their marriage in company with 
their parents. His father was a farmer, 
and did well in his new home. He was a 
wealthy man when he died in 1863. His 
wife still survives, and is living at Ormstown, 
Canada, at the very advanced age of ninety 
years. Thomas Smith lived in Canada 
until he was sixteen years old, and had a 
very good common school education. He 
learned harness making, which was his oc- 
cupation for a number of years. In 1869 
he emigrated to the United States, and 
locating in Grundy county. Illinois, took 
charge of a rented farm. There he was 
married in the summer of 1873 to Francalia 



Lincoln, a direct descendant of that Israel 
Sanford who came over in the Mayflower. 
Her parents were Myron and Sylvia (Page) 
Lincoln, natives of Vermont and New York. 
She was born in Canton, New York. 
Her father died at Streator, Illinois, but 
her mother is still living at McCool Junction. 
Mr. and Mrs Smith are the parents of the 
following children, Gertrude, Myron, Otos, 
Roy, Leo, Mary, Clifford, Ora, Louise, and 
Nellie (deceased). 

Mr. Smith is a Democrat, and assisted 
in the organization of the party in this 
county. He has been an active party 
worker, and for many years has been on the 
county committee. For two terms he was 
on the county board, of which he was chair- 
man one session. In 1878 he was a candi- 
date for the state legislature, and was de- 
feated by less than two hundred votes in a 
county that then gave one thousand Repub- 
lican majority. He was nominated for the 
state senate and failed of election in a dis- 
trict that gave five hundred Republican ma- 
jority by fifty-three votes. He has been on 
the state central committee for six years, 
and in 1 892 he was the chairman of the con- 
gressional committee. He is recognized as 
one of the leading men of the Junction, and 
served several times as a member of the 
village board. 

The Blue River State Bank is one of the 
oldest financial institutions of the valley, and 
was established by Henry Musselman in the 
spring of 1887, and passed under its present 
ownership the following fall. The officers 
at present are: President, George W. 
Post; vice-president, Thomas W. Smith; 
cashier, Ralph Stanley. It has a capital 
stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, does 
a flourishing business and is the oldest bank 
in the county under one management. 

Mr. Smith is a charter member of the 
McCool Camp of the Modern Woodmen, and 
was its first consul. He is also a worker in 
the Ancient Order of the United Workmen. 




THOMAS W. SMITH 



COMPENDIU.^[ OF BIOGRAPHY 



447 



GF. LUEBKER, the eloquent and 
scholarly pastor of the Immanuell Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church at Millerton, Ne- 
braska, well sustains a reputation as one of 
the leading divines of Butler county. He 
follows in the footsteps of consecrated work- 
ers, and it is enough to say that their achieve- 
ments are not in danger of loss at his hands. 

The pioneer minister of the Lutheran 
church in Millerton was the Rev. Mr. Haess- 
ler, who came here from Lincoln Creek. 
He was the nucleus of a parish and a 
church, and was followed by the Rev. Mr. 
Weller, who is now a professor in the Ger- 
man Lutheran Seminary at Seward, Ne- 
braska. He organized the congregation, 
and put its affairs into a fair business shape. 
This was in 1883, and from that time on- 
ward the church has had a name to live. 
Christ Schmidt, who was a student for holy 
orders, spent some months here, teaching 
the parish school and preaching in the ab- 
sence of older men. In 1885 a church and 
parsonage were erected, and the Lutherans 
of Millerton had a home. The ne.xt year 
the Rev. Mr. Kipple was called to the pas- 
torate, and he remained until 1889. The 
church has slowly but steadily grown. It 
began with fifteen members, and has now 
about seventy-five heads of families. It 
has not escaped the common experience of 
religious movements in new countries. It 
has contended with hard times and a shift- 
ing population, but it has strengthened itself 
in every way, and is one of the permanent 
institutions of the county. 

Mr. Luebker was born in Dodge county, 
Wisconsin, December 15, i860, and was a 
son of J. H. and Rosina Luebker, who 
were natives of Holstein and Wurtemberg, 
Germany, They were married in New 
York City, where the senior Luebker was a 
prosperous shoemaker for many years. In 
1856 he came west and bought a farm in 
Dodge county, Wisconsin, where the early 
life of the subject of this writing was spent. 

26 



In 1870 he moved to Shewano county in 
the same state, where he lived for seven 
years, and here the education of the future 
minister of Immanuell church began to take 
shape and tendency. He finished the work 
of the congregational school, and at the age 
of seventeen was sent to the Evangelical 
Lutheran Seminary, at Springfield, Illinois. 
It was more commonly known as Concordia 
college, and here he took a five years' term. 
He was graduated from this college in 1883, 
and was immediately called to the congre- 
gation at luka, Marion county, Illinois, but 
was soon called to Hammond, Indiana,, 
where a very important denominational 
movement gave him scope for the exercise of 
all his powers of heart and brain. It was a 
growing center of German life, and a Lu- 
theran congregation was organized there, 
of which he was the first pastor. Beginning 
in a small way, it soon increased to four 
hundred members, and became one of the 
most noted churches of the order in that 
region. He began his work in 1885, and soon 
had all the departments of his pastorate in 
running order. A prosperous parish school 
was organized, and the various societies 
that help the church put in shape. In July, 
1889, he was called to his present position, 
and, accepting it, entered promptly upon 
his work. All the interests of the church 
have prospered in his hands. He is 
a hard working man, and has full 
charge of three congregations in Butler 
county. It means work and care and 
anxiety, but his heart is in it, and the peo- 
ple know and appreciate his high character. 
Mr. Luebker entered matrimonial rela- 
tions in August, 1884, Miss Clara Dunsing 
"bestowing her heart and hand upon him. 
Her father was the Rev. J. Dunsing, of 
Wanatah, Indiana, well known in Lutheran 
circles in Ohio, Missouri, and other states. 
He was a Hanoverian, while his wife came 
from Burnswick, Germany. To our subject 
and his accomplished wife have been born 



448 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



five children, all of whom are living. Their 
names are Joseph, Alvin, Lydia, Ranata 
and Arnold. He is still in the very prime 
of his power and though he has been a 
minister for sixteen years, he still retains 
all the enthusiasm of early life. 



EDMUND M. CHENEY, one of the old 
settlers of York, was born at Camp- 
ton, Grafton county, New Hampshire, July 8, 
1836. He was a son of Jonathan H. and 
Lydia (Tuttle) Cheney, who were both na- 
tives of New Hampshire. The paternal grand- 
father was Daniel Cheney, a native of Mas- 
sachusetts, and of Puritan ancestry. He was 
a farmer, as was also his son, who was the 
father of our subject. Jonathan Cheney 
moved to Van Buren county, Iowa, in i860, 
and died there in 1862. He was the father 
of five children, all of whom are now living. 
Lydia (Tuttle) Cheney was born in 1800, 
and died in Iowa in 1891. Our subject was 
educated in the common schools of New 
Hampshire, and in the Plymouth High 
School, and Atkinson Academy. He came 
to Iowa with his parents in i860 — also at- 
tended school one year at Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa. He followed school-teaching for 
several years in that state, Missouri and Illi- 
nois. He was married April 2, 1862, to 
Miss Sarah Carmean, a daughter of Curtis 
and Mary (Coddington) Carmean, who were 
natives of Maryland and Ohio, but who 
came west and settled at Hillsboro, Iowa, 
in 1839, and resided there for forty years, 
being engaged in farming and stockraising. 
To the marriage of Mr. Cheney there 
has been born one child, Frances C. , now 
Mrs. C. J. Nightman, of York, Nebraska. 
In 1879 he came to York, Nebraska, and 
engaged in the coal and ice business for 
eight years in company with E. A. Warner. 
He then engaged in the banking and real 
estate business, and in which he continued 
until 1886, when, on account of failing 



health he was forced to retire from business. 
He still holds some farm property in Ne- 
braska, Colorado, and California, and also 
owns town property in York. He served as 
director of the First National Bank for ten 
years, and also as a trustee of the York 
Methodist Episcopal college for five years. 
He has always been an active worker in the 
church, and he and his wife have been mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church for 
thirty-si.x years. For many years he filled 
the office of trustee in that body, and for 
seven years was superintendent in the Sun- 
day-school. Politically, he is a Republican, 
and he has been closely connected with that 
party since its organization. He has been 
successful in business, and is highly re- 
spected by all who know him. 



JW. BATCHELDER, deceased, belongs 
to a history of Seward county, not only 
by his sterling integrity and useful career, 
but by the farther fact that he was one of 
the earliest pioneers of this section of Ne- 
braska. He very nearly completed the 
psalmist measure of life, and played 
throughout his long career a manly part. 
Fairness and uprightness characterized his 
every undertaking, and he presented a can- 
did and open countenance to the world. 
He led a useful as well as a successful ca- 
reer, and his name and virtues are en- 
shrined in the hearts of many friends. 

J. W. Batchelder was born in Alexan- 
dria, New Hampshire, August 27, 1828. 
His parents, Stephen and Hannah Batchel- 
der, were native to that state, and belonged 
to old colonial families. They sought a 
more productive field for agricultural labors, 
and made their home in Illinois, when the 
subject of this narration was but a child. 
In that state he grew to manhood. Oppor- 
tunities for education in those early days 
were neither numerous nor excellent, but 
he made the most of what he had, and be- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



449 



came an intelligent and efficient citizen. 
He learned the carpenter's trade when a 
very young man, and followed it some 
years, but farming was his main business. 
Illinois seemed too crowded for him, and 
moving westward he spent a year in Iowa. 
In 1870 he came to this county, and settled 
on a homestead a mile east of Bee. He 
erected a sod house, and passed through all 
the trials and vicissitudes of pioneering in 
the wilderness. He made a good farm out 
of the raw prairie, improved it well, and 
took rank with the more successful farmers 
of the county. He removed his residence 
in 1893 to the growing town of Bee, went 
into business with his son, and died two 
years later. 

Mr. Batchelder was married February 
18, 1852, to Miss Louisa Whitwood, a 
native of New York, and a resident of 
Rockford, Illinois. She was a lady of ex- 
cellent traits, and died in 1876. Both hus- 
band and wife were members of the Pres- 
byterian church, and exerted a decided in- 
fluence for good by their quiet and well 
ordered lives and kindly spirit. They were 
the parents of five children, William H., 
Whitwood J., Frank C. , Edward G. , and 
Flora (now deceased). He was a Republi- 
can, but in the later years of his life be- 
came a Populist, and was an ardent advo- 
cate of their platform. He was justice of 
the peace for some years, and at different 
times was assessor and town clerk. 

Edward G. Batchelder, the youngest 
son of this estimable couple, was born in 
Illinois in 1867. He came west with his 
parents and had his education in the schools 
of Nebraska. For the first years of his 
early manhood he was engaged in farming, 
but in 1893 he moved to Bee, and opened 
a hardware store in company with his 
father. The death of the paternal member 
of the firm left him alone in the business 
and he continues it without a partner. He 
is an accommodating and successful trades- 



man, and enjoys a very extended patronage. 
He was married in 1893 to Miss Lena 
Drake, a Wisconsin girl. To them have 
been born one son, Lyle. He is making 
progress in the business world, and bids fair 
to win a large success long before he reaches 
old age. 



AMOS MILLER, deceased, was born in 
Fairfield county, Ohio, April 2, 1823, 
a son of Conrad and Hannah E. (Ricely) 
Miller, the former a native of Pennsylvania 
and the latter a native of Maryland. Con- 
rad Miller was among the pioneers of Fair- 
field county, Ohio, clearing for himself a 
farm of about two hundred acres in the 
woods. He and his wife both died on this 
homestead in Ohio. 

Amos Miller, the subject of this sketch, 
was reared on the old homestead, in Fair- 
field county, Ohio, and was educated in the 
public schools of Lithopolis, Ohio. After 
the death of his father, our subject took 
charge of a portion of the homestead for 
several years. In the fall of 1854, he re- 
moved to LaPorte county, Indiana, and 
purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty 
acres, upon which he resided twelve years. 
He then sold out and moved to Marshall 
county, Iowa, from there to Iowa county, 
and from thence to York county, Nebraska, 
in the spring of 1870. Here he home- 
steaded eighty acres of land on section 34, 
of what is now Leroy township. Mr. Miller 
and family were among the first settlers in 
Leroy township; in fact, there was not a 
house to be seen north of their home. He . 
resided on this farm until his death, which 
occurred July 10, 1S92. He was a respected 
and influential citizen of the community, a 
man of strong moral character, and strong- 
ly resisted the organization of the Masonic 
lodge at York. 

Mr. Miller was united in marriage to 
Miss Sarah Thompson, September 16, 1847. 



450 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mrs. Miller was born April 24, 1827, in 
Fairfield county, Ohio, a daughter of John 
F. and Margaret (Dennis) Thompson, the 
father a native of England, and the mother 
a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Mrs. 
Miller is still living on the old homestead in 
Leroy township. She bore her husband four 
children, as follows: Lyman, whose sketch 
appears on another page of this volume; 
Clara, wife of Thomas Pence; Maria, wife 
of Edward Pence; and Sylvester, who re- 
sides in Hamilton county, Nebraska. 



JAMES MARTIN CAIN, a prominent 
representative of the agricultural in- 
terests of Seward county, is now engaged in 
both general farming and fruit raising, in 
which he has been eminently successful. 
As a business man and citizen he also ranks 
high and has the entire confidence and es- 
teem of his fellow men, who appreciate his 
sterling worth and many excellencies of 
character. 

Mr. Crain was born on the 9th of April, 
1845, in Henry county, Illinois, and is a son 
of Joseph and Barbara (Heckard) Cain. 
His paternal grandfather, John Cain, was 
of Irish descent, while his maternal grand- 
parents, John and Catherine Heckard, were 
of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, and all 
of his ancestors were tillers of the soil. 
Our subject worked on his father's farm un- 
til about thirty years of age, receiving his 
education in the common schools of Starke 
and Knox counties, Illinois. On the 13th 
of October, 1875, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Rebecca Jane Cain, a daughter of 
James S. Cain, a distant relative. In com- 
pany with her parents they came west soon 
after their marriage and settled in Saline 
county, Nebraska. But in 1883 our sub- 
ject purchased his present farm on section 
27, it being the west half of the southwest 
quarter. 

On his new purchase Mr. Cain planted 



a fine orchard, containing seventy-five apple, 
seventy-five plum, seventy-five peach and 
over one hundred and twenty-five cherry 
trees; he also set out apricots, over one 
hundred and twenty-five grape vines and 
two thousand strawberry plants, and he 
has now made preparations to set out an 
abundance of raspberry and blackberry vines. 
His orchard has been bearing for nearly 
ten years, and he has all the fruit he can 
use and also ships to the little towns around. 
This branch of his business has proved 
quite profitable and he is now one of the 
prosperous citizens of the community. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cain have four children, 
all born in Nebraska: Celia D. is now the 
wife of John Hartley, a son of Jonathan 
and Rebecca (Cain) Hartley, and they have 
two children, Ray and Walter. They now 
make their home upon a farm in Fulton 
county, Illinois; Winnie Bell is the wife 
of John Powell, a farmer of Saline county, 
Nebraska, Barbara Patty is the wife of 
Melvin Miller, of Saline county. Walter 
Clifton, the youngest of the family, is now 
seventeen years of age and is still at home 
on the farm, his education being obtained 
in the district schools of the neighborhood. 

Mr. Cain has always been a stanch Dem- 
ocrat in political sentiment and now votes 
the Fusion ticket, supporting William J. 
Bryan at the last presidential election, 
while his first vote was cast for Governor 
Seamans. He is a public-spirited and pro- 
gressive and gives his support to every 
measure which he believes will prove of 
public benefit. 



JOHN M. WARD is one of the success- 
ful, enterprising ane progressive agri- 
culturists of Fillmore county, his home be- 
ing on section 13, Geneva township, where 
he owns a valuable property consisting of 
three hundred and twenty acres of highly 
improved land. Indefatigable industry and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



451 



careful management in business have 
brought him prosperity, and his hfe record 
illustrates what may be accomplished by 
the man of ambition and determined pur- 
pose. 

Mr. Ward was born in Fond du Lac 
county, Wisconsin, February 6, 1854, a 
son of Thomas and Bridget (Ferguson) 
Ward, the former a native of Ireland and 
the latter of New York. The father came 
to America when a young man and in 1848 
located in Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, 
among its pioneers. He entered eighty 
acres of heavily timbered land from the 
government, being compelled to pass by the 
prairie land and take a claim which would 
supply him material to build a house and 
also furnish him fuel, as he had only forty 
dollars in money. He built a log cabin, 
and while clearing his land also worked in 
a brick-yard to a limited extent in order to 
gain some ready money. At length he de- 
veloped a good farm and is now worth 
twenty thousand dollars. He is living re- 
tired on the old homestead which is oper- 
ated by his sons. His first wife died in 
1864 and he afterward wedded Mary Reilly, 
a native of Ireland, who died in the spring 
of 1897. There were seven children by the 
first marriage and two by the second. 

John M. Ward, the eldest of the family, 
was reared on the old homestead and early 
trained to habits of industry and economy. 
He assisted in the arduous task of clearing 
the wild land and developing new fields, 
and in the district schools of the neighbor- 
hood acquired his education. He remained 
with his parents until his marriage, which 
was celebrated in 1878, Miss Aurilla Matte- 
son becoming his wife. She was born and 
reared within three miles of the Ward home- 
stead in Fond du Lac county, and by her 
marriage has become the mother of four 
children, George R., Ella, Harry and 
Percy. 

In 1879 Mr. Ward brought his little 



family to Fillmore county and located on a 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres, two 
and a half miles west of Exeter, which he 
purchased from the railroad. It was a tract 
of raw prairie for which he agreed to pay 
five dollars and a half per acre. In six 
years it was free from all indebtedness and 
he then sold it for twenty-eight hundred 
dollars, after which he purchased his present 
farm, consisting of the west half of section 
13, Geneva township. The purchase price 
was six thousand, half of which he paid 
down and the balance in six years. He has 
made many excellent improvements, has 
erected a good residence and substantial 
barns and out-buildings, has secured the 
latest improved machinery and has upon the 
place all the accessories and conveniences 
of the model farm. In addition he owns 
eighty acres on section 14, making four hun- 
dred acres in all. This has been acquired 
entirely through his own efforts, and for his 
success he certainly deserves great credit. 
His business methods are honorable, his 
labors energetically prosecuted and he has 
not only won prosperity but has gained the 
confidence and regard of all with whom he 
has had dealings. 

In politics Mr. Ward has always been a 
Republican, and has ever been active in sup- 
port of its men and measures. He has 
served as assessor of Geneva township, and 
is now serving his second term as a member 
of the county board of supervisors. For 
many years he has been a faithful and ex- 
emplary member of the Masonic fraternity 
and also holds membership with the 
Modern Woodmen of America. For twenty 
years a resident of Fillmore county, he has 
ever been loyal to its interests and well de- 
serves mention in its history. 



THOMAS E. BENNETT.— Among the 
leading attorneys now living in York 
county, may well be noted Thomas E. Ben- 



452 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



nett. He has resided in York for about six- 
teen years and his record as an honorable 
and upright citizen is without a blemish. 
He was born in Clark county, Indiana, No- 
vember .9, 1847, a son of William N. and 
Abigail (Nealey) Bennett, the former a na- 
tive of North Carolina and the latter a na- 
tive of New York. The father was a Meth- 
odist minister. He moved to Indiana with 
his parents when quite young, and entered 
the ministry in that state. He moved to 
Illinois in 1857 and settled in Adams county 
and made that his home until his death, 
which occurred in 1888. 

Thomas E. Bennett, the subject of this 
sketch, was educated in Illinois, in the com- 
mon schools and the Shaddock College. He 
began reading law in 1874, at Quincy, Illi- 
nois, and in January, 1877, was admitted to 
the bar and at once began the practice of 
his profession. He continued in Quincy 
until 1882, and then moved to York county, 
Nebraska, and has made his home here con- 
tinuously since. Mr. Bennett is a man of 
marked distinction in the community, and 
his standing as a good citizen is irreproach- 
able. Several important offices have been 
entrusted to his care, and he has never 
failed to justify the confidence placed in him 
by the people. He was elected police judge 
of the city of York in 1885, and in the fall 
of the same year he was elected county 
judge of York county and served for two 
years and a half. He has been a member 
of the York city council and for one term 
was president of the same. He was city 
attorney for three years and has also per- 
formed the duties of many other minor 
offices. In connection with his professional 
work he also handles real estate and loans 
on farm property. He is a man of excel- 
lent business capacities, having met with 
eminent success in all the enterprises in 
which he has embarked. At whatever line 
of business he has engaged he has made 
many friends by his push and energy. In 



politics he affiliates with the Republican 
party but is an independent thinker. 

Mr. Bennett was married in 1887 to Miss 
Victoria L. Brown, a resident of York coun- 
ty, and their wedded life has been blessed 
by the advent of a family of six children, all 
of whom are living. Our subject is a mem- 
ber of the Modern Woodmen of America 
and also of the Knights of Pythias, and has 
held the position of grand representative in 
the latter fraternity for three terms. 



WILLIAM CHERRY.— There is no 
man in Stromsburg precinct, Polk 
county, wider or more favorably known than 
Mr. Cherry, who came to this section of the 
country in poineer days, and is recognized 
as one of the important factors in its prog- 
ress and development. His farm, located 
on section 20, township 13, range 2, is one 
of the most highly cultivated tracts to be 
found in the county. 

A native of Canada, he was born in 
Mallorytown, Leeds county, February 28, 
1835, a son of Leon and Philinda (Alt- 
house) Cherry, also natives of the Dominion, 
whence they removed to New York about 
1 84 1, spending two years near Pulaski. 
For nine or ten years they made their home 
near Gouverneur, St Lawrence county, that 
state, and in 1854 emigrated to DeKalb 
county. 111., settling near Syracuse, where 
the following six months were passed. In 
the fall of 1854 they went to Lafayette 
county, Wisconsin, where they spent their 
remaining days. They were the parents of 
three children: Thomas, William, and Fred 
Alfred, who was a soldier in Company I, 
Sixteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry 
during the civil war, and was wounded in 
the right shoulder in the first day of the 
battle of Shiloh. 

William Cherry accompanied his par- 
ents on their various removals until they 
finally located in Wisconsin, where he be- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



453 



gan life for himself. Hardly had the echoes 
from Fort Sumter's guns died away when 
he enlisted April 22, 1861, as a private in 
Company H, Third Wisconsin Volunteer 
Infantry, and with his regiment he went to 
Hagerstown, Maryland, where they were 
armed. They arrived at Sandy Hook, that 
state, on the day of the battle of Bull Run, 
and participated in the following engage- 
ments: Harper's Ferry and Bolivar Heights; 
did provost duty at Frederick, Maryland; 
was in the Shenandoah Valley under 
Banks; participated in the battles of Buck- 
ston Station and Winchester; was in the 
campaign under Pope; in the battles of 
Cedar Mountain, Beverly Ford, second 
battle of Bull Run, Chantilly and Antie- 
tam, where Mr. Cherry received a gun- 
shot wound through the right wrist, being 
confined in a hospital at West Philadelphia 
until his wound had healed. On rejoining 
his regiment they went into winter quarters 
at Stafford Court House, and when the 
campaign of the following year opened, they 
took part in the battles of Chancellorsville, 
Beverly Ford and Gettysburg. They were 
sent south to Stevenson, Alabama, chasing 
Wheeler's cavalry, and then proceeded to 
Wartrace, Tennessee, where Mr. Cherry 
was granted a veteran furlough after re-en- 
listing. He rejoined his command at Tulla- 
homa, Tennessee, and participated in the 
battles of Resaca and New Hope Church, 
where he received a gunshot wound through 
the left thigh. He was first sent to the 
Nashville hospital, but on the 37th of June, 
1864, was transferred to the hospital in 
Murfreesboro. Gangrene setting in, he was 
confined there until January 8, 1865, when 
he was ordered to rejoin his regiment at 
Goldsboro, North Carolina, where General 
Joseph E. Johnston surrendered. The troops 
then proceeded to Raleigh, and on to 
Washington, District of Columbia, by way 
of Richmond, and participated in the grand 
review at the capital. At Louisville, Iven- 



tucky, Mr. Cherry was mustered out, July 
18, 1865, and returned to his home after 
over four years of arduous and faithful serv- 
ice, during which time he often displayed 
great heroism. At Antietam he was twice 
wounded, and at New Hope church received 
three wounds. He was promoted to the 
rank of corporal and later to sergeant of his 
company, being mustered out as such. 

After the war Mr. Cherry returned to 
his Wisconsin home, but a year later went 
to Oil City, Pennsylvania, and afterward 
spent two years at Meadville, that state. 
On again going to Wisconsin, he was mar- 
ried April 8, 1868, to Miss Jane Holcomb, 
who was born in Connecticut, September 
6, 1835, a daughter of G. C. Holcomb. 
They have become the parents of three chil- 
dren: Mary Alice, now the wife of Edward 
Bloomquest, by whom she has one child, 
Florence; Frank S., who married Nettie 
Surley, and has two children, Willie and 
Burness; and Azel, deceased. 

Mr. Cherry continued to reside in Wis- 
consin until 1873, when he came to Ne- 
braska, and has since lived upon his pres- 
ent farm in Polk county. For ten years 
his home was a sod shanty, but it has long 
since been replaced by a comfortable frame 
residence. On locating here his farm was 
unbroken prairie land, and the first year he 
raised only a small crop of sod corn, and 
the second year the grasshoppers destroyed 
everything except his wheat. With char- 
acteristic energy he overcame all obstacles 
and difficulties, however, and now one hun- 
dred acres of the one hundred and sixty 
acre tract have been placed under the plow 
and it yields a bountiful return for the care 
and labor bestowed upon it. Since attain- 
ing his majority he has been a stanch sup- 
porter of the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party, and he has creditably served 
as a member of the school board in district 
No. 34. He is one of the leading and 
prominent members of J. A. Mower Post, 



454 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



No. 59, G. A. R., of Stromsburg, in which 
he has served as commander, junior and 
senior vice-commander, officer of the day, 
and quartermaster for many years. 



M 



RS. PERMELIALONG, aworthy rep- 
resentative of one of the oldest and 
most highly esteemed families of Seward 
county, was born in Kentucky, m 1S26, and 
is a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Bivens) 
Rogers, who were natives of Pennsylvania 
and Ireland respectively and were married 
in Kentucky. She is the third daughter in 
their family of ten children, of whom seven 
are still living. From Kentucky the family 
removed to Indiana and later to Illinois, 
and in 1862 her parents came to Nebraska, 
locating on a farm of one hundred and si.xty 
acres in J precinct, Seward county, where 
they spent the remainder of their lives. 
The father, who throughout life followed 
agricultural pursuits, died May 13, 1876, 
the mother in April, 1867, and the remains 
of both were interred in Union cemetry in 
J precinct. 

As there were no public schools during 
the childhood of Mrs. Long, she was de- 
prived of educational advantages. On the 
1st of March, 1843, in LaPorte county, In- 
diana, when only seventeen years of age, 
she was united in marriage with Samuel 
Long, a native of Virginia, where he was 
reared and educated in the public and high 
schools. His parents, however, were Penn- 
sylvanian people. At the age of twenty- 
one he went to Indiana, and after his mar- 
riage continued to engage in farming there 
for some years. In the spring of 1861 he 
and his family started with teams for Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska, crossing the Mis- 
souri river on the loth of June. He took 
a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres 
in J precinct and with the assistance of his 
children converted it into a most desirable 
farm, operating it quite successfully until 



his death, which occurred April 4, 1887, 
when he had attained the age of seventy- 
five years and four months. He was a true 
husband and loving father and had a host 
of warm friends throughout this region. 
Politically he always supported the Demo- 
cratic ticket and his aid was never withheld 
from any object he believed calculated to 
prove of public benefit. 

Mrs. Long can relate many interesting 
incidents of pioneer days when this section 
was a desolate prairie inhabited mostly by 
Indians, and when buffaloes, antelopes, deer 
and prairie wolves were numerous. For a 
short time the family lived in a little log 
house minus both doors and windows, but 
soon a new double log house was erected, 
making a very comfortable home. They 
commenced at once to break and improve 
the land, and soon acre after acre was 
placed under the plow until the entire 
amount was converted into a rich and pro- 
ductive farm. Mrs. Long, who is a most 
estimable lady, beloved by all who know 
her, now makes her home with her youngest 
daughter. 

Six children, one son and five daughters, 
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Long. Elmira 
E., born July 12, 1844, married Doc Ni- 
hart, by whom she has one daughter, and 
died January 16, 1867, being laid to rest in 
Union cemetery. Lavina N., born March 
23, 1846, is the wife of Simeon Snow and 
lives in Ruby, Nebraska. Elva S., born 
May 16, 1848, married William Waite and 
also lives in Ruby. Their marriage, which 
was celebrated September 23, 1866, is the 
first recorded as performed in Seward 
county. Simeon A., born January 12, 
1854, died at the age of six years, six 
months and three days, and was interred in 
Union cemetery. Loila, born August 6, 
1 86 1, was married June 27, 1887, to F. 
Gowey and lives in Ruby. Luena Cather- 
ine, born February 11, 1867, was married 
March 16, 1887, to Irvin Neff, and they 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



455 



have four children: Grover Adalbert, aged 
ten years; William Spencer, aged eight; 
Lyman, aged four; and Zona, aged six 
months. 



HARLOW S. BALLARD, a leading and 
substantial citizen of Arborville town- 
ship, is now the owner of an excellent farm 
of two hundred acres, where he located in 
1 88 1, and from the uncultivated soil has 
built up a valuable homestead, which will 
remain as a monument to his industry and 
enterprise for generations to come. While 
laboring for his own advancement he has in 
nowise set aside the interests and well-being 
of the community around, but has aided all 
enterprises for the public good. 

Mr. Ballard was born in Broome county, 
New York, October 12, 1827, and is a son 
of Erasmus and Jamison (Pellett) Ballard, 
native of Vermont and Connecticut, re- 
spectively. During early life they removed 
to New York, where the father followed 
farming throughout his active business life. 
He died in 1862, but the mother is still liv- 
ing. Of their two sons, one is still a resi- 
dent of the Empire state. 

The subject of this review passed his boy- 
hood and youth in a manner similar to most 
farmer boys of the period, aiding in the 
work of the farm and attending the public 
schools when his services were not needed 
at home. He followed farming in New 
York until 1 881, when he emigrated to Ne- 
braska and purchased land in Arborville 
township, York county, where he has since 
made his home, and where he has carried 
on operations as an agriculturist with most 
gratifying results. 

In 1853 Mr. Ballard was married to Miss 
Sarah McFarland, a daughter of Thomas 
and Mary (Frazier) McFarland, who were 
natives of New York. Our subject and his 
wife have four children, namely: Floyd D. ; 
Clara A., now Mrs. O. Cole; Frank C. ; and 



Horatio K. The family are members of the 
Congregational church, and socially Mr. 
Ballard in identified with the Masonic fra- 
ternity. In politics he is a free silver Re- 
publican and has never sought political 
honors. He has not only been financially 
successful since coming to Nebraska, but 
has gained the respect and esteem of all 
with whom he has come in contact. 



AL. G. JOHNSON is one of the stal- 
wart and substantial citizens of But- 
ler county, residing on section 6, Linwood 
township, who are of alien birth, and who 
have, by their own unaided exertions, raised 
themselves from the state of comparative 
poverty in which they came to this country 
to their present prosperous condition. He 
is engaged in general farming and stock 
raising, and is one of the well-to-do and 
highly respected citizens of his community. 

Mr. Johnson's early home was in Sweden, 
where he was born November 19, 1828, and 
he is a son of John Johnson and Lena (An- 
derson) Johnson. At the age of twenty-two 
years he took passage on a vessel bound for 
America, and on reaching Rockford, Illinois, 
found himself seven dollars in debt to a 
companion for his fare from New York. At 
St. Charles, Illinois, he worked for Elisha 
Foot for eight dollars per month for the 
first month and six dollars for the following 
three months. Although this was during 
the harvest season of 1852, when the work 
was exceedingly hard, he considered his 
wages good. 

Mr. Johnson was married, in 1857, to 
Miss Ann Bracken, of Rockford, who was 
born in Ireland, and was a daughter of 
Michael Bracken, of Staten Island, New 
York. Seven children blessed this union ; 
five, Leonard, Seward, Henry, Lena and 
Dwight, all born in Illinois, and the other 
two, Harvey and Howard, born in Butler 
county, Nebraska. The oldest son, Leon- 



456 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ard, is engaged in farming on section 5, 
Linwood townsiiip, Butler county ; Henry 
is studying law, while Harvey and Howard 
are preparing for the ministry. The wife 
and mother, who was a most estimable lady, 
was called to her final rest in September, 
1896, and was laid to rest in Edholm ceme- 
tery. 

Through A. J. White, who had been a 
neighbor of our subject in Illinois, Mr. John- 
son decided to come to Butler county in 1 87 1 . 
In two covered wagons the family drove 
overland to their new home, arriving in Au- 
gust of that year. They brought with them 
five horses and four head of cattle, and 
on reaching their destination Mr. Johnson 
traded one team, with harness and wagon, 
worth $250, for eighty acres of land, on 
which he has since made his home. Upon 
his place was a little log shanty, 12x12 feet, 
which served as a shelter for the family 
until a more substantial house could be 
erected. In his new home Mr. Johnson has 
prospered, and his success is certainly well 
merited. He is a highly industrious man, and 
of rigid and sterling integrity, and his honesty 
of purpose and upright principles have won 
him the respect and confidence of every one 
with whom he has come in contact. He 
was one of the founders of the Christian 
church of Edholm, and he and his family 
take an active and prominent part in all 
church work. 



DAVID WALKUP.— A reputable stand- 
ing among the agriculturists of York 
county, Nebraska, is accorded by all to the 
gentleman whose name heads this article. He 
is considered one of the substantal and highly 
esteemed citizens of the county. His home 
farm, which is located on section 2, of 
Lockridge township, is one of those fine 
tracts so common to the famous farming 
districts of the state of Nebraska. It is 
given over to farming on general lines, which 



Mr. Walkup carries on in the most modern- 
ized and improved methods, thereby winning 
due reward for his toil and forethought. He 
was one of the first settlers of Lockridge 
township, and has always sanctioned any 
project that had, for its ultimate object, the 
developing of the great natural resources of 
the county. He was born February 14, 
1 82 1, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania; 
and is a son of William and Margaret 
(Kuntz) Walkup, who were also natives of 
the Keystone state. The father was a farmer 
by occupation, and died in his native state, 
having been the father of eight children. 

David Walkup was the sixth child in 
order of birth of a family of eight, and re- 
ceived his education in the common schools 
of Pennsylvania. When he was still a young 
man be began work as a farm hand, and he 
made his home in his native state until he 
attained his seventeenth year, when he 
removed to Holmes county, Ohio, where he 
resided for ten years. While a resident of 
the last-mentioned place he learned the 
carpenter's trade with his brother, and fol- 
lowed that calling there for three years. In 
1846 he moved to Jefferson county, Iowa, 
where he made his home for the following 
ten years, engaged in farming, and in work- 
ing at his trade. In August, 1862, he en- 
listed in company D, Nineteenth Iowa In- 
fantry, and served until April, 1864. He 
was in the Red River expedition, and par- 
ticipated in the battle of Prairie Grove, and 
also an engagement at the mouth of the 
Red River, where he received a wound, 
which later caused his discharge on account 
of disability. After his discharge from the 
army he returned to Iowa, where he re- 
mained until 1865, when he -located in Ne- 
braska county, Nebraska, and resided there 
until 1 87 1. He then located permanently 
in York county, of the state, and took up a 
homestead which he now owns. It was 
wild and unbroken prairie when he took it, 
but he has brought it to a high state of cul- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



457 



tivation, and to-day he has one of the finest 
farms in the county, well improved, and 
adorned with a large and commodious 
dwelling. 

Mr. Walkup was united in niarriage in 
Ohio in the year 1841, to Miss Elizabeth 
Brewer, a native of Pennsylvania, who 
died m Iowa in 1856. They were the par- 
ents of seven children, as follows: Alphus, 
John, of whom a sketch will be found on 
another page; Andrew, Margaret J., Sarah 
E., Minerva and Susie, all of whom are 
still alive. Mr. Walkup takes an active 
interest in the political life of the commu- 
nity, and is a stanch supporter of the prin- 
ciples of the Republican party, though he 
has never sought an office. He is a mem- 
ber of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
He is considered one of the most substantial 
and highly respected citizens of the town- 
ship in which he resides. 



CHARLES O. NORTON is a man whose 
successful struggle with adverse circum- 
stances shows what can be done by industry 
and economy, especially if a sensible wife 
seconds his efforts to secure a home and 
competence. He has been obliged to make 
his way in life without any of the aids 
which are usually considered essential to 
success, but prosperity has at length crowned 
his efforts and he is now the owner of a fine 
farm on the southwest quarter of section 12, 
township 13, range 4, Polk county. 

Mr. Norton was born September 29, 
1842, in Hillesocken, Sweden, and in the 
fall of 1849 started for America with his 
parents, Olaf and Catherina (Moller) Nor- 
deen. While en route the mother died on 
a canal boat from cholera, but the father, 
with this three children — Lewis, Charles O. 
and Kate H. — proceeded to Henry county, 
Illinois, where they arrived in September. 
At three different times he owned homes, 
but never lived very long in one place. 



spending his time in this country in Wis- 
consin. Minnesota and Illinois, and at length 
returning to Hille, Sweden, where his death 
occurred. 

Reared in Illinois, Charles O. Norton 
acquired a good education in the public 
schools of Andover, which he attended un- 
til eighteen years of age. On the 29th 
of February, 1864, feeling that his adopted 
country needed his services, he enlisted in 
Company A, Forty-third Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, and joined his regiment at Little 
Rock, Arkansas. He took part in all the 
movements in which they were engaged, 
and was afterward appointed warden of the 
military prison at Little Rock, where he re- 
mained until mustered out of service in 
November, 1865. Returning to Andover, 
Illinois, he turned his attention to the more 
quiet pursuits of farm life. 

On the 8th of October, 1866, Mr. Nor- 
ton wedded Miss Mary S. Hurty, who was 
born in Andover, November 15, 1849, and 
was educated there. They have three chil- 
dren: Eleanora H., now the wife of Albert 
Lind, by whom she has three children, 
Hannah, Florence and Nellie; John O. N., 
who has attended Bryant University at 
Stromsburg, and is now a student at Uni- 
versity Place, M. E., at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
and Nettie, who completes the family. All 
have been liberally educated in both Swedish 
and English languages. 

In 1873 Mr. Norton came to Polk county, 
Nebraska, and homesteaded the tract on 
which he still lives. He built a small house 
thereon, and the first year planted ten acres 
of sod corn, three of wheat and five of oats, 
but rented the ground for the last two pro- 
ducts. 1874 was the year of the dreadful 
grasshopper plague, and from the twenty- 
three bushels of oats which he sowed, he 
only reaped nineteen bushels, those insects 
taking the rest. They also destroyed a lot of 
poplar slips, two hundred rods of hedge and 
a number of apple trees which he had set 



458 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



out, and although his wife tied a tablecloth, 
four double, over a pan of bread dough, they 
got in that. The next year, however, Mr. 
Norton raised good crops and has steadily 
prospered until he is now the owner of two 
hundred and forty acres of rich and produc- 
tive land, all under cultivation with the ex- 
ception of forty acres. He raises a fine grade 
of stock, and is to-day numbered among 
the most thorough, and systematic agricul- 
turists of his community. In 1888 he 
erected his present comfortable residence 
at a cost of two thousand dollars, and un- 
derneath it has an excellent brick cellar 
and also a brick cistern. All of the im- 
provements upon his place stand as monu- 
icents to his thrift, industry and enterprise. 
Mr. and Mrs. Norton are leading mem- 
bers of the Swedish Methodist Episcopal 
Church, known as Swede Plain Church, of 
which he is a trustee and also local preach- 
er, besides serving as superintendent of the 
Sunday school. Fraternally he affiliates 
with the Grand Army post at Stromsburg, 
and his political views coincide with the 
principles of the Republican party except on 
the money question, he being an advocate 
of the free coinage of silver. He has served 
as school director in district No. 44 for 
years, has been assessor of Pleasant Home 
precinct, and has been the candidate of his 
party for the state legislature, and also for 
county treasurer. Polk county has no more 
popular or influential citizen and he com- 
mands the respect and esteem of all with 
whom he comes in contact either in busi- 
ness or social life. 



HENRY MEINBERG, one of the most 
industrious, enterprising and reliable 
farmers of I precinct, Seward county, his 
home being on section 19, is a native of Illi- 
nois, born in Winnebago county, January 2, 
1849, and is a son of Conrad and Emma 
(Baum) Meinberg, who were born, reared 



and married in Germany, where the father 
worked at the shoemaker's trade for many 
years. On their emigration to America 
they had four children and their family was 
later increased by the birth of two more. 
They made their home in Illinois, where the 
father died at the age of sixty-three years, 
and the mother subsequently removed to 
Iowa, where she passed away at the age of 
seventy-four. The farm in Illinois was di- 
vided among the children, who are all hving 
with the exception of one daughter. 

Reared on the old homestead, Henry 
Meinberg assisted in the labors of the farm 
and attended the district schools of the 
neighborhood. He was confirmed in the 
Evangelical church at the age of fifteen. 
When twenty-four years old he was united 
in marriage with Miss Mary Getz, who was 
then twent}. Her parents, George and 
Mary Getz, were natives of Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, Germany, and they, too, located in 
Illinois on coming to the new world, oper- 
ating rented land there for some years, but 
finally came to Nebraska with our subject 
and his wife. The father died in precinct 
J, Seward county, July 4, 1893, at the age 
of sixty-three years, but the mother is still 
living on her farm in that precinct at the 
age of sixty-four. On their arrival here 
they purchased eighty acres of railroad land. 
They reared a family of five children, four 
daughters and one son, of whom three of 
the daughters are still living. 

For two years after their marriage Mr. 
and Mrs. Meinberg remained in Illinois and 
then boarded a train, finally landing in Lin- 
coln, Nebraska, and thence proceeding by 
teams to Seward county. In precinct I he 
purchased eighty acres of land at eight 
dollars per acre, and for two months they 
lived with Mrs. Meinberg's parents in a sod 
house while their own little frame shanty, 
12 X 14 feet, was being constructed. Our 
subject had four hundred dollars with which 
he purchased lumber for his house and barn 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



459 



and also bought a few cows. He had 
brought with him his team, wagon and har- 
row from IlHnois. During the three years 
following his arrival here he broke his first 
purchase of eighty acres of land, and then 
bought an adjoining eighty acres for nine dol- 
lars per acre. In 1898 he purchased another 
eighty-acre tract for two thousand three 
hundred and five dollars, and now has a 
valuable farm of two hundred and forty 
acres, which he has placed under a high 
state of cultivation and improved with sub- 
stantial buildings. With the assistance of 
his son he is operating the land with good 
success, raising seventeen hundred bushels 
of corn on fifty-five acres. Upon his place 
he has set out many shade trees, also one 
hundred and fifty apple trees, peaches, 
grapes, and fruits of all kinds. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Meinberg were born 
four children, three daughters and one son, 
namely: Mary, George, Emma and Marie. 
The oldest daughter was struck by lightning 
while sitting on her father's lap and died 
from the injuries received. He was also 
stunned and one end of the house was torn 
out. Among other hardships incident to 
pioneer life, Mr. Meinberg had his leg 
broken by a kick from a horse and for an 
hour lay in the snow before anyone came to 
his aid. A storm raged furiously for some 
days and the doctor was unable to reach 
him, and it was about twelve weeks before 
the limb began to heal. In his political 
affiliations he is a Democrat, and he and his 
family hold membership in the Evangelical 
church, while in the social circles of the 
community they occupy an enviable position. 



GEORGE C. FISHER.— This gentleman 
is a representative general farmer and 
stockraiser of York county, Nebraska, who 
resides on an elegant farm on section 15, of 
Lockridge township. He is a man who is 
both widely and favorably known, and is 



also highly respected for his many sterling 
traits of character. 

Michael and Sarah (Stick) Fisher, the 
parents of our subject, were both natives of 
York county, Pennsylvania, the former hav- 
ing been born in 1815, and the latter in 
1 82 1. The father was a farmer by occupa- 
tion and followed that calling for many years. 
They were married in 1840 in Pennsylvania, 
and are the parents of ten children, six of 
whom are now living. In 1849 they moved 
to Hamilton county, Indiana, where they 
resided until 1858. They then removed to 
St. Joseph county, in the same state, where 
they still reside, the father in his eighty- 
third year, and the mother in her seventy- 
seventh. 

George C. Fisher was born April 23, 
1845, in Maryland, and was given the bene- 
fit of a common school education in the dis- 
trict schools of Indiana, where he resided 
when a boy. He followed farming for many 
years and then learned the carpenters and 
cabinetmaker's trade, which he followed 
until 1875. In the last-mentioned year he 
entered the employ of the Studebaker 
Wagon Works at South Bend, Indiana, 
where he remained for three years. In 1880 
he decided to go west and finally settled in 
York county, Nebraska, on the farm on 
which he now resides. His estate consists 
of one hundred and sixty acres of fine land, 
well improved and under a high state of 
cultivation. It presents a fine appearance, 
with a large barn and the necessary out- 
buildings, and the large and commodious 
dwelling. In fact, as it now stands, it is 
considered one of the most desirable pieces 
of property in the vicinity. 

Mr. Fisher was married on January 2, 
1 87 1, to Miss Mary E. Freehafer, a native 
of Huntington county, Indiana. Their union 
has been blessed by the birth of the follow- 
ing children, who are eight in number, and 
of whom we have the following record: 
Ivan A., born 1875; Elta L. , born 1878; 



460 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Melvin E. , born 1882; Charles C. , born 
1883; Jennie G. , born 1885; Leila D., born 
1887; Florence E., born 1890; and Mildred 
H., born in 1893. The family are all mem- 
bers of the United Brethren church, at which 
they are regular attendants. 

In politics Mr. Fisher was a Republican, 
but is now an ardent adherent of the free 
silver cause. He was road overseer, and 
also served two terms as township treasurer. 
Socially he is a member of the A. O. U. W. 
Mr. Fisher is a very pleasant neighbor, is 
congenial and warm hearted, and resides in 
one of the most hospitable homes in the 
county. 



CM. BAUGH owns a good farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres, pleasantly lo- 
cated on section 36, Morton township, York 
county, where he has been operating suc- 
cessfully since 1880. He is a thorough and 
skillful farmer and a man of more than or- 
dinary business ability. He was born in 
Knox county, Ohio, December 14, 1852, 
and is a son of Levi W. and Cassie (Par- 
rish) Baugh, also natives of the Buckeye 
state. The father, who is also a farmer by 
occupation, was born in 1823, and con- 
tinued to reside in the state of his nativity 
until 1856, when he emigrated to Illinois, 
first locating in Fulton county, and later re- 
moving to McDonough county, where he 
still continues to reside. He has reared a 
family of four sons, two of whom now live 
in York county, Nebraska. 

C. M. Baugh, of this review, is indebted 
to the public schools of Illinois for his edu- 
cational privileges, while his business train- 
ing was obtained on the home farm, where 
he early acquired a good practical knowl- 
edge of all branches of agriculture. He 
continued to follow farming in that state 
until 1880, which year witnessed his arrival 
in York county, Nebraska. At first he 
leased eighty acres of school land on sec- 



tion 36, Morton township, but afterward 
purchased eighty acres, where he now re- 
sides. When he located thereon it was all 
raw prairie, but he has brought the land to 
a high state of cultivation, having added an- 
other eighty to his farm, and has erected a 
comfortable residence and a good set of 
farm buildings, to which each year he adds 
something to enhance the beauty and value 
of his property. 

In 1883, in Warren county, Illinois, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Baugh and 
Miss Hester Lybarger, a native of that 
state, and to them have been born three 
children, namely: Cassie J., Lulu M. and 
Bertha M. Socially he is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and po- 
litically is a stanch Populist, but has never 
cared for the honors or emoluments of pub- 
lic office. 



WARREN I. LANCASTER.— As an all- 
round prominent man of York county, 
there is probably no one of its citizens who 
more justly deserves the title than Mr. Lan- 
caster. He is yet in the prime of vigorous 
manhood, intelligent and well educated, 
and as such is highly esteemed and re- 
spected. He is the present sheriff of York 
county and is also operating a livery busi- 
ness in the city of York. Our subject was 
born in Adams county, Illinois, May 18, 
i860, a son of William and Isabell (Prather) 
Lancaster, natives of Ohio and Indiana 
respectively. The father was a farmer by 
occupation, and has always been engaged 
in that calling, but is now living in retire- 
ment, in Adams county, Illinois, where the 
greater part of his life has been spent. The 
mother is now dead. 

Warren I. Lancaster, the subject of 
this sketch, was reared on a farm and edu- 
cated in the district schools of the county 
of his nativity. In 1885 he migrated to 
York county, Nebraska, purchased a farm 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



461 



and operated it for three years. He then 
returned to Illinois, but in 1891 again moved 
to York county, Nebraska. This time he 
located in the city of York and opened a 
livery business, which he has since con- 
ducted. In 1897 he was nominated by the 
Democratic and People's parties for the 
office of sheriff of York county, to which 
he was elected and is now ably performing 
the duties of that office in connection with 
his livery business. He is a gentleman of 
the highest character and possesses a wide 
knowledge of men and the world, and no 
man has taken a more prominent place in 
general matters than has the subject of our 
sketch. He has interested himself heartily 
in all matters pertaining to the building up 
of the city in which he lives and of the 
entire county. 

Mr. Lancaster was married in 1881 to 
Miss Ellen Huff, also a native of Adams 
county, Illinois, and their wedded life has 
been blessed by the presence of three sons 
and one daughter, whose names in the order 
of birth are as follows: Jesse S., William 
R., Carl E. and Geraldine Isabell. Mr. 
Lancaster is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity and also of the Modern Woodmen 
of America. 



T EONARD A. JOHNSON is one of the 
IS) most energetic and enterprising agri- 
culturists of Linwood township, Butler 
county, where he operates a good farm on 
section 5. He is a worthy representative 
of one of the prominent pioneer families of 
the county, being a son of A. G. L. and Ann 
(Bracken) Johnson, natives of Sweden and 
Ireland, respectively, whose sketch appears 
on another page of this work. For a num- 
ber of years they made their home in Illinois, 
but in 1 87 1 emigrated to Nebraska, and 
have since been numbered among the hon- 
ered and highly respected citizens of Butler 
county, their farm being on section 6, Lin- 



wood township. Our subject is the oldest 
of their seven children, the others being 
Seward, Henry, who is studying law, Lena, 
D wight, and Harvey and Howard, who are 
preparing to enter the Christian ministry. 
The mother died in September, 1896, and 
her remains were interred in the Edholdm 
cemetery. 

Our subject was born in Winnebago 
county, Illinois, in 1858, and at the age of 
thirteen years accompanied his parents on 
their removal to Nebraska. He obtained 
a fair common school education during his 
boyhood and youth, and also secured an ex- 
cellent knowledge of farm work under the 
able direction of his father, soon becoming 
a thorough and skillful agriculturist. Since 
starting out in life for himself, he has en- 
gaged in the pursuit to which he was reared. 
On attaining to man's estate Mr. Johnson 
married Miss Edith Sanders, a daughter of 
Elijah Sanders, one of the old settlers of 
Butler county, whose homestead is in 
Skull creek township. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnson have been born five children, name- 
ly: Arelia, Floyd, Una, Lester and Law- 
son. The parents hold membership in the 
Christian church, and socially, Mr. John- 
son is indentfied with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. In politics he is a Re- 
publican but never sought or filled office. 



AG. BOGART is one of the self-made 
men of York county, who by his own 
efforts has risen from a humble position to 
stand among the leading and enterprising 
merchants of his adopted county. He is 
one of Nebraskas' pioneers, having located 
in Seward county, when the work of prog- 
ress and improvement was but in its in- 
fancy there. He came from the far east 
to this state, his birth having occurred in 
Colchester, Delaware county, New York, 
November 3, 1836, his parents being 
William and Martha (Thompson) Bogart, 



462 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



both of whom were natives of Germany. 
The father, who was born in 1795, came to 
the United States in i8i8,and died in 1879. 
The mother passed away in 1864. William 
Bogart was a lumberman and followed that 
calling throughout his entire life. He also 
cleared a farm in New York, but his atten- 
tion was principally given to the lumber 
business, which he carried on in Delaware 
county until his labors were ended in an 
eternal rest. He had eleven children, six 
sons and five daughters, and with the ex- 
ception of the eldest two all are yet living. 

In the county of his nativity A. G. Bo- 
gart was reared to manhood, giving his 
father the benefit of his services until 1862, 
when he joined the army as a defender of 
the Union, enlisting as a member of the 
Eighth New York Independent Battery. 
He served for three years, eight months 
and eighteen days and participated in the 
first battle of Bull Run, the engagements 
at Yorktown, Millersburg, Petersburg and 
numerous skirmishes. He was very fortu- 
nate in that he was never wounded or taken 
prisoner, but was always found at his post 
of duty, faithfully defending the old flag 
and the cause it represented. He also had 
five brothers in the service. 

On the close of the war Mr. Bogart re- 
turned to his home, and remained in New 
York until 1867, when he removed to Lan- 
caster county, Nebraska. A year later he 
went to Seward county, purchasing a claim 
on section 14, township 10, range 2 east. 
There he resided for eleven years, actively 
engaged in farming, and on the expiration 
of that period he went to Beatrice, Gage 
county, Nebraska, where he continued for 
three years. In 1872 located in Waco, York 
county, where he opened a grocery and im- 
plement business, conducting the same with 
fair success until 1887, when he came to 
Benedict. For four years thereafter he 
conducted a hotel, and then opened the 
meat market — his present line of business. 



He is fair and honorable in his dealings, 
prompt and reliable, courteous to his 
patrons, and is now enjoying an excellent 
trade, of which he is well deserving. 

In May, 1858, Mr. Bogart was united in 
marriage to Miss Mary E. Tiffany, a native 
of Delaware county. New York, and a 
daughter of Ezekiel and Nancy (Mclntyre) 
Tiffany, both now deceased, their last days 
having been spent in Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Bogart now have two children, Etta 
A., wife of J. C. Medcalf, a resident of Blue 
Ridge, Georgia; and Una M., wife of S. P. 
Strieker, of Benedict. Mr. Bogart is an 
esteemed member of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, and in politics is a Republican, 
but the honors and emoluments of office 
have no attraction for him, as he prefers to 
give his attention to his business interests. 
His life has been a busy and useful one, and 
his success is the legitimate result of his 
own well directed efforts. 



HON. C. J. WRIGHT, who has an ex- 
tensive and well managed farm near 
Bee, is one of the leading men of Seward 
county, and may justly be described as an 
enlightened and progressive representative 
of the agricultural interests of Nebraska. 
He is a practical farmer, familiar with all 
the problems of rural life, awake to the perils 
that confront the tillers of the soil, and deter- 
mined as far as his influence extends to 
defeat the plots and schemes of those who 
would fatten on the labor of honest men. 
He has a pleasant address, an impressive 
presence, and sustains a high reputation as 
a man of honesty, ability and candor. 

Mr. Wright was born in Portage county, 
Ohio, August 26, 1834, and is a son of 
George R. and Minerva (Hallock) Wright. 
His father was a native of New York and 
his mother of Connecticut. His grand- 
father was Captain Jonathan Wright, who 
came to the colonies from England in 1760. 





HON. C. J. WRIGHT. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPI/l'. 



465 



He fought in the Indian wars that preceded 
the Revolution, and in that great struggle 
bore an honored part under the imme- 
diate command of General Washington. 
He served seven years, receiving only one 
wound (in the leg), and died in 1840, full 
of years and honor. 

George R. Wright was a farmer, and 
came to Ohio in 1817, when fifteen years 
of age. He made his home in that state 
for many years. He was married in that 
state, and moved to Indiana in 1861. From 
there he journeyed to Iowa, but returned to 
Indiana, where he died in 1871. He was 
the father of five sons and four daughters, 
and was a man of established integrity. 

The subject of this biographical history 
was educated in Ohio, where he attended 
high school, and taught school for five years 
after his own school-days were ended. He 
became interested in photography, mastered 
its details, and took it up as a business. 
He owned and operated a studio for some 
years. In 1861 he felt the need of a more 
open life, and bought a farm near Plymouth, 
Indiana. In that state he was also the 
owner and manager of a saw mill, which he 
conducted in connection with his farming 
operations, and for seven years was an ex- 
ceedingly busy man. He joined the county 
"regulators," and greatly assisted in the 
suppression of horse stealing. He was jus- 
tice of the peace for eight years, and had a 
wide reputation as a friend of order and 
right. 

Mr. Wright made his first appearance 
in Seward county in September, 1879, when 
he bought the farm he now occupies. A full 
section of land under his careful supervision 
has become one of the most profitable 
pieces of property in all this region. It is 
known as a model Nebraska "ranch." He 
makes an extensive business of buying and 
feeding stock, and sends out every year 
many cars of fine native cattle for the east- 
ern markets. His upright character, mani- 

27 



fest ability and public spirit could not 
long escape the recognition of his own 
community, and in 1887 he was elected as 
a senator to the general assembly of the 
state. He served with distinction, but not 
being able to follow the kaleidoscopic 
changes of Nebraska politics, he has not 
taken a very active part in public affairs of 
late years. He is independent in his views, 
and has no very lofty opinion of party ma- 
chinery and management. 

Mr. Wright and Miss Elizabeth Church 
were married January i, 1856, at Winter- 
set, Iowa, and the union has proved a most 
fortunate and happy one. She is an ac- 
complished lady of social talents and has 
proved a decided helpmeet to her husband. 
They are the parents of three children, Ed- 
gar C., Etta (now Mrs. Terwilliger) and 
General M. There has been no break in 
the family circle, and parents and children 
have kept close together. The husband and 
father is a genial gentleman, of attractive 
personal qualities, and is a member of the 
Masonic order in good standing. In connec- 
tion with this sketch is presented a por- 
trait of Mr. Wright. 



CARL SYNDER, who is finding a pleas- 
ant resting place for the last years of a 
busy life on section 13, precinct E, Seward 
county, takes high rank among the many 
thousand earnest and capable men who have 
come from Germany seeking homes on this 
western continent. He is intelligent and 
broadly educated, has had a wide experience 
among men and is a veteran soldier of the 
Prussian army. 

Mr. Synder was born in Prussian Saxony, 
May 10, 1841, and grew to manhood under 
the parental roof. He had good schooling, 
and was educated after the solid and sensi- 
ble manner of his countrymen. He was 
bred to the trade or a blacksmith, and it 
furnished him for many years remunerative 



466 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



employment. In 1861 he was called into 
the Prussian army, and served as a private 
soldier for three years. In 1866 he was 
called out with the reserves and for six 
months was in garrison duty in the city of 
Berlin. He traveled over Germany during 
the sixties, and worked at his trade in many 
different localities. The old world did not 
appear friendly enough to a young man of 
brains and energy and but little money, and 
he determined to seek a wider and broader 
field on the continent of North America, and 
in 1868 he crossed the ocean, landing in the 
city of New York on the first day of August. 
He did not remain long in the Atlantic me- 
tropolis, but speedily journeyed to Rock 
Island, Illinois, where he found employment 
at his trade. He was engaged in that re- 
gion for several years, but more and more 
his thoughts turned towards an agricultural 
life as the ideal career for him, and he came 
to this state in 1871 with the hope of real- 
izing that ideal. He pre-empted a quarter 
section in Butler county, but it proved an 
unpromising venture, and after about a year 
of a dugout, and other pioneer experiences, 
he sold his claim for forty dollars, and made 
a homestead entry of the south half of the 
southwest quarter of section 18, of precinct 
F. He put up a modest structure and lived 
there until 1880. 

In 1873 he bought the land where he 
now lives. It was railroad land, and has 
proved a paying investment. That year he 
had a yoke of oxen and a span of horses, 
and broke up one hundred and thirty acres, 
from which he harvested a thousand bushels 
of wheat the following year. Had not the 
grasshoppers been peculiarly vicious that 
summer he would have had a much larger 
yield. He has kept close to the soil, given 
much thought and labor to its cultivation, 
and as a farmer has been remarkably suc- 
cessful. He owns over four hundred acres 
of well improved land, which he devotes to 
general farming, though he leans towards 



Poland China swine, of which he has two 
hundred and fifty on the place. 

Mr Synder has been twice married, and 
is the father of two children, Emma and 
Willie, by his first wife, and three children, 
Ella, Anna and Bertha, by his second wife. 
These ladies are both dead, and he is living 
a widower. From a child he has been a 
Lutheran, and on the soil of Nebraska he 
does not forget his early teaching. In 
former years he has affiliated with the 
Democratic party but is now a Populist. 
He was the first school director in precinct 
F, and maintained a deep interest in the 
cause of education. 



HENRY HARRINGTON. — Foremost 
among the prominent agriculturists 
of York county, Nebraska, is the gentleman 
whose name heads this article. He is com- 
fortably situated on a profitable and well 
improved farm, which adjoins the town of 
Benedict, in Morton township. He is one 
of the representative farmers and stock rais- 
ers of the county, and has been a conspicu- 
ous figure in the development of these great 
industries in the vicinity. He was born in 
Adams county, Illinois, in 1837, and is a 
son of Harry and Pamelia (Keith) Harring- 
ton, who were both natives of New York. 
The father was one of the early settlers of 
Illinois, having first located in the state in 
1825. He took up his residence in Nebraska 
in 1 88 1, and remained there until his death, 
which occurred in 1888. His wife died in 
1849, in Michigan, where the family had 
moved. They were the parents of eight 
children, five sons and three daughters. 

Henry Harrington was reared and edu- 
cated in Illinois, where he attended the log 
school-houses. He started early in life to 
learn the occupation of a farmer, which he 
followed until the breaking out of the war. 
In April, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, 
Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



467 



served for three months, when he was dis- 
charged. He then re-enlisted in the same 
company and regiment, and participated in 
the following engagements : The capture of 
Forts Henry and Donelson, and during the 
fight which occurred before the latter our 
subject received a slight wound. While 
campaigning in Kentucky he had the mis- 
fortune to fall into the hands of the enemy, 
by whom he was held as a prisoner for forty 
days, and in the battle of Shiloh he was 
shot through the leg, which necessitated his 
discharge. As soon as he recovered suffici- 
ently he joined his regiment at Kenesaw 
Mountain and took part in the fight at that 
place. He then was engaged in many skir- 
mishes and battles in and around Atlanta, 
and at the termination of that memorable 
siege the regiment of which our subject was 
a member started with Sherman on that 
"famous march to the sea," and he was 
engaged in all the battles of the campaign, 
even including Altoona Pass. He took part 
in the grand review at Washington, D. C, 
and was mustered out at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, after having spent four years in the 
service of his country. 

After the close of the war Mr. Har- 
rington returned to Illinois, and followed 
agricultural pursuits in that state until 1880, 
when he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and purchased a quarter section of railroad 
land adjoining the town of Benedict, one 
half of which was located on his farm. He is 
now the owner of 335 acres of farm land, and 
also owns part of the town. When Mr. Har- 
rington bought the land it was all raw 
prairie, but by steady application, and 
many hours of hard labor, he has succeeded 
in bringing the same to a high state of cul- 
tivation. The farm is well improved and 
given over to general farming and stock- 
raising, which our subject has followed 
with unparalleled success, until he has 
become one of the most substantial men of 
the township. 



Mr. Harrington was married December 
5, 1868, to Miss Mary A. Worsley, a daugh- 
terof Joseph and Esther (Crandall) Worsley. 
The bride's parents were natives of Ohio 
and Connecticut, who settled in Illinois in a 
very early day, where they now reside, at 
Mendota, the father having attained the 
age of eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington 
are the parents of twelve children, to whom 
they have given the following names: 
Julia M., who is now Mrs. Stockman; Fay 
W. ; Fred A. ; Henry P.; Minnie M., now 
Mrs. James Lewis; Grace C. ; Angle B. ; 
Joseph M. ; Genevieve E. ; Bessie F. and 
Jessie G., who are twins; and Alfred C. 
All the members of this bright and interest- 
ing family are still living. 

Mr. Harrington is a member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and po- 
litically he is a Republican, but has never 
sought office. He possesses many esti- 
mable traits of character, and is en- 
dowed with a good capacity for well di- 
rected labor, which have placed him in 
the front rank of the agricultural element 
of this vicinity. He is keenly alive to the 
interests of the community, and does all in 
his power to raise and elevate the general 
welfare of the people of his township. 



SLEATHERBURY, a prominent farmer 
and representative citizen residing on 
the east half of the southeast quarter of 
section 6, township 13, range i, Polk coun- 
ty, is a native of Indiana, born in Switzer- 
land county, February 19, 1842, and is the 
only child born of the union of Stephen 
and Ann (Lee) Leatherbury, also natives 
of that county. His paternal grandfather, 
Charles Leatherbury, was one of the very 
earliest settlers of Indiana, and the mater- 
nal grandfather also located in Switzerland 
county, when the Indians were far more 
numerous than the white settlers. Both 
reared their families there and took an 



46S 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



active part in the early development of that 
region. The parents of onr snbject lived 
on the old homestead in the Hoosier State, 
the father operating the same until his 
death, which occnrred in 1841. a short 
time prior to the birth of his son. His 
wdow snbseqnently married John Tagne, 
bv whom she had sis children, three still 
living; Mis. Elizabeth Carpenter, a resi- 
dent of York, Nebraska; Samnel. who still 
lives on the old home farm in Indiana: and 
James, of Marysville, Ohio. The parents of 
these children are both now deceased, the 
mother dying in 1871. 

The subject of this sketch remained on 
the home farm with his mother and step- 
father ontfl he had reached man's estate. 
and for one year before the war he engaged 
in farming on his own accoont. Laying aside 
all personal interest, he enlisted Joly 9, 
1 86 1, in Company F, Tweotv-second Indi- 
ana Volnnteer Infantrj". and was first sent 
to St. Louis and later to JeSerson City. 
Missonri. under Col. Jeff. C. Da\Ts. From 
there they proceeded to Glasgow, Missonri, 
and then retomed to Jefferson City, whence 
they went to Sedalia and Springfield, that 
state. They participated in the battle of 
Pea Ridge. Arkansas, the siege of Corinth, 
the engagements at LonisviDe, Kentucky, 
Champion Hills. Nolenville, Tennessee, 
Stone River. Liberty" Gap, Tennessee, Chat- 
tanooga, Missionary Ridge, Tunnel Hill, 
Georgia. Resaca, Rome, Dallas, Big Shanty 
and Kenesaw Monntain. On the 5th of 
Joly. 1864, the regiment went into camp 
within seven miles of Atlanta. The fol- 
lowing day there was a call for water among 
the boys in bine and Mr. Leatherbury volan- 
teeied to fill the canteens at a spring aboat 
one hnndred and fifty yards in front of the 
line and under foil control of the Confederate 
shar{»booters. wfaicfa made the mi^on a 
dangerous one. Gathering np a dozen of 
the empty canteens from his comrades, he 
si one them over he shoolder and started 



on his errand. He reached the spring in 
safety, filled the canteens and started back, 
but had onl5- proceeded half way when 
' ■ crack " went the rifle of a sharpshooter, 
and the bullet passed through his thigh, 
glancing the bone. He did not falter, 
however, and on reaching his company 
called to Lieut. John H. Roberts to assist 
him over the breastworks, telling him he was 
wounded. The Lieutenant responded, and 
after getting him inside asked why he did 
not limp. Our subject replied: " I did 

not want the to know he had hit 

me." The surgeon was called at once, and 
while dressing the wound remarked : ' "Leath- 
erbury, this is a nice httle furlough for 
yon.'" He was sent to the hospital at Big 
Shanty, then to Chattanooga, later to 
Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Jefferson- 
ville. New York City, Hilton Head, South 
Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, 
rejoining his regiment at Goldsboro, North 
Carolina, in March, 1865. He was at that 
place when Joseph E. Johnston surrendered, 
then marched to Washington, District of 
Columbia, by wa5" of Richmond, and par- 
ticipated in the grand review. He then 
proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, and at 
Indianapolis, Indiana, was mustered out, 
July 24, 1865. He had re-enlisted Febru- 
ary 4, 1864, was promoted to the rank of 
corporal July 12, 1865, and as such was 
mustered out. 

At the clcse of the war, Mr. Leatherbury 
retomed to his home in Indiana, where he 
remained until he was married September 
6, 1866. to Miss Carrie E. Brown, who was 
bom in Switzerland county, that state, 
August 25, 1846. Her parents, David and 
Sarah (Gibbsj Brown, were natives of Ver- 
mont and Canada, respectively, and had 
lived at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
when that city was a mere village. They 
were early settlere of Indiana, as was also 
the maternal grandfather, John Gibbs.who 
at one time was nearly killed by the Indians. 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl'. 



469 



Mr. Brown died in that state March i6, 
1 86 1, and his wife May i8, 1875. They 
were the parents of fourteen children, nine 
of whom reached man and womanhood, 
namely: Margaret, who died July 19, 
1897; James, deceased; Hiram, a resident 
of Kentucky; Huldah, of Rossville. Illinois: 
John, of Custer county, Nebraska; Francis 
Marion, of Indiana; Benjamin Franklin, of 
Osceola, Nebraska; Mrs. Leatherbury; and 
William, of Sugar Branch, Indiana. Of 
these. Francis M. and Benjamin F. , twins, 
were soldiers of the Civil war. 

On the 2 1st of October, 1875, Mr. and 
Mrs. Leatherbury landed in Polk county, Ne- 
braska, and located upon their present farm. 
The first few years passed here were filled 
with hardships; their little sod house, which 
had been a stable, had no floor and only a 
hay roof; the furniture consisted of boxes 
for chairs, a box and barrel, with a couple 
of boards laid across them, made the table, 
and the other articles were a bedstead aud 
stove. They raised nothing the first sea- 
son, and their food consisted principally of 
bran bread, potatoes and onions. Their 
live stock consisted of a team of horses, but 
no cows. Ten acres of the farm had al- 
ready been broken, but the first crop planted 
was destroyed by the grasshoppers. With 
characteristic energy, however, Mr. Leath- 
erbury labored untiringlj-, and was ably 
assisted by his wife, who often worked with 
him in the fields. In 1875, while using a 
borrowed seeder in planting his grain, his 
wounded leg would often give out, and then 
Mrs. Leatherbury would mount the seeder 
and drive the team day after day. Pros- 
perity at length crowned their efforts, and 
to-day they own three hundred and twenty 
acres of excellent land, of which two hun- 
dred and twenty acres are under cultivation 
and well improved. After living in the sod 
house for ten years, the roof blew off, and 
in 1886 they erected their present fine two- 
storv residence. In connection with gen- 



eral farming, Mr. Leatherbury is engaged 
in stock raising, having upon his place a 
drove of one hundred and five hogs and 
forty-six head of cattle, including thirty-four 
milch cows, mostly Jerseys. 

Having no children of their own, Mr. 
and Mrs. Leatherbury adopted a pair of 
twins, Delia and Delia, who were bom De- 
cember 28, 1893. and have lived with them 
since thirty days old, being their heirs. 
Fraternally Mr. Leatherbury is an honored 
member of J. F. Reynolds Post, No. 26, 
G. .\. R., of Osceola, and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. He has ahvays 
been an ardent supporter of the Republican 
party, cast his first vote for Abraham Lin- 
coln, and has taken an active part in local 
political affairs, but has never aspired to 
ofiBce, serving only as a member of the 
school board and as treasurer of district 
No. 30. We have seen that he is a man of 
sterling worth in all the relations of life, 
and he and his estimable wife merit and re- 
ceive the highest confidence and respect of 
the entire community. 



w 



ILLIAM A. H-\THAW.\Y. de- 
ceased. — As a representative of the 
intelligent and hardy pioneers who opened 
up Leroy township, York county, Nebraska, 
for settlement and took a conspicuous part 
in developing it, we are pleased to place in 
this volume a brief sketch of the life of the 
gentleman whose name stands at the head 
of this notice. 

Mr. Hathaway was bom in New York 
state, July 19. 1828, and died in York 
county, Nebraska, November 7, 1897, hon- 
ored and respected by all who had the 
pleasure of his acquaintance. His parents. 
Samuel and Martha (^Bowerman" Hatha- 
way, were both natives of Massachusetts, 
whence they removed to New York, and 
from there to Canada, where they spent 
their remaining days in the quiet pursuits of 



470 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



farm life. In their family were five sons 
and one daughter, all of whom are now de- 
ceased with the exception of two. 

In the schools of Canada, William A. 
Hathaway pursued his studies during his 
boyhood and youth. He continued to work 
for his father until twenty-three years of 
age, and then operated the home farm on 
his own account for three years. In 1854 
he came to the United States and found 
employment as a farm laborer in Michigan, 
where he remained for some time. On leav- 
ing that state he removed to Macon, Illi- 
nois, where for seventeen years he made 
his home while he devoted his energies to 
agricultural pursuits. In the fall of 1870 
we find him en route for York county, Ne- 
braska, and on section 26, Leroy township, 
he secured a tract of wild prairie land, 
which he transformed into the beautiful 
farm now owned and occupied by his 
widow. His first home here was a log 
house, the timber for which was hauled 
from the Blue, and there the family made 
their home for many years, when a more 
commodious and modern residence was 
erected. After locating here Mr. Hathaway 
homesteaded a quarter section of land, so 
that at the time of his death he owned a 
valuable and highly improved farm of three 
hundred and twenty acres, on which he 
successfully engaged in general farming and 
stock raising. 

In Illinois, Mr, Hathaway was married 
March 18, 1856, to Miss Catherine Wheeler, 
a daughter of Charles and Mary (Wheeler) 
Wheeler, who were natives of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, respectively, but spent most 
of their life in Illinois, dying, however, in 
Iowa. Eight children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Hathaway, namely: Minerva, Ade- 
line, Samuel O., Joseph L. , Noah E., 
Catherine, Oracle and Mattie. Those now 
deceased are the two eldest and the young- 
est son. 

Politically, Mr. Hathaway was always 



identified with the Republican party after 
its organziation, and served his fellow citi- 
zens very acceptably in a number of town- 
ship offices. He was widely and favorably 
known throughout York county, took an 
active and prominent part in promoting the 
welfare of his community, and his influence 
was great and always for good. His duties 
were performed with the greatest care, and 
throughout his life his personal honor and 
integrity were without blemish. 



AUGUSTUS F. ROBSON, an agricultur- 
ist of energy and ability residing in 
Thayer township, York county, is a native 
of England, born in Lincolnshire, January 
7, 1848, a son of Thomas and Ann Robson, 
of wbom more extended mention is made in 
the sketch of A. M. Robson on another 
page of this work. The paternal grand- 
father was steward in the Cambridge Uni- 
versity, and the maternal grandfather was 
chief of police in his native town. 

The education of our subject was ob- 
tained in the common schools of his native 
land and also in the schools under the su- 
pervision of the Church of England. At 
the age of fourteen he was bound out to 
learn the machinist's trade, at which he 
served a seven years' apprenticeship, and 
then followed his trade in England for one 
year. In 1870 he and his brother crossed 
the ocean, and on landing in the United 
States went direct to Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
where he was employed by the Union Pa- 
cific Bridge Company in various capacities 
for two and a half years. Coming to York 
county, in 1871, he filed a claim to the land 
on which he now lives, but did not perma- 
nently locate here until the latter part of the 
following year, when he erected the first 
frame house in that section of the county, 
it being still his home. To the cultivation 
and improvement of his land he has devoted 
his entire time and attention, and now owns 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



471 



four hundred acres of the best farming land 
to be found in the county, as he has trans- 
formed the wild prairie into highly culti- 
vated and productive fields. In connection 
with genera] farming he is also interested in 
stock raising. 

In June, 1878, Mr. Robson led to the 
marriage altar Miss Frances A. Porter, a 
daughter of William and Sarah E. (Good- 
rope) Porter, both natives of England, 
where Mrs. Robson was also born. With 
her mother she came to the United States 
in 1872 and took up her residence in Ne- 
braska, where she successfully engaged in 
teaching school for three years. By her 
marriage she has become the mother of 
eleven children, whose names and dates of 
birth are as follows: Augustus F. , April 4, 
1879; Vinnie P., December 20, 1880; Edith 
L., May 14, 1882; Annie F., April 15, 1884; 
William A., July 25, 1886; RoyT., Feb- 
ruary 8, 1889; Evelyn P., April 30, 1891; 
John H., October 21, 1893; Herman M., 
September 4. 1895; Rhoda S., March 9, 
1897, and Mary R., August 4, 1898. The 
parents and older children hold member- 
ship in the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and Mr. Robson belongs to the Masonic 
fraternity. In his political views he is a 
strong Democrat, but has never sought 
office, preferring to give his time and atten- 
tion exclusively to his business interests. 
He may be properly classed among the 
self-made men of York county, who, by the 
exercise of their own industry and persever- 
ance, have not only gained for themselves 
a home and a competence, but have mate- 
rially assisted in the progress and develop- 
ment of the country round them. He en- 
joys the unqualified regard of the entire 
community in which he lives. 



LOUIS T. BOUCHARD, who may be 
found at his home on section 24, pre- 
cinct E., Seward county, is a stanch 



American, though born in Canada. He be- 
gan in this county many years ago in the 
most modest way, with but the smallest 
possible amount of cash to work upon, and 
by thrift, economy and undaunted pluck he 
has reached his present enviable position, 
that of an upright, honest and independent 
Nebraska farmer. 

Mr. Bouchard was born at Stockbridge 
station, near Montreal, Canada, and is a son 
of Nelson Bouchard, who has been num- 
bered with the silent dead these many years. 
His mother is still living in the old Stock- 
bridge home at a venerable age, and has 
been a sufferer from paralysis since 1887. 
His parents were both born in Canada, and 
his maternal grandfather was a soldier in the 
war of 1812. Louis remained with his par- 
ents until he reached the age of fifteen 
years, when he left home to win a living for 
himself. He crossed the line and came in- 
to Vermont, which was then a land of 
promise to the youth of Canada. There he 
found employment on a farm, and presently 
made his way to Dixon, Illinois, securing a 
a position in a store, which he held for two 
years. But he was by nature a farmer, and 
he came back to it and put in the next five 
years of his life among the neighboring 
farmers. In 1874 he crossed the Missouri 
and looked upon the inviting soil of Ne- 
braska for the first time, that he might find 
himself a home on its broad and swelling 
bosom. He bought his land in this county 
September 4, 1874, and settled upon it the 
spring of the following year. It was some- 
what improved with a house, stable and 
chickencoop, built of Nebraska "brick," as 
the sod was jocosely called. In 1875 he 
raised his first crop, and here he has lived 
to the present time. 

Mr. Bouchard and Miss Mary Olson 
were married in 1876. She was a native 
of Illinois, and died September 9, 1893, 
leaving one child, May A. His second 
marriage occurred August 17, 1S96, Miss 



472 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Roxie E. Evarts becoming his wife. They 
have two children, Norval E. and Avora. 
Mr. Bouchard has now two hundred and 
eighty acres of land, all well improved and 
without a dollar of incumbrance — a record 
of care and industry creditable to any one. 
He put up his present residence in 1881 at 
a cost of eleven hundred dollars, and in 1898 
has just completed a hay house that cost 
him one hundred and fifty dollars. His farm 
buildings are superior and the thorough- 
ness of his farm appointments attract at- 
tention. His land is now all under cultiva- 
tion, and is rented to advantage. He has 
followed general farming, with considerable 
attention to hogs and cattle, and has met 
with a very substantia! success. He was 
reared in the Catholic church, and is a de- 
voted supporter of that communion. He 
has been treasurer of school district 37 for 
twelve years and is a believer in education. 
His daughter is now a student at the State 
University, and is making a special study 
of music. He has given her every ad- 
vantage in her schooling, and is proud of 
the progress she has made. 



CLAUS ABRAHAMS, a stalwart and 
sturdy representative of the noble yeo- 
manry who make up the agricultural popu- 
lation of Seward county, has his homestead 
upon section 24, precinct D, where for 
twenty-seven years he has successfully en- 
gaged in general farming. He claims Ger- 
many as his native land and was born April 
19, 1844, a son of Charles N. and Annie 
(Maak) Abrahams, who were also natives of 
that country, and there the mother died. In 
1884 the father came to the United States 
and passed his last days at the home of a 
son in Missouri, dying there in April, 1896. 
By trade he was a carpenter, but he also 
engaged in farming and conducted a store 
for some time in Germany. In the family 
were eight sons and two daughters, of whom 



seven sons came to the new world, and four 
are now living. The daughters are both 
deceased. 

The subject of this sketch was reared 
and educated in his native land, and as soon 
as old enough to be of any assistance he 
helped his father in the store and on the 
farm. On leaving home in 1865 he crossed 
the broad Atlantic, landing in New York, 
and first located at Davenport, Iowa, near 
which place he engaged in farming until 
1 87 1 — the year of his arrival in Seward 
county, Nebraska. He made the journey 
here by team, and on reaching his destina- 
tion took up a homestead on section 24, 
D township. His first home here was a dug- 
out twelve by sixteen feet, but after living 
in it for two years, it was replaced by a good 
sod house, and later a substantial and more 
commodious frame residence was erected. 
He at once commenced breaking prairie and 
in due time had his farm all under excellent 
cultivation. He has succeeded far beyond 
his expectations and is now the owner of a 
fine farm of three hundred acres, all well 
improved. 

Mr. Abrahams was married in Iowa, in 
1869, to Miss Matilda Horn, also a native 
of Germany, but the only child born to them 
is deceased. They have an adopted son, 
however, Frederick H. They are active 
and prominent members of the German 
Lutheran church, of which Mr. Abrahams 
was one of the founders, and have the re- 
spect and confidence of all who know them. 
In politics he is a " sound money" Demo- 
crat, and he has most acceptably filled the 
office of town treasurer for three years. 



J 



OHN W. HAFER, who is a resident of 
section 3, Chelsea township, Fillmore 
county, is one who may be fittingly termed a 
self-made man. He was born October 16, 
1847, 3^t Rainsburg, Pennsylvania, and was a 
son of Robert and Ellen C. (Morgert) Hafer. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



473 



The grand parents on the paternal side were 
John Hafer, whose occupation was that of 
a miller, and Mary Hafer. The maternal 
grandparents were Peter and Elizabeth 
(Cesney) Morgert. The ancestors were all of 
French and German descent, and most of 
them followed farming as means of livli- 
hood. Robert Hafer moved in early life to 
Illinois, where he bought a farm in Henry 
county, where our subject was reared and 
educated. He remained on his father's 
farm until he was twenty-four years of age, 
and then began working on the Rock Island 
railroad, and worked there two years. On 
December 25, 1873, at the age of twenty- 
seven, he was married to Miss Hester M. 
Hammond, at Morristown, Illinois. She 
was a daughter of Alexander and Catherine 
J. (Sperbeck) Hammond. Her paternal 
grandparents were Mathew and Hannah 
A. (Ketchum) Hammond, and the maternal 
grandparents were John and Martha (Os- 
trander) Sperbeck, who were all born in 
America, but whose ancestors originally 
came from Holland. Immediately after 
their marriage they commenced farming, 
and farmed on rented land for seven years. 
After carefully considering the matter, he 
decided that the west offered more and 
better agricultural advantages than the east, 
and he determined to try his fortune in the 
west. In the spring of 1881, they loaded 
all their goods on the cars, and started for 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, and arrived at 
Fairmont on March 18, and in the middle 
of April the family moved on their farm. 
Prospects were not encouraging, however, 
for the land was entirely unimproved and 
uncultivated. But they went to work with 
a will and by thrift and economy they were 
enabled to add one hundred and sixty acres 
more to their farm. He now has three 
hundred and twenty acres of fine farming 
land all under a high state of cultivation 
and well improved. His buildings are large 
and well preserved, and are all built with 



the idea of convenience. He has by care- 
ful cultivation grown a fine orchard of apple, 
cherry and plum trees, which serve not only 
to beautify his home, but also to furnish an 
abundance of fruit. 

To Mr. Hafer's marriage have been born 
nine children, eight of whom are still living: 
John R. , Catherine M., who is a member of 
the celebrated Ladies Geneva Marine Band, 
which organization has already won an 
enviable reputation, Mary E., Frank A., 
Lottie A., Cleveland, Bessie Irene, and 
Lela G. 

While Mr. and Mrs. Hafer were both 
reared under the influence of the Protest- 
ant religion, yet at present neither is 
connected with any church organization, 
but are both members of the Degree of 
Honor of the A. O. U. W. fraternity. 
Politically our subject stands in the rank of 
the Independent party and is a firm believer 
in bi metalism, and he has aided materially 
in placing the Independent party on its 
present strong footing in Fillmore county. 
The people have manifested their confidence 
in his ability and integrity by electing him 
to the office of assessor of his township, 
which office he held for three years. He 
also served as school director for three 
years, and acquitted himself with credit. 
He takes a great interest in all educational 
matters, and in any movement that is for 
the benefit of his county. 



WESLEY TROLLOP, a representative 
farmer and influential citizen of 
Waco township, York county, carrying on 
operations on section 10, is a native of Lin- 
colnshire, England, born February 18, 
1829, and is one of a family of nine chil- 
dren, whose parents were William and 
Mary (Clifton) Trollop. He grew to man- 
hood in his native land, but in 1852 crossed 
the Atlantic and proceeded at once to Illi- 
nois, where he worked in different places 



474 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



for a few years. In 1855 he located in Lo- 
gan county, that state, and turned his at- 
tention to farming. On the 7th of August, 
1862, he joined the boys in blue, enlisting 
in Company H, One Hundred and Fifteenth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a private, and 
with his regiment proceeded to Kentucky. 
Under Gen. Gordon Granger, he was in a 
number of skirmishes, followed by the bat- 
tle of Franklin, and at Chickamauga, on 
Sunday, September 20, 1863, he received a 
gunshot wound in the right hip and another 
in the left thigh. For thirteen days and 
nights he lay on the field of battle without 
food or water, and was there found by three 
surgeons who were passing near him, and 
who carried him to a vacant log house near 
by, where they found twelve other wounded 
men. Three days later they were taken 
prisoners and carried into a rebel camp, 
but on the 3rd of October were recaptured 
by the Union army and were sent to the 
field hospital at Chattanooga. Three 
weeks later Mr. Trollop was transferred to 
the hospital at Nashville, where he remained 
one month. He was then granted a three 
months' furlough which he spent at home, 
and at the end of that time reported for 
duty at the Nashvile field hospital. In 1864 
he was transferred to the Mounted Invalid 
Corps at Washington, District of Columbia, 
doing city patrol duty until finally dis- 
charged in February, 1862, on account of 
his wounds. 

Returning to Illinois, Mr. Trollop lived 
for one year in Delavan, and then rented a 
farm, which he operated when his health 
would permit. In 1871 he came to York 
county, Nebraska, and located on the home- 
stead where he still continues to reside, his 
family arriving the following year. At that 
time there were only three or four families 
in the township, and most of the land was 
still in its primitive condition. He put up 
a board shanty on his place, and in 1872 
rented twenty acres of land of Joseph Alli- 



son and raised some corn. The following 
year he raised some crops, but the grass- 
hoppers destroyed his wheat, and the next 
year they also took his crops. During the 
year 1883 he lived in Waco, but with that 
exception his home has been on the farm 
since coming to this state, and he now has 
the entire tract of three hundred and twenty 
acres under a high state of cultivation. 

On the 18th of March, i860, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Trollop and 
Miss Sarah Ann Stockton, a native of Hun- 
terdon county. New Jersey, and a daughter 
of William Stockton, now a resident of 
Waco, Nebraska. She is descended from 
distinguished Revolutionary ancestry. Com- 
modore Stockton having belonged to the 
same family. To Mr. and Mrs. Trollop 
have been born nine children, namely: 
Lyman, deceased; Charles L. , George A., 
Joseph H., Mary H., Emily, Lavinia, Alice 
May, and Nina, deceased. 

Fraternally Mr. Trollop is an honored 
member of Dick Yates Post, No. 41, G. A. 
R. , of Waco, in which he has served as 
senior vice commander, and politically he 
is identified with the Republican party. He 
has held the office of road supervisor and 
has also been a member of the school board 
for about seventeen years, the duties of 
which positions he has most ably and satis- 
factorily performed. He is widely and fa- 
vorably known throughout the county, and 
his circle of friends is only limited by his 
circle of acquaintances. 



LEVI M. SIDWELL.— The fine farm on 
section 29, Thayer township, York 
county, owned and occupied by this gen- 
tleman, invariably attracts the eye of the 
passing traveler as being under the super- 
vision of a thorough and skillful agricultur- 
ist, and a man otherwise of good business 
qualifications. He was born in Warren 
county, Iowa, September 14, 1853, a son of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



475 



Hugh and Eva (McVicker) Sidwell, natives 
of Preston county, West Virginia, who, in 
1852, emigrated to Iowa and settled in War- 
ren county. In 1861 they removed to Ap- 
panoose county, that state, and in 1876 
came to York county, Nebraska. The 
father's death occurred in Humboldt, this 
state, in 1892, and the mother died the 
same year at the home of our subject in 
York county. To them were born a family 
of eight children, five sons and three daugh- 
ters. The father was twice married, his 
first wife being a Miss Baker, who died in 
Virginia. The grandfather, Jesse Sidwell, 
spent his last days in Iowa. 

The subject of this sketch is the oldest of 
the children born of the second marriage, 
and was reared and educated in Iowa, where 
he began work as a farmer. Throughout his 
active business career he has been interested 
in agricultural pursuits, an occupation which 
his ancestors had followed for several gener- 
ations. After renting land for some time in 
his native state, he purchased a farm of 
forty acres, which he traded in 1876 for a 
claim on section 18, Thayer township, York 
county, Nebraska, and at once removed to 
his new home. To the original tract he 
later added forty acres by purchase and 
continued to reside upon that place until 
1888, when he removed to his present farm 
on section 29, Thayer township, which he 
has converted into one of the most highly 
cultivated tracts of the neighborhood. 

While still a resident of Iowa, Mr. Sid- 
well was married in 1874 to Miss Martha J. 
Adams, a daughter of John N. and Mary S. 
(Sheek) Adams, who had removed from 
North Carolina to Iowa at an early day. 
There the father died, but the mother is 
still living and is a resident of that state. 
Mr. and Mrs. Sidwell have a family of nine 
children, namely: Emma I., now the wife 
of C. M. Albin; Myrtle M., Susan M., Oscar 
J., Lulu B., Leona, Lawrence M., Bina E. 
and Audray Rose. Socially, Mr. Sidwell is 



a member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, while politically he is a supporter of the 
Democracy, and has been called upon to fill 
some minor offices in his township. 



GEORGE N. NICHOLS, a worthy rep- 
resentative of the farming interests of 
Butler county, became a resident of Platte 
township in June, 1869, and is now the 
owner of a well improved and valuable 
farm on section 22, having transformed the 
wild land into highly cultivated fields. He 
has watched the development of the re- 
sources of this region with the interest 
which every intelligent man feels in regard 
to the section of the country where he has 
spent the best years of his life, and should 
feel satisfaction in the thought that he has 
been no unimportant factor in bringing it to 
its present condition. 

Mr. Nichols was born in Orleans county, 
New York, June 30, 1833, a son of Henry 
and Nellie (Food) Nichols, and when two 
years old was taken by his parents to La 
Grange county, Indiana, where he lived 
until he attained his majority. In 1854 he 
removed to Webster county, Iowa, where 
he was married in July, of the following 
year, to Miss Sarah Baxter, a daughter of 
George and Lavina (James) Baxter, who 
also became early settlers of Butler county, 
Nebraska, securing a homestead in Platte 
township in 1869. To our subject and his 
wife were born two children: Mary Ellen, 
now the wife of Ransom Butler, of Nuckolls 
county, Nebraska; and William Ira. They 
also have an adopted son, Fred Nichols. 

On leaving Webster county, Iowa, Mr. 
Nichols came to Butler county in June, 
1869, as before stated. He camped out 
upon his claim the first season until a 
frame house, 14x20 feet in size, could be 
erected. It was one of the best dwellings 
in the neighborhood at that time. Mr. 
Nichols experienced all the trials and diffi- 



476 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



culties of frontier life, but is now enjoying 
the reward of his labors and his struggles, 
in the possession of a fine homestead, where 
he is surrounded by all of the comforts and 
many of the luxuries of life. His political 
support is always given the men and meas- 
ures of the Republican party. 



SAMUEL L. SHILEY.— York county 
his many well-to-do and successful farm- 
ers, who have accumulated what they have of 
this world's goods through individual effort. 
Among this class the name of the subject of 
this notice is entitled to a place. He is re- 
siding on section 28, Thayer township, 
where he is industriously engaged in the 
prosecution of his noble calling, and is 
meeting with far more than ordinary suc- 
cess. 

Mr. Shiley was born October i, 1848, 
in Blair county, Pennsylvania, of which 
state his parents, William H. and Elizabeth 
(Strickler) Shiley, were also natives. The 
father, who was a coachmaker by trade, 
died before his son Samuel was born, but 
his wife survived him many years and died 
at the home of our subject in Nebraska. 
Reared in his native state, Mr. Shiley ob- 
tained his education in its public schools. 
In August, 1864, before he had attained the 
age of sixteen years, he enlisted in Com- 
pany B, Two Hundred and Eighth Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteer Infantry, and was one of 
the faithful defenders of his country until 
hostilities ceased. He participated in the 
battle of Fort Steadman, was in all of the 
engagements around Petersburg, and also 
took part in the battle of Appomattox. Al- 
though he was never wounded, he con- 
tracted rheumatism while in the service, 
and also had his hearing impaired. 

When the war was over Mr. Shiley re- 
turned to his home in Pennsylvania, where 
he spent two years, and then went to Illi- 
nois, where he worked for three summers. 



It was in 1871 that he came to York county, 
Nebraska, and took up a homestead on sec- 
tion 28, Thayer township, on which he 
erected a sod house, where he lived alone 
for seven years while devoting his entire 
time and attention to the cultivation and 
improvement of his land. He has met with 
decided success in his farming operations, 
and is one of the most successful stock rais- 
ers in the county, making a specialty of 
pure blooded Aberdeen Angus cattle. 
Although he came west without means, he is 
now the owner of four hundred acres of rich 
and arable land which yields to him a golden 
tribute in return for the care and labor be- 
stowed upon it. Upon the place he has 
erected a comfortable and pleasant home 
besides good and substantial out-buildings, 
which stand as monuments to his thrift and 
industry. 

In January, 1878, Mr. Shiley was united 
in marriage with Miss Susan Madden, also a 
native of Blair county, Pennsylvania, and a 
daughter of Charles and Margaret Madden, 
who spent their entire lives in that state. 
Four children grace this union, two sons and 
two daughters, as follows: Ralph C, Floyd 
P., Ethel M. and Ruth E. Mr. Shiley and 
family are all connected with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, of Thayer, and he is 
also a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and the Home Forum. His po- 
litical support is always given the men and 
measures of the Republican party, and it is 
safe to say that no one in his community 
has more or warmer friends than Samuel L. 
Shiley. 



WILLIAM VOLZKE, who follows farm- 
ing on section 2, Waco township, 
where he has a good farm of three hundred 
and twenty acres, is a native of Pomen, 
Prussia, born June 20, 1836. He was 
reared to manhood in the land of his birth, 
and in accordance with the law of the coun- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



try attended the public schools between the 
ages of six and fourteen years, acquiring a 
good education to fit him for the practical 
duties of life. On putting aside his text- 
books he entered upon his business career 
in the capacity of a farm hand, and later 
was employed by a baker for four years. 
Subsequently he spent five years in the serv- 
ice of a hotel proprietor, and thus step by 
step advanced, working his way by slow de- 
grees from a humble position to one of af- 
fluence. 

Mr. Volzke was married, in 1861, to Miss 
Minnie Stark, a native of Pomen, Prussia, 
and in 1866 they crossed the Atlantic to 
America. While making the voyage one of 
their children died of sea measles. Two 
months were spent as passengers on the 
sailing vessel Nicker before they reached 
the harbor of Quebec, for which port the 
vessel had embarked. Our subject and his 
family then made their way to Detroit and 
on to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and for five 
years resided in Kenosha county, Wiscon- 
sin, and worked for one man (M. Kingman) 
on a farm for five years. In 1871 they came 
to Nebraska, taking up their residence upon 
the farm which is now the home of our sub- 
ject. It was then a wild tract on which not 
a furrow had been turned or an improve- 
ment made, but with characteristic energy 
Mr. Volzke began its development. His 
home was a little frame house, twelve by 
sixteen feet, covered with sod. During the 
first season he broke twenty acres of ground 
and planted ten acres of sod corn; in 1872 
he put in twenty acres of corn, but could 
not buy any seed wheat; in 1873 he raised 
a crop of corn and of wheat, and the follow- 
ing year had some wheat, but his corn was 
eaten by grasshoppers. Thus he struggled 
along for several years, and in order to get 
some ready money to meet expenses also 
worked on the railroad, but as time passed 
he overcame the difficulties and obstacles 
attendant upon the development of a new 



farm and is now the owner of a valuable 
and highly cultivated farm. His possessions 
aggregate three hundred and twenty acres, 
of which one himdred and ten acres are un- 
der cultivation and yield to the owner a 
golden tribute in return for his labor. He 
has planted an orchard and carried on gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising, now meeting 
with success in his undertakings. All that 
he has is the result of his own labors, and 
having been the architect of his own fort- 
unes he has builded wisely and well. 

Mr. and Mrs. Volzke have three living 
children: Fritz, who married Rose Kuhn 
and has seven children, Anna, wife of Her- 
man Munt, by whom she has four children; 
and Willie, who married Barbara Shaar and 
has two children: Our subject and his wife 
have also lost four children. They are 
members of the German Lutheran church, 
in which he has served as trustee for six 
years. In politics he is a stalwart Repub- 
lican and for six years served as a member 
of the school board, while his son Fritz is 
now a member of the board. His hope of 
bettering his financial condition in America 
has not only been realized, but in addition 
to gaining a comfortable competence, he 
has secured a good home and won many 
friends. 

WILLIAM McBETH is one of the 
highly respected and substantial citi- 
zens of Polk county, whose early home was 
on the other side of the Atlantic, and who 
came to this country in limited circum- 
stances, but with the hope of gaining a 
home and fortune in this free land of ours 
where better opportunities are furnished 
ambitious, industrious and enterprising 
young men than in the old world. His 
dreams of the future have been more than 
realized, and he is to-day the owner of one 
of the best farms in Polk county, pleasantly 
situated on the northeast quarter of section 
12, township 14, range 2. 



478 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. McBeth was born in December, 
1837, in County Londonderry, Ireland, 
where his parents, James and Mary (Denni- 
son) McBeth, spent their last days, the 
father dying when our subject was only six 
years old. For twenty-one years he was a 
soldier in the British army, and after being 
honorably discharged received a pension. 
One son, James, was also in the British 
service for ten years and took part in the 
Crimean war. There were eight children 
in the family, but only two are now 
living: Mrs. Isabella Mowbrey, still a resi- 
dent of Ireland, and William, the subject 
of this sketch. 

The common schools of his native land 
afforded William McBeth his educational 
privileges, and he remained in Ireland until 
July 18, i860, when he crossed the Atlantic 
to the new world. After spending one year 
in New York City, he went to Stark county, 
Ohio, where he subsequently joined the 
Union army, January 29, 1862, as a pri- 
vate in the Third Ohio Battery, Light Ar- 
tillery. After three months spent in Vir- 
ginia, they returned home and re-enlisted 
for three years, and at Waynesburg, Ohio, 
were prepared to go to Fort Henry. Mr. 
McBeth joined them at St. Louis and took 
part in the battle of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, 
the siege of Corinth, and the battle of luka, 
after which they went into winter quarters 
at Memphis, Tennessee. They were next 
in the engagements at Port Gibson, Ray- 
mond, Jackson, Mississippi, Champion Hill, 
Black River, the siege of Vicksburg, and 
after the fall of that stronghold went with 
General Sherman to drive General Joseph 
E. Johnston back, which they did at Me- 
ridian, Mississippi. They then returned to 
Vicksburg, where the entire battery veter- 
anized in March, 1864, and were granted a 
thirty days' furlough. Later they were or- 
dered to Cairo, Illinois, then went with 
General Sherman to Huntsville, Alabama, 
and were in the battles of Resaca, Dalton, 



Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek and 
Atlanta, July 22. They were then sent 
with General Thomas to Nashville, and 
took part in the battle at that place De- 
cember 15 and 16, 1864, after which they 
remained there until March, 1865. They 
were then mounted at Fort Donelson and 
engaged in hunting bushwhackers until the 
close of the war. At Cleveland, Ohio, they 
were mustered out, July 31, 1865. Mr. 
McBeth was in every engagement in which 
his battery took part, but was fortunately 
never wounded nor taken prisoner. 

After the war, Mr. McBeth worked in 
Stark county, Ohio, until 1869, when he re- 
moved to Knox county, Illinois, making his 
home there until April, 1873, when he came 
Polk county, Nebraska, and secured his 
present homestead. The few settlers at 
that time were widely scattered, and ante- 
lope and deer still roamed over the prairies. 
Our subject's live stock at that time con- 
sisted of but one cow, and his finances were 
also low, but a grocer at Osceola kindly al- 
lowed him to get his provisions on credit 
for eight months. The first year he broke 
some land and raised a small crop of sod 
corn, and since that time has steadily pros- 
pered until to-day he is the owner of a 
valuable tract of five hundred and sixty 
acres, all improved with the exception of 
eighty acres. To accomplish this he has 
labored untiringly. 

In 1868 Mr. McBeth married Miss Sarah 
Melissa Seaburg, who was born in Stark 
county, Ohio, January 30, 1843. Her par- 
ents, Joseph and Catherine (Munn) Sea- 
burg, were natives of Pennsylvania and 
Scotland, respectively, were married in the 
Keystone state, and became early settlers of 
Stark county, Ohio, where both died. They 
had eight children, of whom seven are still 
living, and three sons — Charles M., James 
C. and Dallas — served in the Union army 
during the Civil war. Seven children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. McBeth, of whom six 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



479 



are living: James M., who wedded Mary 
Blasciikie, and is now serving as captain of 
the Sons of Veterans, at Osceola; Emily J., 
who married Guy Pierce and has one child, 
Norman A.; Robert H., who is first lieuten- 
ant of the Sons of Veterans at Osceola; 
Frank M. ; Mary F. ; and William Harrison. 
Mr. and Mrs. McBeth are leading mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian Church at Osceola, 
in which he is serving as elder, and they 
regularly attend both the church services 
and Sunday school. He has been senior 
vice-commander of the G. A. R. post, at 
Osceola, of which he is an honored mem- 
ber, and his wife belongs to the Woman's 
Relief Corps. Since becoming a citizen of 
the United States, he has given an unfalter- 
ing allegiance to the Republican party, has 
been an active worker in its ranks, has served 
as assessor of Canada precinct, and has 
been a school officer for the long period of 
eighteen years. This country has no more 
patriotic or loyal citizen than Mr. McBeth, 
who gives his support to all measures which 
he believes in any way calculated to pro- 
mote the general welfare or. advance the in- 
terests of his county, state or nation. 



JOHN R. DOWNING an experienced 
and successful agriculturist of York coun- 
ty, residing on section i8, Stewart township, 
was born in Adams county, Illinos, April 12, 
1 85 1, a son of R. H.and Rebecca (Bennett) 
Downing. The father was born in either 
Indiana or Virginia, and was a son of Rezin 
Downing, a native of Loudoun county, 
Virginia, who lived for a few years in Indi- 
ana, and during the forties removed to 
Adams county, Illinois. , locating near Camp 
Point, where his death occurred. The 
mother of our subject was born in Indiana, 
of which state, her father, O. H. Bennett, 
was an early settler, but he, too, removed to 
Adams county, Illinois, during the pioneer 
days of that locality and there spent the re- 



mainder of his life. Our subject's parents 
were married in that county and there made 
their home upon a farm near the village of 
Golden. The father died January 26,1897, 
but the mother is still living on the old 
homestead, and although helpless she still 
enjoys good health. She is a member of 
the Methodist church, to which her husband 
also belonged. Their children were as fol- 
lows: John R. , of this review; W. O., a 
a resident of York county, Nebraska; Mary 
Eliza; Nancy Ellen; Charles A., of Han- 
cock county, Illinois; Florence Emma; 
Laura; Cora Efifie and Warren Hampton. 

Upon the home farm in Adams county, 
Illinois, John R. Downing grew to manhood, 
while his education was obtained in the dis- 
trict schools of the neighborhood. In 1874 
he married Miss Henrietta A. Hughes, also 
a native of that county, and a daughter of 
James A. and Sarah B. (Becket) Hughes, 
who had removed there from Indiana at an 
early day. Nine children were born of this 
union, namely: Inez May, Asa Elmer, Ora 
Ella, Otho Rezin, John Calfee, Ray Hamp- 
ton, Ethel Fredonia, Laura Adeline and 
Oscar Tate. 

Mr. and Mrs. Downing began their do- 
mestic life upon a farm in Adams county, 
where they lived for five and a half years, 
while he engaged in its operation during the 
summer season and taught school during 
the winter months. In 1879 they removed 
to Atchison county, Missouri, where he im- 
proved a farm, and continued its cultivation 
until coming to Nebraska in 1882. At that 
time he located upon his present farm in 
Stewart township, York county, which com- 
prises 240 acres, of which two hundred is 
under excellent cultivation and well im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings. 
As a farmer and stock-raiser he is meeting 
with a well deserved success, for he thor- 
oughly understands his chosen calling, is a 
man of sound judgment and good executive 
ability. 



480 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl^. 



As a Republican, Mr. Downing takes 
quite an active interest in political affairs, 
and has capably served as treasurer of school 
district No. 55. With his wife and five 
older children, he is a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, and is now serving 
as trustee and steward in the same. Soci- 
ally he affiliates with the Ancient Order of 
United Workman at Gresham.and he and 
his wife and eldest daughter belong to the 
Knights and Ladies of Honor, at that place. 



HON. JOHN H. MICKEY.— Rising 
above the heads of the mass there 
have always been a series of individuals, 
distinguished beyond others, who by reason 
of their pronounced ability and forceful per- 
sonality, have commanded the homage of 
their fellow men, and who have revealed to 
the world those two resplendent virtues of a 
lordly race — perseverance in purpose and a 
directing spirit which never fails. Such a man 
is Mr. Mickey, whose name stands foremost 
on the roll of the prominent men of Polk 
county, who have been the founders of her 
prosperity, the promoters of her enterprise. 
He belongs to that class of representative 
citizens who advance the general welfare by 
promoting their individual success, and his 
life history is inseparably interwoven with 
the annals of this locality. With this 
sketch is presented a portrait of Mr. 
Mickey. 

John H. Mickey was born near Burling- 
ton, Iowa, September 30, 1845, and is a son 
of Oliver P. and Betsey Ann (Davison) 
Mickey, both natives of Pennsylvania. 
Emigrating to Iowa the father located near 
Burlington the year following the Black 
Hawk war, making his home with his uncle, 
Mr. Gerhart, four miles west of the city. 
He was a farmer by occupation. Soon 
after his marriage he removed to Louisa 
county, Iowa, and purchased a tract of raw 
land seven miles south of Wapello, the 



county seat. There he improved a valuable 
farm, making it his home until his death. 
He held membership in the Methodist 
church and took an active part in its work, 
serving as steward, class leader and Sunday- 
school superintendent, and was often a 
delegate to conference. He was also a 
warm friend of the cause of education and 
did all in his power for the advancement 
of the schools. He died while visiting in 
Nebraska, November 14, 1892, when about 
seventy years of age. His widow still 
survives him and makes her home in 
Wapello, Iowa. They were parents of 
nine children: John H. ; George F., deceased 
Adeline T., wife of Leander Blake, of 
Northfield, Iowa. Albert P., a hardware 
merchant of Osceola, Nebraska; Weston, 
deceased; Thomas, who was drowned in 
Iowa river; William O., a farmer residing 
near Osceola, Nebraska; Basil S., also a 
farmer of that locality: and lona, wife of 
Isaac Jamison, of Louisa county, Iowa. 

John H. Mickey was reared on the home 
farm in Louisa county and is indebted to its 
common schools for his educational facilities. 
During the war of the Rebellion, roused by 
a spirit of patriotism, he enlisted in his 
country's service in August, 1863, as a mem- 
ber of Company D, Eighth Iowa Cavalry, 
and was mustered into the United States 
service at Davenport, Iowa, on the 30th of 
September. The regiment soon went to 
Louisville, Kentucky, then marched to Nash- 
ville and spent the winter near Waverly, 
Tennessee, scouring the country after guer- 
rillas. In March, 1864, they were ordered 
back to Nashville and at Chattanooga joined 
Sherman's army, preparing for the Atlantic 
campaign. Under command of General 
McCook he participated in that campaign 
until the siege of Atlanta, when his com- 
mand was ordered to the right of the city to 
meet the forces of General Kilpatrick, who 
were coming around from the left. The 
two armies failed to meet, but General Mc- 




HON. JOHN H, MICKEY. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



48S 



Cook's command succeeded in tearing up the 
railroad and supplies. On their return, 
three hundred of their men were captured 
and taken to Andersonville. The remnant 
of the regiment was then sent to Nashville, 
remounted and ordered to Florence, Ten- 
nessee, for parole duty, and on the advance 
of Hood were driven into Nashville. The 
regiment to which Mr. Mickey belonged 
took an active part in the campaign between 
Hood and Thomas, including the battle of 
Franklin and the two-days engagement at 
Nashville. On the second day of that en- 
gagement our subject was stricken down 
with intermittent fever, and for two weeks 
was at Spring Hill in the hospital. He then 
reported for duty at Waterloo, took part in 
the Wilson raid south to the Gulf, and on 
arriving at Macon, Georgia, learned that 
the south had surrendered. In August, 
1865, he was mustered out at Macon, and 
at Clinton, Iowa, was honorably discharged 
with the rank of corporal. He was never 
wounded or captured, and with the excep- 
tion of the time spent in the hospital, was 
never off duty, but was always found val- 
iantly defending the starry banner and the 
cause it represented. 

After his return home Mr. Mickey con- 
tinued his education in the common schools 
for one term and then spent two years as a 
student in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He was 
married September 10, 1867, to Miss Mo- 
rinda McCray, who was born in Des Moines 
county, Iowa, April 8, 1849. In 1868 Mr. 
Mickey came to Nebraska and secured a 
homestead claim on Blue river, twelve 
miles southeast of Osceola. For four years 
he was engaged in the cultivation of that 
farm, and has always been an active factor 
in the development and progress of the 
county. In 1872 he was an active factor in 
laying out the town of Osceola, and the 
same year took up his residence there. He 
has since been actively identified with the 
its upbuilding — in fact, the town largely 

28 



stands as a monument to his enterprise and 
energy. On the 26th of May, 1879, he 
opened the only private banking institution 
in Polk county, calling it the Osceola Bank. 
In 1881 it was incorporated as a state bank, 
with ex-Governor Albinus Nance as presi- 
dent and Mr. Mickey as cashier. Its pres- 
ent officers are: John H. Mickey, president; 
E. L. King, vice-president ;01iver E, Mickey^ 
cashier; and S. A. Snider, assistant cashier- 
It has a paid up capital of $37,500, and'i 
under the able management of Mr. Mickey, 
has become one of the most reliable and' 
trustworthy financial institutions in this part 
of the state. A general banking business is 
carried on, and in 1882 a commodious brick 
bank building was erected, and in 1893 it 
remodeled. In connection with his bank- 
ing interests, Mr. Mickey has large farming 
interests in Polk county and owns much 
stock, having one hundred and fifty head of 
fine Durham cattle, and one hundred head of 
"feeders." His home is situated on a fine 
farm of two hundred and forty acres, which, 
adjoins the city limits of Osceola. 

In 1886 Mr. Mickey was called upon to 
mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 
23rd of December. They were the parents 
of seven children, five of whom are living, 
namely: Oliver E., Harlan A., Evan S., 
Bertha E. , and Mary N. Those deceased 
are John and Warren. The present wife of 
Mr. Mickey was in her maidenhood Miss 
Flora C. Campbell, daughter of Benjamin 
C. Campbell, of Osceola. She is a native 
of Iowa, and by her marriage has four chil- 
dren: Benjamin H., James H., who died 
September 14, 1893, Ralph D., and 
Flora E. 

The parents are members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, in which Mr. Mickey 
takes a very active part, serving as steward, 
trustee, class leader and Sunday-school su- 
perintendent. In December, 1895, he was 
elected president of the board of trustees of 
the Nebraska Wesleyan University at Uni- 



484 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHJ-. 



versity Place, Nebraska, and has since filled 
that position. He was a lay delegate to the 
general conference in Cleveland, Ohio, in 
May, 1896, and does all in his power to 
promote the cause of Christianity among 
men. He is a charter member and Past 
Commander of J. F. Reynolds Post, No. 
26, G. A. R. and in politics has always been 
a stanch Republican since casting his first 
presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln when 
nineteen years of age; his service in the war 
entitling him to the right of franchise. In 
August, 1870, on the organization of Polk 
county, he was elected county treasurer and 
filled that position with marked ability and 
fidehty until January, 1880, when an act 
was passed limiting the term of service to 
two terms. He is the present treasurer of 
the school board of Osceola, and in 1881-2 
served as a member of the school board. 
He gives a generous support to every meas- 
ure for the public good and his worth to 
Polk county cannot be over estimated. His 
public and private life are alike above re- 
proach. Honorable in business, faithful in 
public office, tried and true in social circles, 
no man more justly deserves the regard in 
which he is held, and no citizen of Polk 
county enjoys the respect of his fellow citi- 
zens to a greater degree. 



MILTON D. CAREY, the ex-prosecut- 
ing attorney of Seward county, early 
won recognition, alike for his mastery of the 
science of law, and for his ability in its 
elucidation to judge and jury. In a county 
where the legal practice is graced by a bar 
that has taken on the proportions and char- 
acter that individualize the bar of Seward 
county, it requires more than the usual 
ability to rise above the common run. And 
it is no exaggeration to say that Milton D. 
Carey stands well up in the profession. 

Mr. Carey was born in Fillmore county, 
Minnesota, February 24, 1863, and was a 



child of Daniel and Elvira (Smile}) Carey. 
They were natives of Pennsylvania, and 
were bred to an agricultural life. They 
changed their residence several times and 
moved from their native state to Wisconsin. 
From there they went to Mirnesota, and 
finally settled in Hamilton county, Iowa, 
where the husband and father died in 1893, 
and where the mother is still living. They 
had six sons that grew to manhood, and five 
of these are still alive. The subject of this 
writing is the youngest of the family. His 
grandfather, John Carey, was a native of 
Pennsylvania, and late in his life moved to 
Iowa, where he died. 

Milton D. Carey was educated in Iowa, 
and at the age of eighteen entered DePauw 
University, a famous Indiana institution de- 
voted to the higher learning, for the pur- 
pose of taking a full classical course. He 
graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1888, 
and two years later was a member of the 
graduating class of the law department of 
the same school. He immediately came to 
this county to which his attention had al- 
ready been directed, and locating at Seward 
entered into partnership with Mr. Beggs, 
under the firm name of Beggs & Carey. 
This firm did not long continue, and upon 
its dissolution Mr. Carey continued his busi- 
ness without professional assistance until 
January i, 1898, when the firm of Carey & 
Brodley was announced to the world, the 
junior partner, George Brodley, being a 
young man of unusual gifts. Mr. Carey 
was elected prosecuting attorney in 1896. 
He was married in 1894 to Miss Teresa 
Maxwell, a native of Iowa. He is a mem- 
ber of the Modern Woodmen of America, 
and is a leading spirit in that fraternal asso- 
ciation. He is a Populist in his political 
affiliations, and is an active worker in the 
various agencies that conduce to the growth 
of that party. He is a man of great per- 
sonal power, and is highly respected by the 
community generally. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



485 



FERDINAND STEFFEN, who for 
twenty-seven years has been identified 
with the agricultural interests of Waco 
township, York county, now owns, operates 
and occupies a fine farm on section 2, where 
he has three hundred and sixty acres of 
land. Of this, one hundred acres is under 
cultivation and the well-tilled fields with 
their golden grain give evidence of the 
thrift and enterprise of the owner. Good 
grades of stock are also to be found upon 
his place, together with a comfortable resi- 
dence erected at a cost of twelve hundred 
dollars, and substantial barns and out-build- 
ings. Thus all modern accessories and con- 
veniences have been added from time to 
time, and the Steffen farm has become one 
of the best of the neighborhood. 

The owner is a native of Prussia, Ger- 
many, born on the ist of June, 1833, and 
is a son of Peter and Dorothy (Voltmann) 
Steffen. They were also natives of Ger- 
many and spent their entire lives in that 
land. Reared to manhood in the place of 
his nativity, Mr. Steffen acquired a good 
practical education there, and for three 
years served in the artillery in the Prussian 
army, holding rank as an officer in war 
times. 

His youthful training was at farm labor, 
and throughout his life he has followed the 
same pursuit. He was married in 1857, to 
Caroline Weisenburg, also a native of Prus- 
sia, and in 1865 they came to the United 
States, locating first in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 
where for five years Mr. Steffen engaged in 
farming. In 1871 became to Nebraska and 
located on his present farm, then a tract of 
wild land, destitute of all improvement. 
For four weeks he lived under a wagon 
cover, during which time he hauled lumber 
from Lincoln, Nebraska, and built a little 
shanty twelve by si.xteen feet. That con- 
tinued to be home for ten years, when it was 
supplanted by his present modern resi- 
dence. During the first year of his resi- 



dence here he broke about twenty acres of 
ground, and in 1872 raised some corn; the 
following year he raised his first crop of 
wheat, and in 1874 had to suffer, the disap- 
pointment of seeing his corn and part of his 
wheat destroyed by grasshoppers. With 
resolute purpose, however, he worked on, 
laboring all the harder under discouraging 
circumstances, and to-day he has one hun- 
dred acres of land under the plow, the richly 
cultivated fields bringing to him good crops. 
He also engaged in stock-raising, which 
adds materially to his income. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Steffen was 
blessed with six children, and with one ex- 
ception all are married and have children of 
their own. They are Mrs. Minnie Neuyahr, 
who has nine children; August, who has 
eight children; Frank, who has two chil- 
dren; Mrs. Anna Gruber, who has three 
children; Louis, who has one child; and 
Mrs. Mary Schukneht. The parents edu- 
cated their children both in the English and 
German schools, and thus fitted them for 
the practical and responsible duties of life. 
Mr. and Mrs. Steffen hold membership in 
the Lutheran church, and in politics he is a 
stalwart Republican, and a wide-awake, 
progressive citizen, who gives his support 
to all measures for the public good. 



FRANK STEINER.— Among the foreign- 
born residents of Butler county who are 
thoroughly identified with American civiliza- 
tion and progress, may be noted Frank 
Steiner. He owns a farm in section 27, of 
Savannah township, in what is known as the 
Luxemburg settlement. He came to Butler 
county March 18, 1872, and, as homesteads 
were already becoming scarce, he bought a 
claim from a Mr. Arnold. 

Mr. Steiner was born in Luxemburg, 
March 27, 1835. His father, Peter Steiner, 
died in the old country. Our subject was 
educated in the common 'schools of his na- 



486 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



tive country, and, at the age of fifteen 
years he entered a foundry near Luxem- 
burg, and learned the molder's trade, and 
followed that occupation as long as he re- 
mained in the old country. He migrated to 
America in 1853, or when he was eighteen 
years of age, and landed in New York. 
From there he soon moved to Albany and 
followed his trade in that city for nine years. 
In 1857, however, he went to Chicago, Illi- 
nois, for the purpose of seeing the country 
and learning what his prospects were for 
bettering his circumstances in that locality, 
but returned to Albany and worked in the 
large towns of New York until 1872. 

While living in New York, Mr. Steiner 
was united in marriage, in 1856, to Miss 
Emma Bartonett, daughter of Nicholas 
Bartonett, a Frenchman by birth, who died 
in New York. To this union were born the 
following children: John, Mary, Anna, 
Michael and Kate, were born in New York; 
and Nicholas and Lena were born in Ne- 
braska. One of Mr. Steiner's brothers 
was already in Nebraska, having preceded 
him about one year, and this, together with 
the desire that his children should be reared 
in the country, induced him to move to that 
state. During his career in the west he has 
not only proved himself to be a successful 
farmer and increased his landed possessions 
to five hundred and fifty acres of fine land, 
and all well improved, but he has also 
become one of the prominent and useful 
member of the community. He has been 
loyal to the principles of Christianity, and 
has shown himself to be a man in whom all 
might place the highest confidence. He is 
one of the leading members of the Catholic 
church, and was one of the founders of the 
society in which he holds his membership. 



HUGH M. McGAFFIN, the gifted editor 
of the Gazette, which in his hands has 
become the leading paper of Gresham, Ne- 



braska, is a native of Poughkeepsie, New 
York, where he was born March 28, 1872. 
He is a son of William H. and Margery 
(Martin) McGaffin, who were born in county 
Down, Ireland. They were married in 
their native county. The husband and 
father had a very good education, and he 
was a printer by occupation. They came 
to this country about 1870, locating in 
Poughkeepsie, where he found employment 
on the Daily News. He was afterwards 
engaged on The Eagle. They spent eight 
years in that city and then made an ex- 
tended visit to the old country. They re- 
turned to Poughkeepsie, and have been 
across the ocean five times in all. They 
came to this state about 1886 and located 
at Seward. He worked on the Blue Valley 
Blade for two years, and then removed to 
Bellwood, Butler county, where he still re- 
sides. He is the father of thirteen children, 
eleven of whom are still living. Their 
names are William H., Hugh M., Robert, 
Margery, George, James, Joseph, Fred- 
erick, Walter, Maggie and Matilda. 

Hugh M. McGaffin spent the first four- 
teen years of his life in Poughkeepsie, dur- 
ing which time he made four trips across 
the Atlantic ocean with his parents to visit 
his grandparents, and since reaching that 
age he has been a resident of this state. He 
was very thoroughly educated in the east, 
attending a private school in the city of his 
birth. At sixteen he entered the Bellwood 
Gazette, and under his father's instruction 
became a practical printer. He was in 
David City for a short time, and he came to 
Gresham April i, 1894. He bought the 
Review, and changed the name to its pres- 
ent title. He continues it as an independent 
publication, and has become an influential 
editor. He was married in November, 
1 894, to Miss Nellie May Derby, a daughter 
of C. W. Derby, of David City, Nebraska. 
Her father was an early settler in Butler 
county, and is the present proprietor of the 



COMPENDIUM OP BIOGRAPHT. 



487 



Derby house at David City. Mrs. McGaffin 
was born at Bellwood, where she was edu- 
cated. She is the mother of two children, 
Ruth C. and NelHe May. They attend the 
Presbyterian church, and are deeply devoted 
to religious and educational interests. He 
takes a leading part in various fraternal or- 
ganizations and is a prominent figure in the 
Modern Woodmen, the Royal Neighbors, 
and the Royal Highlanders of Gresham. 
He is independent in politics, and believes 
in a combination of the best man and the 
measures. 



SAMUEL R. ANSTINE, was for several 
years successfully engaged in the prac- 
tice of law in this state, but owing to ill 
health was obliged to lay aside the arduous 
duties of the profession, and is now giving 
his attention to the lumber business in 
Tamora, Seward county. He is a true type 
of western progress and enterprise. His 
intellectual energy, professional integrity, 
prudent business methods and reliable 
sagacity have all combined to make him an 
able business man as well as a successful 
attorney. 

Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, April 
30, 1855, Mr. Anstine is a son of John and 
Ruth (Robinson) Anstine, natives of Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia, respectively. On the 
paternal side he is of German descent, the 
family having been founded in this country 
in 1750. His grandfather, John Anstine, 
was born in Pennsylvaina and died in Illi- 
nois. When a child John Anstine, Jr., was 
taken to Champaign county, Ohio, where 
he grew to manhood, and was married in 
1854. The same year he removed to 
AVisconsin, and in 1865 became a resident, of 
McDonough county, Illinois, where he made 
his home until coming to Seward county, 
Nebraska, in 1882. He settled upon land 
in E township, where he resided for some 
years, but is now living in Tamora. Five 



children constitute his family, two sons and 
three daughters, and all reside in Seward 
county with the exception of one daughter, 
and the family is one of prominence in busi- 
ness and social circles. 

After attending the public schools for 
some time, Samuel R. Anstine entered the 
McDonough Normal and Scientific College at 
Macomb, Illinois, where he was graduated 
in 1875. After teaching school for one year 
he read law at Roseville and Macomb, and 
in 1878 was admitted to the bar. He then 
engaged in practice in Illinois until coming 
to Nebraska in 1880, and after following 
farming for two years he opened an office at 
Albion, Boone county, where he soon suc- 
ceeded in building up a large and lucrative 
practice. He was the first county attorney 
of Boone county and was one of its leading 
lawyers until the spring of 1890, when he 
removed to Omaha. Four years of unin- 
terrupted practice in that city broke down 
his health and he returned to Seward county 
and embarked in the lumber business at 
Tamora, in which he still engaged and is 
meeting with marked success in his new 
venture. 

Mr. Anstine was married at Macomb, 
Illinois, in 1878, the lady of his choice be- 
ing Miss Mary E. Norris, a native of Mis- 
souri, and a daughter of Jacob and Abigail 
Norris. To them have been born two 
daughters, Leona M. and Annie L. The 
Democratic party has always found in Mr. 
Anstine a stanch supporter of its principles, 
and he is now an influential member of the 
county central committeef Fraternally he 
is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 



CHRIS F. GUNLACH is a fit type of 
that strong and reliable German- 
American element of the American popula- 
tion that has given a positive flavor to that 
unique article we call the national character. 



488 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He owns and tills a productive farm on sec- 
tion 30, Beaver township, York county, and 
the history of this part of the state could 
not be justly written without paying tribute 
to the character of a host of such men who 
have gathered from every country under the 
sun to make Nebraska great and rich and 
powerful alike in industry and commerce. 

Chris Gunlach is a native of German 
soil, where he was born February 1 1, 1847. 
He is a son of Christian and Minnie (Toice) 
Gunlach, and was brought by them to this 
country in 1856. They spent a year in 
Milwaukee, another year in Humboldt, and 
then located in Oconomowoc, where the 
boyhood days of our subject were mainly 
spent. He received a common-school edu- 
cation, and at the age of eighteen years be- 
gan tQ care for himself. He sought employ- 
ment among the neighboring farmers, and 
for a time was busy on the railroad. He 
came into Nebraska in the spring of 1870, 
and located where this history finds him. 
He was then far out in the wilderness and 
no other civilized habitation was in sight. 
There was but one thoroughfare, a rough 
wagon road that led by his house to the 
mountains, and the prairies were infested 
by bands of Omaha Indiana, who, however, 
were more annoying than dangerous. He 
put up a dug-out, " bached " it, worked out 
and succeeded in breaking up ten acres the 
first summer he spent in the state. The 
first simple shelter lasted four years, and 
was then replaced by a structure that seemed 
quite a palace in those days, a one-story 
frame building, 16x24 feet. This was in 
anticipation of his marriage, which occurred 
March 10, 1878, to Miss Matilda Widle. 
She was a daughter of John Widle, who 
came here in June, 1870, and is now dead. 

Mr. Gunlach began in a most modest 
way, gradually bringing his farm into more 
complete shape, and has to-day two hun- 
dred acres, one hundred and twenty-five 
acres under high cultivation. He planted a 



grove of quick-growing trees, and has a 
beautiful orchard. Here he carries on a 
mixed husbandry of grain and stock inter- 
ests, to which he devotes his entire atten- 
tion. He is the father of four children, 
Fred, Lillian, Delia and Elmer. He is a 
member of the Evangelical church, and of 
the Maccabees at Waco. He is a man of 
considerable prominence in local affairs, 
and has been tax collector of Beaver town- 
ship for several years. He is one of the 
school officers in district 58, and has served 
his neighborhood in that capacity for eight- 
een years. He has passed through hard 
and toilsome years, and is now enjoying the 
ease and comfort that should naturally fol- 
low industry, honor and integrity. 



JOSHUA FINECY has for many years 
been one of the highly esteemed and 
valued citizens of Polk county, owning and 
operating a farm on section 31, township 
15, range 3, and since 1890 he has been 
interested in merchandising. He is a na- 
tive of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, 
born May 5, 1844, and is a son of William 
and Catharine (Brant) Finecy, who always 
made their home in that state. The father, 
who was a faithful defender of the Union 
during the Civil war, went to St. Louis in 
1866 and was there burned to death in the 
destruction of a livery stable. The mother 
still makes her home in the Keystone state. 
Their children were Hattie, Joshua, Frank, 
George, John, deceased, and Wesley. Of 
these Joshua and Frank were also num- 
bered among the boys in blue during the 
Rebellion. 

The subject of this sketch was reared in 
his native county until eighteen years of 
age, when he responded to the country's 
call for aid, enlisting August 5, 1862, in 
Company D, One Hundred and Thirty-third 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which, at 
Washington, District of Columbia, was as- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



489 



signed to the Army of the Potomac. He 
participated in the battle of Fredericksburg 
under General A. E. Burnsides, and was 
afterward confined to the hospital with 
measles. On the expiration of his term of 
enlistment he was discharged May 26, 1863, 
and on the 26th of September, 1864, was 
drafted, this time being a member of Com- 
pany I, Fifty-second Pennsylvania Volunteer 
Infantry. He joined his regiment at Morris 
Island, where he remained until after Sher- 
man captured Charleston, and then went 
up the Santee river, but subsequently re- 
turned to Charleston, where he was on 
picket duty for eight days. By boat he 
went to Beaufort, South Carolina, thence to 
Goldsboro, North Carolina, and later joined 
Sherman's army at Raleigh. He was mus- 
tered out at Salisbury, North Carolina, and 
finally discharged June 23, 1865, having 
never been wounded or captured. 

Until the following fall Mr. Finecy re- 
mained at his old home in Somerset county, 
Pennsylvania, and then went to El Paso, 
Illinois, where he was employed at carpen- 
ter work for five years. The following two 
years he engaged in farming at Dixon, that 
state, and in 1872 came to Polk county and 
secured a homestead on section 6, township 
14, range 3. That winter he lived in his 
wagon, although the snow lay on the ground 
to the depth of eighteen inches. In the spring 
he constructed a sod house, which proved 
very unsatisfactory, as water would often 
cover the floor to the depth of six inches, 
and the next year he erected another dwell- 
ing, which was not much better. In the 
third sod house he erected he lived for four 
years and then built a frame residence, 
14x20 feet. The first spring spent here, he 
hauled hay from Butler county, a distance 
of twenty-four miles, giving in exchange for 
his load a Buffalo robe. After living upon 
that place for twenty years, he sold it and 
removed to his present home in i8qo. 
Opening a store at this place, he has since 



successfully engaged in merchandising in 
connection with agricultural pursuits. 

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Finecy married 
Miss Susannah Lohr, a native of that state, 
and they have become the parents of eight 
children: Eugene, Ada, Mary, Benjamin, 
John, Frances, George and Florizella. The 
parents are worthy members of the United 
Brethren church, in which Mr. Finecy is 
serving as trustee, and he also belongs to 
Silver Creek post, G. A. R. Politically he 
is a Republican, and has been honored with 
a number of official positions, being post- 
master of Beulah eight years, assessor of 
Platte precinct two years, and a member of 
the school board. He was also twice elected 
justice of the peace, but refused to qualify. 



NILS B. SWANSON.— The subject of 
this sketch, a man of more than or- 
dinary intelligence and business capacity, 
is prominently identified with the agricul- 
tural interests of York county, contributing 
largely to its reputation by building up one 
of the most desirable homesteads within its 
borders. This fine farm is pleasantly lo- 
cated on section 17, Baker township, ad- 
joining the village of Charleston. He is 
in the prime of life, and in the midst of his 
usefulnesss, admired and esteemed by his 
friends and neighbors, and enjoying, as he 
deserves, a generous portion of this world's 
goods. 

Mr. Swanson was born in Sweden, 
March 4, 1848, a son of Swan and Kama 
(Jepson) Nelson, who lived and died in that 
country. The father was a prosperous 
farmer of his native land; while he owned 
what would only amount to about fifty 
acres of land in the United States, it was 
considered a good-sized farm and was very 
valuable. During his minority our subject 
remained under the parental roof and re- 
ceived a good common school education. 
Deciding to try his fortune in America, he 



490 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl^. 



left home at the age of twenty-three years, 
and landed in New York on the ist day of 
May, 1 87 1. He went immediately to John- 
son county, Iowa, where he had an ac- 
quaintance living, and there secured work 
on a farm. For four years he was similarly 
employed in that county and in Illinois, and 
then operated a rented farm in Henderson 
county, Illinois, for two years, and one in 
Johnson county, Iowa, for the same length 
of time. 

In the spring of 1879, having saved some 
money, Mr. Swanson came to York county, 
Nebraska, and bought eighty acres of railroad 
land in Baker township, upon which the vil- 
lage of Charleston now stands. He im- 
proved the place, but in the fall of 1877 
when the Northwestern Railroad was built, 
he sold his land to the railroad company 
for a town site. About two years before he 
had purchased eighty acres on section 17, 
Baker township, and to that place he re- 
moved, making it his home ever since. It is 
now one of the best improved farms of the 
township, a fine residence having been 
erected thereon in the fall of 1887, and 
since enlarged and improved. As his finan- 
cial resources have increased, Mr. Swanson 
has added to his possessions until he now 
has two hundred and eighty acres of valuable 
land, all the result of his own industry, en- 
terprise and good management, for he has 
been the architect of his own fortune, hav- 
ing landed in this country with a capital of 
only two dollars and fifty cents. He pos- 
sessed, however.a good constitution, an un- 
limited amount of energy and good execu- 
tive ability. 

On the 6th of October, 1877, Mr. Swan- 
son was united in marriage with Miss Carrie 
Pierson, who was born in Sweden, October 
24, 1849, a daughter of Pear and Martha 
(Olson) Hanson, who never left the land of 
their birth. Being left an orphan, Mrs. 
Swanson came to the United States with 
her brother in 1875, and located in Burling- 



ton, Iowa. By her marriage she has be- 
come the mother of nine children: Hulda; 
Selma and Oscar, both deceased; Alma; 
Mabel; Viola; Clara; and two who died in 
infancy, unnamed. 

Mr. Swanson is to-day one of the most 
prosperous and influential citizens of his 
community. He is independent in politics, 
although he always takes a deep interest in 
public affairs, and wields his influence and 
casts his ballot for such persons and meas- 
ures as he considers will best advance the 
interest of the people as a whole, regardless 
of party affiliations. He has served as a 
member of the county board of supervisors, 
besides holding several minor positions of 
honor and trust. Socially he is identified 
with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
and religiously both he and wife are mem- 
bers of the Evangelical Lutheran church. 



JOSEPH W. STRICKLER is an old-time 
resident of Nebraska, and is now com- 
fortably located on section 31, Waco town- 
ship, where he expects to spend the re- 
maining years that the good Father will 
allow him on earth. He is a hardworking 
and painstaking farmer, and has had an ex- 
tensive mercantile experience, that has 
thoroughly educated him in business meth- 
ods. He was in the Federal army, and has 
seen so much of the world that his expe- 
rience and observation have more than 
atoned for any lack of early education. 

Mr. Strickler belongs to a Pennsylvania 
family, and was born in Fayette county, 
September 19, 1837. He is a son of John 
and Sarah (Woodward) Strickler, both of 
whom are natives of Pennsylvania. His 
father was of German descent. The Strick- 
ler family left Pennsylvania in 1855, and 
came into Adams county, Illinois, where 
they located on a farm of wild land in the 
northeast part of the county. He lived 
and died there, while his wife, the mother 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



491 



of our subject, passed away while on a visit 
in Pennsylvania. They raised seven chil- 
dren, of whom the oldest, Elizabeth Ben- 
nett, is now dead. Our subject is the sec- 
ond child, and Ann Osborne the third. 
Sarah Hoyt is dead, and William is living 
in Phelps county. 

Joseph Strickler was raised in Pennsyl- 
vania, and attended the district school near- 
est him, but the greater part of his educa- 
tion is self-acquired. He struck out into 
the world and assumed his own independ- 
ence when he was twenty-two years of age. 
He was bred to a farmer's life, and he fol- 
lowed that when he bore the burden of his 
own destiny. He accompanied his parents 
to Illinois, and enlisted, in 1862, in Com- 
pany K, One Hundred and Nineteenth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry, and entered the 
army with the rank of sergeant. The regi- 
ment was assigned as guard to the Mobile 
& Ohio railroad in Western Tennessee, and 
he was taken prisoner by General Forrest 
in December of the year of his enlistment. 
He was parolled, and presently exchanged. 
But his days of active service were over. 
He had contracted disabilities while in the 
service whose effects did not readily leave 
him. So he was sent to Benton Barracks, 
at St. Louis, and presently discharged. He 
returned to Adams county, and when he had 
somewhat recovered his health was united 
in marriage with Miss Nancy A. Bennett. 
She was a daughter of Thomas Bennett, and 
came into Adams county with her parents 
in 1858. Her father died there, but her 
mother is still living. After the wedding 
Mr. Strickler settled in Chattan, Illinois, 
where he was engaged in farming, and car- 
rying on at the same time a general mer- 
cantile business. In 1876 he brought his 
family to this county, and settled on section 
10, Waco township. This was a farm par- 
tially improved. He put it into good order, 
and made it rank with the best. The next 
year he removed to Waco, and opened a 



general store. He was the pioneer mer- 
chant in that city, and won the personal 
regard of the early settlers. He continued 
in business for eleven years, and^then re- 
turned once more to rural life, and located 
where he now resides. To this farm he has 
given much attention, and his labor shows 
what it has been by the solid and durable 
character of the improvements he made 
upon it. He is the father of eight children. 
The oldest of them, Emma, is the wife of 
Dr. A. Downing, of Merna, Nebraska. She 
is the mother of two children, William, and 
an infant not yet named. Bertha is the 
wife of William Lancaster, who lives at 
Gresham. She is the mother of two chil- 
dren, Jennie and Linn. Thomas is a min- 
ister, and lives at Waco. He is the hus- 
band of Miss Gracie Johnson, and the father 
of six children, Frances, Ruth, Herbert, 
Lester, Cecil and an infant. George, Addie 
and Nellie are younger children. Two have 
died. Our subject and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Protestant church, 
at Waco, of which he has been trustee and 
superintendent of the Sunday-school. He 
is a member of the Masonic order at York 
and is a strong Prohibitionist. He has been 
nominated for various positions by his party, 
and personally is highly regarded by his 
neighbors. 



WILLIAM C. HARTMAN, whose home 
is in Staplehurst, Seward county, 
easily takes first rank among the active 
business men of this section. He has an 
alert vision for commercial possibilities, and 
has carried out to success many difficult 
undertakings. His life has not been long, 
yet in its years he has engaged in several 
very different callings, and has made all con- 
tribute substantially to his exchequer. 
Whether he follows farming, the manage- 
ment of an extensive livery and boarding 
stable, or the handling of stock, his custom- 



492 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ers know that they can depend on what he 
says. 

Mr. Hartman is one of the early settlers 
of this county, and has long been closely 
associated with its general business. He 
was born at Clayton Center, Iowa, Septem- 
ber 28, 1856, and is a son of Fred and 
Caroline (Etling) Hartman. They were na- 
tives to the soil of Hanover, Germany, and 
came to this country about 1835. They 
found a home at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
where the husband and father cleared a 
farm of forty acres near the city and made 
it productive. He held it until it so rose in 
value that he thought it wise to sell it. He 
moved to Clayton Center, Iowa, in 1840, 
and secured a farm which became the site 
of the town. In 1867 he sold out a second 
time, and came to this county to find a 
home for his remaming days. He purchased 
a half section of land and converted it into 
one of the finest farming tracts in this part 
of the state. His wife was the mother of 
three sons and three daughters that grew to 
manhood and womanhood. She died in 
i860. All their children, with the excep- 
tion of one daughter, are now living in this 
county. 

The subject of this brief biographical 
history spent the first twelve years of his 
active life in Iowa, and came with his par- 
ents into this county at that age. In the 
pioneer days, boys early applied themselves 
to the business of home making, and young 
Hartman worked by his father's side in 
making the wilderness a home. In early 
manhood he left home, and coming to 
Staplehurst purchased a tract of land adjoin- 
ing the town site. He soon became a very 
ready and successful real estate dealer. Mr. 
Hartman has also engaged in extensive 
stock transactions, and some years ago he 
went into the livery buisness, which he 
still maintains, and every year he markets 
some of the finest road horses in the 
west. 



Mr. Hartman and Miss Nancy Kenison 
were married in 1877. She was born in 
Iowa, and has presented her husband with 
six children, Caila, Rosa, Florence, Fred, 
Alma and one who died in infancy. She 
died in 1895, and her husband was married 
again the following year, Miss Lizzie 
Schultze becoming his wife. He is a Re- 
publican, and has been a member of the 
state central committee. 



J 



OHN MEYSENBURG, the subject of 

this sketch, was born August 29, 1849, 
in Luxembourg, Germany, and came with 
his parents to this country in 1864; settled 
on section 24, 16-2, Butler county, Ne- 
braska, in the spring of 1870. The home- 
stead where he now lives was homesteaded 
by our subject in September, 1870. The 
family located in Dubuque, Iowa, when 
they came to America. Our subject was 
not yet of age when he came to Butler 
county, Nebraska. 

He was married April I4, 1877, to Su- 
san Reisdorf, a daughter of Peter and Anna 
(Simon) Reisdorf. She was a native of a 
small village in Luxembourg, Sandweiler, 
three miles from the city of Luxembourg, 
and first made her home in Chicago, Illi- 
nois, removing from this place to Butler 
county, Nebraska. She is the mother of 
five children: Dominick, Mary, Anna and 
Kate, and one that died, August. 

Our subject has been active in important 
affairs of the county, being a member of the 
county board for six years, and still serving. 
He has always been careful of the interests 
of the people, serving them in such a manner 
as to insure the confidence and respect of 
all who were his daily associates, in busi- 
ness, social, and religious matters. Was a 
prominent member of the Catholic church, 
and one of its first adherents at the founda- 
tion of it in this county. 

He is now the possessor of seven hun- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



493 



dred and forty acres of land, well improved, 
has a comfortable home, fine barns well 
stocked, and is highly esteemed for the 
thrift and good judgment he has shown in his 
management of his own affairs, as well as 
those of the county. In politics, he is a 
free silver democrat, and has filled a num- 
ber of township offices. 



JACOB JENNINGS WARNER BREW- 
ER, a retired farmer of Seward county, 
is one of the oldest citizens of this region 
and by its people he is held in that rever- 
ence and respect tacitly accorded those 
whose lives have been distinguished by in- 
tegrity and usefulness During his long and 
eventful life he has experienced many hard- 
ships and privations, but with the aid of his 
most estimable wife he at length overcame 
them and at last prosperity seemed to crown 
their combined efforts. 

Mr. Brewer was born in Tyler county. 
West Virginia, June 21, 181 5, a son of Sam- 
uel and Mary (Lacy) Brewer and grandson 
of David and Euphemia (Warner) Brewer. 
His great-grandfather was Derrick Brewer, 
who was of Holland descent, and was a 
farmer by occupation, as have been most 
of his descendants. As his mother died 
when he was only two years old, our sub- 
ject was reared by his grandmother, while 
his father was engaged in boating on the 
Ohio river. He married again and lived on 
the banks of that stream in West Virginia 
until his death, which resulted from a fall he 
received in Indianapolis. He was over 
seventy years of age at the time of his 
death. 

The subject of this sketch remained with 
his grandfmother until fifteen years of age, 
when he started out to make his own way in 
the world, first working for about a year for 
John Morgan, who followed rafting on the 
Ohio river. He naturally drifted down the 
Mississippi to New Orleans and from there 



went to other southern cities, where he 
would cut wood and work at anything that 
he could find to do until spring, when he 
made his way north again to stay during the 
summer months. In the fall he would again 
go by flat boats to the south, where his 
winters were spent until reaching manhood. 
On the 24th of May, 1840, he was united 
in marriage with Miss Susan Smith, whom 
he had known from childhood, and the fol- 
lowing year he leased a little farm in Ken- 
tucky, which he operated quite successfully 
for three years. Deciding to go to Iowa, 
he placed his entire worldly possessions on 
a boat bound for the Des Moines river, he 
and his little family taking passage on the 
same vessel. When opposite Green river 
an accident occurred, the boiler bursting 
and the steam filling the boat. The wifewas 
badly scalded and their baby was killed in- 
stantly. By another boat they then pro- 
ceeded to the Des Moines river, and on 
leaving it Mr. Brewer secured a man to take 
his wife and oldest child, with their few 
household goods, to Davis county, Iowa, 
and they went to housekeeping on a claim 
upon which had been built a little house of 
poles, the cracks being filled with mortar. 
Here, with their one child, Mr. and Mrs. 
Brewer lived like most poor people on the 
frontier. For three years they were ill 
most of the time with what was known as 
ague. The second year, by the hardest work, 
our subject managed to split six rails a day 
until enough had been made to fence two 
acres. His good wife volunteered to carry the 
larger end of the rail, she being the stronger 
at that time, and in this way they carried 
all of them until the fence was completed. 
A kind neighbor then plowed the ground 
and Mr. Brewer planted corn, potatoes and 
garden vegetables. On the claim was a 
few white oak trees, which he cut up into 
splits with a broken case knife which he 
once found, and being unable to work on 
the farm he converted the splits into baskets, 



494 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and his faithful wife gleaned the tender wil- 
low rods from the lowlands along Soap 
creek and started a rival basket shop, mak- 
ing her baskets from the willows When he 
was too weak to cut the trees down Mrs. 
Brewer, who from first to last carried hope 
in her heart and a smile on her face, would 
take the ax and perform that duty for him, 
splitting them up until the pieces were small 
enough to be handled with his broken case 
knife. Some good farmer would take their 
baskets down the Missouri river and ex- 
change them for corn meal, which cooked 
with water in various ways formed their only 
food for nearly three years. When he be- 
came strong Mr. Brewer worked at various 
occupations and remained upon his farm for 
eleven years. On selling the place, he went 
to Page county, Iowa, but a year later re- 
moved to Missouri and bought a farm on 
Nodaway river, where he engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits for ten years. When the 
Civil war broke out he offered his services 
to his country, but the examining officer re- 
fused him. Being a Union man he was con- 
stantly molested by copperheads and rebels, 
who several times came nearly killing him, 
and he was at length forced to move away 
in self defense. One morning a boy came 
running to his home to notify him that 
twenty-five men, then only two miles away, 
were going to kill him. Immediately he 
took his little family in a wagon and started 
for Nebraska City. He made good his es- 
cape. Being without money he hired out 
to drive teams across the plains and was 
thus employed for about a year. As the 
war was over he then returned to his home 
in Missouri, but finding everything but his 
land destroyed, he sold his farm and moved 
to Otoe, Nebraska, where he bought eighty 
acres of land and engaged in farming there 
for four years. His next home was in Lan- 
caster county, where he took up a govern- 
ment homestead, but after living there 
about eight years he sold and moved to the 



West Blue valley, Seward county, where he 
purchased the farm which he still owns. 

There the wife who had so patiently and 
cheerfully shared all the hardships of their 
early married life, passed away in 1895 
while he was ill at the home of a daughter 
whom he was visiting. She was a mtjst 
estimable lady who had the love and respect 
of all who knew her. Of the ten children 
born to them six are still living, (i) Amanda 
is the wife of Madison Brooke and they had 
two children; Mollie, who married Charles 
Rives and died, leaving three children; and 
May, who married Earl Gilbert and has 
one child; (2) Elias married Lucinda Mc- 
Donald and had three children; John N. ; 
Emma, who married Bert James and has 
four children; and Sylvia, who married a 
Mr. Weir and has two children. 

After the death of his first wife, Elias 
Brewer married Martha King, and they now 
live in Kansas. The only child of the sec- 
ond union is Eva, who married Reuben Don- 
aldson and has one child. Thus our subject 
has eleven great-grandchildren. (3) Hulda 
first married James Thompson, by whom 
she had one child, now deceased. After 
his death she married Elijah Brim and 
they now live in Oklahoma. (4) Benja- 
min P., who lives on his father's farm, mar- 
ried Emeline Richardson, and they have 
two daughters, Farin and Bernice. (5) 
Catherine is the wife of Jonathan Courzine, 
who lives in Otoe county, two miles from 
Douglastown, and they have four children: 
Franklin, Mary, Emer and Katy. (6) Dora 
is the wife of F. P. Hazleton, a farmer of 
Otoe county, and they have two children: 
Otis and Clyde. 

In religious belief Mr. Brewer is a 
Baptist, but at the present time is not 
connected with any church. He is a 
pronounced democrat in politics, and sup- 
ported William J. Bryan at the last presi- 
dential election. He voted for Henry Clay 
in 1844, and was prevented from voting for 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



495 



Martin Van Buren, as he was running on the 
river at that time. He remembers seeing 
General Jackson, and he lived for a time 
with, and worked for, William Henry Har- 
rison. He is still hale and hearty, though 
eighty-four years of age, and recently walked 
eighteen miles without being excessively 
weary. 



SAMUEL L. SMITH is a man of en- 
lightened and progressive views, and 
his standing as an old settler of York county 
is beyond question. He lives on a farm on 
section 20, West Blue township, and was 
identified with the earliest history of the 
region. 

Mr. Smith was born in Jackson county, 
Tennessee, October 9, 1842, and was a son 
of Calvin Smith. His father moved to Iowa 
in 1851, where young Samuel attained man- 
hood, and then sought a home in Nebraska. 
He came into York county, and settled on 
section 32, West Blue township, but did 
not find here his final home. He removed 
to Exeter, Nebraska, where he died. He 
was the father of three girls and five boys, 
and of this family four are now living. 
Samuel Smith grew to manhood and spent 
his earliest years on a farm. He struck out 
for himself at the age of twenty, and was 
for some time a journeyman farmer, but in 
1 87 1, came into this state, and settled where 
this history records him. At that time York 
county was a wild prairie, but the very rich- 
ness of its wild grasses and flowers gave 
promise of the fertility of its fields under 
the touch of the husbandman. Young Smith 
was not afraid of the hardships of early 
days, and spent the first eighteen months of 
his life in the state in a dug-out. He was 
able after the expiration of that time to 
put up a frame house, and assume the com- 
forts of the older east. He broke his first 
prairie in 1871. He raised his first crop 
the next year and took it to Lincoln, fifty 



miles away, to find a market. He owns 
to-day one hundred and sixty acres of val- 
uable land nearly all of which is under cul- 
tivation. He has made all the improve- 
ments, and studies the opportunities of 
mixed farming. In the presence of such 
distinguished success as an agriculturist, it 
hardly need by said, that he is exclusively 
a farmer. Farming is large enough to re- 
ward a man's devotion, and he has found 
it so. 

Mr. Smith was married, in 1864 to Miss 
Sarah Baldridge, a daughter of Carol Bal- 
drige, an early settler in Iowa. He died in 
his home in that state, and left behind the 
memory of a just and honorable man. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith have five living children: 
Flora Norris, Hattie Larkin, Earl, Artie and 
Maggie. They are members of the Chris- 
tian church at Exeter, and he has been an 
official in that religious organization for 
many years past. In political matters he 
affiliates with the Populist movement, and 
was treasurer of West Blue township for 
three years. He is at the present moment 
a justice of the peace in his home township, ' 
and for many years has been a member of 
the school board of district No. 14. 



FREDERICK SCHARFENBERG, pro- 
prietor of a good farm pleasantly lo- 
cated on section 7, Baker township, York 
county, was born in Saxony, Germany, July 
6, 1842, a son of William and Clara (Rup- 
sem) Scharfenberg, also natives of the fa- 
therland, where they lived and died, the 
former being a weaver by trade. Until four- 
teen years of age our subject attended the 
public schools of his native land, thus ac- 
quiring a good practical education, and then 
learned the trade of weaving with his father 
and worked at the same until he attained 
the age of twenty. He then entered the 
regular army, and during his three years 



496 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and a half service participated in the Prus- 
sian-Austrian war. 

In 1866 Mr. Scharfenberg left the army 
and came to America, locating first in Wis- 
consin, where he worked on a farm. He 
was married, in 1872, to Miss Anna Reum, 
also a native of Germany, who came alone 
to the New World. After his marriage he 
removed to Mitchell county, Iowa, where he 
rented land and engaged in farming until 
the fall of 1879, when he came to York 
county, Nebraska. Here he bought one 
hundred and sixty acres of railroad land on 
section 7, Baker township, which at that 
time was all raw prairie, but at present is a 
highly improved farm, representing many 
years of hard labor and economy. Beaver 
creek runs through the farm and furnishes 
water all the year round for his stock. To 
his original purchase Mr. Scharfenberg has 
added a tract of eighty acres, and now has 
a valuable and productive place of two hun- 
dred and forty acres. He is an enterprising, 
progressive farmer, and a business man of 
more than ordinary ability, who has at- 
tained a well-merited success through his 
own well-directed efforts. In religious sen- 
timent he and his wife are both Lutherans, 
and in politics he is independent. 



JEPTHA MOSHER, one of the most 
progressive and successful agriculturists 
of Fillmore county, owns and operates a fine 
farm on section 13, Geneva township, and 
in its management displays the scientific 
knowledge and skill which characterize the 
modern farmer. 

He was born in Saratoga county. New 
York, June 2, 1840, a son of Elisha and 
Elizabeth (Packer) Mosher, the former also 
a native of Saratoga county, while the 
mother was born in Connecticut and removed 
to New York state with her parents when 
young. Elisha Mosher was principally en- 
gaged in farming throughout life, although 



he operated a sawmill for several years. In 
1853 he removed with his family to Michi- 
gan, but three years later went to Starke 
county, Illinois, locating near Toulon, in 
which village his last years were spent in re- 
tirement, dying there in March, 1889. His 
wife still survives him, and now, at the age 
of seventy-seven years, makes her home in 
Lincoln, Nebraska. 

The subject of this sketch was about 
thirteen years old when he accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Michigan, and 
amidst pioneer was reared, his education 
being mostly obtained in Stark county, Illi- 
nois, between the ages of eighteen and 
twenty-one, though he attended school con- 
ducted in a little log school-house in Michi- 
gan for a short time. He continued to 
assist his father on the home farm until after 
the outbreak of the Civil war, when he re- 
solved to strike a blow in defense of the 
Union. In August, 1862, he joined Com- 
pany H, First Regiment. New York Marine 
Artillery, and leaving New York city by 
boat proceeded to Morehead, where the 
troops were landed going by rail to Newburn. 
They spent about six months on Roanoke 
Island, doing garrison duty and making 
raids on the main land round about. At 
Port Royal, South Carolina, Mr. Mosher 
shipped on the gunboat Vidette, where he 
remained three months. One night they 
came nearly receiving a broadside from the 
blockading fleet, the captain making a mis- 
take in signaling the name of his gunboat. 
The command had been ^iven by the fleet 
to man the guns before the mistake was 
discovered. The gunboat proceeded to 
Folly Island, near Charleston, where a land- 
ing was effected with their guns, together 
with the Third New York Artillery. This 
was the first landing made for an attack 
against Charleston. 

Mr. Mosher was honorably discharged 
April 30, 1863, and returned to his home in 
Stark county, Illinois, where he bought land 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



497 



and engaged in farming until coming to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, in the fall of 1875. 
He bought the east half of section 1 3, Geneva 
township, which had previously been pur- 
chased from the railroad company by a man 
who had broken most of it, although he had 
made no improvements in the way of build- 
ings. Here our subject has since resided 
and has devoted his energies to the cultiva- 
tion and improvement of the place with 
marked success, converting it into one of 
the finest farms of the locality. It is pleas- 
antly located about four miles from Fair- 
mont and three and a half miles from 
Geneva. In connection with his farming 
operations he has engaged in threshing for 
several years, and now owns a good self- 
feeding, self-measuring, wind stacker, 
modern machine, and a new fifteen horse 
power, direct flue, straw-burning engine. 
He does an extensive threshing business, 
and in connection also operates a corn-shell- 
er, probably shelling as much corn every 
year as any person or firm in the county. 
He is decidedly of a mechanical turn of 
mind and has many arrangements about his 
farm to facilitate work. He and his son 
Harry invented a grain-weighing machine, 
which was patented March 23, 1897, in the 
name of the son, and is pronounced a suc- 
cess. While being tested it averaged nine 
bushels per minute, the full capacity of a 
corn-sheller, and is adapted to weighing all 
kinds of grain in threshing, elevating, etc. 
— in fact, it registers the weight of grain in 
handling in any capacity. The Keystone Man- 
ufacturing Company, of Sterling, Illinois, 
have been negotiating for the use of same 
for their machinery, and also the J. I. Case 
Company. 

In 1868 Mr. Mosher was married to Miss 
Matilda Fowler, a native of Starke county, 
Illinois, and a daughter of Brady and 
Rebecca Fowler, and two children blessed 
this union: Brady G., who died in the fall 
of 1894 while attending the State University 



at Lincoln; and Harry W. , at home. 
Fraternally, Mr. Mosher is an honored mem- 
ber of the Grand Army Post of Fairmont, 
and politically is a Republican, of the Abra- 
ham Lincoln type. As a business man and 
citizen he is well worthy the high regard in 
which he is universally held. 



WILLIAM SORRILL.— A fine farm on 
section 20, Baker township, York 
county, improved with all modern accesso- 
ries and conveniences, represents the years of 
labor of Mr. Sorrill; substantial buildings 
stand as monuments to his thrift and enter- 
prise; and the owner is accounted one of 
the most progressive and influential agri- 
culturists of the community. He was born 
in Worcestershire, England, September 30, 
1843, ^"d is a son of Henry and Sarah 
(Stinson) Sorrill, also natives of the same 
county, and representatives of one of the 
old and highly respected families of Eng- 
land, the ancestry being traced back through 
many generations. The father of our subject 
was a farmer. He lost his wife in 1845, 
and in 1852 he went to Australia to seek his 
fortune in the gold fields of that land. 

William Sorrill was thus thrown upon 
his own resources, and his educational ad- 
vantages were thereby limited. He has 
made his own way in the world since the 
days of his youth, and whatever success he 
has achieved is due entirely to his well di- 
rected efforts. He worked as a farm hand 
in England until 1870 and then determined 
to seek a home in America, bringing his fa- 
ther with him. Crossing the Atlantic, he 
made his way at once to Morgan county, 
Illinois, and rented a farm near Jackson- 
ville, continuing its operation for fourteen 
years. His father died in that county in 
1882, and in 1884 he came to York county, 
Nebraska, where he purchased eighty acres 
of land on section 21, Baker township. He 
planted his crops and had every indication 



498 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



of fine harvests, but on the 19th of July a 
terrific hailstorm destroyed all. Under 
such discouraging circumstances he worked 
on, and at length better days came. In 
1 89 1 he sold his first farm and purchased 
his present home on section 20, Baker 
township. His land is now under a high 
state of cultivation and a splendid orchard 
furnishes all kinds of fruit in season. A 
modern residence and substantial barns and 
out-buildings contribute to the value and at- 
tractive appearance of the place, and the 
farm is now one of the most desirable in the 
county. 

Mr. Sorrill has been twice married. In 
1865 he wedded Sarah Ann Young, a native 
of Worcestershire, England, and a daughter 
of John and Jane (Kent) Young. She died 
in the hospital at Jacksonville, Illinois, De- 
cember 19, 1894, and on the 3d of June, 
1896, Mr. Sorrill wedded Sadie White, a 
native of Jacksonville, Illinois. Mr. Sorrill 
has been justice of the peace for nine 3'ears, 
and was recently re-elected for a two-years 
term, a fact which demonstrates his satis- 
factory and commendable service in ofiice. 
He discharges his duties with the utmost 
fairness and impartiality and has the confi- 
dence and regard of all. In politics he is a 
Populist and takes an active part in the 
work of the party, doing all in his power for 
its growth and success. He and his wife 
hold membership in the Methodist Episco- 
pal church in Charleston, and enjoy the 
hospitality of many of the best homes in 
this locality. Mr. Sorrill has by a well- 
spent life and well-directed efforts in the 
business world won the honorable American 
title of " a self-made man," and his exam- 
ple may well serve to encourage others who 
like himself start out in the journey of life 
with no capital save energy and determina- 
tion to succeed. Mrs. Sorrill is a daughter 
of Francis M. and Lucy (Williams) White. 
They were both from near Chattanooga, 
Tennesssee. They moved to Morgan coun- 



ty, Illinois, in 1864. They died in that 
county, the father in 1892 and the mother 
in 1878. They had eight children, all now 



dead but four daughters. 



CHARLES J. NOBES, deceased.— Prob- 
ably no man has been more intimately 
associated with the business interests of cen- 
tral Nebraska than the gentleman whose 
name heads this article, and his name is in- 
dissolubly connected with the history of the 
growth and development of the counties in 
which he operated. He was an old settler 
of York county, and had become well known 
to a large circle, and had pursued a career 
that had won an abundant reward in a finan- 
cial sense. 

Mr. Nobes was born at Joliet, Illinois, 
May 26, 1849, a son of Isaac and Ann J. 
(Hoy) Nobes, the former a native of the 
Isle of Wight, and the latter a native of Ire- 
land. The father came to America when a 
young man and was a sailor for a number 
of years. He was married in this country, 
and later located in Joliet, Illinois, where 
he was employed as a ship carpenter for 
several years. For thirty years he operated 
a large stone quarry in that city. They 
were the parents of a family of five children, 
three sons and two daughters, of whom our 
subject was the second child and also the 
second son in the order of their birth. 

The subject of our sketch was educated 
in the common schools of Joliet. He found 
his first employment as keeper in the state 
penitentiary, in that city, and was thus en- 
gaged for two years. In 1874 he came to 
Nebraska and was appointed deputy warden 
in the state prison, and in 1S80 was pro- 
moted to the office of warden, and spent, in 
all, twelve years as an officer in the prison. 
In 1886 he came to York and opened a farm 
loan business and also engaged in breeding 
trotting horses, and followed that line of 




CHARLES J. NOBES, Deceased. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir 



501 



business until his death, which occurred 
February 3, 1897. 

May 20, 1875, Mr. Nobes was united in 
marriage to Miss Helen Richardson, also a 
native of Joliet, Illinois. She is a daughter 
of Benjamin and Sarah (Ovaitt) Richardson, 
both of whom are now dead. To this union 
have been born two children, Jennie R. and 
Nellie B., both of whom are still living. 
Mr. Nobes was for a short time vice-presi- 
dent of the City National Bank, of York. 
In politics he was identified with the Re- 
publican party, and was a Knight Templar 
of the Masonic fraternity. 

A portrait of Mr. Nobes is shown on an- 
other page. 



HON. JOHN JAMES ENDICOTT.— Few 
men are more prominent or more widely 
known in Seward county than Mr. Endi- 
cott, whose home is on section 35, N town- 
ship. He has been an important factor in 
agricultural and political circles and his 
popularity is well deserved, as he is public- 
spirited and thoroughly interested in what- 
ever tends to promote the moral, intellec- 
tual and material welfare of the community. 
Mr. Endicott was born in Des Moines 
county, Iowa, January 16, 1849, ^ son of 
Joseph and Abigail (Logan) Endicott, the 
former of English, the latter of Scotch-Irish 
descent. His paternal grandparents were 
John and Anna K. (Saddler) Endicott, and 
his maternal grandparents John and Eliza- 
beth (Ward) Logan. Until he attained his 
majority our subject remained under the 
parental roof. He attended the» district 
schools of Des Moines county until his 
mother died in the spring of i860, when his 
father sold the farm and moved to Rush 
county, Indiana, where he continued his 
studies in the district schools until eighteen 
years of age, and then entered Richland 
academy, in that county, remaining there 
two years. In the meantime his father had 

29 



married again, his second wife being a Miss 
Whitlock, and they now reside in Connors- 
ville, Indiana. 

When not in school John J. Edicott de- 
voted his time assisting in the labors of the 
home farm, and on leaving there, at the age 
of twenty-one years, went to Shelby county, 
Illinois, where he operated a rented farm for 
one year. Believing that better opportunities 
were afforded young men farther west, he 
came to Nebraska, and finding that the 
northwest quarter of section 35, precinct N, 
was still unsold, he contracted with the 
South Platte Land Company for it, paying 
three hundred dollars down. He then re- 
turned home and engaged in farming there 
for two years. Converting his possessions 
in the east into money, he returned to Ne- 
braska, paid for his land, and with the 
money he had left he purchased a yoke of 
oxen and prairie plow, with which he started 
to turn the sod and prepare it for planting. 
The first season he broke fifty acres of land, 
and of this he planted ten acres in corn and 
potatoes, which yielded not less than twenty 
bushels to the acre, being enough for his 
own use. Being unacquainted in this local- 
ity, he dug a room in the side of a ravine, 
made a sod front to this little home and 
covered it with willow twigs and then threw 
dirt upon it to fill up the cracks. This 
made an excellent roof, very useful to keep 
the room cool in summer, but was not water 
proof when it rained. Here he lived alone 
day after day, cooking his own meals, from 
the spring of 1873 until December, 1876, 
being married on the 27th day of that 
month to Miss Catherine Connell. Her 
parents, Hugh and Agnes (Mitchell) Con- 
nell, were natives of the lowlands of Scot- 
land and emigrated to America in the spring 
of 1855, landing at Quebec, Canada. The 
first four years were spent in the towns of 
Furgis and Flora, and for nine years they 
made their home in Harriston, after which 
they came to the United States and took up 



50-2 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



their residence on section lo, township 8, 
range 2 east, Seward county, Nebraska, 
where Mrs. Endicott made her home until 
her marriage. 

Renting a small frame house adjoining 
his farm, our subject and his wife lived 
there for one j'ear until a home of their own 
could be erected. Four children blessed 
their union, three of whom are still living. 
Estle Earl, who lives on a part of his father's 
farm, not over a mile from his old home, 
married Emma Nelson, daughter of Nelson 
P. Nelson, a farmer of Saline county, Ne- 
braska. Herman John is unmarried, and 
when the President called for volunteers 
during the Spanish-American war, he hast- 
ened to respond, becoming a member of 
Company C, Third Nebraska Volunteer In- 
fantry. For some time he was stationed 
at Pueblo Beach, Florida. Myrtle Agnes 
is at home attending the district schools 
and it is the intention of her parents to give 
her every educational advantage she may 
desire. 

With the encouragement and aid of his 
excellent wife Mr. Endicott has prospered 
in his business ventures, and they now own 
four hundred and forty acres of rich and 
arable land, all under a high state of culti- 
tivation and improved with large and sub- 
stantial buildings. He was reared under 
the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal 
church and she under the Scotch Presby- 
terian, and though not members of any re- 
ligious denomination at the present time, 
they have ever taken an active and promi- 
nent part in Sundav-school work as teach- 
ers. They are widely and favorably known 
and their friends are many throughout the 
community where they have so long made 
their home. Mr. Endicott has always been 
a Democrat in politics, and in the fall of 
1898 was the candidate on the fusion ticket 
for representative in the state legislature, 
and was elected to the same. He has been 
township clerk and a member of the school 



board for twenty years, and his public as 
well as his private duties have always been 
most faithfully and conscientiously per- 
formed. 



ANDREW ANDERSON, a worthy and 
honored representative of the early 
pioneers of Polk county, is a true type of 
the energetic, hardy and courageous men 
who actively assisted in the development of 
this wonderful region. While contributing 
to the welfare of his adopted county, he 
has been enabled to accumulate a very 
comfortable fortune, and is now the owner 
of a valuable and well cultivated farm on 
section 10, township 14, range 3, Osceola 
precinct. 

Like many of the best citizens of the 
county, Mr. Anderson is a native of Sweden, 
born at Oster Gotland, October 31, 1839, 
and in that country grew to manhood. 
There his parents spent their entire lives, his 
father, Nels Anderson, working as a com- 
mon laborer. Andrew and his brother 
August were the only ones of the family to 
come to America, and both are now promi- 
nent citizens of Polk county, Nebraska. 

Andrew Anderson obtained his education 
in the common schools of his native land, 
and in 1868 sailed for the new world, locat- 
ing first at Galesburg, Illinois, where he 
spent three years and three months engaged 
in farming and railroading. On the 3rd of 
September, 1871, he and another young 
man, Albert Noren, left that city in a 
wagon, and after driving for three weeks 
finally reached Lincoln, Nebraska. In look- 
ing up a location they visited Clay, Seward 
and Fillmore counties, this state, but not 
being satisfied with the prospects there, 
they returned to Lincoln, where they heard 
of the Headstrom colony, who were settling 
in and around Stromsburg, Polk county. In 
company with Charles Thelander and Al- 
bert Noren, Mr. Anderson then came to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



503 



this county, and took up a claim in the fall 
of 1871. The following year he built a 
dug-out at a cost of seven dollars and fifty 
cents, which continued to be his home for 
three and a half years, and was then re- 
placed by a frame house 14x20 feet. His 
present comfortable residence was erected 
in 1884 at a cost of seventeen hundred dol- 
lars. On locating here the few settlers of 
the county were widely scattered, his nearest 
neighbor being three miles away, no roads 
had been laid out, and not a frame house 
was to be seen in any direction. The first 
year Mr. Anderson raised only eight acres 
of sod corn. His personal property con- 
sisted of a yoke of cattle, a cow, an old 
wagon and thirty dollars in cash, but he 
owed forty dollars at Lincoln, and in May, 
1872, he was obliged to sell his cow to ob- 
tain money to have the first well dug on his 
place. He was living in his little sod house 
during the great snow in April, 1873, which 
was so deep that he was unable to pull his 
wagon from a shed with two yoke of o.xen. 
That year he raised eight acres of wheat 
and twenty-five acres of sod corn; the 
grasshoppers destroyed his crops in 1874, 
but in 1875 he had a good harvest, and has 
steadily prospered, his success being due to 
diligence, close application and persever- 
ance. He is now the owner of four hun- 
dred acres of highly cultivated land, divided 
into two farms, and improved with two sets 
of good farm buildings which he has erected. 
It is all free from debt. 

In 1872 Mr. Anderson led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss Caroline Isaacson, a native 
of Sweden, who came to America in 1870. 
To them have been born two children: Al- 
bert, now twenty-two years of age; and 
Emily, nineteen. The parents are consist- 
ent members of the Lutheran church, in 
which Mr. Anderson is serving as deacon. 
As a Republican, he takes considerable in- 
terest in local politics, has been a delegate 
to county conventions of his party; served 



as judge of elections for several years; and 
has been school director in district [No. 8 
for eight years. He is a member of the 
Scandinavian Farmers' Mutual Insurance 
Company, and has served as its vice-presi- 
dent. For the success that he has achieved 
in life he deserves great credit, for it has 
been entirely through his own efforts that 
he has secured a home and competence for 
himself and family. 



JOHN A. MAUK. — This gentleman is ac- 
credited with the ownership of one of the 
best farms of its size in Baker township, 
York county, it being pleasantly located on 
section 21, and to its cultivation and further 
improvement he still devotes his attention 
with good results. He was born in Mus- 
kingum county, Ohio, May' 21, 1850, a son 
of Hamilton L. and Mary J. (Murray) 
Mauk,the former also a native of that coun- 
ty, the latter of Virginia, who with her par- 
ents removed to Ohio when young. Ham- 
ilton L. Mauk carried on farming in his 
native state until 1856, when he removed 
to Lucas county, Iowa, taking with him his 
family. They were among the first settlers 
of that region, and upon the farm where 
they first located the parents still continue 
to reside. 

The subject of this sketch was six years 
old when he removed to Iowa, and he early 
became familiar with the arduous task of 
transforming wild land into rich and pro- 
ductive fields. His education was obtained 
in the public schools of Lucas county, and 
there he continued to make his home until 
sixteen years of age, when he went to Mills 
county, Iowa, where he worked on a farm 
about six years. Returning home, he was 
married in October, 1875, to Miss Annette 
Powers, a native of Lucas county, Iowa, and 
a daughter of John and Mary (Bell) Powers, 
who were born in Ohio, and were among 
the pioneer settlers of Lucas county, where 



504 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



they entered a tract of government land. 
There they spent their remaining days, dy- 
ing in 1874. Mr. and Mrs. Mauk have a 
family of four children: Minnie M., 
Charles H., Daisy I. and Wadie E. 

After his marriage, Mr. Mauk engaged 
in farming in Lucas county until 1882, when 
he removed to Nebraska, arriving in York 
county on the 8th of March, of that year, 
and locating on eighty acres of land on sec- 
tion 21, Baker township, which he had pur- 
chased the previous December. About half 
of the tract had been broken and a few im- 
provements made, but the land is now all 
under a high state of cultivation and sup- 
plied with good and substantial buildings, 
which stand as monuments to his thrift 
and enterprise. One of the intelligent and 
enterprising farmers of his township, Mr. 
Mauk has taken considerable interest in 
public affairs, and has most capably and 
satisfactorily filled the official positions to 
which he has been elected. In politices he 
is a stanch Republican, and in his social re- 
lations is identified with the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen at Charleston, while 
religiously his wife is a consistent member 
of the Christian church at that place. 



FREDERICK ROLFSMEIER, one of Se- 
ward county's most wealthy farmers 
and influential citizens, lives in section i, J 
precinct. He was born in Germany, March 
9, 1825, attended the common schools of 
that country from the age of si.x years until 
he was fourteen, and at that age was con- 
firmed in the Evangelical Lutheran church, 
of which he has ever since been a sincere 
member and earnest worker. At the age 
of sixteen years he began as an apprentice 
to learn the cooper's trade, which required 
two years, after which he followed this line 
of work for six years. At the age of twenty- 
seven he was united in marriage to Miss 
Caroline Dammerman, and three years later, 



with his wife and one child, started to cross 
the Atlantic in a sailing vessel. They 
landed in Quebec, and from there made 
their way by means of another vessel to 
Milwaukee, and from there they went to 
Madison, Wisconsin. 

Upon reaching Dane county, Wisconsin, 
Mr. Rolfsmeier bought a farm of forty acres 
for the sum of five hundred dollars, but it 
was very hilly and only about six acres of it 
was fit for cultivation. Ten years later he 
sold this place and migrated to Seward 
county, Nebraska, by means of three 
wagons drawn by two yoke of oxen and one 
team of horses. Here, he bought a home- 
stead right to a quarter section of land in J 
precinct, for the sum of one thousand four 
hundred dollars, and on this farm he lived 
with his wife and family of five children for 
two years in a dugout. Although this domi- 
cile was a capital protection from the cold, 
it did not shelter them from the rain, and 
for hours after the rain was over the water 
would continue to ooze through the soil that 
composed the roof of their residence, and 
drip upon the occupants below. During 
one of these heavy storms, the wall of the 
dugout caved in and Mrs. Rolfsmeier and 
the children were obliged to evacuate, and 
found what shelter they could in a little log 
house which had no roof. Upon the loss of 
the dugout, our subject set about to build a 
log house, and in this structure the family 
lived five years. During this time they 
paid the remainder of the indebtedness on 
the farm, and then began building their 
present home. To add to the hardships of 
becoming established in an unsettled coun- 
try, our subject twice suffered the loss of 
nearly his whole crop from the grasshoppers, 
and once all of his possessions were con- 
sumed or greatly damaged by a prairie fire. 
During the rest of that season, the family 
subsisted on burnt corn, which they ground 
and baked into bread, and the wheat, being 
already roasted, was very convenient tc> 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



505 



grind for coffee. They now own one thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty acres of farm 
land that compares favorably with the best 
land in the county, and, from a distance, the 
buildings upon it have much the appearance 
of a small village, and the whole place 
shows evidence of thrift and prosperity. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rolfsmeier are the par- 
ents of a family of seven children, upon 
whom they have seen fit to bestow the fol- 
lowing names: Frederick. Wilhelm, Henry, 
Charlie, Christian, Minnie and Annie. Mr. 
Rolfsmeier's parents, Wilhelm and Char- 
lotte (Schloman) Rolfsmeier, lived and died 
in Germany. Mrs. Rolfsmeier is a daugh- 
ter of Christian and Angel (Hamsmeier) 
Dammerman. She was also educated in 
Germany and was confirmed in the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church. 



JH. NABER, a farmer on section 34, 
Waco township, York county, holds a 
good position in a land where natives of every 
country on the face of the earth are free to 
bring their best gifts and engage in friendly 
competition for the honors and emoluments 
of life. In a strange land and surrounded by 
strange institutions, he did not lose heart, 
but pushed ahead, and is now in a position 
to enjoy the results of honor and integrity. 
Mr. Naber was born in Oldenburg, Ger- 
many, January 3, 1841, and was born and 
bred a farmer. His father died in Germany, 
but his mother lived to share his home in 
the far away new world and died in Nebraska. 
He came to America in 1872, and immedi- 
ately made his way to this county, where 
he located on the homestead which consti- 
tutes his home to-day. This same year he 
was married to Miss Geradina Schmidt. 
She was a native of the town where he was 
born, and they had been playmates from in- 
fancy. Their first home in this state was 
in a sod house. This they occupied for 
some fifteen years, when they moved out of 



it into their present handsome and satisfac- 
tory residence that was put up at a cost of 
over fifteen hundred dollars. In 1872 he 
raised a little sod corn, and the next year 
harvested a full yield of corn. In 1874 he 
had wheat but no corn, and thus life has 
gone on with them. He now owns four hun- 
dred and forty acres, which he has brought 
to a high state of fertility, and is still im- 
proving his land. He is a devotee of gen- 
eral farming, and has good graded stock on 
his place. 

Mr. and Mrs. Naber are people of the 
very best standing in the township. They 
are regarded as kind friends, good neighbors, 
and public-spirited citizens. They have had 
ten children, of whom all are now living but 
two, Carl and one not named. The others 
are Wilhelm, Emma, Bertha, Matie, Hen- 
rietta, Clara, Oscar and Hugo. They are 
members of the Lutheran church, of which 
he has been treasurer for three years and 
trustee for the same length of time. He is 
a Republican in his national politics, but 
holds to the theory of honest men for office 
in local affairs. 



GEORGES. GOULD, banker and dealer 
in grain, is one of the leading business 
men of Butler county, and is making his 
home and base of operations at Bellwood. 
He is a man of large means, liberal and 
public spirited, and has taken a leading part 
in all matters and moves calculated to bene- 
fit his town or county, and his name is in- 
dissolubly connected with the history of the 
growth and development of Butler county. 
Zebina Gould, our subject's father, was 
born at Charlton, Worcester county, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 1804, and was reared in his 
native county. Later he moved to New 
York and located at Watertown, and after- 
ward at Rochester, where he learned the 
milling trade. Early in the '30s he moved 
to Michigan City, Indiana, where he set up 



506 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



an extensive milling plant, known as the 
"City Mills." In the early days of Michi- 
gan City, this plant was practically one of 
its suburbs. It later became a very popular 
and widely-known plant, and, for a time, 
supplied Chicago with flour. Mr. Gould 
made this his home until his death, which 
occurred in 1872. He was married in Michi- 
gan City, Indiana, to Miss Mary Rees, in 
1848. She was a daughter of Henry J. 
Rees, of Ashtabula, Ohio, v/ho ran a stage 
between Cleveland and Ashtabula, in the 
early days. 

Our subject's grandfather was a soldier 
in the Revolutionary war. Their ancestors 
came with the Puritans to this country. 
There is to-day in the possession of the 
family a commission signed by John Han- 
cock, Governor of Massachusetts, and two 
signed by Samuel Adams, Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts, authorizing our subject's grand- 
father to enlist and drill the militia, and ap- 
pointing him ensign, captain and colonel, 
successively. These antedate the Revolu- 
tion. Our subject's maternal grandmother 
was a Hubbard, of Holland. iPatent, New 
York. Her father and two brothers made 
the overland trip to Ashtabula, and one of the 
brothers being a surveyor, they laid out the 
town of Ashtabula. Of Zebina Gould's 
family, four sons, H. R. , A. H., George S. 
and R. C, have become quite prominent in 
the affairs of Butler county. H. R. Gould 
moved to Omaha in the fall of 1876, and 
for fifteen years was general agent for the 
McCormick Harvester Company in that 
place. He is now general agent of the 
Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
for Nebraska, and is also president of the 
Platte Valley State Bank of Bellwood, Ne- 
braska. A. H. Gould is the cashier of this 
bank. 

George S. Gould, the subject of this 
sketch, became connected with Nebraska's 
interests in 1887, when he went to Omaha 
and took a position in the office of the 



McCormick Harvester Company, under his 
brother, H. R. Gould. In the spring of 
1 888, he went to Chase county, Nebraska, 
and entered the Chase County Bank at Im- 
perial, where he received his first practical 
knowledge of the banking business. In the 
fall of 1888 he came to Bellwood and was 
connected with the Platte Valley Bank un- 
til April, 1889, when he returned to Omaha 
to take a position with the Connecticut Mu- 
tual Life Insurance Company, and was thus 
engaged until the spring of 189 1. At this 
time he returned to Bellwood and built the 
first steam elevator in the city, and operated 
same until March, 1896. During that year 
he became interested in a coffee plantation 
in Mexico, and has since spent much time 
in that country, although he still retains 
his interest in Bellwood, both in the grain 
business and in the Platte Valley State 
Bank. 

December 19, 1889, while in Omaha, in 
the employ of the Connecticut Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, Mr. Gould was united 
in marriage to Miss Ella Armstrong, a 
daughter of Maj. George Armstrong, of 
Omaha. To this union have been born 
two bright and interesting children, Roberta 
and Henrietta, both born in Bellwood. Mrs. 
Gould's father, George Armstrong, was born 
in Baltimore, Maryland, August i, 18 19, a 
son of George Armstrong, Sr. , a planter of 
Wheeling, West Virginia. He was of 
Scotch descent, and his ancestors partici- 
pated in the Revolutionary war. George 
Armstrong married Julia Ewing, of Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio, where he was engaged in the 
newspaper business prior to 1854. During 
that year, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, 
then a mere village, and took a tract of land 
that is now in the heart of the city. He 
served in the Third and Fourth territorial 
legislatures, was mayor of Omaha in 1861 
and 1862, was commissioned major of the 
Second Nebraska Cavalry, and later raised 
a company of which he was made captain 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



507 



and later promoted to major and brevet 
lieutenant-colonel, and finally to the office 
of colonel. This company served in the 
Civil war. Since the war he has served for 
nine years as clerk of the district court and 
has also served as clerk of the supreme 
court of Nebraska. He was Past Grand 
Master Mason, thirty-third degree. He 
practiced law in Douglas county, Nebraska, 
for many years and was an author of ability 
and recognized merit. Ella (Armstrong) 
Gould is his voungest child. 



LEWIS C. KLINZMAN.— The name of 
this well-known resident of York coun- 
ty, has long been familiar to the people of 
this section of the state as that of one of 
their most valued citizens, resolute, energetic 
and enterprising, and one who has been emi- 
nently successful in business affairs. He 
now makes his home on section i8, McFad- 
den township. 

Mr. Klinzman was born in Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1859, a 
son of Christian and Mena (Kratz) Klinz- 
man, natives of Germany, who emigrated 
to America about 1854 and located in Penn- 
sylvania, where the father bought a small 
tract of land. In 1864 they moved to 
Peoria, Illinois, but soon afterward located 
on a rented farm near that city. The fa- 
ther purchased a farm in Livingston county, 
that state, five years later, and there he and 
his wife made their home until 1893, since 
which time they have lived in Dallas coun- 
ty, Iowa. When he landed at Baltimore, 
Maryland, on coming to the United States, 
he was obliged to sell a couple of feather 
beds he had brought with him in order to 
get money enough to take his family to 
Pennsylvania. The characteristic thrift, 
the birth-right of every German, has cer- 
tainly asserted itself in Christian Klinzman, 
and after a long life of hard work and good 
management he is now enabled to pass the 



evening of life in comfort and ease. He 
still owns his farm of two hundred and forty 
acres in Illinois, besides four hundred and 
ninety-five acres of land in Dallas county, 
Iowa, where he makes his home. 

The subject of this sketch was about 
nine years old when he accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Illinois, and 
amidst scenes incident to farm life he was 
reared there, receiving a fair public-school 
education. Leaving home at the age of 
twenty-one years, he bought a team of 
horses on time, rented some land and began 
life on his own account. He continued to 
rent land in Illinois until coming to York 
county, Nebraska, in the spring of 1885. 
The year previous he had visited this local- 
ity, and bought one hundred and sixty 
acres of land in McFadden township, upon 
which the village of McCool Junction is now 
located. In 1887, when the village was sur- 
veyed and platted, it included the entire 
farm, and Mr. Klinzman became half owner 
of the town site. A year later he bought 
the southeast quarter of section 18, McFad- 
den township, upon which he now makes his 
home, and also owns fifty-five acres in lots, 
streets and alleys belonging to the village. 
He purchased the company's interest in the 
same, and adding it to his farm makes a 
valuable place of two hundred and fifteen 
acres on section 18, all under a high state 
of cultivation and improved with good and 
substantial buildings. Besides this he still 
owns fifty lots in the village. 

In 1885 Mr. Klinzman was united in 
marriage with Miss Lena Hammersmith, a 
native of Germany, who came to America 
when twelve years old with her parents, 
Leonard and Henrietta Hammersmith, lo- 
cating in Monticello, Piatt county, Illinois. 
Her father was a miller by trade. She re- 
ceived an excellent education, completing 
the literary and musical courses in the high 
school at Monticello, from which she gradu- 
uated. By her marriage she has become 



508 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the mother of five children: Flora, Emma, 
Lena Pearl, Lewis Leonard, Mary Cather- 
ine and Henrietta Wilhelmina. The par- 
ents are both earnest and consistent mem- 
bers of the Dunkard church, and in politics 
Mr. Klinzman is a Republican. On attain- 
ing his majority he started out in life for 
himself empty-handed, but has steadily 
worked his way upward by the exercise of 
his native resolution and industry and is to- 
day one of the well-to-do and prosperous 
business men as well as one of the highly 
respected citizens of his community. 



HENRY PETER KLUMP is an honored 
resident of G precinct, Seward coun- 
ty, where he is living, retired from active 
business, and is now living in a cozy home, 
where he is surrounded with such home 
comforts as make life enjoyable. He is one 
of the oldest settlers of Seward county, 
formerly being one of its successful farmers, 
and is now passing the evening of his life 
enjoying the fruit of his labor. 

Our subject was born December 26, 
1824, in Pfalzdorf Kreis Clave, Rheinvreus- 
sen, Germany, where his parents spent the 
greater part of their lives and are now 
buried. He was educated in the common 
schools of the land of his nativity, attend- 
ing from the age of si.x until he reached 
fourteen years. At the age of fourteen 
years, also, he was confirmed in the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church, and spent the next 
six years of his life helping his parents on 
the farm. At the age of twenty he entered 
the German army, and after serving three 
years he received his honorable discharge, but 
was later recalled to serve six weeks longer. 
He then returned to the farm and continued 
the pursuit of agriculture until he was 
twenty-nine years of age, when, in 1854, he 
emigrated from thence to America. Leav- 
ing Antwerp, March i, he crossed the At- 
lantic in the "Jennie Lind," a sail vessel, 



which was managed by Captain Bunsen, 
and landed in New York April 20. Here 
he was not satisfied, as he was desirous of 
finding a home farther west where he could 
homestead, and he accordingly set out for 
Louisville, Kentucky. From here he went 
by steamer to St. Louis, Missouri, where he 
remained three weeks, and from thence 
went to Warsaw, Hancock county, Illinois. 
After making his home in Warsaw for eight- 
een years, he migrated, in 1862, to Seward 
county, Nebraska, took a claim of eighty 
acres, built a frame house and began to 
break and otherwise improve and subdue the 
tract of raw prairie that comprised his home- 
stead into an attractive home and profitable 
farm. In this undertaking our subject has 
met with eminent success, for he has man- 
aged to add to his original homestead by 
purchase, from time to time, until he now 
owns a fine farm of two hundred acres, and 
the entire tract is highly improved and till- 
able. This, however, was not brought 
about without its share of sacrifice and per- 
sistent effort. The lumber for the buildings 
was hauled from Lincoln, a distance of 
twenty-two miles, after being purchased at 
the rate of forty dollars per thousand feet. 
Trees and shrubbery were unknown in this 
part of the state, except along a few of the 
streams, and deer and other wild animals 
roamed over the prairie. Now Mr. Klump 
has his farm furnished with over one hun- 
dred apple trees, some of which are over 
twenty-five years old and are bearing 
abundantly, and also with grapes, cherries 
and peaches. Mr. Klump has now retired 
from active life and is enjoying the results 
of a life of economy, both of time and of 
money. He is an honored and valued citi- 
zen of the community in which he lives and 
is held in high esteem by all who have the 
pleasure of his acquaintance. 

Mr. Klump has two children, Henry, now 
living at Warsaw, Illinois, and Annie, now 
living in Seward, Nebraska. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



509 



AUGUST KALIFF, a wide-awake and 
energetic citizen of York county, who 
owns and successfully operates a good farm 
on section 31, Leroy township, was born in 
Sweden, April 12, 1856, and is a son of 
John and Johanna (Johnson) Kaliff, also 
natives of that country. The father 
worked at his trade of carpenter and cabi- 
net-maker in his native land, and also 
served in the regular army of Sweden for 
several years. In 1869 he emigrated to 
America with his family and settled in Jeff- 
erson county, Iowa, where he rented land 
and engaged in farming until coming to 
York county, Nebraska, in 1872. Here he 
homesteaded eighty acres on section 6, Mc- 
Fadden township, being among the first set- 
tlers of that locality, but in 1880 sold that 
place and bought another eighty-acre tract 
four miles west of York, where he made his 
home until his death, which occurred in 
January, 1894. His wife is still living at 
the age of seventy-five years, and resides 
with her daughter in York township. In 
the family of this worthy couple were seven 
children. 

The subject of this sketch was about 
sixteen years of age when he came with his 
parents to York county, but two years later 
he returned to his former home in Iowa, 
where he worked as a farm hand for three 
years and a half. On again coming to York 
county, in 1878, he purchased eighty acres 
of railroad land on section 31, Leroy town- 
ship, which at that time was still in its 
primitive condition. For a few years, while 
working his land, he lived with his parents, 
but after his marriage he located upon the 
place, which by industry and perseverance 
he has transformed into one of the best 
farms of the locality. As his financial re- 
sources have increased, he has added to the 
original purchase until he now owns one 
hundred and seventy acres of valuable land, 
and in connection with its cultivation he 
also leases and operates eighty acres of 



school land. Upon his place he has erected 
a fine residence at a cost of seventeen hun- 
dred dollars, and made other valuable im- 
provements to exceed three thousand dol- 
lars. He has set out all of the trees upon 
his place and now has a large and thrifty 
orchard. 

In 1880 Mr. Kaliff led to the marriage 
altar Miss Ida L. Johnson, a native of 
Sweden, who came with her parents to 
America in 1875 and settled in Henry 
county, Iowa, but they took up their resi- 
dence in York county, Nebraska, three 
years later. Our subject and his wife now 
have eight children, namely: Florence H., 
Segrid E., Linda O., Augusta C. , Rudolph 
L., Charles A., John Franklin and Otto L. 

Mr. Kaliff is an energetic, enterprising 
citizen, keenly alive to the demands of a 
growing country, and ready to meet and aid 
any utilitarian scheme for its benefit. He 
has taken considerable interest in educa- 
tional matters and has served for nine years 
as treasurer of his school district. Politic- 
ally he is a supporter of the Republican 
party, and socially is identified with the 
Modern Woodmen Camp at McCool. 



WILLIAM M. MILLER.— Not on the 
plains of affluence did this gentleman 
start out on life's journey but in the valley 
of limited circumstances, with the rough and 
rugged path of hard undertaking before him. 
He is not only a self-made man but is self- 
educated as well, and for several years was 
one of the most successful and popular 
teachers in this section of the state. 

Mr. Miller was born in Berks county, 
Pennsylvania, December i, 1863, a son of 
Moses Miller, also a native of that state, 
where he was educated in the public and 
high schools. At the age of twenty-three 
he married Miss Sybilla Miller, who was 
then twenty-one, and to them were born 
• seven children, four sons and three daugh- 



510 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ters, of whom Sarah died at the age of fif- 
teen years, ten months and three days, and 
was buried in Zion cemetery, Berks county, 
Pennsylvania. The other children besides 
our subject are Albert M. , who is married 
and lives in Reading, Pennsylvania; Louise 
Loy, a resident of Berks county; Walter M., 
married and lives in Jackson county, Iowa; 
Landes F., who is married and is superin- 
tendent of the Industrial Life Insurance 
Company at McKeesport, Pennsylvania; and 
Mary M., who is married and lives in Berks 
county, Pennsylvania. The family at one 
time removed to Iowa, but soon returned to 
Berks county, where the father died at the 
age of forty-five years. The mother has since 
married Nathan Stump and still lives in 
Berks county at the age of sixty-three 
years. 

At the age of six years the subject of 
this review entered school, and until eleven 
attended the local schools three or four 
months every winter. His father dying at 
that time, he was thrown upon his own re- 
sources and immediately hired out to a 
farmer for five dollars per month for about 
six months during a year. From his wages 
he clothed himself and saved fifteen dol- 
lars per year. During the winter season 
he was mainly employed in doing chores for 
his board and the privilege of attending 
school three months. He continued to 
work as a farm hand at from five dollars to 
seven dollars per month until seventeen 
years of age, when he began to long for a 
home of his own. He then came to Iowa, 
and in Jackson county worked for his uncle 
Gabrial Miller, for two hundred dollars per 
year for two years and a half. He also at- 
tended school about four months during this 
time. Having saved up several hundred 
dollars, he went to Nance county, Nebraska, 
where he bought one hundred and sixty 
acres of land at six dollars and twenty-five 
cents per acre, which amounted to one 
thousand and forty dollars, a part of which 



he paid. On his return to Iowa, in connec- 
tion with his cousin he rented a farm of one 
hundred and seventy acres for four hundred 
and fifty dollars cash, operating it for one 
year. As his cousin had married, our sub- 
ject and his brother-in-law carried it on for 
two years, but the latter returned to Penn- 
sylvania at the end of that time, and Mr, 
Miller concluded to abandon farming in 
Iowa, and accordingly sold his personal pos- 
sessions there. He then entered the North- 
ern Illinois College in Fulton, Whiteside 
county, Illinois, where he pursued his studies 
for eighteen weeks, during which time he 
graduated with high honors in the commer- 
cial course and received a diploma. He 
also completed a year's work in the scien- 
tific course. His funds being exhausted, 
he quit school and went to Nance county, 
Nebraska, where he had previously pur- 
chased property, and began to break and 
improve his land. The first fall he built a 
small barn for the accommodation of his 
horses and cattle, and a small frame house 
for his own use, living alone there for a year 
and a half. He devoted his energies to farm 
work during the summer months, and in the 
winter taught a district school for thirty 
dollars a month. 

On the 23d of August, 188S, Mr. Miller 
was united in marriage with Miss Carrie Bell 
Harman, a daughter of David and Susanna 
Harman, who' are now living on a fine farm 
of one hundred and sixty acres four and a 
half miles southeast of Silver Creek, Polk 
county, Nebraska. She had two brothers 
and one sister, who are also living in Polk 
county. She received a good practical 
education in the schools of Central City, 
Nebraska, and Avoca, Iowa. After a brief 
illness she died February 3, 1893, at the age 
of twenty-five years, and was laid to rest in 
Osceola cemetery, Polk county, Nebraska. 
She was a true and earnest Christian, a 
member of the Methodist Church, and was 
beloved by all who knew her for her many 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



511 



excellencies of character. The loss to her 
husband was almost unbearable, but he 
takes great comfort in the little son, Burt 
D. Le Roy. who was born to them in Nance 
county, June 6, 1890. 

After the death of his wife Mr. Miller 
abandoned farming and devoted all his time 
to teaching, and later sold his property in 
Nance county. As a teacher he met with 
remarkable success, and during the twenty 
terms followed that profession he commaded 
the highest salaries paid. Later he was in- 
terested in the real estate business and was 
also agent for a fraternal life insurance 
company. He still owns considerable prop- 
erty, including value land and town prop- 
ety in Platte, Merrick, York and Polk 
counties. At the age of fourteen he was 
confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran 
church in Berks country, Pennsylvania, 
but subsequently joined the Methodist 
Episcopal church to which his wife be- 
longed. Upright and honorable in all things, 
he commands the respect and esteem of 
those with whom he comes in contact and 
has made a host of warm friends in his 
adopted state. 



JOHN DEDEN.— Many of the best citi- 
zens of Seward county have come from 
over the sea, particularly from the empire 
of Germany. They have transported into 
the wilds of Nebraska the industry, thrift 
and economy of their native land, and have 
been very important factors in the rapid de- 
velopment and almost miraculous growth 
of this section. Of this class of honest, 
hard-working, alien born citizens, there is 
none that occupies a more prominent place 
then John Deden, one of the pioneers of the 
county, who is now successfully engaged 
in agricultural pursuits in precinct I. 

He was born in the province of Hanover, 
Germany, November 29, 1832, and attended 
the schools of his native land from the age 



of six to fourteen years. In the latter year 
he was confirmed in the Lutheran church. 
For seven years he was a member of the 
German army, and on being discharged he 
engaged in farming until his emigration to 
America. At the age of thirty-five years he 
was united in marriage with Miss Adelheid 
Bove and before leaving Germany one child 
was born to them; Annie, who is now the 
wife of John P. Stolz, of Seward county. 
The other children, Minnie M., Martha, 
Albert and Mary, were all born in this 
country and are at home with the exception 
of Martha, who is the wife of John Haganow, 
of Minnesota. The wife and mother de- 
parted this life in 1892 at the age of forty- 
nine years, leaving many friends as well as 
here immediate family to mourn her loss. 

In 1869, Mr. Deden with his little family 
crossed the Atlantic and a year later came 
to Seward county, Nebraska, taking a 
homestead of eighty acres in I precinct, 
where he now lives. He came on foot 
from Lincoln, passing no houses on the way 
and only a few dugouts. After constructing 
one of those rude dwellings on his own place 
the family moved in, and for several years 
underwent many hardships and privations 
such as are experienced by most pioneers. 
On foot Mr. Deden went to Nebraska City, 
a distance of sixty-five miles, where for two 
years he worked to earn the money to sup- 
port his family. As soon as he was able to 
purchase a yoke of oxen he began to break 
and cultivate his land, but his team was 
stolen and one ox butchered. As he was in 
limited circumstances it was a hard matter 
to replace the team, and he also lost much 
during the grasshopper plagues and dry 
seasons, but at length prosperity crowned 
his efforts and he now has a good farm, on 
which he has set out many fruit trees of 
different varieties and erected good and 
substantial buildings. He is a pleasant, 
genial gentleman, well liked by all who know 
him. His first presidential vote was cast 



512 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



for General U. S. Grant, and he has since 
been an ardent supporter of the Republican 
party. 



WILLIAM DU BOIS POST, a promi- 
nent citizen of Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, now living in retirement in the 
city of Geneva, was born June 24, 1846, 
near the village of Ontario, in Richland 
county, Ohio. 

The parents of our subject were Johiel 
and Elizabeth fMoorhouse) Post. Little is 
known of Mr. Post's ancestors, except that 
his grandfather came from England before 
the Revolutionary war. For some time he 
maintained his coat-of-arms, but finally grew 
weary of what he called "aristocratic play- 
things," and discarded it entirely. He was 
among those who, disguising themselves in 
Indian costume, helped to solve the tea tax 
problem, by emptying three hundred and 
forty-two chests of British tea into Boston 
harbor. When the war broke out he be- 
came a soldier of the Revolution. 

William Du Bois Post spent his child- 
hood days on his father's little farm, near 
Ontario, Ohio. His mother died July 23, 
1851, at the age of thirty-eight. His father 
died August 18, 1855, aged forty-six years. 
At this time William was but nine years 
old, and, having no relatives excepting his 
little brothers and sisters, he was placed by 
his guardian in care of William McBride 
until he should reach his majority. How- 
ever, in 1864, when he was but seventeen 
years old. President Lincoln having issued 
a call for " one hundred day men," William 
enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and 
Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He 
went with his company first to Washington, 
District of Columbia, thence to the army 
near Petersburg, then to Fort Pocahontas, 
thence to Powhatan, and finally to Colum- 
bus, Ohio, where, after his regiment had re- 
ceived the thanks of President Lincoln, he 



was honorably discharged, December 15, 
1864. 

On returning home, our subject re-en- 
tered school, concluding his education at 
the academy at Savannah, Ohio. By the 
time he had reached the age of twenty-one, 
the greater part of his patrimony had been 
spent, but, being of a practical turn of 
mind, soon put a portion of his education 
to good use. He accepted an appointment 
as station agent for the railroad company 
at Ontario, which position he held until 
1868. During this time he renewed his ac- 
quaintance with Miss Marilla M. Story, 
whom he had previously met at the home 
of an uncle. They were united in marriage 
June 28, 1868, in the Methodist Episcopal 
church of Gallon, Crawford county, Ohio, 
by the pastor. Dr. Nelson. Mrs. Post was 
the daughter of John and Maria (Feiser) 
Story. Her father died at the early age of 
twenty-six years. The mother died six years 
later, leaving three young children in care 
of their grandmother, with whom Miss Ma- 
rilla lived until her marriage to Mr. Post. 
Her father had commanded a company of 
militia for several years prior to his death, 
and, though young, was active and promi- 
nent in the community. Mrs. Post has one 
brother. He went west early in life and 
was with Kit Carson in many Indian raids 
and excursions. He enlisted in a Nebraska 
regiment of volunteers in the war of the Re- 
bellion and is now a resident of southern 
Illinois. 

After their marriage Mrs. Post returned 
to her old home, while her husband vent- 
ured to try his fortunes in the west. He 
first located in Wyoming, but, having to live 
in a hut, he did not think it best to have his 
wife join him. He soon after returned to 
Eldora, Iowa, sent for Mrs. Post, and they 
made their home at that place for a period 
of six months, when he was appointed sta- 
tion agent at Steamboat Rock. Here they 
remained three months, when he was trans- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



51S 



ferred to Albion, Iowa. He discharged the 
duties of this position for eight years, when 
his business, outside his railroad duties, in- 
creased to such an extent, that he was com- 
pelled to resign, that he might devote his 
attention to the grain business, having pre- 
viously purchased the Farmers' Elevator. 
He conducted this business successfully un- 
til 1879. In November of that year, he re- 
moved, with his family, to the town of 
Bradshaw, eight miles west of York, Ne- 
braska. Here, he erected a store building 
and opened a general merchandise store, at 
the same time taking charge of the telegraph 
and railroad station. He added a line of 
drugs and further extended the scope of his 
business by establishing a lumber yard and 
coal office. One year later he purchased 
the elevator and began dealing in grain and 
live stock. His excessive labors finally be- 
gan to undermine his health and in 1885 he 
retired from active business. In order to 
have school advantages for his family, he 
removed to the city of York, but after five 
years again removed to Holyoke, Phillips 
county, Colorado, and opened a general 
merchandise business in 1892. Two years 
later, finding the high altitude unsuited to 
the health of his family, they returned to 
Nebraska, and located in Lincoln, where 
their children were given a literary and 
musical education. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Post four children have 
been born, named in the order of birth as 
follows: Leland V., Edna Zelda, Lillian 
Igurna, and Carl Mark. Leland V. died at 
the age of sixteen months. The others are 
at home, forming, with their parents, a 
most pleasant family circle. Miss Edna in- 
herits her father's business traits. In Au- 
gust, 1898, she invested her savings in a 
small stock of general merchandise and 
opened a store in Geneva. She is attentive 
to her business, and with her father's coun- 
sel is destined to succeed. Miss Lillian, 
while a student in the conservatory of the 



State University, developed a contralto 
voice of remarkable strength and compass. 
Carl has had some commercial training, but 
his education is as yet unfinished. 

The family are members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church at Geneva. Mrs. Post 
is an earnest worker and advocate of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union prin- 
ciples. Mr. Post takes little interest in 
political matters, votingfor the best man, in- 
dependent of party. For many years he 
has been a sufferer from a nervous ailment, 
but the quiet of retirement has done much 
toward restoring his former good health. 
He is a member in good standing of the 
Masonic fraternity, with membership at 
Holyoke, Colorado, and is also a member of 
the Ancient Order United Workmen, at 
York, Nebraska. 



THOMAS HENAHAN, a well-known 
dealer in general merchandise at Mc- 
Cool Junction, Nebraska, is one of the old- 
est and most highly respected citizens of 
York county. In the spring of 1878 he 
came into this region from New York city, 
and bought one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in section 34, McFadden township, 
from an old soldier who had just "proved 
up " on it. There was a sod house and a 
well on the farm, and he "bached" it for 
eighteen months, and he "fried pork, boiled 
water and cooked slapjacks as good as any- 
body," according to his own report. Only 
fifteen acres were broken at the time of his 
purchase, and he set himself to the labor 
of improving and making a home on the 
wild prairie. 

Mr. Henahan was born in county Mayo, 
Ireland, December 25, 1845, ^^^ is a son 
of Thomas and Delia (Welsh) Henahan, 
who were also natives of the "Emerald 
Isle." There they lived and died. Thomas 
was reared on his father's farm, and had an 
education in the common schools. When 



514 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



he was sixteen he took a position as a clerk 
in a dry-goods store. After working in the 
store for two years, he joined the Royal 
Irish constabulary, and served six years as 
a private, and received high recommenda- 
tions for honesty and abiUty at his discharge. 
He reached these shores in 1871, and three 
days after his arrival secured a position in 
New York with A. T. Stewart, the well- 
known merchant prince. This position he 
held seven years, when he gave it up to come 
to this state. He was a farmer until 1887 
when he secured the establishment of a 
post office and was appointed its first post- 
master. In the fall of that year he opened 
a general store, which he has managed 
most successfully and profitably to the pres- 
ent time. In addition to the store and vil- 
lage property he owns two hundred and 
forty acres of land. He has served two 
terms as postmaster and has been a village 
officer most of the time. At present he is 
serving his third term as trustee. He is a 
stanch Democrat, and is active and in- 
fluential in the party councils. 

Mr. Henahan was married to Miss Han- 
nah Rea, November 3, 1880. She was 
born at Wapello, DeWitt county, Illinois, 
and is of Irish descent, her parents, Thomas 
and Margaret E. (Galvin) Rea, being born 
in the island. He is a member of the An- 
cient Order of the United Workmen and 
the Modern Woodmen of America at Mc- 
Cool Junction. He and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Catholic church at York. 



ERASMUS GRUBB, one of the promi- 
nent and influential citizens of Rising 
City, Butler county, is doing an extensive 
real-estate, loan and insurance business. 
He first went to Butler county in 1871, and 
at that time bought eighty acres of land, but 
did not locate permanently until 1876. He 
was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, 
August 4, 1850, a son of Charles Grubb, 



who was born in Lehigh county, Pennsyl- 
vania, and moved with his parents to Craw- 
ford county when he was but three years of 
age, or in 1826. His father's name was 
Daniel Grubb. Charles Grubb, our sub- 
ject's father, was married in Crawford 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1846, to Miss 
Dinah Davidson, a daughter of William 
Davidson, of New Jersey. 

Erasmus Grubb, the subject of this 
sketch, is the second in the order of birth 
of a family of eleven children, whose names 
in the order of their birth are as follows: 
Wayne, Susie, Erasmus, Garrett, Elizabeth, 
Ida M., Kate, George H., Charles, Louisa 
M. and Ella. Our subject was reared in 
Hancock county, Illinois, where his parents 
moved when he was nine years of age. He 
received his early education in the public 
school and supplemented it with a course 
in the Gem City Business College at 
Quincy, Illinois. In the fall of 1871 
he went west on a prospecting tour, and 
upon reaching the vicinity of Rising 
City, which was then a wild prairie, 
he decided to make a small investment, 
and accordingly purchased eighty acres. He 
then returned to Illinois and remained until 
1876. Upon his return to Butler county, 
Nebraska, in 187S, he entered the store of 
J. C. Paxton, the first, and at that time the 
only store in the city, in the capacity of 
bookkeeper and head clerk. He was thus 
engaged fifteen months and then resigned to 
accept the position of principal of the school 
at Rising City, the first school organized in 
that place. After severing his connection 
with the school work, Mr. Grubb embarked 
in the real-estate, loan and insurance busi- 
ness. Mr. Grubb is a man of good business 
qualifications and has met with eminent 
success in all the enterprises in which he 
has embarked, and especially in his present 
calling he has a large patronage and his 
business is one of the most extensive in that 
line in the county. He has also always in- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



515 



terested himself in all matters of a public 
nature and he has added much to the nat- 
ural growth and prosperity of the com- 
munity. 

In 1879 Mr. Grubb returned to his 
former home in Hancock county, Illinois, 
and was united in marriage with Miss Lulu 
Howes, daughter of F. M. Howes, of that 
county. Our subject is a member of the 
Congregational church, and socially he is 
identified with the fraternity of the Knights 
of Pythias. Politically he is a free silver 
Republican. 



HARRISON MUNDHENKE, a repre- 
sentative and leading farmer of pre- 
cinct J, is a fair specimen of the sturdy agri- 
culturists who have so largely assisted in the 
development of Seward county, and who 
are drawing from the soil the important ele- 
ments of their future fortune. He was born 
in Stephenson county, Illinois, in 1855, and 
is a son of Frederick Mundhenke, a native 
of Germany, who when thirty years of age 
emigrated to this country with his parents, 
Mr. and Mrs. John Mundhenke, locating in 
Stephenson county, Illinois, where the 
grandmother of our subject died at the age 
of seventy years. The grandfather came 
with the family to this state and here passed 
away in 1S76, at the advanced age of nine- 
ty-five years. Frederick Mundhenke mar- 
ried Mrs. Margaretta (Wittel) Stabler, a 
young widow, by whom he had four sons: 
George, Edward, Jacob and Harrison. For 
five years after his marriage Mr. Mundhenke 
continued to engage in farming in Illinois, 
and then removed to Wisconsin, where he 
spent seven years, coming to Nebraska at 
the end of that time. Here his wife died 
in 1 88 1 and was buried in the Evangelical 
cemetery in Seward county. Three years 
later he went to Oregon, and after purchas- 
ing property in the state of Washington, he 
returned to Portland, where he is now living 



on a farm. Prior to leaving Nebraska he 
was again married, and his second wife is 
also still living. 

The subject of this review received his 
education in the common schools of Illinois 
and Wisconsin, and was eighteen years of 
age at the time of the emigration of the 
family to Nebraska. This region was then 
a wild, undulating prairie, very thinly set- 
tled, and among the other hardships with 
which the early settler had to contend were 
the grasshoppers, and the seasons of 1874, 
1880, 1890, 1893, 1894 and 1895 were so 
dry that very little was raised by the farm- 
ers, but mainly through his own industry, 
economy and good management Mr. Mund- 
henke has become quite well-to-do, and is 
now able to enjoy the fruits of his former 
toil, surrounded by all the comforts that 
make life worth the living. The father pur- 
chased a tract of railroad land from the Bur- 
lington & Missouri River Railroad Company 
at eight dollars per acre, and when our sub- 
ject attained his majority he gave him one 
hundred and sixty acres of land in J pre- 
cinct, Seward county, upon which he started 
to make a home for himself, breaking the 
prairie and erecting thereon good and sub- 
stantial buildings. It is now one of the 
best farms and most beautiful and attractive 
homes in the locality. He now owns two 
hundred and forty acres of valuable land in 
J precinct, and four hundred and eighty 
acres in Kansas, making in all seven hun- 
dred and twenty acres, all free from indebt- 
edness. 

At the age of twenty-three years, Mr. 
Mundhenke was united in marriage with 
Miss Fredericka Fi.\, who died in 1891, 
leaving five children besides her husband 
to mourn her untimely death. The children 
are Henry, Edwin, Oliver, Cora and Pearlie. 
Mr. Mundhenke has since married Miss 
Christina Stick, by whom he has the fol- 
lowing children: Wallace, Abel, Ray and 
Clayton. Mrs. Mundhenke is a native of 



516 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Canada and a daughter of George and 
Christina Stick, who are still living in that 
country, the former at the age of seventy- 
three years, the latter at the age of seventy. 
By trade the father is a shoemaker. In 
their family are eight children, of whom Mrs. 
Mundhenke is the sixth in order of birth. 
The others are Conrad and Charles, who are 
also residents of Seward county, Nebraska, 
George, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Engle- 
hart, of Michigan, and Elizabeth and Cath- 
erine, of Canada. All are married and 
have families. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Mund- 
henke is a Democrat and he ever takes an 
active and commendable interest in public 
affairs. When quite young he joined the 
Evangelical church, with which his family 
is also connected, and his life has ever been 
in harmony with his professions. 



GEORGE SHEPHERD, who was one 
of the valiant defenders of the Union 
during the dark days of the Rebellion, and 
is now an honored and highly esteemed cit- 
izen of York, was born in Georgetown, 
Brown county, Ohio, February 14, 1834, 
and is a son of William and Jane (Blair) 
Shepherd. His paternal grandparents were 
both natives of Scotland, and on their emi- 
gration to this country settled in east Tenn- 
essee, whence they later removed to Brown 
county, Ohio. The grandfather died in 
that state and the grandmother subsequently 
removed with her son William to LaSalle 
county, Illinois. Our subject's maternal 
grandfather was born in the north of Ire- 
land, and when a young man came to the 
United States and after a short time spent 
in Pennsylvania, also became a resident of 
east Tennessee, where he married a young 
lady, who was a native of the Keystone 
state. At an early day they also removed 
to Ohio, as did the parents of our subject. 
On leaving that state William Shepherd 



and wife went to LaSalle county, Illinois, 
but three years later took up their residence 
in Morgan, county, the same state. 

It was in the latter county that George 
Shepherd grew to manhood, remaining with 
his parents until he attained the age of 
twenty-five years. He then married Miss 
Mary Stevenson, a daughter of John H. and 
Ann E. (Jones) Stevenson, the ceremony 
being performed June 8, 1858. They be- 
gan their domestic life upon a farm in Mor- 
gan county, and from there removed to a farm 
in Sangamon county, Illinois, and later be- 
came residents of Hillsboro, Illinois, where 
Mr. Shepherd opened a blacksmith shop and 
engaged in work at his trade until after the 
outbreak of the Civil war. 

On the night of the 13th of June, 1862, 
he dreamed that he was in battle with the 
forces in the field; he could see the Union 
lines; hear the cannon and small arms; and 
saw the flashes of fire from the cannon as 
they afterward appeared in reality on the 
battle field of Marksville Prairie, in what is 
known as the Red river expedition under 
General Banks. The following day he en- 
listed in Company B, One Hundred and Seven- 
teenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, at Camp 
Butler, and being a master mechanic he was 
soon appointed foreman in the post govern- 
ment shop at Memphis, Tennessee, where 
he often had more than forty men working 
under him in wood and iron. After nine 
months in that position he was promoted to 
regimental train master, later to brigade 
train master, and finally to division train 
master, and discharged his various duties to 
the entire satisfaction of every commander 
he served under during the remainder of 
his service. While stationed at New Or- 
leans he was recommended by his superior 
officers for promotion to the position of 
quartermaster sergeant, but the division 
commander refused to let him be transferred, 
as his services had proved so valuable. 
During the two years he was trainmaster he 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



5ir 



never lost his train nor even a wagon. At 
one time, while foraging for provisions, his 
Httle train was attacked by guerillas from 
behind bushes and trees, and while the bul- 
lets flew around him uncomfortably he 
fortunately escaped uninjured. He was 
never in the hospital but once — for about 
eight days — and then against his protests. 

On receiving an honorable discharge, Mr. 
Shepherd returned to Illinois, and in Jack- 
sonville opened a shop, where he engaged 
in jobbing and manufacturing until 1869, 
when he returned to Hillsboro, where he 
had worked before the war. Six months 
later, however, he removed with his family 
to Springfield, Illinois, where the following 
year was passed, and then went to Will- 
iamsville, where he opened a shop of his 
own, conducting the same quite success- 
fully for twelve years. He then came to 
Nebraska, arriving in York county in Feb- 
ruary, 1882, and has made his home here 
continuously since. Owing to ill health he 
has not actively engaged in business since 
1883, and is now living retired in the city 
of York. 

Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Shepherd four are still living: Alice J., the 
eldest, married A. T. Hiett, and has one child. 
Earl Vance, a fine, healthy boy of twelve 
years, who holds his own among the school 
children of his age. Frederick G. married 
Ida Hagar, and they have one child, Arlo 
Guy, now fourteen months old. Nellie S. 
is a teacher in the high school of York, 
which fact speaks well for her ability, as 
this school ranks second to none of its kind 
in the state. She graduated with honors 
from the State Normal. Sarah E. married 
Charles E. Tracy, a son of John and Eliza- 
beth Tracy. 

Mr. Shepherd cast his first presidential 
vote for Millard Fillmore, and since then 
has been a pronounced Republican, but be- 
lieves in voting for principles and not for 
party. He and his wife were both reared 

30 



in the Presbyterian church, and still cling 
to that faith, and their lives have ever been 
such as to merit the high regard in which 
they are uniformly held. Socially Mr. 
Shepherd is an honored member of Robert 
Anderson Post, No. 32, G. A, R. , of York. 
He entered the army a strong and healthy 
man, but after spending three years tramp- 
ing from north to south through intermin- 
able swamps, across great rivers, and in en- 
gaging in skirmishes and hard-fought battles, 
his health became shattered, and he is now 
unable to perform any manual labor. He 
receives a small pension of twelve dollars 
per month, which very feebly compensates 
him for the hardships and sufferings occa- 
sioned by his army service. However, he 
has never repented following the dictates of 
his dream on the 13th of June, 1862. 



OLIVER WESTBERG, a prominent 
representative of the agricultural in- 
terests of Polk county, has since 1889 suc- 
cessfully carried on operations upon his 
present farm of eighty acres on section 33, 
township 14, range 2. Like many of the 
most industrious, enterprising and honored 
citizens of the county, he is a native of 
Sweden, born in Skona, October 2, 1862, 
and is a son of Nels and Anna Westberg, 
also natives of the same place. In 1867, 
with their family, they sailed for the new 
world, and first located in Moline, Illinois, 
where the father worked in a plow factory 
for seven years. In 1874 he came to Polk 
county, Nebraska, and settled on the north- 
west quarter of section 7, township 14, 
range 2, which was railroad land and entirely 
unimproved. After building a small frame 
house and sod barn, he commenced to break 
and cultivate his land, the first year raising 
some wheat and oats, but the grasshoppers 
destroyed his corn. To the development 
and improvement of his land he devoted 
his time and attention until life's labors 



518 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



were ended. One da}', while shelling corn, 
he slipped and fell, and catching his foot in the 
power, it had to be amputated. Gangrene 
afterward set in, from the effects of which 
he died November 5, 1887, at the age of 
fifty-one years. He was an upright, hon- 
orable man and a consistent member of the 
Baptist church, to which his widow also 
belongs. She now makes her home in 
Stromsburg. Their family consisted of seven 
children, namely: John N., Oliver, David, 
Ella, Bettie, Anna and Emma. John N. 
married Delia Freeman, of Indiana, and 
now lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is 
serving his second term as city comptroller. 
David, a farmer of Osceola precinct, Polk 
county, married Hannah Ecklund and has 
one child, Gordon. Bettie is the wife of 
Ed Johnson, of Osceola precinct, and has 
one child, Jessie. 

Oliver Westberg began his education in 
the public schools of Moline, Illinois, and 
attended school to some extent after the re- 
moval of the family to Polk county, Ne- 
braska. On attaining his majority he 
started out in life for himself, and owned 
and operated a farm, which he subsequently 
sold. In the spring of 1889 he located up- 
on his present place and has since carried it 
on with good success, the well-tilled fields 
yielding \ golden tribute in return for the 
care and labor bestowed upon them. He 
raises both grain and stock, and is also en- 
gaged in shelling corn. 

On the 30th of December, 188S, Mr. 
Westberg wa's united in marriage with Miss 
Emma Gunnison, a native of Sweden, who 
came to America during childhood. They 
now have a little daughter — Ethel Beatrice, 
born May 1 1, 1890. 

Mr. Westberg is a member of the Scan- 
dinavian Mutual Insurance Company, of 
Polk county, and also belongs to the Odd 
Fellows' Lodge, of Osceola, and the Mod- 
ern Woodman Camp, of Stromsburg. His 
political support is always given the men 



and measures of the Republican party, and 
he has frequently served as a delegate to 
county and state conventions of his party. 
For eight years Mrs. Westburg was one of 
the popular and successful teachers of Polk 
county, having acquired an excellent educa- 
tion in the schools of Lincoln, this state. 
She and her husband are widely and favor- 
ably known, and have a host of warm 
friends throughout the community in which 
they make their home. 

Ella Westberg has been a successful 
teacher, having taught the past eight years, 
and at present is teaching at Stromsburg. 
Miss Emma has taught three years, and at 
present teaches at Shelby, Nebraska. Miss 
Annie devotes her time to music, having 
taught music for a number of years. 



AUGUST JOHNSON came from Sweden 
when thirty years of age, bringing with 
him his wife and two children, and landed 
in New York with hardly enough money to 
pay his passage to Iowa. For the last 
twenty-six years he has been a resident of 
Bradshaw township, York count}', Nebraska, 
and to-day is the owner of two hundred and 
forty acres of fine farm land, and has about 
him everything that is necessary to comfort 
or the successful prosecution of his business. 
Such a career is an epitome of American 
history, and shows what a blessing this 
country has been to the poor and the ambi- 
tious of the old world. He has accomplished 
these great results by no help except his 
own industry and character, and as he looks 
back over the years he may well be proud 
of the record he has made. 

August Johnson was born in Sweden in 
T838, and in 1868 left his native country and 
emigrated to America. He landed in the city 
of New York in June of that year, in company 
with his. wife and their two children. They 
have had ten children born to them, of whom 
six are now living, the youngest being fourteen 



tOMPENDlUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



519 



-years of age: John C. , Mary E. , Emma C. , 
Anna M. . Ida S. , and Carl A. Mr. Johnson 
left New York and took his family to Swedes- 
burg, Iowa, where they found a home, 
and where he was able to secure work with 
the neighboring farmers at good wages for 
several years. He rented a farm when he 
had become familiar with American ways, 
and gradually grew quite forehanded. In 
1872 he heard of the possibilities of Ne- 
braska, and saw in the new state a home 
for himself and family. He put his effects 
into a wagon, and, taking his family, started 
for York county, which he reached late that 
year. He made a homestead entry of the 
south half of the northwest quarter of sec- 
tion 18. township II, range 4, west, and on 
It he put up a sod house, which served to 
shelter his family one winter. This was 
then succeeded by a log house, in which he 
lived seven years. In the coming spring he 
was to find his eighty acres a wilderness of 
wild grass and waving flowers, which, how- 
ever, fell beneath his breaking plow, and 
very soon was transformed into a highly cul- 
tivated farm. Here he remained for seven 
years, and then, receiving a good cash offer 
for his place, accepted it and purchased an- 
other farm, where he now resides, the south- 
east quarter of section 25, township 11, 
range 4 west. This new farm was also wild 
prairie, and he had thus to twice hew out 
his farm from the wilderness. He was 
strong hearted and active, and admirably 
succeeded in this larger undertaking. He 
now has a farm of two hundred and forty 
acres, thoroughly cultivated, and amply 
provided with all the necessities and con- 
veniences of modern farming. His family 
have a pleasant and commodious home, and 
it is surrounded by such farm buildings as 
give dignity and character to the place. He 
has raised two orchards of apples, cherries, 
peaches and other fruit trees that the cli- 
mate permits, as well as an abundance of 
small fruits. 



Mr. Johnson sees to it that his children 
attend the public schools, valuing highly the 
privileges of learning, which in his own boy- 
hood were not lightly and easily secured. 
He and his wife are loyal members of the 
Swedish Lutheran denomination, and highly 
prize its inspirations and instructions. He 
belongs to no secret society, and in political 
matters has always acted with the Repub- 
lican party. He has led an active career, 
and has endured many privations, but at 
sixty years of age is prosperous beyond the 
dream of his earlier life and commands the 
respect of a wide circle of friends and ac- 
quaintances. 






A BRAM COURTRIGHT, deceased, was 
r\ for several years one of the most promi- 
nent and highly esteemed citizens of Sew- 
ard county, within whose borders he lo- 
cated in 1866. Three years previous he 
had come to Nebraska, taking up his resi- 
dence at Mt. Pleasant, near Nebraska City 
in the fall of 1863, and remaining there un- 
til coming to Seward county, where he se- 
cured a homestead in precinct P. 

Mr. Courtright was born in Luzerne 
county, Pennsylvania, February i, 18 19, 
and was a son of Elisha and Sarah Court- 
right, representatives of an old and hon- 
ored family of the Keystone state. For ten 
generations the names of Abram and Elisha 
have alternated between father and son in 
this family in the United States. Late in 
the 'forties, our subject, with his father and 
family, emigrated to Illinois and located at 
Di.xon on the Rock river, where he learned 
the carpenter's trade. There he was married 
on the 27th of August, 1849, to Miss Sally 
H. Gaunt, who was born in Muncy, Lycom- 
ing county, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1828, a 
daughter of Richard and Hannah (Cook) 
Gaunt, who died when she was quite young. 
At the age of nine years she removed to 
Illinois with a married sister and first lo- 



520 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



cated at Peru, but two years later went to 
Dixon, where she was subsequently married. 

In 1859 Mr. Courtright went to Califor- 
nia, where he spent four years in quest of a 
fortune, and on his return east discovered 
the rich farm lands of Nebraska and decided 
to locate here. Reaching home, he loaded 
his effects into wagons, which were drawn 
by oxen, and with his wife and two children 
proceeded to Nebraska City. His first resi- 
dence in Seward county was a dugout, 
where Mrs. Courtright extended the hos- 
pitalities of the home to the wayfarer of high 
or low degree. He soon became one of the 
leading and influential citizens in the early 
days of the county, and was held in high 
regard by all who knew him. He was a 
veteran of the Mexican war, was a true 
and loyal citizen at all times and under all 
circumstances, and commanded the respect 
and esteem of the entire community. Po- 
litically he was identified with the Republic- 
an party, and socially affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity. His death occurred Jan- 
uary 25, 1882. 

The children of the family, Elisha and 
Edith, received good educations, and were 
therefore well prepared to take a high place 
in the business and social world. The son 
now owns and successfully operates a large 
farm, where the family first located on com- 
ing to the county. He married Ella L. 
Cunningham, a daughter of James and Lu- 
cinda Cunningham, but she died in 1894, 
leaving two sons, Abram and James. Edith 
is the wife of George B. France, of York, 
Nebraska, and has two children, George W. 
and Era. 



MRS. MARY HANEY is a venerable 
lady who is passing her last days in 
peace and quiet in her rural home near the 
post-office of Bradshaw, York county. She 
has known many of the sadder experiences 
of life, and through her pioneer days tales 



and scenes of want and suffering have often 
drawn upon her kind heart and sympathetic 
spirit. She is now advanced in years, but 
bears herself with admirable strength and 
vigor. She is in many respects a remark- 
able character and has had a varied career. 

Mrs. Haney was born in Waterford, Ire- 
land, May 21, 1825, and her parents, Pat- 
rick and Mary (Buckley) Donnavan, were 
both born and married in that city. At her 
marriage with Peter Doyle, when she was 
about twenty years of age, they left her 
native country, and after some changeful 
years, brought up at Springfield, Illinois. 
Mr. Doyle came first to this country. His 
wife followed and found him at New Or- 
leans, where he was engaged in dredging 
the Mississippi. Her parents came on in 
about four years, and the entire family was 
settled on American soil. Mrs. Haney has 
been the mother of thirteen children, all 
but two of whom are dead. Her son John, 
who now lives with his mother, was born 
in New Orleans, and her other son, Peter, 
was born in Springfield. The parents of 
both Mr. and Mrs. Doyle lived on farms in 
Sangamon county, and were well acquainted 
with Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Doyle was 
one of the ladies, who, being his intimate 
friends, bought the cloth and made him a 
pair of pantaloons, each taking a few 
stitches, and presenting him with the gar- 
ment as a token of personal esteem. She 
declares he was a good man and a friend of 
the poor, and her grey head shakes with 
emotion as she talks about the man the 
world has learned to love, and whom the 
people of central Illinois knevvso intimately 
and revered so profoundly. In 1858 Mr. 
Doyle died in Sangamon county, and in a 
short time her parents died in Logan 
county. 

The widow Doyle removed to DeWitt 
county, where she met William Haney and 
married him in 1865. He was a teamster 
in the Union army, and when his time was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



521 



out with the government came home to be 
married. Their made their home in De- 
Witt county, and led a rural life for seven- 
teen years. They finally made up their 
mind that a better field for farming was 
across the Missouri river, and they bought 
a farm in 1882 in Lockridge township, which 
presently grew to two hundred and forty 
acres. She lives on a forty-acre tract in 
section 21, Bradshaw township, retaining a 
life interest in the larger property. Mr. 
Haney died nearly ten years ago, and left 
his wife in good circumstances. She is liv- 
ing with her brother who, is blind, and her 
son, John Doyle. She is a woman seventy- 
four years of age, but does her own work, 
and with her brother and son seems to enjoy 
life and have a good time as the days slip by. 



GEORGE PETERSON, whose post- 
office address is Bradshaw, York 
county, Nebraska, is a Swedish-American 
and worthily sustains the good reputation 
which his compatriots have won in this land 
of opportunity. He has worked hard, been 
honest and fair dealing, and is to-day one 
of the reliable and solid men of the com- 
munity. 

George Peterson was born in the south 
part of Sweden, September 15, 1850, and 
is a son of Pear and Cecil Anderson, who 
lived in the district of Blocking. When he 
was twenty years old he emigrated to Am- 
erica, paying his passage with the money 
his brother Nels sent him from this coun- 
try. He had made the journey a year be- 
fore, and wanted his brother to share the 
larger life with him. George landed in 
New York, but went immediately to Du- 
luth, where he found employment as a stone 
and brick mason. He worked in that city 
for two seasons, and was on the Northern 
Pacific railroad for a third year at two 
dollars a day. In July, 1874, reported at 
Sweedburg, Iowa, where he spent the next 



five years working for the surrounding farm- 
ers at the usual wage of twenty dollars a 
month. With his brother Nels he came to 
this state and reached this county in March, 
1878. He was married November 23, 
1 88 1, to Miss Christina Johnson, and made 
his home on the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion 3, township north 10, range 4 west. 
Here they have lived up to the present time. 
They put up a little cottage which, with all 
the other farm buildings, was swept away 
by a cyclone June 3, 1890. They fled to 
the cellar and escaped with their lives, but 
everything they had in furniture or wearing 
apparel was blown away and never recov- 
ered. It was a thrilling experience. They 
lived in the granary until they could build 
a new house in the fall. They have now a 
fine farm dwelling, barns, corn cribs, gran- 
aries and other improvements. They have 
a young and thrifty orchard that affords the 
fruits that are common to this climate. 
Last year they harvested forty-five acres of 
small grain, forty acres of corn and ten 
acres of meadow. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson 
are the parents of four children — Anna O., 
Elsie J., Esther A. and Ella W. Mrs. 
Peterson, the mother of this family of 
charming girls, is the daughter of Charley 
and Christina Johnson, who also came from 
Sweden in 1851, and settled on a farm in 
Jefferson county, Iowa, where they died in 
after years. Her father lived to be forty- 
three and the mother fifty-six. They are 
all of the Lutheran faith. Mr. Peterson is 
a Republican. 



JOSEPH M. MILLER is engaged in farm- 
ing operations on section 20, precinct 
E, Seward county, and has been a resident 
of Nebraska for many years. He is a man 
of more than ordinary ability, has a ready 
mind and a positive character, and is re- 
garded as one of the most reliable men in 
this part of the county. 



522 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Miller was born in Westmoreland 
county, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1841, 
and is a son of Lewis and Mary (Wilyard) 
Miller. His father was an engineer on the 
Pittsburg and Fort Wayne railroad, and 
was killed ina collision on that line in 1853, 
at Canton, Ohio. His mother is still liv- 
ing, and has had her home in Piper City, 
Illinois, since 1867. His maternal grand- 
father was a soldier in the war of 18 12, and 
a brother of his father served in the Mexican 
war. He had his schooling in Johnstown 
and Pittsburg, and was thrown upon his own 
resources at the early age of twelve years by 
the untimely death of his father. His first 
workiwas for his board. He was a ready 
lad, and willing to do any honest work, and 
by the time he reached early manhood was 
able to command good wages. The in- 
auguration of the Civil war found him quick 
to respond to the nation's call for troops, 
and he enlisted June 27, 1861, in Company 
H, Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer In- 
fantry. The regiment was mustered in at 
Camp Wright, Pittsburg, and was sent to 
Washington, and on the way passed through 
the city of Baltimore, then a dangerous 
thoroughfare for Federal troops. It was 
the first regiment to pass through after the 
Sixth Massachusetts, and the way was a 
difficult one. It wrote a long and brilliant 
history, and participated in many of the 
most important engagements of the war. 
It was captured at Gaines' Mill, and the 
men were detained as prisoners of war forty- 
one days, when they were exchanged, and 
were almost immediately rushed on to the 
second battle of Bull Run. They fought at 
South Mountain, Antietam, Mine Run, 
Fredericksburg, and at Gettysburg. Mr. 
Miller re-enlisted in the same company, and 
in the battle of the Wilderness, May, 5, 
1864, was taken prisoner. He was an in- 
mate of Andersonville for four months, and 
passed through all the bitter experiences of 
that modern inferno. He was transferred 



to Florence, North Carolina, where he was 
kept for five months, and from there he 
passed to Wilmington, and spent three 
weeks in the hospital. He was parolled at 
Goldsboro, and on his return to the Union 
lines received a prisoner's furlough to make 
a visit home. He returned to the One 
Hundred and Ninetieth Pennsylvania Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and served throughout the 
war, receiving his discharge July 3, 1865. 
He was never seriously wounded, and 
though he was much prostrated by his ex- 
periences in the rebel prisons, yet he 
measureably recovered his health, and takes 
much satisfaction in recalling those stormy 
days. 

The war-worn veteran returned to his 
Pennsylvania home, but soon set his face 
westward, and secured employment on a 
farm near Farmington, Illinois. This was 
in 1866, and the next year he bought a 
farm, which he operated until 1872. He 
spent some little time in making his next 
location, and though he came to this state 
in 1873, it was not until the November of 
the following year that he made a home- 
stead entry of the east half of the southeast 
quarter of section 20, in this township. 
Some slight improvements had been made 
upon this tract by a former claimant, such 
as the breaking up of twenty acres and the 
erection of a small frame house. He, how- 
ever, held to the claim, improved it thor- 
oughly and secured a final title. In 1880 
he moved his family into Utica, and spent 
nine years in that thriving little burg. In 
1889 he came back to the farm, and spent 
a year in its cultivation, when he returned 
to Utica, and in 1894 made his home on the 
farm for a third time, and there he is to be 
found to-day. He has eighty acres in a 
high state of cultivation, and though it is 
not so extensive an estate as some of his 
neighbors possess, yet it is very productive, 
and yields an ample support for those who 
depend upon it. 



COMPENDIU^r OF BIOGRAPHT. 



523 



Mr. Miller was married in November, 
1868, to Miss Margery Cramer, who was 
born in Illinois, and is an estimable lady. 
They are the parents of one child. Royal C. 
The subject of this sketch is a member of 
the Grand Army post at Utica, and as might 
be expected is one of its most zealous and 
active members. He has been commander 
of the post, and his voice is always listened 
to with deference in its deliberations. He 
has also united with the Loyal Legion of 
Pennsylvania, though distance prevents a 
very active work in that organization. He 
is a Democrat, and has been township con- 
stable for many years. He was deputy 
sheriff for four terms, and has served one 
term on the county board. He is a man of 
energy and push, and is regarded as one of 
the solid men of this part of the county. 



CLIFF FRANK is the editor and pro- 
prietor of The Teller. He has ably 
conducted the various departments of his 
newspaper enterprise and has built up for 
himself an excellent reputation as an editor 
and a large patronage for his newspaper. 
The Teller is the Free Silver Republican 
organ of York county, Nebraska, and was 
founded August 19, 1897, by its present 
editor. 

Mr. Frank was born in Harrison county, 
Indiana, February 15, 1855, and received 
his preliminary training in the public schools 
of his native county. He began the study 
of law at the age of eighteen years, and was 
admitted to the bar in Indiana. At the 
age of twenty years he went west, and in 
1879 was admitted to the bar in York 
county, Nebraska. During that year, also, 
he assumed the editorship of the York Tri- 
bune, and for three years he devoted the 
greater part of his attention to this publica- 
tion. During the following three years he 
practiced law, and then edited the York 
Republican for four years. Mr. Frank then 



spent some time in farming, but in 1897 he 
established The Teller. This paper is 
named in honor of Hon. Henry M. Teller, 
of Colorado, and is devoted to the interest 
of the Free Silver Republicans of York and 
adjoining counties. It is a seven-page 
sheet and is generally read throughout this 
section of Nebraska. It has a circulation 
of about nine hundred, which is steadily in- 
creasing. 

Mr. Frank was married, in 1880, to Miss 
Lizzie Keller, a native of Indiana, and their 
wedded life has been blessed by the pres- 
ence of two children, Charles Scott and 
Lena May, both of whom are living. Our 
subject is a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Modern Woodmen of America, and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 
local politics he has performed the duties of 
justice of the peace. Mr. Frank had the 
misfortune to lose his right arm in a rail- 
road accident in 1889, and also to lose his 
left leg by a gun shot wound. 



AH. TROWBRIDGE.— Fortunate is he 
who has back of him an ancestry hon- 
orable and distinguished, and happy is he if 
his lines of life are cast in harmony there- 
with. Our subject, now a prominent 
farmer residing on section 8, Read town- 
ship, Butler county, is blessed in this re- 
spect, for he springs from a prominent fam- 
ily, which was early founded in this coun- 
try. On the paternal side he traces his 
ancestry back to Thomas Trowbridge, of 
Taunton, England, who came to the new 
world in 1636, and settled first in Dorches- 
ter, Massachusetts, removing two years later 
to New Haven, Connecticut. On the other 
hand, his mother is descended from William 
Packard, who was a participant in the fa- 
mous "Boston tea party," and was with 
the Colonial army on their expedition to 
Quebec during the Revolutionary war. 



524 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Dr. John Foote Trowbridge, our sub- 
ject's father, was born in Dutchess county, 
New York, July 21, 1791, and was a son of 
Seeley Trowbridge, a native of Connecticut. 
The doctor was married in, 1817, to Miss 
Rosamond Packard, daughter of John Pack- 
ard, of New Hartford, New York, and they 
became the parents of five children: A. H., 
of this review; R. F., late of Syracuse, 
New York, ; J. M., of Brooklyn, New York, ; 
Frances, who died in Milwaukee; and Mrs. 
Louisa Blanchard, who died in Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin. The father of these children 
was widely known throughout central New 
York as a successful medical practitioner, 
having devoted over sixty years to his pro- 
fession. He died in Syracuse, honored 
and respected by all who knew him. 

Mr. Trowbridge, whose name introduces 
this sketch, was born at New Hartford, 
Oneida county. New York, October 18, 
1818, and his childhood was spent on a 
farm near Bridgewater, that state, his edu- 
cation being obtained in the common schools 
of the locality and in Bridgewater academy. 
At the age of twenty-three he removed to 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was en- 
gaged in business for seventeen years. In 
Walworth county, that state, he was mar- 
ried August 16, 1849, to Miss Harriet Bent- 
ley, who was born at Goshen, Litchfield 
county, Connecticut, August 16, 1831, and 
is a daughter of Robert Bentley, a native of 
Rhode Island. Having no children of their 
own, Mr. and Mrs. Trowbridge have 
adopted two, namely: Nellie, now the wife 
of James Patterson, and Robert Henry 
Trowbridge, now twenty-seven years of age. 
He lakes an active interest in church and 
Sunday-school work, being a member of the 
Baptist denomination, and has also effi- 
ciently served his fellow citizens as town 
clerk. 

In the spring of i86g Mr. Trowbridge 
emigrated to Nebraska, making the journey 
in a wagon drawn by four horses, while two 



cows were attached behind. He has since 
made his home upon his present farm on 
section 8, Read township, Butler county, 
and for nine years after locating here he 
served as postmaster of Cottonwood, con- 
ducting the office in his own home. This 
was some time before the present town of 
Surprise was founded or even dreamed of. 
With the material prosperity and growth of 
the county Mr. Trowbridge has since been 
identified, and he is one of the most public- 
spirited and enterprising citizens of the com- 
munity. In the Trowbridge home the tra- 
ditions of the family are preserved and the 
cultured tastes of the inmates are clearly 
hereditary. 



LOUIS CRAIG REN, whose portrait is 
presented with this sketch, is the active 
and daring sheriff of Butler county, and has 
hesitated at no deed of daring and danger 
that the rules of justice and law might seem 
to require from him. The office which he 
so ably fills has never been a sinecure in the 
western country, and though the state of 
Nebraska has always had reason to be proud 
of the high character and law-abiding habits 
of its people, yet as in every other new coun- 
try there have been occasions when a pecu- 
liarly vigilant and ready public officer was 
demanded to administer the police strength 
of the county. Sheriff Ren has met every 
such requirement with readiness and deci- 
ion,andhasreceived much praise for his quick 
mastery of every complicated and delicate 
situation. 

Sheriff Ren was born in Jackson county, 
Indiana, May 30, 1854, and is of Scottish Irish 
descent. His father's name was Shadarach 
Wren, and his mother was Nancy Aley. 
His grandfather was born in Ireland, and 
came to this country about the year 1760. 
The early history of the family is obscure, 
but, in a general way, it may be noted as an 
honorable and working branch of the name, 




LOUIS C. REN. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



527 



and during the early part of the century ap- 
peared in Indiana. Here Shadarach Wren 
was the owner of a woodland farm and a 
master mechanic in the Louisville foundry. 
Later on he was engaged on the river as 
a mate on an Ohio river boat. The fam- 
ily name was originally Wren, but Shadar- 
ach, at the instigation of some friends in 
scientific circles, and in deference to a move- 
ment that was quite popular at that time, 
dropped the " W ", and wrote it simply 
Ren. 

Louis Craig Ren grew up in the posses- 
sion of the privileges of a woodland farm, 
and all that means to a boy. He studied 
and worked and pushed along, and in 1876 
felt himself sufficiently master of the situa- 
tion to take a wife. He was accordingly 
married that year to Miss Sarah E. Utter- 
back, who died October 12,1877, soon after 
the birth of a daughter, Maude Alma Ren, 
who is still living in Indiana. Mr. Ren re- 
moved to Butler county, Nebraska, and en- 
gaged in farming without any other capital 
than a strong arm and a resolute spirit. 
He has a genial and warm-hearted disposi- 
tion, makes friends readily and holds them 
steadily by virtue of a sound and manly 
character. So it is not to be wondered that 
he pushed rapidly to the front, and soon be- 
came a leading spirit in the county. He 
has done well in business, and commands a 
a wide influence in politics. He was for- 
merly a Republican, but in the various re- 
form movements in this county which have 
made recent years memorable he has taken 
an active part. He was president of the 
North Butler Farmers' Alliance, and a del- 
egate to the first Populist convention in the 
state, which was held in 1890. He was a 
member of the county board in 1890 when 
the court house was built. He was a nomi- 
nee for sheriff four years ago, but the ticket 
was snowed under. In 1897 he was again 
brought forward and elected by a hand- 
some majority. 



Sheriff Ren is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and the Home 
Forum, and is much esteemed in these va- 
rious fraternal relations. He was married a 
second time in life in 1884, Mrs. Rosa J. 
Lawrenze becoming his wife. Her father, 
Frederick Marti, was a native of Switzer- 
land, and a man of fine character and much 
ability. He graduated from the college at 
Berne, and was married to Miss Rosa 
Bruner, a lady of much intellectual power 
and wide attainments. She was an artist 
in the musical world, and a graduate of a 
musical college in her native country. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Ren have been born four chil- 
dren — Hattie Bell, Mary E., Walter E., and 
Helen R. They are a delightful family, and 
promise well for the future. His mother's 
people were of Scottish descent and came 
to America prior to the Revolutionary war and 
some of them were soldiers in the early 
wars of the country. Mr. Ren has always 
taken an active interest in educational mat- 
ters and for several years was president of 
the board of education at Bellwood, Ne- 
braska, of the high school. 



GUSTAV FAUSTMAN.— No better il- 
lustration of the characteristic energy 
and enterprise of the typical German- 
American citizen can be found than that 
afforded by the career of this gentleman, a 
well-known farmer of York county, whose 
home is on section 24, Brown township. 
Coming to this country with no capital ex- 
cept his abilities, he has made his way to 
success through well-directed effort, and 
can now look back with satisfaction upon 
past struggles. 

A native of Germany, Mr. Faustman 
was born in Landsberg, May 25, 1848, a son 
of Ludwig and Henrietta (Walter) Faust- 
man, and grandson of Martin Faustman. 
All were natives of the Fatherland, and fol- 



528 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



lowed either gardening or farming. The 
grandfather was a soldier in the army against 
Napoleon in 1812 and 1815, the father was 
in the war of 1848, and our subject was in 
the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71, taking 
part in fifteen important battles, including 
those at Metz, Sedan, Paris, and Orleans. 
He was only twenty years old when he en- 
tered the service, and fortunately was never 
wounded nor confined to the hospital, 
though he had three horses shot from under 
him and his lance broken by a bullet. 

After his return from the war, Mr. Faust- 
man married Miss Augusta Senff, daughter 
of Karl and Wilhelmina Senff. All of her 
ancestors were natives of Germany, and 
many of them were farmers, but her father 
was a school-teacher, being appointed by 
the government. With the hope of benefit- 
ting their financial condition, Mr. and Mrs. 
Faustman came to the United States, land- 
ing in New York city July 25, 1872, from 
a steamer, and by railway train they pro- 
ceeded to York county, Nebraska, where he 
filed a claim to the east half of the south- 
east quarter of section 24, Brown township. 
Upon his place he built a house entirely of 
sod — walls, roof aad floor — he having no 
money to buy even a nail. The floor of 
this primitive dwelling the wife swept with a 
broom of willows for a long time. Leaving 
her alone after the completion of their 
home, Mr. Faustman walked sixteen miles 
to the home of a farmer who passed for a 
rich man because he owned a team, and our 
subject employed him to break his prairie 
for him, paying him three dollars per acre 
by work at seventy-five cents per day. 
While her husband was thus employed, Mrs. 
Faustman spaded aliitle garden and planted 
the seed which she had brought from Ger- 
many, but was not very successful in her 
gardening. She was very lonesome at this 
time; wild animals were all around, and 
now and then a rattlesnake was found, 
which kept her on the lookout day and 



night. Saturday she would watch for her 
husband, who might be seen coming across 
the prairie bearing on his shoulder the pro- 
visions he had earned by his labor during 
the week, and which she was to live on the 
following week. 

Thus they lived until 1874, when he was 
able to buy a team of horses. He also pur- 
chased a wagon for fifty dollars, which he 
paid for by plowing with his new team at 
two dollars per day. That year he broke 
forty acres of his own land besides what he 
broke for other people, and also bought a 
cow. Instead of eating the butter, Mrs. 
Faustman traded it for corn at seventy-five 
cents per bushel. In spite of all their pri- 
vations they were healthy, and the years 
passed swiftly and happily by, for were they 
not working for a home which the)' never 
could have secured in the Fatherland .' At 
length a company of farmers purchased a 
header and afterward a threshing machine, 
and from that time life began to grow 
easier. Mr. Faustman planted shade and 
fruit trees, and as everything grew rapidly 
their farm of sunflower, golden rod and blue 
grass was soon transformed into cultivated 
fields of wheat, rye, oats, barley and corn. 
In 1878 he purchased from the railroad 
company another quarter section of land on 
ten years' time, but had it all paid for at 
the end of six years, and two years later 
had saved one thousand dollars, with which 
he erected a comfortable frame residence, 
the family being glad to get rid of the old 
crumbling sod dwelling. In 1894 he paid 
three thousand dollars cash for another one 
hundred and sixty acre tract, and in 1896 
paid twenty-five hundred dollars for eighty 
acres, counting out the money when the 
deed was signed. He now owns four hun- 
dred and eighty acres of as fine farming 
land as can be found in York county, with- 
out a cent of indebtedness upon it; has two 
fine orchards and excellent buildings upon 
the place. He keeps twelve milch cows. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



529 



selling the milk, or rather cream, for seventy 
dollars per month the year round. Thus 
we see that, by hard work, perseverance and 
good management, he has become one of the 
most substantial as well as one of the highly 
respected farmers of the county. 

Six children came to brighten the little 
home, three sons and three daughters, 
namely: Ida, now the wife of Charles 
Hahn, a son of Charles and Ida Hahn; and 
Otto, Reinhold, Emil, Alvina and Mary, 
who are all at home. The children are re- 
ceiving good public school educations, and 
with their parents attend the Lutheran 
church. Mr. and Mrs. Faustman were ed- 
ucated in the common schools of Germany, 
and he is also able to read and write the 
English language. Since becoming an 
American citizen, he has been an ardent 
supporter of the Republican party, casting 
his first vote for General Grant, and his 
last for William McKinley. 



PP. WALSH, who has lived and farmed 
for more than aquarter of a century on 
section 15, precinct D, Seward county, 
stands well among Nebraska farmers, and 
by his industry, thrift and economy has 
made himself independently well off. He 
has a farm consisting of three hundred and 
twenty acres of choice land, and the build- 
ings upon it are above the average in their 
substantial construction and the convenience 
of their arrangements. 

Mr. Walsh was born near Waukegan, 
Illinois, in 1845, and was reared and edu- 
cated in that community. He was bred a 
farmer, and assumed the responsibility of 
his own maintenance when only sixteen 
years of age. He crossed the lake and en- 
tered the lumber woods near Muskegon, 
Michigan, and spent a year or more, when 
he came back to Chicago, and was employed 
as a teamster for the next three years. By 
this time he had grown sufficiently fore- 



handed to buy a team for himself, and en- 
gaged in teaming in Waukegan. He came 
to this state in 1871, and filed a homestead 
claim on the east, half of the southeast 
quarter of section 10, precinct D, but pres- 
ently exchanged it for eighty acres, where 
he is now living. He and Lon Ritchie 
built a sod house and lived in it together for 
sometime. He earned some needed money 
about this time by working on the construc- 
tion of the Burlington & Missouri River 
railroad. He built a sod house on his own 
homestead, which was used for a time as a 
school-house, and where the first term was 
held in the district. 

Mr. Walsh was married January i, 1879, 
to Miss Mary Ann Reynolds, a native of 
New York, and a daughter of Christopher 
Reynolds, who came to this county as early 
as 1865. He was a man of energy, daring 
and integrity, and has been long dead. Mr. 
and Mrs. Walsh immediately settled on 
their homestead farm, and applied them- 
selves earnestly to its improvement. They 
put up a frame residence, sixteen by twenty- 
four feet, and have from time to time made 
very substantial additions to it until it has 
assumed its present comfortable and com- 
modious appearance. They began with 
wild land, and by persistent pluck and 
push are now the owners of a half section 
of land, one hundred and sixty acres of it on 
section 15, and the remainder on section 12. 
The farm is supplied with two sets of build- 
ings, and has all the conveniences required 
by a modern and up-to-date agriculture. 
He rents and operates an additional quarter 
section, making four hundred and eighty 
acres under his immediate and personal 
management. 

Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are the parents of 
six living children — Matthew, Thomas, Ed- 
ward, George, Leo and Ralph. They are 
members of the Catholic church at Ulysses, 
and are prominent people in the parish. 
He is a Populist, and an active worker for 



530 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the cause he cherishes. He is township 
treasurer and also treasurer of school dis- 
trict 43, and is generally regarded as an up- 
right and capable man. 



EDWARD LANCASTER is a public- 
spirited and enterprising farmer, who 
has a well improved homestead on section 
i6, Waco township, York county. He has 
devoted himself to the improvement of his 
farm, and is industrious, progressive in his 
methods, and quick to take advantage of 
every turn of the tide in his favor. He was 
born and raised in Pennsylvania, and has 
brought to the making of his home in the 
newer west the strength and solidity of 
character that forms so prominent a part in 
the character of the people of that land of 
morals and education. He stands very 
high in the estimation of his neighbors, and 
is regarded as a man to be trusted in any 
place of responsibility. 

Mr. Lancaster was born in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1836, 
and is a son of Edward and Elizabeth 
(Smith) Lancaster. He was a native of 
Virginia, but found his wife in Pennsylvania, 
where she was born and raised. For fifteen 
years after his marriage the senior Lancaster 
continued his residence in the state of his 
wife's nativity. They fancied a greater op- 
portunity west of the Ohio river, and moved 
to Medina county, Ohio, where they spent 
the next ten years on a farm. In 1849 they 
penetrated still farther into the western 
wilderness, and made a home in Houston 
township, Adams county, Illinois, where they 
passed the remainder of their lives. She 
died in 1871, and he outlived her three 
years. They reared a numerous family of 
eleven children to maturity. One child 
died in infancy, and four are still alive. 
Three of their sons, Nicholas, James and 
David, served in the Union army during 
the Civil war. David fell in battle; James 



was severely wounded, but lived through it, 
and, like all wounded veterans, is proud of 
his wounds and sufferings for the great 
cause. 

Edward Lancaster grew to manhood in 
Adams county, Illinois, attended its public 
schools, and when he became a man as- 
sumed the occupation of farming. He be- 
gan, as so many other successful American 
farmers have done, by working by the 
month, and carefully saving his money. He 
wedded Miss Miranda America Barlow, Sep- 
tember 8, 1858, an event which influenced 
his life by bringing into it the wisdom and 
character of a noble womanly soul. She 
was born in Adams county, Illinois, Novem- 
ber 29, 1 841, and is a daughter of Wesley 
and Mary (Lewis) Barlow, both of whom 
were children of old Virgiania. They settled 
in Adams county, Illinois, in 1838, and 
there they lived and died. Her father died 
in 1846, her mother, in 1874. Mrs. Lan- 
caster had nine brothers and sisters, and 
four of that family are now living. She is 
herself the mother of seven children. The 
oldest of these is Edna A., who became the 
wife of William M. Strickler, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this volume. Emma 
Amelia is Mrs. Benjamin Robertson, and her 
husband is a farmer in this township. Will- 
iam J. wedded Bertha K. Strickler, and 
lives in Gresham. They have two children, 
Jennie Irene and Zara Linn. John W. was 
married to Miss Anna Wellington, and lives 
in this township. He is the father of two 
children, Frankie Horace and Clyde Evans. 
Zara Edward wedded Gertrude Moore, and 
lives in this township. Lewis and Edith 
Bell are still at home, and add much to the 
life and enjoyment of their parents in the 
house that once echoed the music of so 
many childish voices. Mrs. Lancaster is 
associated with what is known as the Old- 
school Baptist church, and is very highly 
spoken of b)' her associates in the church. 
Mr. Lancaster is a Populist, and a man of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



581 



character and standing in his own community. 
He brought his family to Nebraska in 1882. 
He made his first location on section 10 of 
this township, but after six years transferred 
his residence to his present quarters. It 
was then an untouched wilderness, but in 
the presence of such civilizing forces as the 
early settlers marshaled, it soon became 
fit for the dwelling place of a race of culture 
and advancement. He has put in all im- 
provements, and made the place what it is. 
It cost hard work, but as we look over its 
broad acres we see that hard work pays. 



CHRIS C. WAMSLEY is a well known 
agriculturist of Polk county, whose 
home is on section 14, township 15, range 
3. He evidences by the manner in which 
he carries on his business that he thoroughly 
understands the vocation in which he is en- 
gaged, and that success is attending his 
efforts toward acquiring a competence. 
Neatness and order prevail upon his place, 
which is managed, with regard to its culti- 
vation, in a manner which reflects great 
credit upon the owner. 

A native of New York state, Mr. Wams- 
ley was born February 24, 1837, between 
Lakes Seneca and Cayuga, and is a son of 
William C. and Mandana (Travis) Wams- 
ley, also natives of New York. His grand- 
fathers were Chris Wamsley and Cornelius 
L. Travis. In 1835 his parents removed to 
Hillsdale county, Michigan, locating upon 
the present site of the city of Hillsdale, and 
both the Wamsley and Travis families were 
pioneers of that region. Soon after the 
close of the Civil war William C. Wamsley 
and family located on a farm ten miles south 
of Battle Creek, later removed to Union 
City, and finally settled in Cedar Springs, 
Michigan, where he died in 1882. Hrs es- 
timable wife, who has now reached the age 
of eighty-four years, is still a resident of 
that place. Both were earnest and con- 



sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Their children were Louisa, Chris, 
Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Lorina, Edwin, de- 
ceased, Gilbert, Harriet, Ransom, Emma 
and Ella. 

Upon the home farm in Hillsdale county, 
Michigan, Chris Wamsley was reared to 
manhood and is indebted to the district 
schools of the neighborhood for his educa- 
tional privileges. On leaving home at the 
age of twenty-one, he learned the carpen- 
ter's trade, but in the fall of 1862 he laid 
aside all personal interests and, in response 
to his. country's call for aid, enlisted in 
Company G, Second Michigan Volunteer 
Cavalry, joining the regiment at Louisville, 
Kentucky. He took part in the battle of 
Perryville, under General Buell, assisted in 
driving Bragg out of Kentucky; and was in 
the engagements at Mossy Creek, Resaca, 
Georgia, and Lost Mountain, whence he 
was ordered with his regiment to Franklin, 
Tennessee. Under command of General 
Croxton they went to Florence, Alabama, 
to operate against Hood, and were in a 
skirmish at Shoal Creek Bridge, which was 
followed by the battles of Franklin and 
Nashville, where the Confederate forces 
were under the command of Hood. Mr. 
Wamsley was mustered out at Nashville, 
and was sent to Franklin, where he was 
detailed as post carpenter for two- months, 
being honorably discharged in June, 1865. 
Fortunately he was never wounded nor 
taken prisoner, but he was always found at 
his post of duty, gallantly defending the old 
flag and the cause it represented. 

Returning to Hillsdale county, Michi- 
gan, Mr. Wamsley operated the home farm 
until his father removed to a place near 
Battle Creek. He was married November 
18, 1866, to Miss Mary Josephine Foster, 
who was born in Lorain county, Ohio, 
June 16, 1845, a daughter of J. C. and 
Julia Ann (Drake) Foster. Her maternal 
grandfather, Ziba Drake, entered the Con- 



532 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



tinental army for service in the Revolution- 
ary war when only sixteen years old. Her 
parents were born, reared and married in 
New York, whence they emigrated to 
Lorain county, Ohio, in 1840, and in 1851 
moved to Defiance county, that state, where 
they made their home for fifteen years. In 
March, 1865, they settled upon a farm in 
Calhoun county, Michigan, where the 
father died May 29. 1867, but the mother is 
still living at the age of eighty-five years — 
a resident of Branch county, Michigan. 
They held membership in the United 
Brethren church, and were the parents of 
ten children, seven of whom reached years 
of maturity, namely: Erwin, Lydia, 
Charles, Ralph, Mrs. Wamsley, Alice and 
Judson. The sons, Erwin and Charles, 
were gallant defenders of the Union in the 
Civil war. Two children were born to our 
subject and his wife, but only one is now 
living — Charles Edwin, who married Laura 
Comfort and has two children — Minnie 
Audrey and Lloyd Oral. 

In 1870, Mr. and Mrs. Wamsley re- 
moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, but the 
following year came to Nebraska and took 
up their residence upon their present farm 
in Polk county, when the country round 
about was still in its primitive conditions, 
the nearest improvements being seven or 
eight miles away. At Silver Creek there 
was a depot, sod store and saloon; there 
were no roads; and the Pawnee Indians 
far more numerous than the white settlers. 
They not only endured the usual hardships 
and privations of pioneer life, but also passed 
through the grasshopper scourge and the 
dreadful storm of April, 1873. For three 
years they lived in a sod house 11x15 f^et, 
which was then replaced by a little frame 
residence. The first year Mr. Wamsley 
raised two and a half acres of corn and 
broke twelve acres with oxen, but to-day 
has one hundred and forty acres of his two 
hundred- acre farm under the plow, has set 



out a grove of six acres, and has made 
many other improvements upon the place 
which add to its value and attractive ap- 
pearance. He has formerly a Democrat in 
politics, but is now a supporter of the Peo- 
ple's party, and takes quite an active inter- 
est in public affairs; has served as road su- 
pervisor; and assisted in organizing school 
district No. 54, in which he has served as a 
member of the board for ten years. He and 
his wife are leading members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church and Sunday School, 
give liberally toward their support, and he 
is now filling the office of trustee. 



JOHN B. ALLEN, one of the early set- 
tlers of Leroy township, York county, 
was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, 
March 15, 1838, a son of James and Mar- 
garet (Phillips) Allen. The father was a 
native of North Carolina and moved, when 
about five years of age, with his father, 
John Allen, to Indiana. James Allen was 
the oldest of a family of seven sons and 
three daughters. He died in Iowa, in 1884, 
and wife also died in the state of Iowa 
in the year 1869. They reared a fam- 
ily of ten children, seven sons and three 
daughters. 

Our subject was educated in Indiana, 
and began farming in that state when quite 
young. He moved with his parents to Iowa, 
and engaged in farming on his own respon- 
sibility in Madison county. In 1871 he 
moved to York county, Nebraska, and lo- 
cated a homestead claim in section 24, Le- 
roy township, being one of the earliest set- 
tlers of the township. His first habitation 
in this state was a sod house, as his capital 
at that time was very small, but, by his in- 
dustry and economy, he soon built for him- 
self and his family a comfortable home, and 
soon became one of the leading agricultur- 
ists of the community. 

In 1862 Mr. Allen was married in Kansas 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



533 



to Miss Helen M. Howard, daughter of H. 
M. and Isabell Howard, and to this conge- 
iai union have been born twelve children, 
upon whom they have bestowed the follow- 
ing names: Clara B. , Edward S., Laura 
B., Arthur P., Ida M., Estella, Clark E., 
Albert H., Ernest H., Ethel, Leroy and 
Goldie I., all of whom are living. In poli- 
tics Mr. Allen was formerly a Democrat, 
but has since joined the ranks of the Popu- 
list party. He has served as a member of 
the school board and in some of the other 
minor offices. 



ROSS P. ANDERSON, a resident of 
Seward, Nebraska, and one of the 
older lawyers of the county, has a profes- 
sional standing not second to any attorney 
in this portion of the state. He is a master of 
legal tactics, and deeply versed in the most 
fundamental theories of the science and 
practice of law. He is a judicious coun- 
sellor, and a pleader of ability, and whether 
in the privacy of his office or before the 
court, he bears the interest of his client, 
and subordinates everything to that consid- 
eration. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Guernsey 
county, Ohio, May 4, 1854. His father, 
Andrew Anderson, was a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, and his mother, Mary Findley An- 
derson, of Ohio. The senior Anderson was 
a harness-maker, and moved to Ohio at an 
early day. He brought his family to Iowa 
in 1856, where his wife died the following 
year. He died in 1876. His father, the 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was a miller, and died in Ohio. Ross An- 
derson obtained his education in Iowa, and 
was a graduate of Simpson college, of In- 
dianola, Iowa, in the class of 1877. He 
was a law student in the office of Bryan & 
Seevers at Indianola, Iowa, and under their 
instruction prepared for his admission to the 
bar. This occurred in 1879, and in the fol- 



lowing year he opened an office for the prac- 
tice of his profession in Seward. His suc- 
cess was immediate and pronounced, and he 
has never regretted his removal to this 
state. In the eighteen years in which he 
has practiced law in this county he has been 
associated with many important cases. 

Mr. Anderson was married September 
6, 1883, to Miss Lydia A. Boyd, daughter 
of Rev. Joseph Boyd, of Washington, Iowa, 
She was born in Pennsylvania, and has long 
since taken her place in the society of Sew- 
ard as a lady of diversified talents and kind 
instincts. She is the mother of two chil- 
dren, Elizabeth M., and Russell B., both 
of whom are living. They are members of 
the Congregational church. He is a mem- 
ber of several fraternal circles, and is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men and the Modern Woodmen of America. 
He is a Republican, and was county attor- 
ney for eight years He has a good prac- 
tice, which is growing every year, and is 
widely known as a well read, experienced 
and reliable lawyer. He was re-elected as 
county attorney at the November election, 
in 1898, and is now serving as such. 



ALBERT B. TAYLOR is a member of 
the law firm of Harlan & Taylor and 
occupies quite a conspicuous position among 
the members of the bar in York county. 
He has become well-known, not only as a 
gentleman well vessed in law, but of fine 
education, mentally gifted and courteous, 
and who has been a potent factor in the 
political and legal life of York county. 

Mr. Taylor was born in Washington 
county, Iowa, April 14, 1856, a son of 
Thomas J. and Martha E. (Beard) Taylor, 
the father a native of Tennessee and the 
mother a native of Virginia. Thomas J. 
Taylor was a farmer by occupation, and 
came west in 1855 and settled in Iowa. In 



534 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1873 he moved from thence to Saline coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and later to York county. 
The mother died in 1890. 

Our subject was educated in the public 
schools of Washington county, Iowa, after 
which he learned telegraphy and followed 
that vocation for one year at Beatrice, Ne- 
braska. He then made his home for a time 
in Saline county and taught school and read 
law. He was admitted to the bar in Saline 
county, Nebraska, in 1886, and at once 
went to Imperial, Nebraska, and was en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession at 
that place for nine years, and during that 
time served as city and county attorney. 
January i, 1895, he moved to York, Ne- 
braska, formed a partnership with Mr. Har- 
lan and they have since practiced law in 
partnership in that city. In politics Mr. 
Taylor is a Republican and on that ticket 
was elected, in May, 1897, to the office of 
city attorney. Although he has been in 
York but a few years, he is fast becoming 
popular and is building up an e.xtensive law 
practice and is recognized as one of the 
leading members of the York county bar. 
Thoroughly learned in law, always a student 
as well as a practitioner; with not only a 
quick but comprehensive mind, earnest in 
his convictions and able in his assertion of 
them; devoted to the interests entrusted to 
his keeping, he has few superiors as a well 
equipped practitioner, an able advocate and 
a thorough lawyer. 

Mr. Taylor was married in 1877 to Miss 
Mary Kortright, of Nebraska, and their 
home has been blessed by the presence of 
two daughters, Nellie B., and Grace M. 
Socially our subject affiliates with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity and also the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen. He is a loyal citi- 
zen, and an earnest and enthusiastic sup- 
porter of everything which tends to develop 
and bring prosperity to the locality in which 
he lives. He has been especially inter- 
ested in all matters pertaining to education 



and has contributed much of his time to- 
ward the advancement of such interests. 
H-e has been a member of various boards 
of education for more than fifteen years, 
and since locating in York has been a trus- 
tee of York college for two years. 



M 



ORGAN PROBST, M. D., is one of 
the successful physicians of Fillmore 
county, and a prominent resident of Geneva. 
He has much natural abililty, but is withal 
a close student and believes thorougly in the 
maxim " there is no excellence without 
labor." His devotion to the duties of his 
profession, therefore, combined with a com- 
prehensive understanding of the principles 
of the science of medicine, has made him a 
most successful and able practitioner, whose 
prominence is well deserved. 

The Doctor was born in Pendleton coun- 
ty. West Virginia, on the first of May, 1850, 
his parents being Adam and Susan (Snyder) 
Probst, also natives of the same state. In 
1853 the family removed to Scott county, 
Iowa, and in the spring of i860 went to 
Taylor county, where the parents spent 
their remaining days. The subject of this 
review was a lad of ten summers at the 
time of the removal to Taylor county, and 
there under the parental roof he grew to 
manhood, acquiring his education in the 
graded schools of Taylor and Scott counties. 
From his boyhood he was deeply interested 
in the science of medicine and spent much 
time in physicians' offices. Determining to 
make its practice his life work, he pursued 
his preliminary professional studies in the 
office and under the direction of Dr. King, 
of Taylor county, Iowa, and in 1882 entered 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at 
Keokuk, Iowa, from which institution he was 
graduated in the spring of 1884. Soon aft- 
erward he located in Geneva, where he has 
succeeded in building up a large and lucra- 
tive practice. He is now one of the pen- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



535 



sion examiners of the city, and a member of 
the Fillmore county Medical Society. 

The Doctor was married October 8, 
1 87 1, to Miss Mary J. King, a native of 
Taylor county, Iowa, who was born, reared 
and married in the same house. Her par- 
ents are Isaac and Mary (Hawkins) King, 
the former a native of Delaware and the lat- 
ter of Ohio and both pioneers of southwest- 
ern Iowa. Dr. Probst and his wife have 
three children, — Waldo E., Clyde A. and 
Carl V. ; the last named now serving his 
country at Manila, as a member of Company 
G., First Nebraska Volunteers. The Doc- 
tor is a member of the Masonic and Knights 
of Pythias fraternities and his life exempli- 
fies the benevolent teachings of those orders. 
In politics he is unwavering in support of the 
Democracy, and on that ticket was elected 
a member of the city council of Geneva, 
in which capacity he is now serving. 



LYMAN MILLER, a prosperous farmer 
and old settler of Leroy township, was 
born in Fairfield county, Ohio, March 16, 
185 1, a son of Amos and Sarah (Thompson) 
Miller, a sketch of whom will appear on an- 
other page of this volume. 

When about three years of age, our sub- 
ject moved with his parents to LaPorte 
county, Indiana, and there attended school 
and helped his father on the farm. When 
about fifteen years of age he accompanied 
his parents to Marshall county, Iowa, and 
three years later moved to Iowa county, 
where the family lived one year. In 1870 
the family settled in York county, Nebraska, 
and as soon as he attained his majority, our 
subject filed a homestead claim to eighty 
acres of land adjoining his father's claim, 
and has since made that his home. For 
two years after their settlement in Nebraska, 
the family was obliged to haul all their 
water, both for household use and also for 
their stock, from Blue river, three miles 



distant, and yet the first well in the entire 
community was sunk on the Miller home- 
stead. The family first lived in a dugout, 
upon their settlement in York county, but 
this habitation soon gave place to a sod 
house, and immediately after taking his 
claim, our subject erected a sod house for 
his new home. 

Lyman Miller was married October 5, 
1873, to Miss Alice Babcock, who was born 
in Dane county, Wisconsin, January 18, 
1854, daughter of John J. and Sarah (Mar- 
tin) Babcock, both natives of Vermont and 
early settlers of York county. Immediately 
after his marriage, Mr. Miller began house- 
keeping in his sod house. He had his full 
share of reverses, as the first year after his 
marriage his entire crop was destroyed by 
the grasshoppers, and he has often sus- 
tained loss from drouth, but he has perse- 
vered, and his large barn, furnished with 
good buildings, and the general appearance 
of his home bespeak the success that has 
attended his efforts. His farm now con- 
sists of two hundred and forty acres of land, 
and embraces his father's homestead, which 
he purchased from the heirs. 

Our subject has been a member of the 
county board of supervisors two terms, and 
in that capacity served on the building com- 
mittee for the new court-house. He has 
served as assessor and also as director of 
the school district. In politics he is a 
Bryan Democrat. Socially he affiliates 
with the Masonic and Modern Woodmen 
lodges at York. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are 
the parents of a family of three children — 
Clifford E., Bertha L., and Georgie R. 



31 



JOHN R. PIERSON.— "Earn thy re- 
U ward; the gods give. naught to sloth," 
said the sage, Epicharmus, and the truth of 
the admonition has been verified in human 
affairs in all the ages which have rolled 
their course since his day. The subject to 



536 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



whose life history we now direct attention, 
has, by ceaseless toil and endeavor, attained 
a marked success in business affairs, has 
gained the respect and confidence of men, 
and is recognized as one of the distinctively 
representative citizens of York, Nebraska, 
where he is filling the responsible position 
of cashier in the City National Bank. 

He was born in Delaware county. New 
York, in 1858, and belongs to one of the old 
families of that state, where his people fol- 
lowed farming. To the public schools near 
his boyhood's home he is indebted for his 
educational privileges received in early life. 
Later he continued his studies in the Dela- 
ware Literary Institute, and on putting aside 
his text books he turned his attention to ag- 
ricultural pursuits, which he followed until 
he had attained his majority. Thinking to 
benefit by the superior advantages offered 
young men in the west, he removed to Iowa, 
in 1879, taking up his residence in Charles 
City, where he successfully engaged in 
school-teaching for three years. He then 
entered the private bank of Matthews & 
Lyon, of Rockford, with whom he remained 
three years, in which time he acquired a 
thorough understanding of the business, and 
became imbued with a desire to make it his 
life work. Subsequently he entered the 
First National Bank, at Watertown, South 
Dakota, in the position of bookkeeper, serv- 
ing in that capacity for three years, on the 
expiration of which period he came to Ne- 
braska. He has engaged in banking in Im- 
perial, Stanton and Sterling, and in 1893 he 
came to York, where he assisted in the or- 
ganization of the City National Bank, 
which had been a state bank, capitalized 
for twenty-five thousand dollars. The 
capital stock was increased to fifty thousand 
dollars, and the following officers were 
chosen: E. E. Brown, of Lincoln, Nebraska, 
president; D. S. Zimmerman, vice-presi- 
dent; and J. R. Pierson, cashier. Our sub- 
ject has since held the office, and it is prac- 



tically due to his management that the en- 
terprise has been attended with success. 
This is the only national bank which was 
organized in Nebraska during the financial 
panic of 1893, but though it was established 
during "hard times," it has been attended 
with .prosperity, its business constantly in- 
creasing as it has demonstrated its right to 
the public confidence and trust. 

In November, 1886, Mr. Pierson was 
united in marriage to Miss Alice Childs, then 
a resident of Iowa, and in York their circle 
of friends is almost co-extensive with the 
circle of acquaintances. Mr. Pierson is a 
valued member of the Knights of Pythias 
fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen of 
America. His political support is given the 
Democracy, but he has never held office, 
preferring to devote his time and energies to 
his business, in which he is meeting with 
signal success. All who know him esteem 
him for his inflexible integrity, his fidelity to 
duty and his sterling worth, and his name is 
engraved high on the roll of York's promi- 
nent and honored business men. 



NIELS BJERRUM, a well-known and 
prosperous farmer of Seward county, 
is one of the worthy citizens that Denmark 
has furnished to the new world, being born 
in that country, March 24, 1845. His par- 
ents, Jens and Johanna (Larson) Bjerrum, 
were farming people who spent their entire 
lives in Denmark. They had two sons, but 
our subject is the only one now living. 

Like most lads of his native land, Niels 
Bjerrum was reared and educated, and his 
training in farm work was not meager. It 
was in 1871 that he first came to the United 
States and took up his residence in La Salle 
county, Illinois, but subsequently removed to 
Grundy county, that state, and in 1879 we find 
him a resident of Seward county, Nebraska, 
where he bought a tract of railroad land 
south of Staplehurst. Upon his place he 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



537 



erected a small house and began to break 
the land, but finally sold his farm and 
moved to Hamilton county, Nebraska, where 
he purchased property. Disposing of the 
latter farm in 1884, he returned to Den- 
mark and took charge of the old homestead, 
which he operated for five years. Feeling 
convinced that he could do much better in 
America, he returned to this country and 
again came to Seward county, Nebraska, 
where he bought his present farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres, to the cultivation 
and improvement of which he has since de- 
voted his energies with marked success. He 
is engaged exclusively in general farming 
and now has one of the most attractive 
homes in his community. 

In 1S72, Mr. Bjerrum was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary Wedsted, also a 
native of Denmark, who came to America 
in 1 87 1 and settled in Illinois. To them 
have been born six children, who are living, 
namely: Johanna, now Mrs. Swanson; 
John B. ; Hannah; Louis; Annie and Leana, 
and one that is dead. They attend the 
English Lutheran church, are highly es- 
teemed by all who know them, and Mr. 
Bjerrum is a supporter of the Democracy. 
He has filled some minor office and has ever 
proved a loyal citizen of his adopted 
country. 



JUDGE GEORGE OSTERHOUT, now 
interested in the business of real estate 
and loans in David City, Nebraska, was born 
in Albany county. New York, May 5, 1828. 
His father, Nicholas Osterhout, also a na- 
tive of Albany county, New York, was by 
occupation a farmer, was in the war of 18 12 
a colonel in the militia and ranked second 
in the state at the time of his resignation. 
He died at the age of eighty odd years. 
His grandfather, George Osterhout, was born 
in New York, supposed to be in Albany. 
He had two brothers in the Revolutionary 



war. He lived toijbe ninety-three years of 
age. All of his paternal ancestors were 
long-lived. He was of Holland descent. 
The two brothers came from Holland and 
settled in New York at an early day. 

The mother of the subject of our sketch, 
Anna Warner, was born in Albany county. 
New York, and was reared there. Her 
death occurred there in the year 1828, at 
the time our subject was born. Her father, 
Peter Warner, was also a native of Albany 
county. New York, where he died aged 
ninety-five. 

Nicholas Osterhout was the father of 
fourteen children, six of whom were by his 
first marriage. George Osterhout was the 
youngest and on account of the death of 
his mother at his birth was reared by his 
father's parents, with whom he lived until 
he had attained the age of eighteen years. 
At about that age he went to Thorndyke, 
Massachusetts, where he was a layer and 
cutter of stone. He made this point his 
home for about ten years and in 1856 he 
came to Stephenson county, Illinois, where 
he was engaged in the lumber and stone 
business, as well as being a contractor for 
bridge work for the railroad, etc. He first 
came to Butler county, Nebraska, in 1870, 
and in 1872 he moved his family and lo- 
cated on a farm that he still owns on sec- 
tion 7, Franklin township, one mile north 
of David City. He made great improve- 
ments on this farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres. 

In 1879 he was elected county judge, 
and in 1881 was re-elected to the same 
office and moved to David City, where he 
has resided ever since and rents his farm. 
Was supervisor in Stephenson county, and 
held the same office in Butler county for 
several years. He was married September 
12, 1850, to Margaret Francis, who was of 
Scotch descent, coming to America when 
quite young, with her parents, and was 
reared in Newport, Rhode Island. In Hamp- 



538 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



den county, Massachusetts, she was married 
to our subject. They were the parents of 
four children, one daughter and three sons: 
Agnes, wife of Geo. W. Becker, a lumber 
man of David City; Geo. W., a lumberman 
of David City; Frank M., also a lumberman 
of David City; and Earl H., a railroad man 
of Chicago, Illinois. 

The Judge is one of the earliest settlers 
of Butler county. In I884 he engaged in 
the business of real estate, loans and insur- 
ance, which business he still conducts. He 
is a stanch Republican, a member of the 
Masonic order, Fidelity Lodge No. 51, 
King David Chapter No. 31, is one of the 
trustees of the Congregational church and 
was a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal 
church many years before coming to Ne- 
braska. He has been most successful in 
his career of whatever nature the undertak- 
ing may have been, is a most honored and 
highly esteemed member of the community 
in which he lives and a man who is destined 
to influence the lives of those with whom 
he comes in daily contact. 



GOTTLOB HOFER has through twenty- 
seven years been identified with the 
agricultural interest of York county, but now, 
after a long, active and honorable business 
career, he is living retired in the enjoyment 
of a rest which he has richly earned and truly 
deserves. He was born March 24, 1831, 
in Wurtemberg, Germany, and is a son of 
Ludwig and Catharine (VValtermut) Hofer, 
also natives of the same land, where the 
father carried on farming. He died during 
the early childhood of our subject, and the 
mother passed away in 1861. 

Reared to manhood in the land of his 
nativity, Gottlob Hofer acquired his educa- 
tion in the public schools and when four- 
teen years of age began learning the cabi- 
netmaker's trade, at which he served a 
three years' apprenticeship. In order to 



complete his trade and become thoroughly 
competent in that line, he traveled, accord- 
ing to custom, and worked at his chosen oc- 
cupation in Switzerland, France and Italy. 
In 1 861 he came to the United States, land- 
ing in New York, whence he went direct to 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In that city, he 
secured work at his trade for a time, but as 
the war progressed business fell off and he 
could find nothing to do at cabinetmak- 
ing. Accordingly he purchased a small 
farm in Washington county, Wisconsin, 
which he operated successfully until, dis- 
posing of his land, he turned his attention 
to general merchandising in Wisconsin, 
carrying on business there until February, 
1 87 1, when he sold out and came to York 
county, Nebraska. 

He was one of the first settlers of this 
county, and has since been an important 
factor in its development and progress. He 
first purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
of government land on section 2, township 
10, and erected a frame residence, sixteen 
by twenty-eight feet, at that time the most 
pretentious and the only frame residence in 
the township. The rest were sod houses, 
and in the town of York there v/ere only 
two buildings. Upon the farm which Mr. 
Hofer purchased was a half-sod and half 
dug-out place and twenty acres of land had 
been broken by its previous owner, a Mr. 
Pick, who had homesteaded the land and 
lived there one season, selling his interests 
and right, in 187 1, to Mr. Hofer. The 
latter continued to live on the farm for 
seventeen years and brought it under a high 
state of cultivation. In 1881, he purchased 
the northwest quarter of section 2, Baker 
township, and in 1887 located on his new 
farm, since making it his home. Here, he 
has three hundred and twenty acres of 
valuable land, pleasantly and conveniently 
located within a half mile of the city limits 
of York. The fields are well tilled and all 
modern accessories and conveniences are 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



539 



found on the place. In 1887 he erected 
his present brick residence, one of the finest 
homes in the county. In addition, he owns 
one hundred and sixty acres of land in 
Lockridge township, and another quarter 
section in Brown township, making six hun- 
dred and forty acres in all. This is now 
rented, while Mr. Hofer is living retired, 
in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former 
toil. 

He was married in Wisconsin, in 1865, 
to Catharine Klein, a native of Germany, 
who came to America in 1848, with her 
parents, Ben and Victoria (Beichler) Klein, 
who located first in New York, and two 
years later removed to Wisconsin, where 
they spent their remaining days. Mr. Hofer 
is a member of the Lutheran church, his 
wife of the Catholic church, and in politics 
he is a Democrat. His life has been a busy 
and useful one, and though he entered upon 
his business career with no capital save a 
strong determination to succeed, by reso- 
lute and unfaltering purpose, indefatigable 
labor, and great enterprise, he has over- 
come all obstacles and gained the prosperity 
which is the just reward of his efforts. 



FRANKLIN A. MARSH, M. D., enjoys 
the somewhat unique distinction of be- 
ing the only homeopathic physician of 
Seward county, and though he is without 
professional assistance, he worthily sustains 
the good name of his school, and conciliates 
both by his personal character and healing 
skill. He has his home in the city of 
Seward, and responds to calls from a wide 
distance around, doing his best to cover the 
field. 

Dr. Marsh was born in Quincy, Illinois, 
September 14, 1856, was a son to Augustus 
C. and Hannah (Alvord) Marsh. His father 
was a native of Massachusetts, and was 
engaged in banking. At the time of his 
■death in 1865 he was president of the First 



National Bank of Quincy, Illinois. He was 
a man of considerable financial ability, and 
left what was a very fair fortune in those 
days. He was the father of two sons. 

Dr. Marsh spent his childhood and youth 
in Quincy, and passed through the very ex- 
cellent schools of that city. In 1881 he 
taught school in Mills county, Iowa, and 
was then engaged as a drug clerk for several 
years. About this time he began reading 
medicine, and in 1886 became a student in 
the homeopathic department of the Iowa 
State University. He took the full course 
and was graduated in 1889. He opened 
an office for the practice of his profession 
the year of his graduation, but in 1892 he 
came into this county and established him- 
self at Seward, where he has secured a very 
flattering and profitable practice. He was 
married in 1877 to Miss Martha J. Ward, 
who was born and bred in Illinois. They 
have one daughter, Mabel A. He is a mem- 
ber of several of the fraternities that are 
established at Seward, principally, the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen, the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, and the Royal 
Highlanders. He is a member of the State 
Homeopathic Society, and for a time was 
secretary of the Seward county Medical So- 
ciety, and is now a member of the board of 
pension examiners. He is a Republican, 
but the only office he has ever been willing 
to accept was a membership of the board of 
education of the city of Seward. 



T HERON E. SEDGWICK, the well- 
known editor and proprietor of The 
York Times, was born in Bloomingdale, 111., 
September 2, 1852, and is a son of Parker 
and Hepsebah (Goodwin) Sedgwick, of 
whom further mention is made in the sketch 
of Judge S. H. Sedgwick, on another page 
of this volume. Our subject completed his 



540 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



literarj' education at Wheaton college, 
Wheaton, 111., and later was a student for 
one year in the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. During 
the years 1873 and 1874 he read law in 
Chicago, and on his admission to the bar at 
Oconto, Wisconsin, engaged in practice at 
DePere, that state, for some years. While 
a resident of that city he served as county 
superintendent of schools for Brown county, 
and filled other minor offices to the entire 
satisfaction of all concerned. On coming 
to York, Nebraska, he opened a law office 
here, but was soon forced to abandon his 
profession on account of losing the sight of 
his right eye. In the spring of 1880 he 
founded the Weekly Times, which is now 
the leading paper of the county, and in 1888 
began the publication of the York Daily 
Times. In the same year he started the 
Nebraska Newspaper Union, which is one 
of the largest concerns of the kind in the 
west, supplying newspapers in seven differ- 
ent states, and handling a full line of 
printers' supplies. This plant is owned 
jointly by our subject and his brother, S. 
H. Sedgwick. 

In 1874 Theron E. Sedgwick was united 
in marriage with Miss Adalaide Thurston, 
of Dupage county, Illinois, and they have 
become the parents of three children, one 
son and two daughters. Mr. Sedgwick has 
been recently appointed postmaster of York 
by President McKinley. The family is one 
of prominence in social circles, their frfends 
and acquaintances being among the best 
people of the city. Since attaining his ma- 
jority Mr. Sedgwick has been a stanch sup- 
porter of the Republican party, and his 
paper is the recognized Republican organ of 
the county. In 1894 and 1895 he served 
as secretary of the Republican state central 
committee; was secretary of the state senate 
in 1894 and 1895, and has also been a pop- 
ular and efficient member of the city council 
of York. 



FRED GUBSER, who resides on sectiom 
30, Union township, Butler county, 
owns and operates a valuable farm whose 
neat and thrifty appearance well indicates 
his careful supervision. Substantial im- 
provements are surrounded by well tilled' 
fields, and many of the accessories and con- 
veniences of a model farm are there found. 

Mr. Gubser is a native of Iowa, born in 
Davenport, May 19, 1856, and is a son of 
Anton Gubser, whose birth occurred in 
1818, at Wallenstat, canton St. Gallen, 
Switzerland, whence he emigrated to 
America in 1843. In his native land he 
learned the stonemason's trade, which he 
continued to follow for a time after coming 
to this country and locating in Davenport, 
Iowa. In that city he was first married, 
but his wife being a consumptive, only 
lived a short time thereafter. His second 
union was with Catherine Rogge, a daugh- 
ter of Gottfriedt Rogge, a Prussian by birth, 
and to them were born the following chil- 
dren: Fred, John, Genovefa, George P., 
Henry, Nicholas J., Mary M., Joseph, 
Louisa, Benjamin and William. Of these, 
Nicholas J. is a graduate of the Highland 
Park Normal College, and is now professor 
of languages and economics at the Lincoln 
Normal School, Lincoln, Nebraska. John 
is a resident of Butler county. 

Early in life Fred Gubser removed with 
his parents to Atchinson county, Missouri, 
where he was reared upon a farm, early be- 
coming familiar with all the duties which 
fall to the lot of the agriculturist. On the 
1st of October, 18S1, he led to the marriage 
altar Miss Rachael Woolsey, daughter of 
John and Amanda Woolsey, who removed 
to Missouri from Tennessee before the war, 
first settling in Caldwell county, where Mrs. 
Gubser was born, but removed to Atchinson 
county when she was a child. Our subject 
and his wife began their domestic life in 
that county, where they made their home 
for two years, and then came to their pres- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



541 



ent farm in Union township, Butler county, 
Nebraska. On locating here they had one 
daughter, Maudie E., and since then three 
other children have been added to the 
family, namely: Lola M., Emma L. and 
Allen Woolsey, now in his second year. 

Though deprived of good school privi- 
leges during his youth, Mr. Gubser has 
made the most of his advantages, and 
through his own efforts in maturer years has 
obtained a liberal education. He has not 
only acquired a good practical store of 
knowledge by "burning the midnight oil," 
but has achieved much in a literary way. 
His political views have led him through 
various processes of evolution up to modern 
socialism, which has many supporters 
among the best and brightest minds of the 
age. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and re- 
ligiously he is a supporter of the Advent 
faith. The Gubser home is one of the 
most pleasant places of Union township and 
abounds in evidences of culture and refine- 
ment. Its inmates are both widely and 
favorably known throughout the community. 



JOHN ROMSDAL, widely known as one 
of the oldest settlers, and most thorough 
going and prosperous agriculturists of York 
county, Nebraska, has his homestead on 
section lo of Lockridge township. He is of 
Scandinavian parentage, and brought with 
him to this country the habits of thrift and 
economy, which are the chief characteristics 
of the children of Norway. He is a fine 
type of our self-made men, having begun 
for himself with absolutely nothing, except 
the tools which nature gave him, and an in- 
domitable will, which enabled him to sur- 
mount all obstacles. 

Mr. Romsdal was born at Alten Copper 
Works, Norway, June 13, 1845, and is a 
son of Ole and Joran Romsdal. They were 
both natives of Norway, and the father 



died on the ocean, during the voyage to 
America. Our subject received his educa- 
tion in the common schools of his native 
land, and at the age of nine he began to 
work in the copper mines, following in the 
footsteps of his father, who was also a 
miner. Mr. and Mrs. Romsdal were the 
parents of six children, two sons and four 
daughters, of whom three are in America, 
namely, our subject and two of his sisters. 

John Romsdal came to America in 1866; 
he landed at Quebec, but proceeded at 
once to the United States, where he se- 
cured employment in the copper mines of 
Michigan. He remained there one year, 
and then removed to Marquette, in the same 
state, where he found work in the iron 
mines for one year. In 1868 he moved his 
family to Chicago, Illinois, and proceeded 
to Montana to try his luck at gold mining. 
Upon his arrival there he secured employ- 
ment, and made that place his home for 
two years. In July of 1870, he came to 
York county, Nebraska, and homesteaded a 
claim on section 10 of Lockridge township. 
The land was all wild and unimproved, but 
by constant labor he has brought the same 
to a high state of cultivation, and is now 
reaping the reward for his many years of toil. 

He was married in Norway, in 1863, to 
Miss Mary Danielson, a native of the same, 
and to this union have been born nine chil- 
dren, eight of whom are still living, and of 
whom we have the following record: Jacob 
E., Lena A. , John, deceased, Rosa E. , Philip 
M., Eliza M., Frederick William, Charles 
O., Mary E. He and family are all mem- 
bers in good standing of the United Brethren 
church. Mr. Romsdal has been quite act- 
ively engaged in the local political matters 
of the township in which he resides, and 
has filled the office of supervisor of the same 
for two terms. He has also served as a 
central committeeman from the township. 
He affiliates with the Republican party on 
all questions, except that of the monetary 



5i-2 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



standard of the government, which he be- 
lieves should be bi-metalism, silver and gold, 
and the paper currency issued by the na- 
tional government. In his business affairs 
he has followed general farming for many 
years, and has been very successful, having 
amassed a comfortable competency, which 
will enable him to enjoy the fruits of his 
labor in the retiring years of his eventful 
life. He is essentially a self-made man, 
as he started out in life with practically 
nothing to depend upon except his own re- 
sources, but by his perseverance, pluck, and 
energy, he has slowly mounted the ladder 
of fortune, until to-day he is accredited with 
being one of the most substantial men of 
the township. 



NP. MONSON. — Perhaps no man in all 
Polk county, Nebraska, is so well 
known for his intelligence, active public 
spirit and thorough appreciation of the 
wants of his locality, than the gentleman 
whose name heads this article. He came 
to the county at an early day, and has since 
been identified with all matters pertaining to 
the upbuilding of the better interests of the 
locality in which he lives. His active par- 
ticipation in the public affairs has not been 
confined to matters of interest to his own 
township, but he has thoroughly acquainted 
himself and been associated in all matters 
relating to the welfare of the entire county. 
He is one of the largest landowners in the 
county, and resides on section 24, township 
14, range 3, where has a valuable farm. 
He was born in Sweden. October 26, 1845, 
and is a son of Mons Nelson, who was also 
a native of Sweden, where he was born in 
1805. He died there in 1871, having been 
the parent of eight children, all of whom 
grew to maturity. They were named as fol- 
lows: Stena, deceased; Anna, in America; 
John, in Sweden; Carrie, deceased; Hannah 
and Mary, in Sweden; N. P., the subject of 



this sketch, and Andrew, deceased. Mr. 
Nelson was the son of a wealthy man, and 
followed agricultural pursuits during his life. 
He was subject to military duty in his 
native land, and was a prominent man in 
the district in which he lived, and refused 
several official positions. He gave all of 
his children the benefit of a liberal educa- 
tion and his death was lamented by all to 
whom he was known. 

Mr. Monson was reared and educated in 
Sweden, and spent his early life on his 
father's farm. He served in the army of his 
native land and was one of the landwehr. 
He emigrated to America in 1868, and 
made the voyage across the ocean on the 
steamer David, sixteen days from Liverpool 
to Quebec, by the way of Newfoundland. 
The weather was very cold and they en- 
countered a great many icebergs during 
their passage across the Atlantic. After 
landing at Quebec he proceeded at once to 
Altona, Knox county, Illinois, where he 
worked for farmers for one year and a half. 
He then secured employment in a store at 
Altona, which position he held for another 
year and a half. He then located at 
Stromsburg, Polk county, Nebraska, with 
the Headstrom colony, which was organized 
in the spring of 1871, in Knox county, Illi- 
nois. He took up his residence at Stroms- 
burg, and was one of the very first ones to 
locate there, and took up the homestead 
where he now lives. In the spring of 1872 
he built a dugout on his homestead and 
then went to Lincoln, Nebraska, to work, 
for the railroad in the stone quarry. In 
the fall of 1872 he worked on the section 
where Kenesaw now stands. He continued 
to work for the railroad, until the winter of 
1872-73, when he secured employment in a 
stone quarry in Iowa. He then went to 
Plattsmouth where he was engaged to work 
on a steamboat for three months. He 
then returned to his home and broke several 
acres of his land, after which he returned to 




N. P. MONSON. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



545 



Lincoln, and worked on the section three 
months. In the following September he 
went to Omaha, and secured a position 
with Chas. Childs, with whom he remained 
until May 1874, when he again returned to 
his farm and broke a few more acres. He 
remained at home for two months, when he 
went into the store and postoffice at Stroms- 
burg for Lewis Headstrom, for whom he 
worked, from July, 1874, until March i, 
1876. Mr. Monson then went to Lincoln, 
and entered the law office of J. M. Robison, 
an attorney there, as a partner to practice 
before the land department of the general 
land office at Washington, D. C. He 
continued in this line of business until March 
I, 1879, when he returned to his home, 
where he has resided continuously ever 
since. 

On April 9, 1879, Mr. Monson was 
united in marriage to Miss Hannah Matilda 
Anderson, who was a native of the same 
place in Sweden, from which our subject 
came. She was born December 27, 1849, 
and died December 10, 1886. They were 
the parents of one child, Andrew M., who 
was born February 9, 1880. He is a fine 
help to his father, and is gifted with sound 
common sense, and has been given the ad- 
vantage of a fairly good education. 

Mr. Monson has labored hard on his 
farm to make it one of the best in the coun- 
ty, and success has crowned his efforts in 
ever)' way. He is now the sole proprietor 
of five hundred and sixty acres of fine land, 
and has one-third interest in another eighty- 
acre tract, also two hundred and forty acres 
in section 35, township 15, range 3 west. 
The home farm consists of five hundred and 
sixty acres, all of which is subdivided into 
fields by well constructed fences, and is 
adorned with all modern improvements, 
which were put in by Mr. Monson himself. 
There are three sets of farm buildings on 
the estate, all of which belong to our sub- 
ject, in addition to which he has a one-third 



interest in the fourth set. The farm is well 
stocked, and he has one herd of a dozen 
head of the finest breed of short horn cat- 
tle in Nebraska. His farm is given over to 
general farming and stockraising which he 
carries on according to the most improved 
and scientific methods, and he gives his per- 
sonal attention to the management of his 
entire estate. The first house he lived in 
was a dug-out, which gaye place to a 
frame house fourteen by twenty-two feet, 
that he built in 1876, and resided in until 
1885. In the last-mentioned year he built 
the handsome brick residence that now 
adorns his estate, at a cost of three thou- 
sand dollars, and now is the proud possessor 
of one of the finest homes in the county. 

Mr. Monson has taken advantage of every 
opportunity to increase his fund of general 
knowledge, and is undoubtedly one of the 
best posted men of the county. He has 
been a leader in political matters, as his 
natural tendencies lead him to occupy first 
place as a leader among his people. He 
has been a potent factor in all the political 
fights which have occurred here. He has a 
high ideal in politics, and has carried on 
successfully one of the bitterest fights polit- 
ically that has ever taken place in the state. 
He took a prominent and active part in 
politics while he resided in Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, prior to 1879. 

The poor corn crop of 1884 and the four 
preceding years had caused an agitation 
for the formation of a new political party, 
and some of his neighbors requested him 
to take the lead in the matter, which he did, 
hoping in this way to be instrumental in 
bringing out much needed reforms. A non- 
political organization was formed here which 
was called the "Farmers' Justice Union," 
and Mr. Monson drew up a set of by-laws, 
the first article of which was justice. The 
second article is as follows: " The by-laws 
of this Union shall be according to what 
justice from time to time shall demand." 



546 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Monson was the leader of the organiza- 
tion and the first meeting was held in dis- 
trict school number 49. Some outsiders 
attempted to defeat the object of the meet- 
ing, but it was a success notwithstanding 
their efforts to the contrary, and the people 
were thus encouraged. The party was 
made up of the best element of the settlers 
of the county, and the first reform instituted 
was to refuse to pay more than ten per 
cent, interest, where heretofore they had 
been compelled to pay twenty-four per cent. 
It was successfully carried out as far as the 
members of the union were concerned. Mr. 
Alonson studied out a plan to use the power 
of this organization politically for the good 
of the people at large, and the first cam- 
paign was fought in 1S87 upon the issue 
that only such banks as would loan money 
at ten per cent, could have county funds on 
deposit. They then joined the anti-monopo- 
lists, and made the campaign upon that one 
issue, and prohibited the county treasurer 
from accepting any interest from banks for 
the county funds. These farmers offered a 
candidate of their own in the person of A. O. 
Monson, whose bonds they also furnished. 
The battle was one of the bitterest kind, 
and was fought without regard to party 
lines. This organization adhered then to 
the Union Labor National party, and they 
carried it through in this county by one hun- 
dred and thirty majority, in the face of a 
most determined opposition, not only of 
their opponents, but also some of their erst- 
while friends. It was one of the greatest 
victories for the people at large, and the bene- 
fit was of the most pronounced type to those 
who had occasion to borrow money. Mr. 
Monson then got the new machinery in run- 
ning order, and experienced the keenest sat- 
isfaction in what they had accomplished. 
They then organized to fight against the 
railroads, and styled themselves the Far- 
mers Stock and Elevator Company, of 
Osceola. He then instituted a lawsuit 



against the Union Pacific Railroad company 
to compel them to give a site on theirtracks 
for an elevator. They won the case, but it 
was appealed before the state board, but they 
were again successful in gaining their point. 
After that temporary absence he became a 
member of the Republican party. He be- 
came a member of the '■ Farmers' Alliance" 
and advocated that the railroad rate on ship- 
ments should not be exorbitant, but was 
unsuccessful in accomplishing this much 
needed reform. He is a bimetallist, and is 
still a member of the Republican party. 

In 1887 Mr. Monson organized a local 
insurance company covering Polk and ad- 
joining counties. They confined their busi- 
ness exclusively to the Scandinavian set- 
tlers, and they now have three hundred 
thousand dollars in risks at present. They 
pay fifty cents per year on each one thou- 
sand dollars insurance, that is to defray run- 
ning expenses. It has so far paid all the 
expenses, besides paying all losses, and they 
have a five hundred dollars surplus on hand. 
Mr. Monson has a withdrawal card from the 
I. O. O. F. He is a man of firm convic- 
tions, and is bold in his assertion of them. 
He is a man of excellent business qualifica- 
tions, and a character of the highest order, 
for which he is justly respected by all who 
know him. His many friends will be pleased 
to find in this volume a portrait of this 
worthy citizen. 



JOHN F. FUSBY is successfully pursuing 
the occupation of a farmer on the fer- 
tile soil of section 30, township 13, range 2, 
in Stromsburg precinct, Polk county, Ne- 
braska. His skill and thorough practical 
knowledge of his calling have been potent 
factors in producing the present solid pros- 
perity of the locality. He is yet in the 
prime of life, but has already won a reputa- 
tion for business talent and sagacity that 
will be of great benefit to him in the future. 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHIC 



547 



He was born March lo, 1853, in Henry 
county, Iowa, and is a son of John Strong, 
who died before our subject was born. His 
mother married Fred. Fusby, in Henry 
county, Iowa, where they were early set- 
tlers. They took up raw land in the tim- 
ber, which they improved and cultivated, 
and in 1873 came to Nebraska. They took 
up as a homestead the farm on which they 
now reside, and have brought the same from 
wild unbroken prairie to highly cultivated 
land. They resided in a sod house for three 
years, and their first crop was destroyed by 
the grasshoppers, but in 1875 they succeeded 
in raising a good crop. The stepfather of 
our subject died January 6, 1893, and his 
mother now resides in Stromsburg. By her 
second marriage the mother of our subject 
had six children: Mrs. Tilda Baker, William, 
Emma, now Mrs. Rystrum, Alfred, Henry, 
and Mary Hughes. The parents were mem- 
bers in good standing of the church, and 
were devout Christians. 

John F. Fusby was reared and educated 
in Henry county, Iowa, and received the 
advantage of a course of study in the com- 
mon schools of the district in which he re- 
sided. He has followed the plow from the 
age of ten, and when he was twelve years 
of age he swung the cradle in the harvest 
field. He was married on November 14, 
1876, to Miss Clara Johnson, a native of 
Sweden, and is the parent of four children, 
viz.: Elmer E., Emma C. , Leonard J., and 
Rebecca A. 

Mr. Fusby is now the owner and propri- 
tor of one of the finest estates in the county, 
which consists of two hundred and eighty 
acres, all of it being under cultivation. He 
carries on a general farming and stock rais- 
ing business, and has his land all adorned 
with the latest and most modern appliances 
in the way of improvements. He built his 
present residence in 1878, and now has one 
of the most desirable pieces of property in 
the county. He has been the architect of 



his own fortune, and has secured all he pos- 
sesses by his own untiring efforts. Politi- 
cally, he affiliates with the Republican party, 
and at present is moderator of school dis- 
trict No. 34. He is a thorough believer in 
the adage that knowledge is power, and is 
providing his children with a good educa- 
tion, with which they can carve their own 
way through this life. He has always been 
a hard worker, and the results of which can 
readily be perceived by glancing over his 
well regulated farm, which, when he took 
possession of it was all raw prairie. He is 
active, intelligent, and progressive, and is 
held in high esteem by all to whom he is 
known. 



gLWOOD C. GILLILAND, one of the 
leading newspaper men of York count}', 
is editor and proprietor of the Blue Valley 
Journal published at McCool Junction. He 
was born in Hancock county, Illinois, Feb- 
ruary 28, 1870, and is a son of George W. 
and Mary F. (Smith) Gilliland, the former 
a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of 
Illinois. George W. Gilliland was a farmer, 
and in 1 884, thinking to benefit his condition, 
he removed to Ellis count}', Kansas, locat- 
ing on a farm near Hays City, his family join- 
ninghim thefollowingyear. In i893heremov- 
ed to Davenport, Nebraska, where he still 
resides. 

Elwood C. Gilliland, our subject, was ed- 
ucated in the country schools of Hancock 
county, Illinois, and also at Carthage, in the 
same county, supplementing this with acourse 
in the high school at Hays City, Kansas, 
having removed to Kansas with the family 
when fifteen years of age. For six years he 
taught school in Ellis county, Kansas, and 
during vacations learned the printer's trade: 
In 1894 he went -to Davenport, Nebraska, 
and for about two years was connected with 
the People's Journal at that place. He 
then, April i, 1896, leased the plant and 



548 



COMPEA'DIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



had full charge of it until May 15, 1897. 
He then established the Blue Valley Jour- 
nal at McCool Junction, which he has since 
successfully published. The Journal is an 
enterprising eight-page paper and is cir- 
culated extensively throughout this section. 
It is essentially a local paper, although 
broad and aggressive in defending the honest 
convictions of its editor. 

Mr. Gilliland was married at Daven- 
port, Nebraska, June 9, 1897, to Florence 
Berkey, a native of Pennsylvania, and a 
daughter of David A. and Louisa (Phillippi) 
Berkey, both of whom were natives of the 
same state. 

Mr. Gilliland is a member of the M. W. 
A. at McCool Junction and takes an active 
interest in all moves calculated to advance 
the interests of his home town. Both he 
and his wife are members of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church at Davenport, Nebraska. 



WILLIAM H. SMITH, editor and pub- 
lisher of the Seward Independent 
Democrat, at Seward, Nebraska, was born 
in Henry county, Illinois, in 1873, and is a 
son of William L. and Maria E. (Edwards) 
Smith, natives of Maryland and Illinois, re- 
spectively. The father was a farmer by oc- 
cupation and removed to Illinois at the close 
of the Civil war, in which struggle he took 
part as a member of Company B, Second 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving for four 
years. He participated in many battles and 
skirmishes, including the engagement at 
Shiloh, where he was wounded in the knee. 
He died in 1881. In the family were three 
sons, but our subject is the only one living in 
Nebraska. 

William H. Smith was educated in the 
common schools of Iowa, and at the age of 
seventeen entered the office of the Tipton 
Conservative, of Tipton, Iowa, as devil, 
and there learned the art of printing, re- 
maining in that office until March, 1897. 



Coming to Seward, Nebraska, he then pur- 
chased the Seward County Democrat, and 
in June of the same year bought the Inde- 
pendent, consolidating the two under the 
present name of the Seward Independent 
Democrat. The Democrat was established 
in 1S91 and the Independent in 1893, and 
both have often changed hands. The paper 
is now the organ of the Democratic and 
Populist parties of the county, and under 
the able management of our subject it has 
become a bright newsy sheet and very popu- 
lar with the reading public. Mr. Smith 
takes quite an active and prominent part in 
political work, and is meeting with good 
success in the publication of his paper. So- 
cially he belongs to the Knights of Pythias. 



THOMAS D. WIRT, deceased, was in 
life one of the best known and highly 
respected citizensof York county, Nebraska, 
where he was comfortably situated on a 
profitable and well improved farm. He was 
also widely and favorably known as one of 
the early settlers of the county, and his 
name is indissolubly connected with the 
growth and development of this section of 
the county. He was born in Allegheny 
county, Pennsylvania, Julyi, 1832, and was 
a son of Daniel and Margaret Wirt. His 
parents were both natives of the "Key- 
stone State," from whence they moved in 
1834, to Jackson county, Indiana, where 
the father followed his trade, which was 
that of a tanner, until his death in 185 i. 

Thomas D. Wirt was the youngest boy 
in a family of four sons born to his parents, 
and was but two years of age when he ac- 
companied his folks to Indiana in 1834. 
He received his education in the common 
schools of Jackson county, Indiana, where 
was living, until he had attained the age of 
seventeen. He then went west and located 
in Burlington, Iowa, but did not remain 
there very long, as he soon afterward made 



COMPENDIUM OE BIOGRAPIIT 



549 



his way to the pineries in Minnesota, where 
he worked for two years. Mr. Wirt then 
returned to Iowa, where he followed agri- 
cultural pursuits until 1873, when he came 
to Nebraska and located a homestead on 
section 14, of Morton township, York coun- 
ty. The land was all unimproved, and he 
erected a sod house on the same, in which he 
made his home until his death. 

Mr. Wirt was a veteran of the late war, 
inwhich he served forthree years. He enlisted 
in 1862 in Company E, Thirty-fourth Iowa, 
as a corporal, and participated in the fol- 
lowing battles Arkansas Post, siege of Vicks- 
burg, after which he took part in the Texas 
campaign, and the battle of Mobile Bay, 
and several other minor battles and skir- 
mishes. He served his entire term of en- 
listment, without receiving a wound of any 
kind, and after the close of hostilities he re- 
turned to his home in Iowa, where he re- 
sided until he moved to Nebraska in 1873. 

On April 12, 1857, Thomas D. Wirt and 
Miss Mary A. Holmes were united in the 
holy bonds of wedlock in Lucas county, 
Iowa. The bride was a native of Jackson 
county, Indiana, and a daughter of William 
S. and Elizabeth (Iseminger) Holmes, who 
were natives respectively of North Carolina 
and Ohio. They came to Iowa in 1854, 
and located in Lucas county, where they 
made their home until their deaths. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wirt were the parents of 
four children, as follows: Daniel H. ; Maria 
E. , now Mrs. Isaac Bagnell, of York; Kate, 
now Mrs. Jasper Kinyon; and Anna K., 
who is residing at home. He was a mem- 
ber of the Christian church, and a devout 
believer in its precepts. In his political be- 
lief, he was a stanch supporter of the princi- 
ples of the Republican party, and though he 
ably filled the office of township supervisor 
he never sought political preferment. Mr. 
Wirt departed this life on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1885, and his demise occasioned many 
expressions of condolence to his bereaved 



family, as he was very well acquainted and 
known throughout the entire county. He 
was one of its representative citizens, and 
his death was a sad blow to both his family 
and the community at large, as the family 
mourned a husband and father, while the 
county lost one of her most prominent citi- 
zens. 



THOMAS ALEXANDER HUSTON, a 
thrifty and enterprising farmer residing 
on section 7, Chelsea township, Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, was born in Washington 
county, Indiana, September 22, 1827, a son 
of David Mitchell and Elizabeth (Thompson) 
Huston. His paternal grandparents were 
Alexander and Margaret (Mitchell) Huston, 
who were of Scotch-Irish descent, and his 
maternal grandparents were Thomas and 
Isabel (Baker) Thompson, who were of 
Irish extraction. Our subject was reared 
on the old home farm in Indiana, where he 
continued to reside until coming to Nebraska 
in February, 1882. He was educated in the 
public schools of his day, pursuing his stud- 
ies in a school house built of round logs, 
the cracks being filled with mortar. The 
seats were also of logs hewed off on one 
side, with pins for legs, and the desks were 
of rough boards placed on pins driven into 
the wall. One log extending across the 
room was cut out to admit the light, and 
the place was heated by a huge fireplace, 
six feet wide, in which were burned great 
logs of beech, oak, maple, and hickory. It 
was here that our subject learned to read 
and ' ' cipher to the single rule of three, " and 
since then his knowledge has been acquired 
by contact with the outside world. 

After the death of the mother on the i6th 
of July, 1846, the father and children kept 
house by themselves, until, becoming tired 
of this, our subject decided to secure, if 
possible, a wife, and at the same time some 
one to cook his meals for him. His choice 



550 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



fell upon Miss Susan Jane Drain, with whom 
he had been acquainted a year, and on the 
1 2th of December, 1848, they were united 
in marriage. She is a native of Kentucky, 
and in 1847 removed to Indiana with her 
parents, Stephen and Nancy (Pearce) Drain. 
Her paternal grandfather was Thomas Drain, 
and her maternal grandparents were Adam 
and Ona (Graves) Pearce. 

On leaving the old homestead in Febru- 
ary, 1882, Mr. Huston loaded his effects into 
a car, and with his wife and children, pro- 
ceeded to Fairmont, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska. He located npon a farm which he 
had purchased two years previously, it con- 
sisting of the southwest quarter of section 7, 
Chelsea township, where he has since made 
his home. Upon the place is a fine bearing 
orchard of apples, plums, and cherry trees, 
and the wife, remembering the fruit trees of 
her native state, planted peach seeds, so 
that they now have thirty peach trees which 
are just beginning to bear fruit. Besides 
these they have an abundance of currants, 
gooseberries, strawberries, etc. The build- 
ings upon the place are in perfect harmony 
with the well-tilled fields, and the neat and 
thrifty appearance of the farm plainly indi- 
cates the supervision of a careful and pains- 
taking owner. In connection with general 
farming he is also interested in raising 
horses, cattle, and hogs. 

Of the nine children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Huston, five are still living, namely: 
(i) David B. married Flora Brownell, 
daughter of Benjamin Brownell, of Teka- 
mah, Burt county, Nebraska, where they 
now reside. To them were born seven 
children, six of whom are living, namely: 
Lela M., Claud B., Mabel, Alice, Walter L. 
and Clara B. (2) Leander is with his par- 
ents. (3) Lillie B. is the wife of Henry 
Muhlenber, who owns and operates a farm 
in Bennett township, Fillmore county, and 
they have one child, Jennie I. (4) Ellen N. 
is the wife of Albert Ewalt, also of Bennett 



township, and they have one daughter, 
Susan E. (5) Nannie L. is at home and 
oversees the housekeeping, while her 
brother, known as "Lee," hascharge of the 
farming operations, and whenever crops are 
raised in the county he can duplicate the 
best. Father and son are both identified 
with the Republican party, and have an 
abiding faith in its principles. Mr. Huston 
cast his first presidential vote for General 
Taylor, and has always taken an active and 
commendable interest in public affairs. 
Formerly he was a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church, but since coming to 
Nebraska has never united with any religious 
organization, though his wife and Miss Nan- 
nie are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church in Geneva. 



EDWARD CHATTIN, one of the most 
prosperous agriculturists and highly re- 
spected citizens of York county, whose 
home is on section 18, Leroy township, was 
born in Essex county, England, June 27, 
1834, a son of John and Mary (Fiske) Chat- 
tin, natives of Suffolk county. The pater- 
nal grandfather was also a native of Eng- 
land, but was of Scotch descent. John 
Chattin, who was a thatcher by trade, emi- 
grated with his family to the United States 
in 1848, but his wife died on the voyage 
when about mid-ocean and was buried at 
sea. They made the passage on an Ameri- 
can sailing vessel, which, owing to very 
rough weather, was six weeks in reaching 
the harbor of New York. By steamboat 
they proceeded up the Hudson to x'Vlbany, 
by the Erie canal to Buffalo, by steamer to 
Cleveland, then by an extension of the 
Erie canal to Beaver, on the Ohio river, 
whence they traveled by steamboat to St. 
Louis, and up the Mississippi to Canton, 
Missouri. Going ashore before breakfast, 
Mr. Chattin fortunately discovered a party 
of campers who were on their way to Schuy- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



551 



ler county, Missouri, which was also his 
destination, and he soon made arrange- 
ments to accompany them. By eleven 
o'clock of that day, he and his children 
were on their way to their new home, and 
they were among the first settlers of that 
locality, their nearest market at that time 
being Canton, on the Mississippi river, a 
distance of about sixty-five miles. Mr. 
Chattin bought two hundred and forty acres 
of government land at one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per acre, and began life in true 
pioneer style. At that time a spinning 
wheel could be found in every cabin, and 
shoes, clothing, etc., were all made by 
hand. The father prospered in his new 
home, and at the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1863, was the owner of over 
six hundred acres of valuable land. In his 
family were eight children, four sons and 
four daughters, of whom John was a sailor 
and was lost at sea at the age of twenty- 
two years. The others were Mary A., Ed- 
ward, Sarah, deceased, Ann, Emma, Henry 
and William. The last two were soldiers 
of the Civil war, serving in Company C, 
Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry until the 
close of the war, and being with Sherman 
on the celebrated march to the sea. They 
participated in many hard-fought battles, 
re-enlisted as veterans, and were finally 
mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky. 

Edward Chattin was about fourteen 
years old when he came to America, and he 
remained with his father until the latter's 
death, when he came into possession of the 
old homestead in Missouri. In the fall of 
1882 he sold his property in that state and 
came to York county, Nebraska, where he 
purchased land on the northeast quarter of 
section 18 Leroy township, on which he 
still continues to reside. His fine farm is 
pleasantly located within two miles of the 
city of York, and its neat and thrift) ap- 
pearance testifies to the careful supervision 
and good business ability of the owner. 



On the 30th of November, 1868, Mr. 
Chattin was united in marriage with Miss 
Elizabeth Baker, a native of Taylor county. 
West Virginia. Her grandfather was a 
major in the war of 18 12. Her parents, 
David and Elvina (Means) Baker, were na- 
tives of the Old Dominion and were among 
the pioneer settlers of York county, Ne- 
braska, locating four miles west of York 
about the year 1870. The father died Feb- 
ruary 16, 1874, at the age of seventy-one 
years, the mother November 30, 1888, at 
the age of eighty-two years, honored and re- 
spected by all who knew them. Mr. and 
Mrs. Chattin have three children: JohnC. , 
William H. and Clarence C. 

While a resident of Missouri Mr. Chat- 
tin served as postmaster at Cherry Grove, 
and since coming to York county has filled 
the office of school treasurer to the entire 
satisfaction of all concerned. He is a 
stanch Republican in politics, which party 
members of the family have always sup- 
ported. His public spirit and unques- 
tioned integrity have rendered him a de- 
sirable citizen of his adopted county, and 
he enjoys the respect and esteem of all who 
know him. 



FRANK A. LAMDIN, a well-known busi- 
ness man of Tamora, Seward county, is 
a man whose sound common sense and vig- 
orous, able management of his affairs have 
been important factors in his success, and 
with his undoubted integrity of character 
have given him on honorable position 
among his fellow men. Although he is still 
interested in agricultural pursuits in precinct 
F. he makes his home -in Tamora and gives 
the greater part of his attention to the buy- 
ing of grain. 

Michigan claims him as a native son, his 
birth having occurred in Jackson county, 
that state, July 17, 1856. His parents are 
Arnold and Maria (Miller) Lamdin. The 



552 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



father was a native of England, born near 
London, and when a child was brought to 
to this country by his parents who settled 
at Pontiac, Michigan, where they died. In 
that state Arnold Lamdin was reared and 
educated, and after attaining to man's es- 
tate engaged in farming and hotel keeping 
there, his death occurring in Jackson 
county. 

Our subject, who was the only child of 
the family, pursued his studies in the 
schools of his native county, acquiring a 
fair education. When young he went to 
Wisconsin and for some time he worked in 
a cheese factory in Milwaukee, after which 
he conducted a store and engaged in farm- 
ing in that state until November, 1888, when 
he came to Seward county, Nebraska. Lo- 
cating at Tamora, he operated a farm near 
there for three years, and then commenced 
buying grain in connection with his agricul- 
tural pursuits, meeting with good success in 
both lines of business. 

While in Wisconsin, Mr. Lamdin was 



married, in 1877,10 Miss Margaret Thomas, 
a native of that state and a daughter of 
Amos and Jane (McKay) Thomas, who were 
natives of Indiana and Scotland, respect- 
ively, and settled in Milwaukee county, Wis- 
consin, as early as 1838. Three children 
have been born of this union, all still living, 
namely: Joseph A., Frank A. and Marga- 
ret. 

In his social relations, Mr. Lamdin is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, and the Wood- 
men of the World, and in political senti- 
ment is an ardent Republican. He has 
never cared for official honors and has only 
served in the office of school treasurer, fill- 
ing that position for seven years. 



JOSEPH E. HOOVER, a leading lawyer 
of Benedict, is now serving as justice of 
the peace of Morton township, York county, 



a position which he has filled for five years 
with credit to himself and satisfaction to his 
constituents. He is thoroughly impartial 
in meeting out justice, his opinions being 
unbiased by either fear or favor, and his 
fidelity to the trust reposed in him is above 
question. He is regarded as one of the 
leading and most highly respected citizens 
of Benedict, and it is, therefore, consistent 
that he be represented in a work whose 
province is the portrayal of the lives of the 
prominent men of this section of the state. 

Mr. Hoover was born in Tuscarawas 
county, Ohio, February i, 1851, a son of 
Solomon and Elizabeth (Everett) Hoover, 
the former a native of Maryland, the latter 
of Ohio. It was in 1829 that the father 
removed to Ohio, where he at first engaged 
in blacksmithing and shoemaking, but later 
in life learned civil engineering, and for 
twenty years most capably served as county 
surveyor of Tuscarawas county. His death 
occurred in New Philadelphia, Ohio, at the 
age of sixty-five years and his wife died in 
the . same state at the age of eighty-one. 
Their family consisted of four sons and one 
daughter. 

During his boyhood and youth Joseph 
E. Hoover obtained a good practical educa- 
tion in the schools of New Philadelphia, 
from which he graduated on the completion 
of the prescribed course. In 1870 he be- 
gan the study of law under Judge Hance, of 
that place, and also took up engineering un- 
der his father's direction, but owing to ill 
health he was obliged to give up both. In 
1875 he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and took up a timber claim on section 22, 
Morton township, planted his trees and im- 
proved the same. While thus employed he 
also engaged in teaching school and again 
took up the study of law. In 1877, when 
conducting a school in Polk county, he 
walked to the city of York, a distance of 
twenty miles, for the purpose of securing 
admission to the bar, but as the judge was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



553 



not there he became so disgusted that for a 
time he gave up all thought of entering the 
legal profession. In 1894, however, he 
again took up his studies along that line, 
and the following year was admitted to the 
bar, since which time he has successfully 
engaged in practice in Benedict. 

Mr. Hoover was elected justice of the 
peace in 1893, and so acceptably did he fill 
the office that he has twice been re-elected. 
He has also served as assessor for six years 
and filled other minor offices. Politically, 
he is a Populist, and in 1894 at the conven- 
tion of his party held at Grand Island, this 
state, he was York county's candidate for 
the nomination to the position of secretary 
of state — a fact which indicates his g^eat 
popularity. Socially he affiliates with the 
Modern Woodmen -oi America. 



JOSIAH V. HOUSEL is one of the hon- 
ored pioneers of Butler county, who 
has borne an important part in developing 
its wild lands into rich and fertile fields and 
thus contributing to the general advance- 
ment and progress of the locality. His life 
has been an honorable and upright one, 
commanding the respect and confidence of 
those with whom he has been brought in 
contact. His residence is situated on sec- 
tion 26, Franklin township, and the many 
improvements on hise.xcellent farm indicate 
the enterprising and progressive spirit of the 
owner. 

Mr. Housel was born in Trumbull county, 
Ohio, April 20, 1839, and is of German 
lineage, the family having been founded in 
America by the great-grandfather of our 
subject, who emigrated from Germany in 
in the eighteenth century. His son, Peter 
Housel, was born in Pennsylvania, and at a 
very early day removed to Ohio. He served 
his country in the war of 1812, and was a 
worthy and highly respected citizen. An- 
thony Housel, father of our subject, was 



born in Pennsylvania, and was reared in 
Ohio. In his youth he learned the tailor's 
trade, but during the greater part of his life 
followed agricultural pursuits. Having at- 
tained his majority, he married Margaret 
Pansier, who was born and reared in Trum- 
bull county, Ohio, and was a daughter of 
David Pansier, who was born in Pennsyl- 
vania. By trade he was a carpenter, and 
in addition to that occupation he followed 
agricultural pursuits. His father was a na- 
tive of Germany. 

Josiah V. Housel is the eldest in a fam- 
ily of eight children, all of whom reached! 
years of maturity. The days of his boy- 
hood and youth were passed in the county 
of his nativity, and his elementary educa- 
tion, acquired in the common schools, was 
supplemented by an attendance for two 
terms at the seminary in West Farmington, 
Trumbull county. In the fall of 1859 he 
accompanied his parents on their removal 
to Washington county, Iowa, and after the 
inauguration of the Civil war, in 1861, he 
loyally responded to his country's call for 
troops, enlisting in the Union service as a 
member of Company I, Thirteenth Iowa 
Veteran Volunteer Infantry. He was pro- 
moted to the position of corporal, with 
which rank he served for two years. He 
participated in the battles of Shiloh, luka, 
second battle of Corinth, the siege of Vicks- 
burg, Holly Springs, the battle of Atlanta, 
and went with Sherman on the celebrated 
march to the sea. At the battle of Shiloh 
he was wounded, but after three weeks was 
again on active duty, and remained in the 
service until August, 1865, covering a period 
of almost four years. He received his dis- 
charge at Louisville, Kentucky, and with an 
honorable war record returned to his home 
in Washington county, Iowa. 

At the time when Mr. Housel re-enlisted 
as a veteran he received a thirty days' fur- 
lough, and during that time was married to 
Miss Harriet Romine, who was born in 



554 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



Franklin county, Ohio, March lo, 1839, 
and is a daughter of Levi and Elizabeth 
(Taylor) Romine, who were natives of Bal- 
timore, Maryland. They have now five liv- 
ing children: Mary E., wife of Nelson AIl- 
ard, of Boone county, Nebraska; Newton 
A., of Valparaiso, Nebraska; Menzo O., of 
Lincoln, this state; Myrtie C. and Lillie B., 
at home. They also lost four children: 
Estella, who died at the age of seven years; 
Lewis F. , who died at the age of five j^ears; 
and two who died in infancy. 

After the war Mr. Housel carried on 
farming in Washington county, Iowa, until 
1 87 1, when he removed with his family to 
Butler county, Nebraska, making a claim of 
one hundred and si.xty acres of land, which 
he entered from the government. He hast- 
ily constructed a little cabin, twelve by six- 
teen feet, and began the improvement of his 
land, which he has transformed into an ex- 
cellent farm. Upon the place he has five 
acres of timber planted by his own hand and 
an excellent orchard of one hundred and 
fifty trees, from which he gathered six hun- 
dred bushels of apples in 1897. He also 
raises the cereals best adapted to this cli- 
mate and the well-tilled fields and substan- 
tial buildings upon the place indicate the 
thrift and enterprise of the owner, who is 
accounted one of the leading agriculturists 
of the county. When he arrived here his 
township contained only twenty-three vot- 
ers, most of whom came at the time of his 
emigration. 

Mr. Housel is independent in his polit- 
ical views, supporting the men whom he 
thinks best qualified for office, regardless of 
party affiliations. His fellow citizens, ap- 
preciating his worth and ability, have called 
him to positions of public trust and for six 
years he was township assessor, was also 
census enumerator and for a long period 
was justice of the peace. He discharged 
his duties with marked impartiality and won 
the commendation of all fair-minded citi- 



zens. He holds membership in Abraham 
Lincoln Post, No. 10, G. A. R., of David 
City, and belongs to the Methodist Episco- 
pal church there. His life has been one 
marked by fidelity to principle and by earn- 
est support of all which he believes to be 
right, and in all business transactions his 
name is a s3-nonym of honor. 



WILLIAM ELLIS, a representative 
farmer of York county, is pleasantly 
located on section 25, Leroy township, 
where he is maintaining his place among the 
progressive and intelligent men around him. 
A native of Ohio, he was born in Clinton 
county. May 30, 1836, and is a son of Jos- 
eph and Eliza (Stillings) Ellis, also natives 
of that state, where the father engaged in 
agricultural pursuits for many years. Late 
in life he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and died at the home of his son soon after 
locating here. The mother died in Ohio 
about twenty years ago. 

William Ellis is indebted to the public 
schools of his native state for his educational 
advantages, and his business training was 
obtained upon his father's farm. As a life- 
work he chose the pursuit to which he had 
been reared, and for several years operated 
rented land in Ohio. On coming west he 
first located in Missouri, where he spent 
three years, later was a resident of Otoe 
county, Nebraska, and in 1879 came to York 
county, where he purchased one hundred 
and sixty acres, on which he stilU resides. 
Adding to the original purchase he at one 
time owned the north half of section twen- 
ty-five, Leroy township, consisting of three 
hundred and twenty acres, but he has since 
disposed of a portion of this and now owns 
only the tract first purchased. The well 
tilled fields and neat and thrifty appear- 
ance of the place, testifies to his skillful 
management, and shows conclusively that 
he thoroughly understands his chosen voca- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



555 



tion. Politically he is an ardent Republi- 
can, and as a public-spirited, progressive 
citizen, he takes a commendable interest in 
public affairs. 

In i860 Mr. Ellis led to the marriage 
altar Miss Caroline Barlow, who was born 
in Belmont county, Ohio, a daughter of 
Perry and Philena (Sherwood) Barlow, also 
natives of that state. The children born of 
this union are as follows: Frank L. , Dora 
L., Nettie H., Allen N., Clyde and Ray H. 
The youngest son is now pursuing a course 
at Lincoln Business college. 



JOHN R. LAWYER.— Among the ener- 
getic and enterprising citizens of Seward 
county who have selected agriculture as their 
vocation in life and are meeting with excel- 
lent success in their chosen calling, is the 
subject of this biographical notice, whose 
fine farm is pleasantly situated in precinct 
F. He is a native of Illinois, born in Mc- 
Donough county, December i, 1852. His 
parents, Thomas and Catherine (Comer) 
Lawyer, were both born near Columbus, 
Ohio, while his paternal grandparents, John 
and Massa Lawyer, were natives of North 
Carolina and Ohio, respectively. The 
Lawyer family were pioneers of the Buckeye 
state, and there the great-grandfather of our 
subject was killed by the Indians at an early 
day. In 1833, Thomas Lawyer, our sub- 
ject's father, accompanied his parents on 
their emigration from Ohio to Illinois and 
in the latter state he made his home until 
called from this life on the 14th of Decem- 
ber, 1 89 1, at the age of sixty-five years. 
The mother, however, is still living. In 
the family were seven children, five sons 
and two daughters. 

Reared in his native state, John R. 
Lawyer acquired his education in its district 
schools, and as soon as old enough to be of 
any assistance, he began to aid in the farm 
work, soon becoming a thorough and system- 



atic agriculturist. He continued his resi- 
dence in Illinois until 1883, which year wit- 
nessed his arrival in Seward county, Ne- 
braska, and in precinct F he has since suc- 
cessfully engaged in farming. Before leaving 
Illinois he was married on the 20th of April, 
1876, to Miss Matilda E. Skiles, also a 
native of that state, and a daughter of 
Charles F. and Mary (Reno) Skiles, and 
two children bless this union: Leither and 
Otis L. 

Socially, Mr. Lawyer belongs to the 
Modern Woodmen of America, and politi- 
cally is a stanch Democrat. He has made 
many warm friends since coming to this 
state and has the confidence and respect of 
all with whom he comes in contact. 



DANIEL BROBST, deceased, was one 
of the leading farmers and stock rais- 
ers of Thayer township, York county. He 
was widely known and honored, and in his 
death the community, whose interests he 
had so much advanced by his enterprise, 
has lost a valuable citizen. His integrity 
of character, sterling worth, and never-fail- 
ing courtesy, made him beloved by all who 
had the honor of his acquaintance. 

Mr. Brobst was born in Lehigh county, 
Pennsylvania, June 2, 1835, a son of Chris- 
tian C. and Catherine Brobst, who spent 
their entire lives in that county. By trade 
the father was a tailor, and made that oc- 
cupation his life work. Our_ subject was 
reared and educated in the Keystone state, 
and during his youth learned the black- 
smith's trade, which he continued to follow 
in Pennsylvania, until May, 187S. It was 
in that month that he I'came-west and took 
up his residence in York county, Nebraska, 
bu3'ing a quarter section of land in Thayer 
township, on which his]]widownow resides. 
The tract at that time was entirely unim- 
proved, and to its development and cultiva- 
tion he devoted his energies untiringly until 



55G 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



it became one of the best farms in the lo- 
cality. 

On the 28th of October, 1858, in Penn- 
sylvania, was consummated the marriage of 
Mr. Brobst and Miss Elizabeth Miller, a 
daughter of John and Sarah Miller, natives 
of Pennsylvania, where they continued to 
make their home until called to the world 
beyond. The father followed the occupa- 
tion of blacksmithing. The children born 
of this union are as follows: Sarah C, 
William E. , Emma J., Andrew J., Samuel 
v., Lenora, George N. and Wesley H., all 
living, and Catherine C, deceased. 

Mr. Brobst used his right of franchise in 
support of the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party, and was for some time an 
efficient member of the school board in his 
district. As a business man he met with a 
well deserved success, and his upright, hon- 
orable methods gained for him the confi- 
dence and respect of all with whom he came 
in contact. In religious belief he was a 
Lutheran, and his life was ever in harmony 
with the teachings of that church. His death 
occurred June 6, 1891. 



JAMES GRAY is one of the enterprising 
and reliable citizens of Polk county 
who has borne his part in the upbuilding 
and development of this region by the im- 
provement of a fine farm on section 8, 
township 13, range i. He is one of Ohio's 
honored sons, his birth occurring in Butler 
county, that state, December 24, 1854. 
His father, Richard Gray, was born in the 
same county, in 181 5, and on reaching 
man's estate married Miss Mary Webb, 
who was born in Indiana, in 181 3, a 
daughter of Rev. William Webb, a pioneer 
Baptist minister of the Hoosier state. The 
paternal grandparents of our subject, 
William and Mary (Hanna) Gray, were 
early settlers of Ohio, where the former 
died in 1833. From Butler county, Ohio, 



our subject's parents removed to Louisa 
county, Iowa, at a very early day, and later 
to Jefferson county, the same state, where 
from the wild land the father developed a 
good farm, making it his home until called 
to his final rest in 1896. The mother 
passed away many years previous, dying in 
1863. She was a consistent member of 
the Baptist, and he held membership in the 
United Presbyterian church from the age 
of eighteen years. Their children were 
Mary, deceased; Anna; and James. 

The boyhood and youth of James Gray 
was principally passed in Iowa, where he 
also acquired his literary education and ob- 
tained a good knowledge of farm work in 
its various departments. On attaining his 
majority he started out to make his own way 
in the world, and for some time engaged in 
farming in Jefferson county, Iowa. 

On the 1 6th of March, 1876, Mr. Gray 
was united in marriage with Miss Zaluma 
Spencer, who was born July 3, 1853, in 
Washington county, Iowa, to which locality 
her parents, William and Lizala (Wilco.x) 
Spencer, had removed from Vermont at an 
early day. Her mother died in 1888, and 
her father departed this life in 1895, Both 
were earnest and consistent members of the 
Methodist church. In their family were 
eleven children, namely: Mrs. Triphena De 
Hart, Jasper, Samantha, Elvira, Albert, 
Mrs. Rozelpha Gilson, William, and Mrs. 
Zaluma Gray, and three that died in infancy. 
Of these, Albert was a soldier of the Civil 
war. To Mr. and Mrs. Gray have been born 
four children: Maud, now deceased; Mabel 
L. , Guy and Robert. 

It was in 1876 that Mr. Gray and his 
bride located upon their present farm in Polk 
county, Nebraska, on which a sod house had 
previously been erected and a few acres 
broken. Ten years later their primitive 
dwelling was replaced by their present com- 
fortable home; and Mr. Gray has placed 
acre after acre of his land under the plow 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



557 



until to-day he has one hundred acres under 
a high state of cultivation, leaving only 
twenty acres unimproved. Besides this 
valuable property, he owns a fine farm of 
one hundred and sixty acres in Deuel county, 
Nebraska, which place he has also im- 
proved. He is engaged in both farming and 
stock raising, making a specialty of a fine 
grade of hogs. His political support is 
always given the men and measures of the 
Democratic party, and in his social relations 
he is an honored member of the blue lodge 
of the Masonic order, at Osceola. He has 
been a member of the school board in dis- 
trict No. 30, and his sister, who is now 
serving as county superintendent of schools 
in Keith county, Nebraska, held the same 
position in Polk county for two years. 
Public spirited and progressive, he takes a 
deep interest in all enterprises calculated to 
advance the intellectual, moral, or material 
welfare of his township and county. 



PARIvHURST SHURLOCK, who calls 
at Bradshaw post-office, York county, 
for his mail, is a man whose integrity, char- 
acter and industry reflect credit upon the 
state, for he is one of a vast number who 
have given their best life into the work of 
making it rich and great. He is a farmer, 
and in the tilling of the soil, the smell of 
the newly turned furrow, and the odor of 
the new made hay, the song of the birds, 
and the contact with nature, he has found 
the happiness and glory of life. He has 
done well, and in his old age holds a warm 
place in the hearts of many friends. 

Mr. Shurlock was born in Lawrence 
county, Pennsylvania, December 16, 1836, 
and belongs to a family that has long been 
distinguished in English annals. The Rev. 
William Shurlock, an English bishop, was 
among his progenitors. His grandfather 
was a captain in the British army, and was 
under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. He re- 



turned to England and died in that country. 
Samuel Shurlock, the father of the subject 
of this biographical history, was born in 
Devonshire, England, June 9, 1796, and 
was a well educated man. He taught 
school in the United States when he was a 
young man. He was with General William 
Henry Harrison in his celebrated expedi- 
tion into the northwest. After teaching 
some years he purchased a farm in what 
was then known as Beaver county, Penn- 
sylvania, and settled down to farming, and 
made his home there until his death in 1887. 
His wife was Elizabeth Stinson, who was 
born in Ireland, and died in 1840 on the 
Beaver county farm. 

Parkhurst Shurlock lived with his father 
until he was twenty-two years old, and then 
he penetrated into the wilderness of what 
was then called the west, and spent a year in 
the Scioto valley. He came to Pennsyl- 
vania, to work in the Wampum coal mines, 
where he was when the war broke out. He 
enlisted in Company D, One Hundredth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, known as 
the Roundhead regiment. He enlisted in 
1 86 1, and in 1864 was made corporal, 
and then sergeant. He took part in 
the following battles with his regiment: 
Port Royal Ferry, Port Royal, James Island, 
Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, An- 
tietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Blue 
Springs, Campbell Station, siege of Knox- 
ville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court 
House, North Anna river. Cold Harbor and 
Petersburg, the mine explosion before that 
city, Weldon Railroad, Poplar Grove, 
Hatcher's Run, Fort Stedman, and the final 
assault on Petersburg, and many other en- 
gagements that did not rise to the dignity of 
battles. He was wounded in the side while 
acting as a sharpshooter before Petersburg, 
but lost only two weeks in the hospital, and 
never was sent to a hospital again during 
his services. At Cold Harbor he had his 
Enfield rifle cut in two by a ball, which 



558 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



drove it out of his hands. He served three 
years and eight months, and was honorably 
discharged at Harrisburg. 

When he had become somewhat wonted 
to the ways of peace he took a trip through 
Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska in the spring of 
1866, and was married the following year to 
Miss Elizabeth Miller, a daughter of Aaron 
and Eliza Miller. They were residents of 
Beaver county, and immigrants from Ger- 
many. Her great uncle was in the Revolu- 
tionary army, and did his part in obtaining 
the freedom of the colonies. She had four 
brothers in the Union army, two of whom 
were killed. Samuel Miller was captain of 
Company I\, Pennsylvania Reserves, and 
was killed at Cold Harbor, and Robert Mil- 
ler was killed near Winchester in the Shen- 
andoah valley. A brother-in-law, William 
Graham, was in the army and died in the 
army from disease. Another brother-in- 
law, Richard L. Hudson, was honorably 
discharged, and died on the Puget Sound. 

Mr. and Mrs. Shurlock made their home 
for five years on their Pennsylvania farm, 
and came to this state April 6, 1872. They 
entered a claim to the southeast quarter of 
section 20, township 10, range 4 west, and 
commenced in earnest to open a raw prai- 
rie farm, which they have so well succeeded 
in doing. They lived and labored on this 
farm for eighteen years, when they sold the 
homestead and purchased other land at a 
less price. He now owns one hundred and 
sixty acres, clear of all encumbrances. He 
has a fine dwelling in the village of Brad- 
shaw, which has been his home for thirteen 
years, during that time. He has been a 
man of strict business habits, and no man 
has ever held his note. He is the father of 
two children, Carrie D., who is now mar- 
ried to Samuel Morrison, and William 
Charles, who was married to Miss Laura 
Miller. 

Mr. Shurlock is a supporter of bi-metal- 
lism in politics, and is a strong supporter of 



the Democratic party. He does not vote' 
for partisan considerations but for princi- 
ples and men. Neither he nor his wife is 
connected with any secret order, but she be- 
longs to the Presbyterian church. They 
keep up with the events of the times, enjoy 
friends and neighbors. 



JOHN A. DURLAND.one of the first set- 
tlers on the Blue river between Staple- 
hurst and Ulysses, resides on section thirty- 
five, precinct C, Seward county, where he 
is actively and prosperously engaged in ag- 
ricultural pursuits. The present flourishing 
condition of this section of the state, with 
its splendid farms, many comfortable dwell- 
ings, fine churches and substantial school- 
buildings, is a monument to the persever- 
ance and labors of the brave men who, like 
our subject, patiently endured the trials of 
pioneer life that they might develop the 
wonderful and varied resources of this re- 
gion, and make for themselves and their 
children a pleasant home in this fruitful and 
and goodly land. 

Mr. Durland was born in New Jersey, 
October 23, 1839, a son of John M. and 
Sarah (Wolf) Durland, also natives of New 
Jersey. The father, who was a miller by 
trade, moved to Illinois in 1841 and settled 
in Fulton county, where he followed milling 
until his death in 1855. He had three sons, 
our subject being the only one to locate in 
Nebraska. He was reared and educated in 
Illinois, and assisted his father in the mill 
until the latter died. He then turned his 
attention to farming and followed that pur- 
suit in Illinois until 1864. The ne.xt year 
we find him en route for Nebraska, and on 
his arrival in Seward county, he took up a 
homestead on section 35, precinct C, where 
he still resides. He was the first white set- 
tler in that locality, but Indians were num- 
erous, and wolves and other wild animals 
held full sway. The log house he erected 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



559 



is still standing near his present fine home, 
and the wild, uncultivated land he soon trans- 
formed into a valuable and productive farm. 
He has successfully engaged in general farm- 
ing and stock raising, and now owns four 
hundred acres of good land, all improved. 
He has not only gained a good home and 
comfortable competence, but has secured 
the respect and confidence of all with whom 
he has come in contact by his honorable 
and blameless life. 

In 1859, in Fulton county, Illinois, Mr. 
Durland was united in marriage with Miss 
Lucy J. Roberts, a daughter of John Rob- 
erts, whose sketch appears elsewhere in 
this work. Their family comprises five 
children: — three sons and two daughters 
living namely: George B., Samuel C. , 
Albert E., and Rosie B., now the wife of 
Philip Merritt,and Lillian E. — and two dead 
Susan A. and Charles A. The parents are 
earnest and consistent members of the 
Christian church and the family is promi- 
nent in social circles. Mr. Durland is a Dem- 
ocrat in politics but at local elections votes 
for the best man regardless of party ties, 
and has creditably filled the office of town- 
ship assessor. 



WILLIAM C. EMERY.— The deserved 
reward of a well-spent life is an hon- 
ored retirement from business, in which to 
enjoy the fruits of former toil. To-day, after 
a useful and beneficial career, Mr. Emery 
is quietly living at his pleasant home in 
Garrison, Butler county, surrounded by 
the comfort that earnest labor has brought 
to him. For many years he was identified 
with the agricultural and commercial inter- 
ests of the county, but has now laid aside 
all business cares. 

Like many of the best citizens of this 
state, Mr. Emery is a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, born in Butler county, March 12, 
1832. His father, William Emery, Sr., 



was born in the eastern part of that state 
about 1792, and during his youth removed 
to Butler county, where he served as a 
minute man in the war of 1812. There, he 
met and married Miss Lydia Harlan, and 
of the eight children born to them, our sub- 
ject is the seventh in order of birth and the 
third son, the others being as follows: 
Anna, Mary, David, Silas, Rebecca, Lydia, 
and John B. The four oldest are now de- 
ceased, while Rebecca is now the wife of 
James B. Marshall, of Garrison, Nebraska; 
Mrs. Lydia Morrison is a resident of Indi- 
ana; and John B. makes his home in Ohio. 

In his native county, William C. Emery, 
of this sketch, grew to manhood and was 
married, January 22, 1857, to Miss Mahala 
Boston, daughter of George and Nancy 
Boston, of Butler county, Pennsylvania. 
There two children were born to our sub- 
ject and his wife: Mary E., now the wife of 
M. G. Haynes, of Union township, Butler 
county, Nebraska, by whom she has five 
children, Lillian, Charles, Georgie, Ethner 
and Leina;and John W., who married Miss 
Lizzie Ward, an English lady, and has four 
children. Ward Covert, Fannie, Mahala 
and William. 

After his marriage, Mr. Emery engaged 
in farming near Greenville, Pennsylvania, 
until he laid aside all personal interests to 
aid his country in defense of the Union dur- 
ing the dark days of the Civil war, enlisting 
in Company D, One Hundred and Sixty- 
ninth PennsylvaniaVolunteer Infantry, which 
was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. 
When his term of service expired he was 
honorably discharged and returned home. 
In company with two of his old army com- 
rades — J. S. Marshall and A. H. Coon — Mr. 
Emery came to Nebraska in the spring of 
1 87 1 and first located on a farm on section 
24, Union township, Butler county. He 
continued to engage in agricultural pursuits 
until the fall of 1882 when he moved to 
the village of Garrison, and in company 



5G0 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPBT. 



with J. S. Marshall embarked in general 
merchandising under the firm name of Mar- 
shall & Emery. Four years later the firm 
was changed to Emery & Howser by the 
retirement of Mr. Marshall, and in the fall 
of 1887 Mr. Emery purchased his partner's 
interest, making the firm Emery & Son. 
He has since sold his interest to the 
junior member, and now lives retired. 
His residence, which was the second erected 
in the town, has been enlarged and re- 
modeled by him, converting it into a most 
comfortable home. Besides this, he is still 
the owner of extensive and valuable farm- 
ing property. 

Politically, Mr. Emery has always been 
identified with the Republican party since 
its organization, and fraternally he affiliates 
with A. Lincoln post. No. 10, G. A. R. He 
has been a prominent factor in the growth 
and development of his adopted county, is 
invariably numbered among its valued citi- 
zens, and on the roll of its honored pioneers 
his name should be among the foremost. 



MRS. JULIA BICK, of Brown town- 
ship, York county, Nebraska, has 
been for twenty years or more a resident of 
the state, and in that period has made 
many friends by her womanly qualities. 
She has kept a good home, has proved a 
kind mother, and her door has been invit- 
ingly open. 

Mrs. Bick was born January 3, 1837, 
at Steubensville, Ohio, and is a daughter of 
Henry and Louisa Albrecht. Her parents 
moved to Iowa City, Iowa, not many years 
after her birth, and there she was very well 
educated, and there she was married when 
seventeen years old. She remained on the 
farm with her husband for a number of 
years, but concluded it best to remove to 
Missouri in the fall of 1865, where they 
bought a farm in Lewis county. They re- 
mained in that state si.x years, but the cli- 



mate did not prove congenial, and Mr. 
Bick sold out and returned to Iowa, where 
he rented a farm, which he tilled for seven 
years. About this time stories of the great 
possibilities of the Nebraska farming coun- 
try began to disturb the peace of renters and 
small farmers east of the Missouri. Mr. 
Bick listened, and was convinced. Nebraska 
was the haven of desire, and he made his 
way to York, arriving there in the fall of 
1 877. He had a brother already established 
on a farm fourteen miles north of the city, 
and to him the home seeker repaired. Mr. 
Bick made a homestead entry on the north 
half of the northeast quarter of section 22, 
township 10, range 4 west, and immediate- 
ly proceeded to open up his new farm. He 
built a frame house, and made substantial 
improvements. He was disappointed, how- 
ever, in the hope that his removal west of 
the Missouri river would restore his health, 
which had been much impaired by his stay 
in Missouri. He continued, however, in spite 
of ill health, to till his little farm, and care 
for his family, and give his children such 
opportunities for education as the new 
country might afford. For many years 
somewhat frail and delicate, he yet attained 
a very considerable age, and died January 
27, 1897, when he was in sight of his 
seventy-first birthday. He left all his 
property, both real and personal, to his 
life-long companion and helpmeet, Mrs. 
Julia Bick, who had indeed proved herself 
worthy of such trust and honor. He was a 
Republican, and with his wife was associat- 
ed with the Methodist Episcopal church, of 
which they most worthy and acceptable 
members. They have never been members 
of any secret society, feeling that home and 
church and school afforded a wide field for 
the exercise of the highest and finest 
emotions. He was born in Germany about 
1824, and came to Ohio with his father's 
people when about the age of fourteen years. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bick have had nine chil- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



561 



dren, six of whom are still alive. They are 
Amelia A., Sophia E. , Naomi L. , Adaline, 
Henry A. and LaVerna. Sophia was mar- 
ried while her parents lived in Iowa, Feb- 
ruary 24, 1876, and now lives with her hus- 
band at Miller, a railroad station in South 
Dakota. Naomi married George Eckerson, 
and resides in York. Adaline is the wife of 
Alanson Eberhart, and has her home in 
York. The other children are still under 
the maternal wing, and have not left the 
farm. Henry takes much of the responsi- 
bility of the work since his father's death, 
and practically carries on the farm. La 
Verna, the youngest daughter, is a teacher 
of approved skill and standing, having 
taught seven terms. At the present time 
she is not engaged in the school-room, but 
is devoting herself to the care of her mother, 
and trying to make what sunshine she can 
for her last days. 



ARTHUR M. ROBSON has been prom- 
inently and actively identified with the 
agricultural interests of Thayer township, 
York county, since pioneer days, 'and has 
borne an important part in its upbuilding 
and prosperity. He was born on the 27th 
of July, 1837, on the Isle of Bute, Scot- 
land while his parents, Thomas and Ann 
(Manning) Robson, were natives of Eng- 
land, but of Scotch lineage. Throughout 
his active business life the father was a 
government gauger. Both he and his wife 
died in Lincolnshire, England. In their 
family were seven sons and four daughters, 
of whom three sons came to America, two 
being residents of York county, Nebraska, 
the other a printer in Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania. 

As soon as he had attained a sufficient 
age, Arthur M. Robson entered the public 
schools of England, where he pursued his 
studies until fourteen, when he accepted a 
position as clerk in a railroad office, being 



thus employed for sixteen years. He was 
married in that country, in 1859, to Miss 
Sarah Bell, a native of England, and a 
daughter of Robert and Amy Bell, residents 
of Peterboro, where the father engaged in 
contracting and building. The following 
children have been born of this union: 
Frank P., Horace, Annie, Charles S., 
Arthur, Rhoda M., Fannie S., Alfred E., 
all living, and two who died in infancy. 

In 1870 Mr. Robson emigrated to Amer- 
ica, and first located at Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, where he found employment on the 
Union Pacific bridge, which was then being 
constructed across the Missouri river at that 
point. In 187 1 he came to York county, 
Nebraska, and filed a homestead claim, but 
did not bring his family here until 1873. 
Their first home, which was a rude dugout, 
has been replaced by a good frame resi- 
dence, and all of the improvements upon 
the farm stand as monuments to the indus- 
try, enterprise and perseverance of the 
owner, who has labored untiringly in trans- 
forming the wild land into a highly cultivated 
tract. When he secured the land from the 
government his nearest neighbor was five 
miles away, and almost the entire county 
was still in its primitive condition. He has 
never regretted coming to the new world, 
for here he has gained a comfortable home 
and competence for himself and family, and 
is now the owner of a half section of land, 
on which he is extensively engaged in stock 
raising as well as farming. In politics he is 
independent, and has been called upon to 
serve his fellow citizens as school director, 
and as town clerk for six years. In the 
Church of England he and his family hold 
membership. 



HENRY H. WELLER, is widely known 
as one of the leading merchants of 
Staplehurst, Nebraska. He has won his 
present position by the display of qualities 



562 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



that are seldom found combined in one 
tradesman, but when they are, they give 
command of the situation. He began very 
modestly in commerce, and by strict atten- 
tion to business, the careful study of the 
wants of his patrons, and catering to their 
comfort, has been remarkably successful for 
so young a man. 

Mr. Weller is of southern birth, and 
was born in the city of New Orleans 
February 14, 1862. His parents were 
George and Catherine (Meyer) Weller. His 
father was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, 
and his mother in Hanover. They were both 
brought to this country when very young, 
and their parents settled in New Orleans. 
She came over the ocean in 1836, and her 
advent preceded his by eight years. They 
became acquainted in the southern city, and 
were married there about the year 1857. 
For many years their home continued there, 
and it was not until 1883 that they were 
seen in Seward county. The husband and 
father died in 1890, but the wife and mother 
is still living and has attained a very 
venerable age. They were the parents of 
two sons, both of whom are residents of 
this county. 

The gentleman whose name introduces 
this article is indebted to the scholastic in- 
stitutions of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for his 
more advanced education. On the com- 
pletion of his school days he came directly 
to this county. He entered mercantile 
pursuits, and became the manager of the 
large store of Herman Diers. He continued 
with him for three years, and went into 
business for himself in 1884. He opened a 
general store, which has quickly become an 
important center of trade and fashion for a 
wide circle. He holds his trade and com- 
mands an increasing patronage. He was 
married to Lissete Scheumann in 1886. She 
is an estimable lady and has many friends. 
She has presented her husband with six chil- 
dren, all of whom are living. Their names are 



Lissete, Henry W. , Clara M., George H., 
Fred C. , and Louisa S. Mr. and Mrs. 
Weller are members of the German Luth- 
eran church. He is a Republican, but has 
never sought an office. His home, his 
church, and his business are a world large 
enough for him, and beyond them his 
thoughts have never cared to stay. 



HI RAM Y. DIEMER, a public-spirited 
and enterprising farmer and stock- 
raiser of Butler county, stands among the 
foremost men of his calling. He has de- 
voted his life to agricultural pursuits almost 
exclusively, and is the proprietor of as good 
a farm as can be found in Olive township, 
his home being located there in section 10, 
where he settled in January, 1874. He 
was born in Northampton county, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 25, 1833. His father, 
Michael Diemer, was born in the same 
county and state and was a carpenter and 
shoemaker by trade, and his wife, our sub- 
ject's mother, Susan (Rasley) Diemer, was 
also a native of Pennsylvania. Both the 
father and mother were of German ances- 
tors. They moved to Stephenson county, 
Illinois, in 1847, and settled on a farm near 
Freeport. 

Our subject was married in Stephenson 
county, Illinois, January 13, 1859, to Miss 
Hester Clingman, daughter of Abner Cling- 
man, of Stephenson county, Illinois, and a 
sister of Judge Clingman, of Butler county. 
Their children were born in Stephenson 
county. The oldest, Arthur B., is now a 
resident of Butler county, Nebraska. He 
married Miss Rosa McKellips, daughter of 
Darwin, a sketch of whom will appear on 
another page of this volume, and one son, 
Arthur Wayne, has been born to them. 
Eda F. Baer, the oldest daughter, is the 
wife of William Baer, of Butler county, 
Nebraska; and Addie L. is the wife of David 
Miller, also a resident of Butler county. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



5G3 



Mr. Diemer is a Republican in political 
views and has used his influence and elect- 
ive franchises in the support of the candi- 
dates of that party since its organization, 
and although he has never taken a very 
active part in political affairs, he is always 
ready to lend a helping hand in all matters 
which tend to the upbuilding or strengthen- 
ing of good government. He and his wife 
are both charter members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and are zealous, devoted 
workers of that denomination. Mr. Diemer 
is also endowed with activity, persistence, 
and a good capacity for well-directed labor, 
which have placed him in the forefront 
among the farmers of his vicinity, and his 
labors have been rewarded by the acquisi- 
tion of a fine farm of one hundred and si.xty 
acres, well stocked and equipped with all 
modern conveniences, and his is one of the 
pleasant and attractive homes of the county. 

Arthur B. Diemer, our subject's oldest 
son, although he is still a young man, oc- 
cupies a place of considerable prominence 
in Butler county. At the early age of 
eighteen years he fitted himself for the pro- 
fession of a school-teacher, and, with the 
exception of one year spent in a drug store 
in David City, he has since been continu- 
ously engaged in teaching. He is at pres- 
ent also performing the duties of town clerk 
of Olive township. 



PETER NELSON.— The story of the 
wonderful physical resources of Amer- 
ica and of the opportunities offered to hon- 
est toil and industry to gain a footing in 
business and society, have attracted here 
many natives of kingdom of Sweden. And 
it affords us great pleasure to devote a few 
brief paragraphs to the record of the life of 
one of those sturdy poineers, who have 
been instrumental in the building of an em- 
pire. Mr. Nelson is one of the represent- 
ative agriculturists of Polk county, where, 



on section 19, of township 14, range 2, he 
has a fine farm of 160 acres. He was born 
January 25, 1846, in Sweden, and is a son 
of Nels Hanson, who was a farmer by oc- 
cupation and died in Sweden. 

Mr. Nelson passed his boyhood days, and 
grew to manhood, in his native land. He 
received the advantages of a good education, 
and followed the occupation of a farmer. 
He emigrated to the United States in 1868, 
and landed at New York city, from whence 
he proceeded to Moline, Illinois. He re- 
mained therefor a while engaging in various 
kinds of work. He next located in Warren 
county, of the same state, and secured work 
on a farm, where he remained four years. 
At the end of that time he rented a farm in 
the same county, on which he resided for a 
number of years. In 1882 he came to 
Osceola, where he has since resided, having 
purchased the farm which he now owns be- 
fore he settled permanently in the county. 
It was all raw and unbroken prairie when he 
took possession of it in 1883, but by dili- 
gent and unremitting toil he has succeeded 
in bringing the same to a high state of culti- 
vation. The farm consists of 160 acres of 
land, one hundred acres of which are under 
cultivation. He has put in all the present 
improvements, and in 1886, he built an ad- 
dition to his barn, and in 1897 he replaced 
the frame house which he first erected on his 
land by a modern and commodious dwell- 
ing. 

Mr. Nelson was joined in the holy bonds 
of matrimony in 1871 to Matilda Mary 
Danielson, a native of Sweden, born there 
June 25, 1854. There have been eleven 
children born to bless this union, of whom 
we have the following record; Albert, Ellen, 
Cecil, Annie, Amanda, Hilma, Gustave, Os- 
car, Esther, Myrtle. The family are mem- 
bers in good standing of the Swedish Lu- 
theran church at Swede Home. Mr. Nelson 
was one of the trustees of the above church, 
and is the present treasurer of the Polk 



564 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



county Fair association, which position he 
has been holding for the last five years. In 
political matters he uses his elective fran- 
chise in support of the candidates of the 
Populist party, and is a regular attendant 
at all the conventions of that party of which 
he is one of the charter members. He was 
a member of the school board of district 
No. 6i. Before he came to America he 
served in the Swedish army. Mr. Nelson 
has, by thrift and economy, succeeded in 
amassing enough to enable him to pass the 
remainder of his days in idleness. He is a 
very pleasant neighbor, congenial com- 
panion, and has an agreeable family, and 
resides in one of the most hospitable homes 
in the township. He is well known and 
highly respected for his uprightness of 
character, and strict integrity. 



FREDERICK C. HARTMAN was born 
in Prussia, December 15, 1845. His 
parents, Frederick and Caroline (Oeting) 
Hartman, came to the United States in the 
same year, and in 1852 they came to Iowa. 
There they remained until 1868, when the 
family removed to Seward county. The 
father died in 1897. They were the parents 
of three children, all boys, two of whom are 
residing in Seward county at this time. 
The mother died in Iowa in 1862. Mr. 
Hartman was reared and educated in In- 
diana and Iowa, and began farming in 
the latter state, and followed that call- 
ing there until 1865, when he came to 
Nebraska, but did not locate here at that 
time, but two years later, in 1867, he came 
to Seward county, and took up a homestead. 
He erected a dug-out and lived in that for 
some time, and then built a log house, and 
then began breaking out a farm. He owned 
this farm until 1878, when he disposed of it 
and removed to Gates county, Nebraska, 
and took up land in that county, remaining 
there until 1895, when he disposed of that 



farm and again returned to Seward county, 
buying a quarter section, on which farm he 
has since made his home. In 1863, when 
the war clouds were floating so heavily 
over our land, he enlisted in Company B, 
Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteers, but did 
not take part in any active service. 

Mr. Hartman was married in Seward 
county, in 1870, to Miss Dora Hornburg, 
who was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, 
and came to the United States in 1868, and 
they are the parents of seven children, six 
boys and one girl, as follows: James F., 
Alexander W. , Walter W., Harry H., Arthur 
J., Roy G., and Beatrice F., all of whom are 
living. In his political views, Mr. Hart- 
man is a stanch Republican, but has never 
sought nor filled any office. When Mr. 
Hartman first settled on Lincoln creek, it 
was a wild and unsettled region, there being 
but two other settlers there beside him, they 
living above and below him, and he can 
remember very distinctly when the Indians 
were around there, and had considerable 
trouble with them, as they used to steal 
every thing that was loose. He has been 
very successful and has a nice home, and a 
farm under a high state of cultivation. 



OSCAR SWANSON is a successful farmer 
of York county, Nebraska, and has his 
home near Bradshaw. He belongs to that 
coterie of Swedish American agriculturists, 
who have done so much to make this county 
blossom like a garden, and the history of 
the county could not be fairly written with- 
out his name. 

Mr. Swanson was born in Buffalo, New 
York, November 27, 1852, into which city 
his parents had come from Sweden a little 
more than a year before. The father did 
not keep his family long in New York, mak- 
ing the first stopping place of his westward 
journey in St. Charles, Illinois, and then 
not satisfied with his surroundings came to 



COMPENDIUM or BIOGRAPHT. 



565 



Jefferson county, Iowa. He afterward re- 
moved to Henry county, that state, where 
he bought eighty acres of land and went to 
farming. The young Oscar did not begrudge 
giving his time and labor to his father until 
he was twenty-one. The family were on the 
farm, and it had to be paid for, and the 
children labored gladly for the sake of the 
home it promised for the father and mother. 
He was married to Miss Charlotte Burke, 
February ii, 1874, in Swedsburg, Iowa. 
He bought a forty-acre tract near that town, 
and farmed it in that community for three 
or four years. But the opportunity was too 
small, and he sold out his little establish- 
ment and, putting his belongings into a cov- 
ered wagon, started for York county, Ne- 
braska, an overland journey of some four 
hundred miles. He made his first appear- 
ance in this county in the fall of 1878, and 
rented a farm which he operated for several 
years. In four years he saved money 
enough to pay for a farm of 160 acres, 
which under his faithful care has become a 
valuable place. Here his family remained 
for several years when his wife died, leaving 
him alone. December 12, 1889, he re- 
married. Miss Emma Norquist becoming 
his wife. She is a daughter of John P. Nor- 
quist, and is the mother of three children, 
Ephraim Eugene, Lilly Otilia and Violet 
Elnora. 

Mr. and Mrs. Swanson have a happy 
home and are well situated. They have a 
fine farm, which is well tilled and is thor- 
oughly improved. The various farm build- 
ings are commodious and kept in a clean 
and healthy condition. The farm abounds 
in orchard trees, including all best varieties, 
and an abundance of small fruits. He is 
only forty-six years of age and his wife is 
thirteen years younger. They are still in 
the morning of life, and command the 
hearty respect of all good people who know 
them. They believe in the church and the 
school and are members of the Lutheran 



order, and, following the tenets of the 
church, are not associated with any secret 
order. He is a wide-awake and interested 
member of the Republican organization of 
his township and has never voted any other 
ticket. He is actively engaged in its vari- 
ous organizations, and feels it still has a 
work to do for the good of the country. 



HN. LOGAN, who is now living on 
section 34, Stewart township, is 
recognized as one of the most intelligent 
and skillful farmers of York county. In 
connection with the raising of grain he gives 
considerable attention to stock, and is pur- 
suing the even tenor of his way as an honest 
man and good citizen, furthering the good 
of the community as he has opportunity 
and enjoying the respect of his neighbors. 
His early home was in Whiteside county, 
Illinois, where he was born October 24, 
1845. 

John Smith and Elizabeth (Warren) 
Logan, our subject's parents, were both 
natives of New York state. His paternal 
grandfather, Robert Logan, was a native 
of county Monaghan, Ireland, and on com- 
ing to the United States in 1809, took up 
his residence in Steuben county. New York. 
His maternal grandfather, Russell Warren, 
was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 
and belonged to an old and distinguished 
family of that state, of which General 
Warren, who was killed at the battle of 
Bunker Hill, was also a representative. 
In 1836 the parents of our subject emigrated 
to Whiteside county, Illinois, upon govern- 
ment land, just after the Indians -left that 
region, and there the father improved a 
good farm, upon which he made his home 
for forty years. He then moved to the 
village of Prophetstown, Illinois. His 
death occurred in 1887 while visiting in 
York county, Nebraska, and his remains 
were interred in the United Brethern 



566 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



cemetery here. His wife had died in 1863 
and was buried in the Sharon cemetery, 
Whiteside county, IlHnois. In 1844 they 
reunited with the Presbyterian church and 
died in that faith, honored and respected by 
all who knew them. They reared a family 
of eight children, four of whom are still liv- 
ing: H. N., George E., Addis G. and 
Robert E. Of these our subject and his 
brother George were soldiers of the Civil 
war. 

In the county of his nativity, H. N. 
Logan was reared in much the usual man- 
ner of farmer boys. On the 3d of March, 
he enlisted in Company B, Thirty-fourth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and after join- 
ing his company at Dixon, Illinois, went into 
camp at Springfield. He then proceeded 
to New York city by way of Rochester, 
Buffalo and Albany, was then sent to Beau- 
fort and Goldsboro, N. C, where he joined 
the regiment, where thej' were engaged in 
skirmishing, and was in Raleigh at the time 
of Johnston's surrender. They then went 
to Richmond, Virginia, Fortress Monroe 
and Washington, District of Columbia, and 
after participating in the grand review, 
went to Louisville, Kentucky, where they 
were mustered out. At Chicago, Mr. Logan 
was paid off and returned home July 18, 
1865. 

In 1 87 1 he came to York county, Ne- 
braska, and took up a claim, consisting of 
the southwest quarter of section 34, Stewart 
township. While breaking the wild land he 
engaged in teaching school during the 
winter months. The year of his arrival 
he raised some garden vegetables and 
planted about eight acres in sod corn, but 
the winter set in early and the deer ate 
every ear of his crop. In 1872 he raised a 
good crop of wheat, oats and corn. For 
six years his home was a sod house, and it 
was then replaced by his present comfortable 
and commodious residence. Of his two 
hundred and forty acre farm he has placed 



one hundred and fifty acres under plow, and 
has many improvements on the place which 
add to its value and attractive appearance. 

On the 29th of April, 1874, Mr. Logan 
was united in marriage with Miss Annie M. 
Runyan, a native of Armstrong county, 
Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Samuel and 
Sarah (Robinson) Runyan, who came to 
York county in 1870 and located on the 
northwest quarter of section 24, Waco 
township. There the father improved a 
farm, on which he and his wife died. Their 
children were Almira Allie, deceased, 
Thomas, a resident of Waco, Nebraska; 
Mrs. Almeda Olmstead; Mrs. Jennie 
Parsons; Samuel R. ; James B. ; Mrs. Annie 
M. Logan, and John W. Mr. and Mrs. 
Logan have eight children: Bertha M., 
Dora, Hannah, Nelson G. , John A., Samuel 
R., Almira A. and Herman E. 

In his social relations Mr. Logan is a 
member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen at Gresham, and Gresham Post, 
G. A. R. , while in politics he is identified 
with the Republican party. For ten years 
he has been assessor in his precinct, super- 
visor of Stewart township three terms, a 
member of the school board twenty-five 
years, and moderator of school district No. 
35 at the present time. 



JOHN FOLEY is a not unworthy repre- 
sentative of the Irish race in America. 
He is a wealthy farmer in Bradshaw town- 
ship, York county, and has his children 
close about him. He is somewhat ad- 
vanced in years, has traveled over exten- 
sive regions, and declares he has not seen as 
fine a farming country as York county 
affords anywhere from Ireland to Illinois. 

John Foley was born in county Kil- 
kenny, Ireland, in 1836. His father was 
Patrick Foley, who left Ireland in 1849 for 
this country. He landed in New Orleans 
and went straight to St. Louis, where he 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



567 



remained for about a year. His next stop- 
ping place was Peoria, Illinois, which was a 
small town at the time. He lived here 
about twelve years, when he died, and his 
remains now rest in the city cemetery. The 
mother of the subject of this writing died 
before the family left Ireland, and the son, 
as soon as he was able to shift for himself, 
went to work for the surrounding farmers, 
receiving at first fifteen dollars. He 
worked for five years for this rate and 
saved almost all his money. When he 
was a little older, he met Miss Donnevan, 
and made her his wife in 18157. He was 
in DeWitt county, Illinois, at that time, but 
after his marriage returned to Peoria, where 
he lived until 1861. The war broke out, 
and he was among the first to respond to 
the call for soldiers. He enlisted in Com- 
pany E, Forty-seventh Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, under the command of Captain 
Thomas Lynch. The regiment was in the 
battles of Spanish Fort, and Blakeley, 
where he was wounded. He served through- 
out the war, and was discharged January 
21, 1866. He returned to Peoria, and 
made his home in that city until 1873, 
when the removed to this county. He filed 
a soldier's homestead claim on a fourth of 
section 20, township 11, range 4 west, and 
has added to it by purchase enough to con- 
stitute a farm of two hundred and eighty 
acres. His dwelling-house has cost him 
over fifteen hundred dollars, and his barn is 
worth four hundred. He has improved his 
farm with apple and cherry orchards, and is 
very pleasantly situated in his later life. 
He has done a good work for the county. 
He is not yet an old man, and is in splendid 
health. He is retired from active farm 
work, and is living in the village of Brad- 
shaw with his family. He has been twice 
married, and had, by his first wife, three 
boys and two girls, who are now in busi- 
ness for themselves with their own homes. 
Their names are Michael, James, Martin, 



Lizzie Nevils, Mollie Fusy, and Hattie Lay- 
ton. By his second wife he had two chil- 
dren, John and Agnes. She was a widow, 
and had one child before her marriage with 
Mr. Foley, Addie Piper. He has settled his 
children around him, having given to each 
of them a piece of land, and all are doing 
well. 

Mr. Foley has been a life-long Catholic 
and believes in the old apostolic way of 
worshiping God. He is a free silver 
Democrat, and, as he says, proposes to stand 
by that principle until the government re- 
turns to fundamental principles of justice 
and right. 



DARWIN McKELLIPS.— This gentle- 
man is the fortunate owner of one of 
the fine estates of Olive township, Butler 
county, where he settled in April, 1871. 
He was born in Erie count}'. New York, 
May 14, 1824, a son of Samuel McKellips. 
The father, who was of Irish descent, moved 
to Erie county. New York, from Bradford, 
Vermont. Of his family our subject is the 
fifth child in the order of birth, and the 
second son. The oldest brother, Dennis, 
died in Illinois, where the family was living 
at that time. One sister, Elizabeth Hecker, 
is now living in Adair county, Missouri, and 
another, Rosana Betts, is living in Umatilla, 
Oregon. 

The subject of our sketch lived in Erie 
county. New York, until he was seventeen 
years of age, and then moved with his par- 
ents to Adams county, Illinois, where the 
parents located on a farm. Here our sub- 
ject spent the remaining years of his boy- 
hood, and November 3, 1850, was united 
in marriage to Miss Martha Wittekiend, 
daughter of Thomas Wittekiend, a farmer 
of Adams county, Illinois. Their first child, 
a daughter, died in infancy, and of the rest 
we have the following record: Samuel T., 
born in Adams county, Illinois, now resides 



568 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



in Butler county, Nebraska; James, was 
born in Hancock county, Illinois; Helen, 
wife of Oscar Fox, of Butler county; Carrie, 
wife of Stuart Lichliter, of Butler county, 
Nebraska; Millard F., now living in Lincoln 
county, Nebraska; Emery C. , of Butler 
county, Nebraska; Phylander D., Butler 
county, Nebraska; Rosa E. , wife of Arthur 
Diemer, of Butler county, Nebraska; Sadie 
and Jerusha, the latter of whom was born 
in Butler county, Nebraska; 

Our subject and Mrs. McKellips are still 
living on the farm on which they first 
settled in Nebraska and their large family 
are among the business and social leaders of 
the county. He is a very pleasant neigh- 
bor, genial, warm-hearted, and lives in one 
of the most hospitable homes of the town- 
ship. He has labored hard on his farm to 
make it one of the best stock and grain 
farms in the county, and has provided it 
with commodious and cozy home, and out- 
buildings that are convenient and substan- 
tial in their construction. It has been the 
great aim of his life to launch his children 
out upon the sea of life well equipped, and 
it is gratifying to see each one well estab- 
lished in business and recognized as useful 
and respected members of society. 



ANTHONY PROHASKA, whose por- 
trait is presented with this sketch, has 
for twenty years been a well-known farmer 
of York county and an important factor in 
its public life. He belongs to that class of 
representative citizens, who in the face of 
difficulties and obstacles have the deter- 
mination and will to work their way up- 
ward and gain that success which is de- 
sired of all. Industrious, energetic, pro- 
gressive and honorable, he has won a de- 
sirable property, and gained the confidence 
and good will of all with whom he has been 
brought in contact. 

Mr. Prohaska was born near Vienna, 



Austria, May 7, 1848, a son of Adam and 
Elizabeth (Straka) Prohaska. The father 
was a Bohemian, and the place of his birth 
was in Austria, his natal day being Decem- 
ber 25, 181 5. He not only spoke his own 
language, but was also well educated in the 
German tongue, and after coming to Ameri- 
ca gained a fair knowledge of English. 
When our subject was ten years of age the 
father emigrated to the United States with 
his family. He had engaged passage in a 
steamer, but when he presented himself at 
Bremen he found that the vessel had al- 
ready sailed so he made the trip on a sail- 
ing vessel. The voyage consumed fifty- 
four days, and the family were somewhat 
impatient, for they had expected to com- 
plete the trip in a very few days, but when 
they learned that the steamer on which 
they had expected to embark had never 
reached port, they felt very thankful that 
Providence had interfered to save them 
from a watery grave. After five days spent 
in New York they proceeded to Johnson 
county, Iowa, where the father secured a 
farm. In addition to its cultivation he car- 
ried on carpentering, having learned that 
trade in his native land, and in Johnson 
county he made his home until within three 
years of his death, which occurred in his 
eighty-first year. He was a faithful Chris- 
tian and a life-long member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church. 

At the age of fifteen Anthony Prohaska 
left his father's home and started out in life 
for himself. On the 12th of May, 1863, he 
left Iowa City to drive cattle across the 
plains to Denver. For nearly two years he 
remained in Colorado, leaving Fort Collins 
in February, 1865, for Montana, by way 
of Salt Lake City. He worked on a ranch 
in Montana for some time, becoming ac- 
quainted with the irrigation methods of that 
district and also with many of the hardships 
of western frontier life. He next visited Salt 
Lake City and Fort Benton and then went 




ANTHONY PROHASKA. 



co^[p.EXDIU^f or niocRAriir 



571 



to Helena, then returned to Fort Ben- 
ton, where, with a part}', he started down 
the Missouri river in a flatboat, for which 
they had to pay live hundred dollars in cash. 
On reaching the end of their journey Mr. 
Prohaska began to learn the tinner's trade, 
but not liking that work, he secured a posi- 
tion as a farm hand, being thus employed 
until his marriage. 

At the age of twenty-two he married 
Miss Matilda Ahlbrecht, daughter of Henry 
and Louisa Ahlbrecht, who, in 1835, left 
their home in Hanover, Germany, and by 
way of Wheeling, West Virginia, made their ' 
way to Iowa City, Iowa. The young couple 
began their domestic life upon a rented 
farm in Johnson county, Iowa, where they 
remained until 1878, when they came to i 
York county, Nebraska. Mr. Prohaska 
here purchased eighty acres of land and 
afterward bought another eighty-acre tract, ; 
so that he is now the owner of the north- [ 
east quarter of section 13, Brown township. 
Here he has a highly cultivated farm, and 
has planted an excellent orchard of apples, \ 
plums and cherries, which will soon be in 
splendid bearing condition. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Prohaska have been 
born nine children, all yet living: Ada E. , | 
who was married, October 20, 1S97, to 
John Waldron, a farmer residing near her 
father's home; Charlotta M., who was 
married December 5, 1S94, to Perry Dodd, '. 
a farmer living a mile west of the home- 
stead; P'lorence L., Cora B. , Grace L. , 
Henrietta M., Bessie R. , Robert A. and 
Anna A., all at home. The family is one 
of prominence in the community and the 
circle of their friends is very extensive. 

Mr. Prohaska has four times been 
elected to the county board of supervisors, 
serving six years. In 1S93 he was chair- 
man of the finance committee, and in 1894 j 
was elected chairman of the board. Upon 
the expiration of his last term of service the 

board presented him with a gold watch and i 
33 



chain in token of their high regard for him. 
Even his political enemies admit without 
hesitation that he discharged the duties of 
the office with marked abilit}- and fidelity 
and to the entire satisfaction of all con- 
cerned. He has always been rather inde- 
pendent in his political affiliations, but be- 
lieves strongly in the free and unlimited 
coinage of silver and is willing to vote with 
any party that will restore silver to its old 
place in the finances of the country. He 
and his wife, together with two of their 
children, are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and Mr. Prohaska belongs 
to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
He has not been disappointed in his hope 
of securing a good home in Nebraska. He 
has developed a quarter section of its rich 
land into a valuable farm and has found 
that Naturejs willing to reward earnest 
effort and indefatigable labor. He ranks 
high among the leading agriculturists of 
York county, is greatly esteemed for his 
genuine worth and is well deserving of 
mention in this volume. He also served as 
director of school district 27 for thirteen 
years and still had two years to serve when 
he resigned. 



ANDREW STEWARD MUIR.— This 
gentleman is well known throughout 
the vicinity of Goehner as one of Seward 
county's old settlers and well-to-do farmers. 
He has a three hundred and twenty acre 
farm, all of which is improved and tillable 
and furnished with such home comforts 
as make life enjoyable. 

Mr. Muir was born August 14, 1849, in 
Bartholomew county, Indiana, a son of 
James and Mary Muir, and his maternal 
grandparents bore the names of John and 
Mary Moffit. Our subject's father came 
from Scotland to America at the age of 
twenty-one years, first settled in New Jer- 
sey, where he was united in marriage to 



572 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



Miss Mary Moffit, and soon after his mar- 
riage, he moved to Bartholomew county, 
Indiana, where the subject of our sketch 
was born. Here he spent the remaining 
years of his Hfe, and died at the age of 
sixty-five years. Andrew lived with his 
parents and helped them about the farm un- 
til he reached the age of twenty-one years, 
and then spent three years with his mother 
after his father's death. At the age of 
twenty-four he was united in marriage to 
Miss Amanda Garrison, and within a week 
thereafter he moved to Nebraska and set- 
tled on a tract of railroad land, the south 
half, south-east quarter of section 27, 
township K, Seward county, and is still 
making that his home. By his first marriage, 
our subject has one son, James, who is 
now twenty-four years of age, and is mak- 
ing his home in Minnesota. 

Two years after their marriage, Mrs. 
Muir died, leaving her husband and infant 
son. About a year later our subject remar- 
ried, his second wife being Miss Maggie 
Gibson, a daughter of James and Elizabeth 
Gibson, of Muskingum county, Ohio. This 
lady was visiting her sister. Mrs. Jennie 
Shuck, in Seward county, when she met 
Mr. Muir, and they were married September 
24, 1876. Our subject then returned with 
his wile to his homestead, and they have 
since made that their home. To this con- 
genial union have been born two children, 
upon whom they have seen fit to bestow the 
following names: Lizzie M. and Addison 
L. Miss Lizzie was married October 11, 
1896, to Mr. Howard Knurr, son of John 
Knurr, and they are living on a farm six 
miles west of our subject's home. They 
have one child whom, they have named 
elide. Addison is now seventeen years of 
age, and is still living on the old home 
place with his father. 

Mr. Muir's farm, which comprises three 
hundred and twenty acres of good farming 
land, although a raw, unbroken stretch of 



prairie when he first settled upon it, is now 
well improved, being furnished with build- 
ings, shade and fruit trees, and such things 
as make home pleasant and attractive. 
Politically, our subject has been a life-long 
Republican and his first presidental ballot 
was cast for Abraham Lincoln. Religiously, 
both he and his wife were reared in the 
Presbyterian faith, but are not now mem- 
bers of any denomination. They are both, 
however, in sympathy with the cause of the 
church and appreciate its value to civiliza- 
tion and the cause of education, and con- 
tribute to its support as their circumstances 
will allow. 



FRANK H. FENTON is one of the enter- 
prising, progressive citizens of York 
county, who has chosen agriculture as his 
life work, and is now successfully engaged 
in the operation of the old homestead on 
section 34, Stewart township, where his 
family located on coming to this state. His 
father, Dator Fenton, was born in Chau- 
tauqua county. New York, April 16, 1834, 
and was a son of Stanley Fenton, who also 
claimed New York as his birthplace. Dur- 
ing early life the former removed to Illinois, 
and there married Miss Amanda Warren, 
a native of Steuben county. New York, and 
a daughter of Russell Warren, of the Em- 
pire state. They began their domestic life 
upon a farm in Whiteside county, Illinois, 
and were residing there when the war of 
the Rebellion broke out. In August, 1861, 
Mr. Fenton enlisted as a private in Com- 
pany C, Seventy-fifth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and the following winter was taken 
sick. He was transferred, July i, 1863, to 
Company H, Fifteenth Reserved Corps, 
and was engaged in guarding rebel prisoners 
atdifferent points until honorably discharged, 
July 15, 1865. 

Returning to his home in Whiteside 
county, Illinois, Mr. Fenton continued to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



573 



reside there until 1871, when he came to 
York county, Nebrastca, and secured the 
homestead now occupied by his son, the 
subject of this sketch. He built one of the 
first two-story sod houses in this locality, 
and into it moved his family the following 
year. The year of his arrival he broke 
some prairie, and in 1872 raised a crop 
upon forty acres, but he was not long per- 
mitted to enjoy his new home, for death 
claimed him in 1874. His wife survived 
him many years, dying in December, 1896. 
Both were earnest and faithful members of 
the United Brethren church, and he took 
quite an active part in its work. In their 
family were four children, who are still liv- 
ing: Frank, Harriet, Lizzie, wife of George 
Goodwin, by whom she has five children — 
Lloyd, Clara, Ira, Ivy Rose and George — • 
and Fred, who completes the family. 

Since his father's death Frank Fenton 
has had charge of the home farm, and has 
met with a well deserved success in its man- 
agement. The place consists of one hun- 
dred and si.xty acres, of which one hundred 
and twenty acres are now under excellent 
cultivation, the result of his persistent effort 
and untiring industry. He is interested in 
stock raising as well as general farming, and 
thoroughly understands both branches of 
his business. He is one of the leading 
members of the United Brethren church, in 
which he has served as a class leader. He 
has held the office of school director in dis- 
trict No. 35, and is at present road over- 
seer of his township, the duties of which he 
is most satisfactorily discharging. 



GEORGE HAHN.— Mr. Hahn belongs 
to the sturdy farmer-folk who have gone 
through fire and flood to redeem the state 
from the wilderness, and make it the garden 
spot of the west. He possesses a fine farm 
of over four hundred acres in Linwood 
township, section 30, where he established 



himself under the homestead law in 1871, 
and where he still makes his home. 

George Hahn was born in Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, in 1842. His parents, 
George and Elizabeth Hahn, were of 
German nativity, but their home had been 
in America since 1828, and they married in 
St. Louis, from which point they had gone 
east to Chambersburg. Previous to his 
marriage the senior Hahn had been em- 
ployed in a store, at Natchez, Mississippi. 
He led an adventurous career, and is still 
living in Louisa county, Iowa, where he re- 
moved his family and made his home in 
1850. The subject of this writing was still 
a mere lad at the outbreak of the Civil war, 
but he did not long delay his response to 
the nation's call for aid, enlisting in Sep- 
tember, 1 86 1, and was enrolled in Company 
K, Eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. 
The following spring he was wounded in his 
first fight, and sent to the hospital. He 
returned to duty the day before the evacua- 
tion of Corinth, and was on picket when 
the retreat of the Confederate army was 
discovered. Mr. Hahn participated in many 
of the most important engagements of the 
war. He was at luka, Mississippi, charged 
on Vicksburg, and fought at Raymond, 
Brandon, and at Memphis. He was at 
New Orleans, and assisted in the capture of 
the Spanish Fort. The declaration of peace 
found him at Montgomery, Alabama, but 
he continued in the army for nearly a year 
thereafter, as an agent of the Freedmen's 
Bureau, at Tuskego, in that state. Mr. 
Hahn was sent north and mustered out of 
the government service at Davenport, Iowa, 
May 9, 1866. 

The war-worn veteran betook himself to 
his paternal home in Louisa county, where 
he remained for a year, when he was mar- 
ried in February, 1867, to Miss Sarah Eliza- 
beth Krahl, a native of Pennsylvania, and 
a daughter of Peter and Susan Krahl. 
There they remained until 1871, when, at- 



574 



COMPENDUrM OF BIOGRAPI/r. 



tracted by the glowing reports of the possi- 
bilities of Nebraska, Mr. and Mrs. Hahn 
with all their effects came into this state. 
They reached Butler county in September 
of that year, bringing with them three 
horses and si.\ cows, and immediately pro- 
ceeded to the erection of the first frame 
house in that part of the country. It was 
but a modest structure, 14x24 feet, but it 
was regarded as a palace in that day. It 
is still standing, and is part of the present 
residence of the family. To show the fer- 
tility of the soil, it might be mentioned that 
there are trees on his farm which are now 
twenty-four inches in diameter, that were 
then set out as slips. His original home- 
stead entry of one hundred and sixty acres 
has been added to until he now own four 
hundred acres, a highly cultivated and re- 
markably fertile farm. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hahn have here a very 
pleasant home, with handsome buildings, 
and are greatly respected in every relation 
of life. They are the parents of an inter- 
esting family of seven children, of whom 
three, Harley S., Susan and Mary, were 
born in Iowa. The other four, William F. , 
Alta, Lewis and George, Jr. , are natives of 
this county. He takes an active part in all 
local affairs, and is a stanch Republican. 
He has served as a commissioner of the 
county, and was a candidate for the state 
legislature, but without election. The re- 
action was too strong to stem, though he 
made a gallant fight against odds. He be- 
longs to the Ancient Order of the United 
Workmen, and Lincoln post. No. 10, G. A. 
R. He is recognized as one of the leading 
farmers of this region, and is well known 
throughout the county. 



JAMES B. CARLISLE is one of the 
leading and representative citizens of 
York county who devote their energies to 
agricultural pursuits and are meeting with 



excellent success in their chosen calling. 
He is a native of Indiana, born in Noble 
county, in 1S57, and is a son of George W. 
and Rebecca (Richards) Carlisle, who were 
married in Ohio, November 24, 1846. The 
father's only brother went to Kansas at an 
early day and was one of the Indian trad- 
ers of that territory long before the state 
was admitted to the Union. He is now a 
resident of Toronto, Woodson county, Kan- 
sas. 

During the Mexcian war, George W. 
Carlisle manifested his patriotism by en- 
listing in one of the Ohio Volunteer regi- 
ments. When a young man he was often 
employed in driving cattle and hogs to east- 
ern markets, traveling on the great national 
pike which passed through Ohio and West 
Virginia, to Baltimore, Maryland. He was 
one of the poineers of Noble county, Indi- 
ana, and from a heavily timbered tract he 
developed a good farm, in the meantime 
living principally on wild game and corn 
bread. In 1S65 he removed to Marshall 
county, the same state, and again settled in 
the midst of the forest, where the same pro- 
cess was gone through with an ax and mat- 
tock hoe before planting the cereals was a 
possibility. He died upon that farm in 1881, 
at the age of sixty-one years, his wife in 
1897, at the age of seventy-three. They 
were the parents of nine children, seven 
sons and two daughters, who in order of 
birth are as follows: John A., Mary J., 
Thomas R. , Galucia, M., James B., and 
Jahugh B., twins, George W., Rescadela 
P. and Hiram V. Our subject is the fifth 
child. 

On leaving his father's home James B. 
Carlisle went to Toulon, Illinois, where he 
lived for four years, during which time he 
became acquainted with Miss Laura B. 
Jackson, and they were married. Her 
father, John Jackson, was a native of Ohio, 
and a pioneer of Illinois, where he married 
Miss Ann Mahany, on the 14th of October, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAmr. 



575 



1857. The nationality of their ancestors is 
unknown, but it is supposed that the 
Mahanys were originally from Ireland. For 
many generations both families have been 
tillers of the soil. Mr. Jackson had two 
brothers, Jacob and William, who were 
members of an Illinois regiment during the 
Civil war, were honorably discharged and 
are now worth}' of pensions from the United 
States government. Mrs. Carlisle is second 
in order of birth in a family of five children, 
the others being as follows: Lydia Ellen, 
William A., Ursula A. and John M. She 
was born in 1S61, and by her marriage has 
become the mother of seven children, 
namely: William S., Watt, Cora, Flora 
J., Fred, Walter and Roy, twins. 

On the 1st of March, 1885, Mr. Carlisle 
and wife left their farm near Toulon, Illi- 
nois, and made their way across the "Big 
Muddy" at Plattsmouth, to York county, 
Nebraska, and settled upon the southwest 
quarter of section i, township 11, range 4 
west, where he at once commenced break- 
ing prairie and planting trees. He now has 
one of the finest orchards in the county, 
containing si.\ hundred apple trees of the 
best modern grafts, which in the shape of 
luscious fruit is beginning to yield a return 
for the care and labor bestowed upon it. 
He also has a peach orchard of two hundred 
trees, and cherries and plums in abundance, 
having raised during the year 1897 about 
forty bushels of plums alone. 

In his social relations, Mr. Carlisle is 
identified with the Ancieni Order of United 
Workmen, and both he and his wife belong 
to the Degree of Honor. For the past 
decade they have been faithful members of 
the United Brethren church, and are alive 
to the best interests of humanity and of the 
neighborhood in which they reside. Mr. 
Carlisle is a representative of a family of 
Jeffersonian Democrats, but of late years he 
has cast his ballot with the People's party, 
which at present is the dominant party in 



Nebraska. Among his cherished possessions 
is an old gun with which his father used to 
hunt in Indiana during pioneer days. 



DANIEL AXLINE, one of the leading 
farmers of precinct N, Seward county, 
Nebraska, was born on the 22nd of June, 
1856, in Putnam county, Illinois, and is a 
son of Aaron and Ann (Street) Axline, and 
a grandson of Jacob and Tracy Street. At 
an early day his father located in Putnam 
county, Illinois, and from there removed to 
Marshall county, that state, where he pur- 
chased four eighty-acre tracts of land and 
engaged in farming until within three years 
of his death, which occurred in the autumn 
of 1884, when in his seventy-fourth year. 
In his family were seven children, namely: 
JohnW., Kate, Theodore, Clara A., Mary 
E., Clarence A. and Daniel, all of whom are 
married and have homes of their own. 

The boyhood and youth of Daniel Ax- 
line were passed on his father's farm, where 
he remained until his marriage, on the 22d 
of February, 1877, Miss Mary Evangeline 
Horner becoming his wife. She was born 
in La Salle county, Illinois, and they had 
been acquainted for about si.x years. Her 
father, James Horner, was a native of the 
north of Ireland, and when a lad of eight 
years was brought to the new world by his 
parents, John and Jane (Spears) Horner, 
who settled in Illinois about twenty-four 
miles north of Chicago, which at that time 
was only a small village on a wet prairie. 
There James Horner grew to manhood and 
married Miss Almira Angeline Day, who 
was born near Rome, Oneida county, New 
York. He was one of a family of nine chil- 
dren, si.x sons and three daughters, in order 
of their birth being as follows: Mary, James, 
William, David, John, Amos, Loftus, Eliza 
and Laura Jane. Mr. and Mrs. Horner re- 
moved to La Salle county, Illinois, where 
Mrs. A.vline was born, June 10, 1853, and 



576 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



attended the common schools, completing 
her education, however, in the high school 
of the city of Wenona, Illinois. She is the 
third in order of birth in a family of eight 
children, the others being as follows: Jo- 
sephine, Thomas, IdaF., Delbert J., Grant 
W., Eddie D. and Ira S. With the ex- 
ception of Grant W., who makes his home 
with Mr. and Mrs. Axline, all are married 
and have good homes of their own. 

For nine years after his marriage Mr. 
Axline engaged in agricultural pursuits upon 
one of his father's farms in Illinois, and 
then loading his effects into cars started for 
Seward county, Nebraska. Here, they lo- 
cated on a farm on section 25, precinct N, 
belonging to Mrs. Axline's father, and to 
its cultivation and improvement he has de- 
voted his energies with marked success. 
Five children have come to brighten the 
home, namely: James H., Ida L., Laura 
I., Ernest R. and Oral D., who are still un- 
der the parental roof and are able assistants 
of their parents in the work of the house 
and fields. Mr. and Mrs. Axline take an 
active interest in every enterprise calculated 
to advance the moral, educational and ma- 
terial welfare of the community, and are 
recognized as valued and useful citizens of 
sterling worth and strict integrity. 



JACOB L. HINER, the proprietor of a 
neat and well kept farm on section 20, 
West Blue township, York county, is one 
of the men in whose coming to the state all 
good people of Nebraska might well rejoice. 
He has devoted his life to agriculture, and 
his career should teach the boys to stand by 
the farm. When he came to the state he 
had a span of old horses, and five dollars in 
money. Three of these dollars went to pay 
the cost of preemption and the other two 
bought eight bushels of corn. And from 
this exceedingly unpromising condition he 
has won a modest fortune. 



Mr. Hiner was born in Ripley county, 
Indiana, January 31, 1845, and was a son 
of George and Margaret (Funkhouser) 
Hiner. His father was a native of Indiana, 
but his mother came from Pennsylvania. 
They moved to Appanoose county, Iowa, 
in 1849, and settled on prairie land. She 
died there, but he lived until 1887, when he 
died in Nebraska. 

Jacob Hiner was born and bred a farmer. 
He attained his majority on the Iowa farm, 
and began a career for himself by working 
out among the neighboring farmers. He 
wedded Miss Susan Ford in 1870. She was 
a native of Vermillion county, Indiana, 
where she was born October 2, 1849. Her 
parents were Jacob and Catherine (Jordan) 
Ford, and her father was a native of Ohio, 
and her mother of Kentucky. He brought 
the family to Iowa in 1853, and died in 
August, 1897, at Exeter, Nebraska. Her 
mother is still living, and is tenderly cher- 
ished by her children and grandchildren. 
In 1872 Mr. and Mrs. Hiner came into Ne- 
braska, and settled where they are now to 
be found. There beginnings were humble, 
and such as fitted in with the simple life of 
the community. For seven years they lived 
in a sod house, and in 1880 moved into their 
present comfortable and pleasing residence. 
In 1872 Mr. Hiner raised some sod corn, 
and the next year quite a crop of wheat. 
He rented a quarter section and raised corn 
on it. In 1874 he raised a large crop of 
wheat, and had the best intentions regard- 
ing corn, but the grasshoppers anticipated 
his purpose in that direction, and cleaned 
out the corn fields thoroughly. He now 
owns two hundred and forty acres, of which 
one hundred and eighty is under thorough 
cultivation. He carries on general farming, 
and is interested in Durham cattle and 
Poland-China hogs. Mr. and Mrs. Hiner 
have seven children now living. Mary 
Styer is the oldest daughter, is married, 
lives in Thurston county, and is the mother 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



577 



of two children, Elsie and Willard. John 
W., the oldest son, is unmarried. Minerva 
Lafferty has her home in York county, and 
is the mother of one daughter, Zelma. The 
other younger children are Clerinda, Nevada, 
Amy and Vertie. One child, Florence, died 
in early life. He and his wife are members 
of the Christian church, of which he has 
been an official and a devoted member for 
many years. He advocates free silver, and 
belongs to the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows at E.xeter. He has been road 
supervisor, and is a member of the school 
board of district No. 7. He is regarded as 
an honorable man, and is respected through- 
out the country. 



EDMUND SHREFFLER owns and 
operates a fine farm of one hundred 
and si.xty acres in Stanton precinct, Fillmore 
county, it being the northwest quarter of 
section 4, which he has transformed from a 
wild, unbroken, tract of prairie land into 
rich and fertile fields under excellent culti- 
vation. He is numbered among the self- 
made men of the county, having come here 
empty-handed, and his accumulations are 
the result of his own industry, enterprise 
and good management. He came to the 
county in the fall of 1870, and since that 
time this has been his field of operations 
and the center of his interests and hopes. 

Mr. Shreffler was born in Hicksburg, 
Perry county, Pennsylvania, July 23, 1824, 
a son of William and Mary Shreffler, who 
died in Illinois, the former in 1852, at the 
age of fifty-two years, the latter in 1875, ^t 
the age of seventy-five, and both were 
buried in Hinkle cemetery. Our subject re- 
ceived a limited common-school education, 
the greater part of his boyhood and youth 
being spent in making shingles and rails. 
At the age of twelve he removed with his 
parents to Juniata county, Pennsylvania, 
and on the 7th of June, 1846, the family 



started for Peoria, Illinois, where they ar- 
rived on the 23d"of that month. There 
our subject and his father worked in a cooper 
shop. 

On the 17th of January, 1850, Mr. 
Shreffler was united in marriage with 
Mary E. Gish, who was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, July 17, 1834, a daughter of Isaiah 
and Sarah (Mattox) Saylor, she being the 
oldest in their family of thirteen children. 
Both parents have been dead many )'ears. 
To our subject and his wife were born twelve 
children, but six died in infancy. The 
others are William, who is unmarried and 
lives in Colorado; Raphael K., who is mar- 
ried and lives in Fillmore county; Wesley, 
who is married and lives in Cheyenne, Wy- 
oming; Lydia, wife of F. Deal, the present 
superintendent of the poor farm of Fillmore 
county; Sarah, a resident of Oklahoma, 
and Minnie, a resident of Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. A grandson and granddaughter 
now live with our subject. 

After his marriage Mr. Shreffler contin- 
ued to work at his trade as a cooper until 
February 23, 1865, when he enlisted in 
Company B, Seventh Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, under Captain Cosgrove, and with 
his company proceeded at once to the front, 
by rail and foot, going from Peoria to 
Springfield, and on to Lafayette, Indiana; 
Toledo, Summerville and Cleveland, Ohio; 
Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany and 
New York City; then to Morehead City, 
Newbury, Goldsboro, Raleigh and Alex- 
andria, and from there back to Cincinnati, 
Parkersburg, and Louisville, Kentucky. 
From Louisville the regiment proceeded to 
Evansville, Ind., then to Camp Butler, In- 
dianapolis, from which place they were or- 
dered back to Washington, District of Co- 
lumbia, to participate in the grand review. 
Returning to Louisville, they were dis- 
charged July 9, 1865, and at Camp Butler 
were mustered out. 

After the war Mr. Shreffler continued to 



578 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



make his home in Peoriac ounty, Illinois, un- 
til September 22, 1869, when he decided to 
try his fortune in Nebraska, and, by wagon, 
he and his family, then numbering nine per- 
sons, came to this state, landing in Saline 
county, November i. The following spring, 
however, he came to Fillmore county, and 
secured a homestead on the northwest 
quarter of section 4, Stanton precinct. In 
the fall the family located on his claim, 
making their home for three years in a dug- 
out. A sod house was then constructed, 
and in that they lived comfortably for the 
following three years, it being replaced at 
the end of that time by a good frame resi- 
dence. In his efforts to make for himself 
and his family a home, Mr. Shreffler had to 
contend with years of drought and grass- 
hoppers, besides other trials and difficulties 
incident to pioneer life, but at length pros- 
perity seemed to smile upon his efforts, and 
he now has a comfortable home and com- 
petence. Although seventy-five years of 
age, he is still hale and hearty and able to 
manage his fdrm, doing much of the work 
himself. Socially he is a member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and religious- 
1}' has been a faithful member of the Mis- 
sionary Baptist church for some years. He 
is not identified with any political party, 
but by his ballot endeavors to support the 
best man for the office. 



HENRY H. BRABHAM, deceased, was 
for a quarter of a century one of the 
prominent and representative farmers of 
York county. In his life span of almost 
si.xty years he accomplished much and left 
behind him an honorable record well worthy 
of perpetuation. He was a man of the 
highest respectability, and those who were 
most intimately associated with him speak in 
unqualified terms of his sterling integrit}', 
his honor in business and his fidelity to all 
the duties of public and private life. He 



was faithful to his church, to his country 
and to his friends, and in his home was a 
most exemplary husband and father. His 
death, which occurred January 21, 1897, 
occasioned the deepest regret throughout 
the community, and York county thereby 
lost one of its most valued citizens. His 
portrait appears on another page of this 
volume. 

Mr. Brabham was born in Morgan 
county, Ohio, March 14, 1838, a son of 
John and Elizabeth (Powers) Brabham, 
who had removed to that state from Penn- 
sylvania at an early day and there spent 
their remaining years. Our subject was 
reared and educated in Washington county, 
Ohio, and there followed farming and also 
worked some at the cooper's trade in early 
life. On the 28th of September, 1861, he 
manifested his patriotism by enlisting in 
Company H, Seventy-seventh Ohio Volun- 
teer Infantrj-, and was in the service for 
three years and three months, participating 
in the battle of Shiloh and many other en- 
gagements of less importance. While doing 
duty as a train guard in Arkansas, he was 
shot in the leg. He was honorably dis- 
charged December 22, 1864, with the rank 
of second sergeant. 

At the close of the war Mr. Brabham 
went to Moultrie count) , Illinois, where he 
made his home for seven 3ears, coming to 
York count}', Nebraska, in the fall of 1872, 
and taking up a homestead on section 32, 
Arborville township, on which he located 
the following spring. His first home here 
was a dugout, later he lived in a sod house 
for one year, and then erected a good frame 
house, in which the family still reside. He 
broke and improved his land, and at his 
death left a good farm of three hundred 
and twent}' acres, under a high state of cul- 
tivation and supplied with good and sub- 
stantial buildings. 

On July 30, 1863, Mr. Brabham wedded 
Miss Margaret J. Fisher, a daughter of John 




HENRY H. BRABHAM, Deceased. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



581 



and Margaret (Short) Fisher, natives of Il- 
linois. Four children blessed this union, 
namely: Edward F. ; John H. ; George 
W., deceased; Elizabeth J. Mr. Brabham 
was an earnest Christian gentleman, and as 
a local preacher in the Methodist Episco- 
pal church he exercised a great influence 
for good in his community. His political 
support was always given the Republican 
part}-, but he never cared for the honor or 
emoluments of public office. Mrs. Brab- 
ham is an estimable lady, of many sterling 
qualities, and has a large circle of friends 
in York county. 



ALPHA DIVAN a prominent representa- 
ti\e of the agricultural interests of 
Seward county and also one of its honored 
pioneers, was born in Green county, Wis- 
consin, on the 15th of December, 1854. 
His father, Walter Divan, was born in 
Ohio, February 22, 1820, was educated in 
the public schools of his native state, and 
learned the carpenter's trade in connection 
with farming. At the age of twenty he re- 
moved to Wisconsin with his parents and 
there met and married Miss Mary Hack- 
worth. Seven children were born of this 
union, but only four are now living, two 
sons and two daughters, namely: Sarah, 
now the wife of G. W. Donley, a jeweler, 
of Seward, Nebraska; Ella, wife of Joseph 
Stall, of Milford, Nebraska, Charley, a resi- 
dent of Chicago, Illinois; and Alpha, our 
subject. The parents are now living re- 
tired in Seward, the father at the age of 
si.\ty-nine years, the mother at the age of 
seventy-one. It was in 1874 that they em- 
igrated from Wisconsin to Nebraska, arriv- 
ing in Seward county, July 2, and the father 
purchased a tract of land from the Burling- 
ton & Missouri River Railroad, at $8 per 
acres. To the cultivation and improve- 
ment of his place he devoted his energies 
with marked success until 1881, when he 



removed to Seward and has since rented the 
farmto different parties until si.\ years ago, 
when our subject took charge of the same. 
On the arrival of the family in this region 
the town of Seward had been started, but 
the homesteaders were living in dugouts and 
sod houses, while engaged in breaking their 
land, and the first home of the Divans was 
a log house. In the quarter of a century 
they have resided here, however, they have 
witnessed many changes; the deer no longer 
roam over the prairies and the rude homes 
of the pioneers have been replaced by sub- 
stantial frame residences, and the wild land 
has been converted into rich and produc- 
tive farms. 

Alpha Divan is indebted to the common 
schools of Wisconsin for his educational 
privileges, and early in life he also obtained 
an excellent knowledge of every depart- 
ment of agriculture. He was twenty years 
of age at the time of the removal of the 
family to this state, and four years later he 
purchased eighty acres of land at eight 
dollars per acre and began life for himself. 
In 1890 he bought a forty acre-tract for 
thirty dollars per acre, and is now the owner 
of an excellent farm, which he has placed 
under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved with good buildings. Politically, he 
is now a Populist, but c ast his first vote for 
U. S. Grant, the Republican presidential 
nominee. His father is a supporter of the 
Republican party. 

At the age of twenty-four years Mr. 
Divan was united in marriage with Miss 
Mary C. Neihardt, by whom he has six 
children; May, Walter, Grace, Bonnie, 
Fay and Roy, who are being well educated 
in the schools of Seward county. Mrs. 
Divan's father, Isaac Neihardt, was a na- 
tive of Ohio, and in early life married Miss 
Catherine Rogers, by whom he had three 
children, two daughters, Emma, a resident 
of Seward, and Mary C, and one son, who 
died at the age of three years. The par- 



582 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ents are now conducting a hotel in Seward, 
and the father is sixty-three years of age, 
the mother fifty-nine, and both enjoy good 
health. During his early manhood he 
lived in Arkansas and while there was 
nominated for congress and only lacked one 
vote of being elected. He is an ardent Re- 
publican in politics; and since coming to Ne- 
braska has served as sheriff of Seward 
county for two terms with credit to himself 
and to the entire satisfaction of his con- 
stituents. He entered the service of his 
country during the Civil war as a private 
soldier, and for meritorious conduct on field 
of battle was promoted to the rank of cap- 
tain. 



EDWARD D. RUSSELL, a worthy rep- 
resentative of the agricultural interests 
of York county, has made his home on sec- 
tion 2, Hays township, since August, 1872, 
and is therefore numbered among its honor- 
ed pioneers as well as highly esteemed 
citizens. He was born in Jefferson county, 
Iowa, April 3, 1850, a son of Daniel and Har- 
riet (Eggleson) Russell, natives of Michigan, 
who removed to Jefferson county, Iowa, at 
an early day, locating near Glasgow. There 
the father followed his trade of wagon-mak- 
ing until coming to Nebraska. The family 
took up their residence here August 20, 
1872, the father filing a homestead claim to 
eighty acres, on which our subject now lives. 
There he died in 1875, and his wife passed 
away in 1887. During the first summer 
here they lived in a dugout, but the follow- 
ing fall a large sod house, eighteen by 
twenty-two feet, was erected, in which the 
family lived for several years. 

Reared in the country of his nativity, 
Edward D. Russell had the advantages of a 
good common-school education. He ac- 
companied his parents on their removal to 
this state, and still occupies the old home- 
stead. On their arrival there were many 



Indians in this region, but were not trouble- 
some, only by their persistent begging. 
While the family endured many hardships 
incident to life on the frontier, they still 
had many enjoyable times, as all the settlers 
were very neighborly, shucking bees and 
dancing being quite common, though they 
usually danced on dirt floors, as the major- 
ity were of that kind. The nearest market 
was at Beaver Crossing, a distance of twenty 
miles, and our subject has often carried a 
sack or two of flour or meal from the mill 
at that place. In 1886 he erected a good 
frame house upon the farm, and in the fall 
of 1897 remodeled it, making a most com- 
fortable and attractive home. The farm 
now comprises one hundred and sixty acres 
of land under a high state of cultivation. 

In I 878, Mr. Russell led to the marriage 
altar Miss Mary Hutchinson, a native of 
Iowa, and a daughter of Jonathan and Abbie 
(Ableton) Hutchinson, who were also 
pioneers of York county, homesteading land 
in Hays township in 1871. To our subject 
and his wife were born three children: 
Archie and Frank, and one that is dead. 
Mr. Russell's first wife died in 1883. He 
was again married in 1886 to Bell Dulavy, 
a native of Jefferson county, Iowa. They 
both belong to the M. E. church at Mc- 
Cool, and Mr. Russell belongs to the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen at that place. 



ANDREW J. NEWMAN is the present 
clerk of the district court of York 
county, and one of the most popular and 
able public officials in that part of the state. 
Mr. Newman was born in Harrison county, 
Indiana, January 25, 1852, and is a son of 
John S. and Amanda (Wright) Newman, 
natives respectively of Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania, and of German descent. John 
Newman was a merchant and later a river 
pilot. He died in 1868, at Mauckport, In- 
diana. Amanda Newman died in Mauck- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



583 



port five years later, leaving five children, 
of whom our subject was the fourth in point 
of birth. The latter was educated in his 
native county, and when a young man took 
up the insurance business at Mauckport, 
Indiana, where he also became a justice of 
the peace. He held this office four years, 
meanwhile accepting all manner of insur- 
ance risks in Indiana and Kentucky, and 
in 1876 removed to southern Kansas, where 
he remained about a year. In the fall of 
1877 he settled in York, Nebraska, and 
traveled for a mercantile house two years, 
and then went into the farm machinery 
trade with Mr. J. H. Hamilton, the firm 
name being Newman & Hamilton. This 
partnership continued until 1883, when Mr. 
Newman was appointed clerk of the district 
court. The same fall he was elected to 
this office, and has since been returned to 
the same position no less than four times, 
a most gratifying testimonial to his popu- 
larity and excellent administration of affairs. 
Mr. Newman has also served as a justice of 
the peace and as deputy sheriff, and is 
politically a Republican. 

On the 6th of September, 1875, Mr. 
Newman married Miss Newell Gwartney, a 
resident of Harrison county, Indiana, and a 
daughter of Thomas and Mary Gwartney. 
Mr. and Mrs. Newman are the parents of 
four children — Otis M., Mary A., Anna L. , 
and Wright, all of whom are living. 



HOLLY M. MILLS, M. D., who was the 
first resident physician of Polk county, 
is now successfully and extensively engaged 
in the practice of his profession in Osceola. 
He has attained to distinction in the line of 
his profession, is an earnest and discrimi- 
nating student thereof, and holds a position 
of due relative precedence among the med- 
ical practitioners of this section of the state. 
His career has been one of signal usefulness 
and honor, and the success which has 



crowned his efforts is the merited reward of 
resolute purpose, untiring energy and laud- 
able ambition. 

Dr. Mills was born in Wayne county, 
New York, November 13, 1834, a son of 
Dr. Caleb and Betsey (Pearce) Mills, who 
were also natives of the Empire state, the 
father being a well known physician of 
Wayne county, a representative of the 
eclectic school. He served as a surgeon in 
the war of 1812, and his father. Colonel 
Peter Mills, a native of Scotland, who came 
to America in colonial days, fought for the 
independence of the nation in the war of 
the Revolution. About 1842 Dr. Caleb 
Mills removed with his family to Calhoun 
county, Michigan, locating ten miles south 
of Marshall on a farm which was operated 
by the sons, while the father engaged in 
the practice of his chosen profession. He 
died in Calhoun county, July 24, 1867, and 
his wife passed away February 21, 1871. 
They were the parents of eleven children, 
all of whom reached majority, namely: 
Ira, Matilda, Riley, George, Huldah, Caleb 
and Wesley, all now deceased; Holly M. ; 
Alluron; Roland, who was killed in the 
battle of the Wilderness in 1864; and Al- 
zina, deceased. Three sons loyally served 
their country in the war of the Rebellion — 
George, Holly M. and Roland. 

The Doctor was reared to manhood in 
Michigan and became imbued with the true 
western spirit of progress and enterprise. 
He was educated at Hillsdale College, and 
started out in life for himself at the age of 
fifteen years, working as a farm hand 
through the summer months. In the win- 
ter season he continued his education, and 
on the completion of his literary course he 
prepared for the practice of medicine as a 
student in the Cincinnati Eclectic College, 
from which institution he was graduated with 
the class of 1861. In that year the coun- 
try became involved in civil war. Like his 
father and grandfather. Dr. Mills, with pa- 



584 



COMPENDIU.^r OF BIOGRAPHT. 



triotic ardor, offered his services to tlie gov- 
ernment, enlisting as a private in Company 
B, Eleventh Michigan Infantry. Soon, 
however, he was detailed as hospital stew- 
ard for the regiment, was promoted briga- 
dier hospital steward, and later general 
field hospital steward. He served with the 
army of the Cumberland, and in addition 
to his regular duties he often aided at the 
amputating table and in care of the sick. 
He remained at the front for more than 
three years, participated in all the battles 
of his regiment, and at Stone River re- 
ceived a wound in the left side from a spent 
musket ball, the field hospital being then 
between the two lines. At that engage- 
ment he was captured by General Lidell, of 
the First Arkansas brigade, but was recap- 
tured within an hour. 

Returning to Michigan at the close of 
the war, he began the practice of medicine 
in Branch county, where he remained until 
his emigration to Nebraska, in 1870. He 
located and improved a homestead north- 
east of Osceola, and in 1875 took up his 
residence in the town where he has since 
made his home. He was the first resident 
practicing physician of Polk county and still 
stands first in point of ability. He has al- 
ways been a close student of his profession 
and thereby keeps abreast with the advance- 
ment made in the science. Deep humani- 
tarian sympathies and a sincere love of his 
profession prompt him to respond to every 
call from the sick and suffering, whether it 
comes from humble or great, rich or poor, 
and thus he has won the respect and deep 
gratitude of many. 

The Doctor was married, October 2, 
1895, to Mrs. Anna L. Lathrop, ucc Web- 
ster, a native of Lycoming county, Penn- 
sylvania, born October 22, 1861, and a 
daughter of Charle.s S. Webster, a resident 
of Polk county, Nebraska. By her former 
marriage Mrs. Mills had a daughter, Clara 
O. , born July 27, 1885, and the Doctor has 



an adopted son, Hawley H. Mills, who was 
born September 30, 1880, and is still pur- 
suing his education. Dr. and Mrs. Mills 
hold membership in the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, in which he is a very active 
worker. He is also an exemplary repre- 
sentative and charter member of the Ma- 
sonic lodge, of Osceola. His life has been 
one of signal usefulness and honor. Free 
from ostentation, he is kindly in manner, 
genial in disposition and very entertaining 
and companionable when among his close 
friends. His history is that of a man who 
has, step by step, advanced to a high posi- 
tion among the most honored and respected 
citizens of Polk county. 



WILLIAM BEATTY is one of the old 
settlers and representative farmers 
and stock raisers of New York township, 
York county, and has been quite a con- 
spicuous figure in the development and ex- 
tension of the agricultural interests of the 
community in which he has made his home 
for more than a quarter of a century. 

Mr. Beatty was born in Fayette county, 
Pennsylvania, June 6, 1826, a son of George 
and Mary Ann('Mahlon)Beatty,both of whom 
were natives of Ireland. The parents came to 
America in 1820 and settled first in Penn- 
sylvania, but later moved to Illinois and 
made their home in Marshall county. They 
afterward mo\ed to Marshall county, Iowa, 
where the}' both died. The father was a 
farmer and followed that occupation all his 
life. They reared a family of ten sons and 
one daughter, but only three sons are now 
li%'ing. 

William Beatty, the subject of this 
sketch, was educated in Illinois, and began 
working on the farm when quite young. He 
made his home with his parents until 
twent3'-five years of age, and then began life 
for himself. He lived in Iowa until 1872 
and then moved to York county Nebraska, 



COMrEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



585 



took a homestead in New York township 
and is still making his residence on that 
farm. Since living; here he has placed 
upon it all of the improvements which now 
add so much to its appearance and value. 
His first home, however, was a dug-out, 
but after a time, in order keep abreast of 
the advance of civilization, he supplanted 
this humble domicile with a sod house, and 
this likewise finally had to give place to a 
frame house. Although Mr. Beatty has 
claimed his residence in this township since 
his first settlement here, he went to the 
state of Washington in 1889 and spent 
three years there for the improvement of 
his health. 

In 1852 Mr. Beatty was married in Mar- 
shall county, Illinois, to Miss Lovina Brum- 
sey, a native of North Carolina and a 
daughter of John and Susanah Brumsey, 
both natives of North Carolina. The father 
was a ship builder by occupation, but after 
moving with his family to Illinois, in 1833, 
he followed the occupation of farming. 
Our subject and Mrs. Beatty are the parents 
of a family of seven children, five sons and 
two daughters, as follows: Carnie A.; 
Elmira A., now Mrs. L. Allcock; Benjamin, 
Mary F. , Andrew J., Francis C. and Joshua. 
The family are all members of the Seventh 
Day Adventist Church. In political views 
Mr. Beatty is a Republican, and under that 
administration served as the second post- 
master at Thayer. He is one of the sub- 
stantial representative men of New York 
township, having been one of its early set- 
tlers, endured the hardships and privations 
of pioneer life, the devastations of the grass- 
hoppers, but in spite of all he has become 
one of its prosperous citizens, and has done 
much to aid in its growth and development. 



ROBERT LOCKWOOD is one of the 
leading farmers of Butler county, and 
has a fertile and thoroughly cultivated 



farm of three hundred and sixty acres in 
Bone Creek township, which takes in 
the better part of section 35. Like Cesar, 
he could tell the story of the making of 
the county, and say, " all of which I 
saw, and part of which I was." For more 
.than thirty years he has found his home 
in this county, and through all his ex- 
periences has never lost faith in its future. 
He is prominent and influential, and his 
neighbors repose much confidence in his 
good judgment. They elected him as a 
member of the first county board, and would 
have used his services for the public good 
had his own disposition harmonized with 
their desire. Mr. Lockwood is a Democrat, 
and takes his part of the common political 
responsibility, but he neither seeks nor 
desires office. He is content to follow his 
own work, and devote himself to his farm, 
and the honors and rewards of political life 
fall to those who seek the satisfaction 
their acquirement brings. 

Mr. Lockwood was born in Erie county, 
Ohio, in 1828, where his father, Eleazer 
Lockwood, had long been living. This 
gentleman was a native of New York, but 
had accompanied his parents to Canada, 
when only eight years old. He was mar- 
ried in Canada, and very soon after that 
interesting event came back to the United 
States and settled in Erie county, Ohio, 
where young Robert was born, and where 
he spent the years of his boyhood and early 
manhood. There he was married in 1849 
to Miss Melinda Smith. The young couple 
sought a better opportunity in the farther 
west, and made a brief stop in Indiana. 
They pushed farther west, and when Mr. 
Lockwood was twenty-eight years old they 
found a home in Ogle county, Illinois, 
near Byron. It was on the Rock river, 
and was a charming and beautiful location. 

Mr. Lockwood was living on his river 
home when the Civil war broke out, and 
without hesitation responded to the call of 



586 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



his imperilled country. He enlisted in 
Company B, Ninety-second Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, and gallantly served two 
years with the colors. He participated in 
a number of the fiercest battles of the west, 
and passed alive through the horrors of 
Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Franklin, and 
Resaca, Georgia. He was with Sherman 
on that glorious march through Georgia 
down to the sea, and was throughout the 
war a valiant and daring soldier. With the 
dawn of peace Mr. Lockwood came back to 
Ogle county, and promptly resumed peace- 
ful labors. 

The war-worn soldier concluded that 
land along the Rock river was too valuable 
for him to hold at this time, and in 1866 
disposedof it at a good price. He left Illinois 
with a team and wagon and made the jour- 
nej' overland to Butler county bringing with 
him three cows. It was a weary but pleas- 
ant journey for the Lockwood family, and 
by the time Butler county was entered, they 
were ready to settle down upon the first in- 
viting tract that fell under their observation. 
He secured eighty acres under the home- 
stead law, and upon it erected one of the 
very first log dwellings, with a shingle roof, 
ever seen in this region. He hauled lumber 
for it from Plattsmouth and Nebraska City, 
which was unusually high in price. Cotton- 
wood lumber cost eighty dollars per thou- 
and feet, and the best grades of timber com- 
manded almost fabulous prices. The first 
year he planted sod corn and broke up 
much of the farm. The ne.xt year he raised 
and sold six hundred and fifty-one bushels 
of wheat, which brought him from one 
dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents a 
bushel. To sell it to dealers in Columbus he 
had to swim his horses across the Platte 
river, the country was so lacking in roads 
and bridges at that time. 

Coming here in an early day, and before 
the organization of Butler county, Mr. 
Lockwood was present at the first begin- 



ning of the county's history. He served on 
the first election board, and from the first 
has taken an active part in every measure 
for the improvement of the county. Mrs. 
Lockwood died in March, 1892. They had 
five children, three of whom are now living 
Edwin S., Ezra B., and Frances R., now 
Mrs. W. J. Evans. 



JOSEPH RUNNALLS, who occupies a 
fine and well-improved farm on section 
II, McFadden township, York county, is 
numbered among the well-to-do farmers of 
the community, who from a small beginning 
has built up one of the best homesteads in 
the township. He is a self-educated as 
well as a self-made man, but has always 
made the most of his advantages, has avail- 
ed himself of the most approved methods of 
carrying on agriculture and stock-raising, 
and due success has not been denied him. 

Mr. Runnalls was born in Cornwall, Eng- 
land, in November, 1840, a son of William 
and Mary (Thomas) Runnalls, also natives 
of England, where they lived and died, the 
former being a blacksmith by trade. As 
his parents were in limited circumstances, 
our subject was obliged to earn his own live- 
lihood at an early age, and was unable to 
read or write when he left England at the 
age of eighteen years to seek his fortune in 
the new world, where he believed better op- 
portunities were afforded ambitious and in- 
dustrious young men. He first went to 
Canada, locating at Brockville, near Mon- 
treal, and afterward learned the miller's 
trade, which he followed in that country 
and the United States for nineteen years. 
In June, 1873, he settled in Seward county, 
Nebraska, and worked at his trade at Beaver 
Crossing, one of the first mills in that sec- 
tion of the state. Subsequently he worked 
at several other places in Nebraska and 
Kansas, and in the meantime purchased 
one hundred and sixty acres of land on which 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



587 



he now resides, but, not having money to 
improve it, he continued to engage in mill- 
ing until 1875, when he located upon the 
place, to the improvement and cultivation 
of which he devoted his energies during the 
summer months for several years, while dur- 
ing the winter he continued to follow milling. 
He now has a fine farm under a high state 
of cultivation and improved with good build- 
ings. 

In 1866, Mr. Runnalls was married in 
Canada to Miss Elizabeth Pelfrey, a native 
of England, whose parents died in Canada 
when she was quite young. Mr. Runnalls is 
independent in politics, voting for the best 
man at local elections, but at national elec- 
tions generally supports the Democratic 
ticket. 



EMANUEL LINDEBLAD.— Among the 
influential and prominent agriculturists 
of Polk county, who are indebted for their 
present prosperous condition to their own 
industry and energy, and who have raised 
themselves in the world from a state of 
comparative penury to that of ease and com- 
fort, is the gentleman whose name intro- 
duces this article. He is engaged in farm- 
ing, with the attendant stock raising, and is 
meeting with a well deserved success. His 
farm is on section 10, township 14, range 3. 
Mr. Lindeblad was born July 16, 1840, 
in Guttenburg, Sweden, where he grew to 
manhood, acquiring during his youth a fair 
education in his native tongue, and also a 
knowledge of the tailor's trade, at which he 
worked from the age of eleven .years until 
coming to America in 1S61. Landing in 
New York, he remained in that city for si.\ 
months and then went to Buffalo, where he 
worked at his trade for about a year. The 
following three months were spent in Que- 
bec, Canada, and from there he removed to 
Henry, Marshall county, Illinois, where he 
was employed at his trade for two years. 



While living there Mr. Lindeblad was mar- 
ried, in 1 867, to Miss Hannah Jensen, a native 
of Stockholm, Sweden. In 1869 he came to 
Nebraska, and after working at his trade in 
Lincoln for two years, he took up his resi- 
dence in Polk county, upon land where he 
still continues to reside. His first home 
here was a little frame house, the lumber of 
which cost forty dollars per thousand, and 
had to be hauled a distance of forty miles 
with a yoke of cattle. In 1871 he broke 
forty acres of land and raised some sod 
corn; the following year raised sod corn and 
some wheat; in 1873, raised a fair crop; but 
in 1874 the grasshoppers took everything. 
During the heavy snow of April, 1873, he 
was in Lincoln, and his wife being alone on 
the farm had to take the cattle into the bed- 
room and kept them there for three days. 
During their early residence here she would 
attend to the cattle, and haul the water in a 
bucket, and help her husband in other ways 
upon the farm, while he would work by day 
in the fields, and at night would do tailoring 
in order to support the family. Prosperity 
at last crowned their united efforts, and to- 
day they are the owners of an excellent 
farm of three hundred and sixty acres, of 
which all but forty acres have been placed 
under the plow. Their pleasant residence 
was erected in 1880. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lindeblad have an inter- 
esting family of eight children, namely: 
Alice Amelia, Minnie Constantine, Hilding 
Junata, Ellen Hannah, Etra Edwina, Jo- 
seph Ephraim, Arthur Oliver and Esther 
Oleda. They have attended both English 
and Swedish schools, are good scholars in 
both languages, and the family is one of 
social prominence. Parents and children 
hold membership in the Lutheran church at 
Swede Home, with which Mr. Lindeblad 
has been officially connected. He is a mem- 
ber of the Scandinavian Mutual Insurance 
Company, and is an ardent Republican in 
politics. He is one of the honored pioneers. 



588 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



of the county, his nearest neighbors being 
nine miles away when he located upon his 
present farm. With four others he made a 
trip in a wagon, viewing the country between 
Seward and Central City, when not a { 
house was to be seen for fifty or sixty miles. 
Those early days were filled with many 
hardships and privations, water had to be 
hauled a distance of seven miles, but, with 
the aid of his estimable wife, Mr. Lindeblad 
overcame all obstacles in his path to suc- 
cess, and is now one of the well-to-do and 
highly respected citizens of his community. 



HENRY SCHMIDT.— Many of the most 
enterprising and prosperous farmers of 
York county have come from the land be- 
yond the sea, and especially is this true of 
the many who have left their homes in the 
German empire and taken up their residence 
here, knowing that in this country better 
opportunities for advancement were fur- 
nished ambitious and industrious young men. 
Among these quite a prominent figure is the 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch, 
and who makes his home on section 22, Le- 
roy township. 

Mr. Schmidt was born in Prussia, De- 
cember 9, 1834, a son of Gotfreid and Con- 
cortia (Schmidt) Schmidt, also natives of 
that country, where the mother died about 
1838. The father afterward married a Mrs. 
Kernstein, and in June, 1857, the\- emigrated 
to America, with his family, locating on a 
farm in Lewis county. New York, where 
both he and his wife lived until their deaths. 

Our subject was but four years old when 
he lost his mother, and in his native land, 
at the age of fourteen years, he was bound 
out as a shoemaker's apprentice, serving 
four years in that capacity. At the end of 
that period he came to the United States, 
embarking at Liverpool, England, in a sail- 
ing vessel, and after five weeks upon the 
ocean, he landed in New York, July 16. 



1853. Although alone among strangers and 
without money, he was not discouraged, for 
he possessed a great amount of energy and 
a determination to succeed. He had no 
trouble in securing work at his trade; in 
fact, he arrived in the afternoon of one day 
and was working the next morning. He re- 
mained in New York city until January, 

1854, when he went to Watertown, Jeffer- 
son county, the same state, but shortly 
afterward removed to Lowville, Lewis coun- 
ty. New York, where he remained about four 
years working at his trade. In March, 1 857, 
he located in Chicago, but after a short time 
spent in the city he took up his residence at 
Blue Island, Cook count}', Illinois, where 
he worked as a journeyman for several years. 

On the 24th of April, 1862, in Chicago, 
Mr. Schmidt wedded Miss Mary Waniata, 
who was born in Bohemia, Austria, June 
9, 1844. Her parents, Wenzel and Fannie 
(Critofield) Waniata, were also natives of Bo- 
hemia, whence they came to America in 
1853, and settled near Blue Island, Cook 
county, Illinois. Both died in that county. 
By trade the father was a tanner. Mr. and 
Mrs. Schmidt are the parents of eleven 
children; Henry J., who married Ida 
Apply, of Kansas, and now lives in Wash- 
ington county, that state; Albert G., who 
married Ida Kirkendahl and resides in 
Stockville, Frontier county, Nebraska; 
Wenzel J., who married Ida Allen and 
makes his home in Curtis, Nebraska; Tena 
E., wife of Frank Miller, of Valley 
Junction, Iowa; Anna B., who died at the 
age of thirteen years; Fannie R. , wife of 
John Whisler, of Sydney, Nebraska; Lillie 
M. , who lives with her sister in Iowa; 
Charley, who died at the age of six years; 
Minnie, wife of Thomas Hall, of Nuckolls 
county, Nebraska, and Carrie A. and Will- 
iam F., both at home. The first six were 
born in Illinois, and the others in York 
county, Nebaska. 

After his marriage Mr. Schmidt removed 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



589 



to Reading, Livingston county, Illinois, 
where he conducted a shoe shop until com- 
ing to Nebraska in the fall of 1872, and after 
pre-emting eighty acres of land in Leroy 
township, York county, he returned to Illi- 
nois for his family, who arrived on the i8th 
of February, 1873. The land was all raw 
prairie, on which he erected a board shanty 
12x20 feet and 6 feet in height, and in this 
the family lived until the frost was out of 
the ground and a more commodious dwell- 
ing could be constructed from sod. A sod 
stable and granary were also built. Mr. 
Schmidt's live stock at this time consisted of 
fourteen chickens, five pigs and a faithful 
dog, which he brought with him from Illi- 
nois. By hard work, economy and good 
management, he has accumulated a com- 
petence, and now has a fine farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres under excellent cul- 
tivation and improved with a good residence 
and substantial outbuildings. 

Mr. Schmidt has been closely indentified 
with the best interests of his township, is 
public spirited and enterprising, and for 
many years has acceptably served as town- 
ship clerk, and also on the school board. 
His political support is always given the 
Republican party, and in his social relations 
he is a Mason, belonging to the blue lodge 
in York. He and his wife are also connect- 
ed with the Presbyterian church of that 
city, were among its first members, and have 
always taken an active and prominent part 
in all church work, giving their influence to 
all objects for the betterment of their fellow 
men. 



ISAIAH W. WATT, a leading agriculturist 
of Baker township, has his residence on 
section 8, and is surrounded with the com- 
forts of modern farm life. Mr. Watt was 
born December 18, 1846, in Perry county, 
Ohio, son of Isaac and Ann (Tracy), Watt, 

both natives of Maryland. Isaac Watt, our 
34 



subject's father, removed to Perry county, 
Ohio, with his parents, Joseph and Mary 
(Hitchcock) Watt, when he was but three 
years of age. Joseph Watt was of Welsh 
descent, and was a pioneer of Perry county, 
Ohio, where he was engaged in farming and 
where he died. He served as captain of a 
company in the war of 18 12. Isaac Watt, 
the father of our subject was reared in Perry 
county, Ohio, where he was engaged in 
farming until 1856. At that time he re- 
moved to Tazewell county, Illinois, where 
he died December 24, 1895. His wife 
survives him and still resides in Tazewell 
county. 

Isaiah W. Watt born ten years of age 
when his parents removed to Tazewell 
county, Illinois. He received his education 
in the public schools, and supplemented it 
with a two years' course in the State Nor- 
mal School at Normal, Illinois. He then 
followed teaching several years, and in the 
fall of 1872 removed to Nebraska. He 
spent the first winter in Pawnee county, and 
the following summer in Saunders county. 
In the fall of 1873 he went to York county 
and purchased 160 acres of railroad lands 
in section 9, Baker township. This land 
was all wild and unimproved, and he set 
vigorously to work to put it in a state of 
cultivation. He later homesteaded eighty 
acres in section 8, of the same township, 
and on this tract he now resides. He has 
since purchased an additional eighty-acre 
tract, and now owns three hundred and 
twenty acres of land in value second to none 
in York county. 

Mr. Watt was married July 4th, 1870, to 
Mary Boblett, who was born near Chilicothe, 
Ohio, in Ross county. She is a daughter 
of Noah and Mary (Whipple) Boblett. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Watt six children have been 
born, as follows: N. Perley, Agnes A., I. 
Wesley, John C, Isaiah H. and Ralph M. 
All the children are receiving the best 
educational advantages, Agnes having 



590 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



graduated from the State Normal School at 
Peru in 1896, and the four youngest chil- 
dren are now attending that institution. 

In political faith Mr. Watt is a free-silver 
Republican. He is well-known throughout 
the county, and has served on the county 
board of supervisors, and as township 
assessor for several years. 



JOHN Q. OHLWILER, a public-spirited 
and enterprising member of the farming 
community of Seward county, has devoted 
the greater part of his life to agriculture, 
in the pursuit of which he has been very 
fortunate. He is the owner of one of the 
finest farms in H precinct and enjoys the 
comfort of a happy household and home. 

Mr. Ohiwiler was born November 5, 
1843, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and 
was educated in the common schools of 
that county. At the age of eighteen years, 
he entered the United States Navy under 
Commodore Porter and remained therein 
about one year. He then returned to his 
home in Pennsylvania and enlisted in the 
Si.xth Pennsylvania artillery and served un- 
til July, 1865. He then went to western 
Pennsylvania and worked for two years in 
the oil regions, and from thence migrated 
to Nebraska in the fall of 1867. In the fol- 
lowing July he filed a homestead claim to 
eighty acres in section 8, H precinct, erected 
a small frame shanty in which he lived the 
life of a bachelor during the first few years 
of his stay in Nebraska, or until he got his 
new farm cultivated and improved. 

After attaining the age of twenty-eight 
years, and developing his farm into a fine 
state of cultivation, and furnishing it with 
a cozy and attractive home, he invited 
Miss Margarette Luft to share it with him, 
and she became his wife March 31, 1872. 
To this congenial union have been born three 
children, two of whom, Edith E. and 
Nellie, are now living. 



Mr. Ohlwiler's farm now comprises one 
hundred and sixty acres and the improve- 
ments on it are above the average. He is 
a man of strong character and of good busi- 
ness ability which is the secret of his suc- 
cess in life. Politically he is a Republican, 
casting his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln, 
and socially he affiliates with the Modern 
Woodmen of America. 

Frederick and Maryanna (Kuhl) Ohiwi- 
ler, our subject's parents, were also both 
natives of the state of Pennsylvania, the 
former born in Lancaster and the latter in 
York county. Later they moved to Erie 
county, of the same state, where they spent 
the remaining years of their lives on a farm. 
Mrs. Ohlwiler's parents were born in Ger- 
many. Her father, John Luft, was four- 
teen years of age when he migrated to 
America and located in Ohio. He at once 
began the occupation of farming, and was 
thus engaged in that state for several years. 
While in Ohio, he made the acquaintance 
of Miss Lena Rasp, who afterward became 
his wife, and they subsequently moved to 
Seward county, Nebraska, where the even- 
ing of their life was passed. 



DAVID RUNS, one of the most pros- 
perous, enterprising and extensive 
farmers of York county, was born in Clin- 
ton county, Indiana, November 23, 1850. 
He was a son of Henry and Caroline (Spi- 
dle) Runs, who were born near Dayton, 
Ohio. Henry Runs removed to Indiana 
when he was very young, locating near Del- 
phi, on a farm. They were among the pio- 
neers in that region. They cleared a wood- 
land farm, sold it, moved to Clinton county, 
and still later to Piatt county, Illinois. 
Henry Runs became a prosperous farmer 
in that state, and in 1890 he removed to 
California, in the company of his brother 
David, and spent the remainder of his life 
in well-merited retirement in that state. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



591 



dying in 1892. The two bought Lordsburg 
College for $30,000, which is now owned 
by David Kuns and the heirs of Henry, 
who, inherited an estate of $60,000, the re- 
sult of $1,500 received by Henry Kuns 
when he was a young man. David Kuns 
is still living in California, and is a wealthy 
man, having a property that exceeds $150,- 
000. Mrs. Caroline Kuns died in Illinois 
in 1890. 

David Kuns was early instructed in hard 
work, and when a mere lad assisted in clear- 
ing up the Indiana land, and cultivating the 
Illinois farm. He had a common-school 
education, and was thoroughly grounded in 
the wisdom of farm life. He was indus- 
trious and proved himself a good manager. 
When he reached manhood he was put in 
charge of one of his father's Illinois farms, 
and made a good start in life. In 1877 he 
made a trip to this county, and purchased 
an entire section of railroad land. The 
Blue river crosses it, and the extensive farm 
consists of rich bottom land. He paid for it 
$4, 224 in cash, a transaction that called for 
all his resources. The following spring he 
made his home on it, and it was all raw 
prairie at that time. He built a small house 
of one room, and began breaking. As the 
years went by hard work and good manage- 
ment began to tell, and he now enjoys sat- 
isfaction in looking back upon a phenome- 
nally successful career. He has since 
added to his possessions and now has eight 
hundred acres in a body, making one of 
the finest farms in the county. The season 
of 1898 showed three hundred acres in 
wheat, two hundred and fifty in corn, and 
fifty in other small grains. The balance of 
the farm is devoted to pasture. He deals 
extensively in stock, and in past years has 
made a considerable feature of feeding cat- 
tle. He feeds and ships to eastern markets, 
some years sending out as many as two hun- 
dred head. He is now much interested in 
draft horses. 



Mr. Kuns was married in 1875 to Miss 
Catherine Klinzman, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania. She was brought by her parents to 
Livingston county, Illinois, when but a 
child. Her father and mother, Christian and 
Minnie (Kratz) Klinzman, were natives of 
Germany and came to this country in 1853. 
They now reside on a farm near Des Moines, 
and are both advanced in years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Kuns are the parents of nine children- 
Charley, Harvey, Jesse, John, Edith, Ray- 
mond, Roy, Esther, and Nellie W. Mr. 
Kuns gives his children every possible ad- 
vantage in education, and one son, Charley, 
has already been graduated from the busi- 
ness department of the Lincoln Normal 
School. He is a staunch Republican, and 
a man of the best reputation. He has 
become one of the most extensive real 
estate owners of the county, and has over 
eight hundred acres throughout the west in 
addition to his York county farm. 



JOHN H. ADEN, a well known and prosper- 
ous agriculturist, residing on section 32, 
Reading township, is one of the early set- 
tlers of Butler county. He was born in 
East Friesland, Germany, May 25, 1851, a 
son of Habbe L. and Tnpke Aden, subjects 
of the German empire. 

In. 1866, at the age of fifteen years, John 
H. Aden came to America. He located in 
Adams county, Illinois, but five years later 
determined to try his fortunes further west. 
Accordingly, in 1871, he moved to Ne- 
braska, and after careful examination as to 
the probable resources of the locality, filed 
a homestead claim to a tract of land in sec- 
tion 32, Reading township, where he has 
since made his home. In those pioneer 
days he had but little money, and it was 
difficult to 'get any in that portion of Ne- 
braska. He endured many hardships and 
privations in the early development and cul- 
tivation of his land, but he never wavered 



592 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in his determination, and by hard work, 
close attention to business, and clear judg- 
ment, he overcame all difficulties, and is 
to-day one of the most prosperous and 
prominent farmers in the county, his landed 
interests being large, his entire holdings 
comprising some four hundred and eighty 
acres of the finest lands in Butler county. 
His present residence was built in 1893 at a 
cost of fifteen hundred dollars, and the 
many improvements and conveniences with 
which he has enhanced his lands are the 
best evidence of thrift, enterprise, and good 
judgment that have made him prosperous. 

Our subject was married in 1881 to 
Ella Wiesemann, daughter of John Wiese- 
mann. They are the parents of seven 
children — four boys and three girls— viz: 
John, Jr., Frederic, Habbe, Dewey, Mary, 
Topke, and Paulina. 

In political sentiment Mr. Aden is a 
free-silver Democrat, and takes an active 
interest in the reform movement in politi- 
cal matters and especially in finances. He 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, of which he is one of strongest 
pillars of support in his community. 



MARTIN KULLMAN, a well-known 
farmer residing on section 21, I pre- 
cinct, Seward county, has made for himself 
a home leagues and leagues from his birth- 
place in the Fatherland. Like hundreds of 
that class to whose efforts Nebraska owes so 
much for its development and prosperity, 
the subject of this history came to this sec- 
tion of the country armed only with his 
strong hands and willing heart, and the 
elements of character which descended to 
him from a line of honorable ancestry, con- 
spicuous chiefly for its industry and thrift. 

Mr. Kullman was born in Germany, Feb- 
ruary 8, 1839, a son of Martin Luther and 
Mary (Paulsh) Kullman, who spent their 
entire lives in that country, the father dying 



there at the age of seventy-nine years, the 
mother at the age of seventy-eight years. 
Our subject was the older son in a family 
of four children, two sons and two daugh- 
ters. At the age of six years he entered 
the common schools of his native land and 
there pursued his studies until fifteen. He 
was twenty at the time he entered, for three 
years, the German army, and after his dis- 
charge engaged in farming until he was 
twenty-seven, when he was drafted and 
served for six months in the war with 
Austria, where he saw terrible fighting and 
the butchery of humanity. 

In 1869, at the age of thirty years, Mr. 
Kullman led to the marriage altar Miss 
Anna Shuppan, who was born in Germany, 
December 23, 1834, and was also educated 
in the public schools of that country be- 
tween the ages of six and fourteen years. 
She was one of the four children born to 
Martin and Anna (Kreuger) Shuppan, both 
of whom died and were buried in Germany. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Kullman were born nine 
children, but only four are now living and 
make their home in Seward county, Ne- 
braska. Mary is the wife of Charles Kala; 
Anna is the wife of Ernst Juda; and Willie 
and Otto are at home. 

After his marriage Mr. Kullman con- 
tinued to engage in agricultural pursuits un- 
til 1 87 1, when he was again ordered out to 
fight for his country in the Franco-Prussian 
war, remaining in the service this time for 
six months. On his return to his family he 
renewed his farming operations, but in 
1873 he and his family emigrated to America, 
leaving Bremen, and landing in New York 
on the 8th of May, after a voyage of four- 
teen days. He immediately proceeded to 
Lincoln, Nebraska, where he spent three 
years, and for five years he operated on a 
farm in Lancaster county, this state, for 
grain rent. At the end of that time he pur- 
chased his present farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres of railroad land in I precinct, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



593 



Seward county, for six dollars and fifty 
cents per acre, and has since given his time 
and attention to its improvement and culti- 
vation with good success, making for him- 
self and family a very nice and comfortable 
home. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Kullman were con- 
firmed in the Lutheran church at the age of 
fourteen years and still adhere to that faith. 
He cast his first presidential ballot for James 
A. Garfield, but at the present time is a sup- 
porter of the Democracy. 



PETER WIENS, M. D., a prominent 
young physician of Bradshaw, York 
county, comes from distant Russia, and the 
fact that he has won so honorable a stand- 
ing, and is so influential a man in a strange 
country, shows a sterling manhood. In- 
deed, push and energy are characteristic of 
the man, and have done much to command 
success. 

Dr. Wiens was born September 3, 1867, 
in Russia, and is a son of Franz Wiens and 
Helena (Friesens) Wiens. They came to 
America when Peter was twelve years old, 
and settled in this county on the northwest 
quarter of section 5, township 10, range 4, 
west. Here he lived with his parents for 
eight years, and when he was twenty he be- 
came the head of a household, with Miss 
Elizabeth Regier as his matrimonial part)ier. 
She is a daughter of the Reverend John J. 
Regier, a preacher of the Mennonite Breth- 
ern church. In about a year from his mar- 
riage he purchased one hundred and twenty 
acres on section 34, in Bradshaw township, 
where he farmed for three years, when he 
decided to study theology. With this in 
view, he attended the German Baptist Theo- 
logical academy, from which he graduated 
in three years. Becoming interested in 
scientific study, he was drawn towards the 
practice of medicine as his life work. He 
read and studied under the direction of a 



Rochester physician, R. A. von Allen. He 
spent a year in the Pulte Medical college, 
and was in the Cincinnati hospitals two 
hours a day. He was graduated from the 
Kansas City Homeopathic college in 1896, 
after an attendance of two years. He had 
the privilege of the city hospital, which 
amounted to actual practice under the criti- 
cal eye of his instructors. He located in 
Jefferson county, where he spent a year in 
practice, but Bradshaw presented more at- 
tractions and he removed to this place, his 
old home, where his practice almost im- 
mediately assumed good proportions, and 
is steadily growing. 

Dr. Wiens and his wife have had six 
children, four of whom are now living. 
Their names are Maria, Peter Walter, 
Helena and Elizabeth. They are all at- 
tending the village public schools. The 
Doctor and his wife are members of the 
Mennonite Brethren, a division of the old 
church. He believes in every man decid- 
ing for himself the great political questions 
of the day, and thinks there is but little 
gained in excessive partisan excitement. 



NATHANIEL A. DEAN.— The world 
instinctively pays deference to the man 
who has risen above his early surroundings, 
overcome the obstacles in his path and 
reached a high position in the business 
world. Mr. Dean, by making the most of 
his opportunities, has met with due success 
in his business undertakings, and is now one 
of the leading real estate dealers of York, 
as well as one of the honored pioneers ot 
York county. 

He is a native of Maryland, born in Alle- 
ghany county, January 29, 1850, and is a 
son of Levi and Rachel (Wright) Dean, na- 
tives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respect- 
ively. From Maryland the father removed 
to Pennsylvania, and later to Ohio, where 
he enlisted, in 1863, in the Twenty-third 



594 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but after one year 
of faithful service on southern battle fields, 
he was honorably discharged for disability. 
For some time he served as veterinary sur- 
geon. After the war he lived for a time in 
Illinois, but in 1867 became one of the pio- 
neer settlers of York county, and was prom- 
inently identified with the early development 
and prosperity of this region. Here he fol- 
lowed farming until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1875. He had a family of twelve 
children, eight sons and four daughters, of 
whom six sons and three daughters are still 
living. The mother died in Pennsylvania, 
in 1897. 

Nathaniel A. Dean received his early 
school training in Pennsylvania, and at the 
age of sixteen entered the State Normal, of 
Iowa, where he completed his literary edu- 
cation. In 1868, he came to Nebraska, and 
after following farming in York county until 
1886, he removed to the city of York, where 
for five years he engaged in merchandising, 
and has since been interested in the real 
estate business. Prosperity has crowned his 
efforts, and he is now one of the substantial 
citizens of that place. 

On the 25th of December, 1871, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Dean and 
Miss Belinda Heller, a resident of York 
county, and a native of Athens county, 
Ohio, and seven children have blessed the 
union, namely; William H., May I., Lula 
A., L. Eleanor, Richard, Annie and Earl. 
Mr. Dean and his family are active and 
prominent members of the United Brethern 
church, and since 1890 he has served as 
manager and treasurer of the United Breth- 
ren college. Socially he belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the 
Home Forum, and politically is identified 
with the Republican party. He is now 
serving his second term as a member of the 
city council of York, and he has always 
faithfully discharged all duties devolving 
upon him either in public or private life. 



LIBERTY CLARK.— Wherever there is 
pioneer work to be done, men of 
energy and ability are required, and success 
or failure depends upon the degree ot those 
qualities that is possessed. In wresting the 
land of Polk county from its native wilder- 
ness; in fitting it for the habitation of men; 
in developing the natural resources of the 
community in which they live, few if any 
have contributed more largely than Mr. 
Clark and the family to which he belongs, 
and it is meet and proper that for the ardu- 
ous and important labor he has performed 
he should receive due reward. He now 
owns and occupies the old homestead on 
section 2, township 13, range i, where the 
family located on first coming to the county. 
His father, James Clark, was a native of 
Gloucestershire, England, born in 1826, 
and when a boy was pressed into the 
British army, remaining in the service until 
nineteen years of age. With the army he 
came to Canada, and then deserted. He 
was married in that country, in 1850, to 
Miss Catharine Lezert, who was born near 
Toronto, in 1830, and in 1851 they came 
to the United Stats, locating in Baraboo, 
Wisconsin, where he worked as a mechanic 
until about i860, when he went to Missouri. 
After working at his trade in that state for 
a time, he crossed the plains to Pike's Peak, 
and during the five years he spent in the 
west, he built the first house in Cheyenne. 
He returned to Wisconsin, but in the spring 
of 1868 again started for the mountains 
with his family, having two wagons, one 
drawn by a yoke of oxen, the other by a 
single horse. They crossed from Iowa into 
Nebraska at Plattsmouth, thence to Ashland, 
where they struck the old freighter's trail, 
but leaving that proceeded to Lincoln, 
which at that time consisted of only a 
combination post office and general store, 
several small shanties and a number of 
tents. From there they went to the pres- 
ent site of Seward, intending to strike the 



COMPENDIUM OF BI0GRAPH2'. 



595 



old steam wagon route, but Mr. Clark 
changed his mind and proceeded up the 
Blue river, with the intention of taking the 
old freighter's trail at the head of that 
stream. 

At the present site of Ulysses he met 
David Reed, an old ranchman and an 
Englishman by birth, who persuaded him to 
stay in this state, and on the tenth day of 
May, 1868, he and his family located upon 
the present farm of our subject in Polk 
county — the first white family to make 
settlement in Polk county. While he went 
to Nebraska City to get his land entered, 
his wife and children lived in a wagon. A 
sod shed was then built, it being open on 
the south side and covered with poles and 
dirt, but it served as their home for six 
months, while a log house was being erected 
covered with split ash poles and dirt. Al- 
though it had no floor and but one window 
and door, it served as their residence for sev- 
eral years. Cutting some timber from the 
place, Mr. Clark hauled it to Ulysses, where 
it was sawed into lumber and used in the 
erection of their first frame residence, which 
still stands near the present home of our 
subject. The father's cash capital on locat- 
ing here amounted to only one hundred 
dollars, and the first season they raised 
nothing, though they broke some land. An 
Indian trail crossed the farm, and as the red 
men still inhabited this region, the boys of 
the family learned the Pawnee language and 
used to help the Indians trap beaver, otter, 
and mink on the Blue river. They also 
hunted buffalo, deer, antelope and wild 
turkeys, the buffaloes being old ones, who 
had been driven from the main herd by the 
younger ones. They annually went on 
buffalo hunts, but each year had to go 
farther and farther from home. They 
would bring nothing but the silken haired 
robes and the hind quarters, and by having 
the Indians do their tanning they saved 
$2.50 on each robe. 



The first years spent in Polk county were 
ones of hardships to the Clark family, the 
first year their food consisting principally of 
hominy made from sod corn. The father 
then left his wife and children on their new 
farm and again spent five years in the 
mountains. The second year they planted 
twenty acres of corn with a single shovel 
cultivator drawn by a single ox. Having 
no harness, they cut rawhide into strips for 
tugs, spliced two old horse collars together 
for their oxen, and made the rest of the 
harness out of wood. One boy led the ox 
while the other held the plow. Among 
other trials was the grasshopper plague. At 
the end of five years the father returned, and 
upon the home farm died February 21, 1875. 
The mother is still living and now makes 
her home in Shelby. He was a member of 
the first Methodist church organized in Polk 
connty. Their children were Emanuel, 
now deceased; Liberty; Mrs. Catharine 
Dunning; George, who was killed by light- 
ning in April, 1882; Mrs. Emma J. Ludden; 
and James. 

Liberty Clark was born May 11, 1855, 
at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and was thir- 
teen years of age when he came to Polk 
county. He attended the first school here, 
which was conducted in a dugout by J. A. 
Giffin, and has been prominently identified 
with the entire growth and development of 
this section of the state. He owns the old 
home farm comprising two hundred acres, 
all now under a high state of cultivation and 
well improved, his present comfortable resi- 
dence having been erected in 1882. 

On the 23d of September, 1882, Mr. 
Clark married Miss Loma Kingsolver, who 
was born in Missouri, August 6, 1863, a 
daughter of Charles and Nancy (Holbrook) 
Kingsolver, also natives of that state, and 
the former of German descent. The father 
was a member of the Missouri Home 
Guards during the Civil war. Since 1881 
he and his wife have made their home in 



596 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Polk county, Nebraska, and they are the 
parents of thirteen children, ten still living. 
Mr. and Mrs. Clark have six children: Ray 
Alpha, Charles Duane, Edwin Earl, Opal 
Myrtle, Ross L. and Verne. The parents 
are both members of the United Brethren 
church, of which Mr. Clark is now serving 
as trustee, and he also belongs to the Mod- 
ern Woodmen Camp at Shelby. In politics 
he is independent, and has acceptably 
served as assessor of Hackberry precinct 
and a member of the school board of dis- 
trict No. I. 



HB. CUMMINS, M. D., whose office 
and home are in Seward, Nebraska, is 
a physician and surgeon of wide repute. In 
a country where there is such scope for the 
play of professional ability, and where are 
to be found so many brainy and progressive 
practitioners, the naming of any one as first 
would be invidious. But it would not be 
unjust to say that Dr. Cummins stands 
among the very first of his profession. He 
is still a young man, but is thoroughly pre- 
pared for great work, and has established 
himself in the good opinion of the com- 
munity. 

Dr. Cummins was born in Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1859, and 
was a son of Martin B and Clara C. (Park- 
inson) Cummins. His father was a farmer 
and engaged in the tilling of the soil in 
Pennsylvania and in West Virginia until 
i860, when he removed to Hardin county, 
Illinois. Four years later he came to Sew- 
ard county, and was thus one of the very 
earliest settlers of this portion of the state. 
He passed through all the pioneer times, 
and made his home here until the day of 
his death, which was in 1895. He was the 
father of five sons and four daughters, and 
three of his sons are living in this county 
to-day, and here his wife still resides. The 
doctor was the fifth child, and had his early 



education in the Seward schools. In 1879 
he began reading medicine in the office of 
Dr. Woodward and Dr. Beachley, and re- 
mained with them five years. During that 
time he attained quite a knowledge of the 
practice and was able to attend minor cases. 
In 1883 he entered the medical department 
of the State University, and was graduated 
in 1885. In 1897 he took a post-graduate 
course in the Chicago Clinical School of 
Physicians and Surgeons, and has an ap- 
proved standing as a scientific and honor- 
able physician, whose aim is to bring the 
very best methods of medical practice to 
the relief of his patients. He filled the 
chair of physiology, histology, and hygiene 
in the Cotner Medical college, at Lincoln, 
for seven years, and brought to his lectures 
much reading and close observation. He 
does a general practice, but gives especial 
attention to diseases of the eye, ear, nose 
and throat, and is considered authority in 
these particular departments. 

Dr. Cummins was married, in 1886, to 
Miss Jennie Ritchie. She was born in 
Illinois, and presides over her household 
with grace and dignity. They have two 
children, bright and charming lads, Her- 
schel B. and Harry A. He is a member of 
the State Eclectic Medical society. He be- 
longs to the national and county associa- 
tions and was president of the state society 
in 1896. He is an Odd Fellow, a Knight 
of Pythias, and a Modern Woodman. He 
attends the Home Forum, and belongs to 
the order of Ben Hur, and in these various 
fraternities he is active and efficient. He is 
a Populist, and takes a decided interest in 
the administration of the party. He has 
been a member of the State Central com- 
mittee, and has broad and enlightened 
views as to the future of his party. He has 
been a member of the board of education of 
the city of Seward, and has exerted a strong 
infinence for the improvement of the schools, 
and a general educational uplift through- 




H. B. CUMMINS, M. D. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



599 



out the county. The Doctor was appointed 
a member of the state board of health in 
1898 and is now serving as such. His por- 
trait is presented on another page. 



N 



ORMAN B. WILL, a successful and 
genial pioneer settler of Arborville 
township, York county, was born in Somer- 
set county, Pennsylvania, December 19, and 
grew to manhood in the peaceful surround- 
ings of that land of peace. It is also a land 
of rectitude and honor, and in his early 
days Mr. Will found enwrought in his dis- 
position notions of right and truth and jus- 
tice which he has never denied, and which 
have done much to make him the man of 
character and right he is. His parents 
were Hiram and Kisiah (Meese) Will. They 
were native to the state, and did their best 
to bring their children up to the level of the 
character the state somehow seemed to em- 
body. The Wills were a distinguished fam- 
ily in the state for many years back. The 
grandfather of our subject was John Will, 
who was born in Pennsylvania, and died 
there at the age of ninety-four years. His 
father was an officer in the American army 
during the Revolution and was a man of 
character and decision in those stormy days. 
Hiram Will moved to Illinois in 1865, and 
settled in Dixon, where his home is still to 
be found. He was a farmer, and for many 
years did an extensive business in lumber. 

Norman B. Will was reared in his fa- 
ther's Pennsylvania home, and when he be- 
came old enough to take up the work of life, 
entered his father's lumber yard. In 1864 
he enlisted in Company F, Sixty-first Penn- 
sylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served un- 
til the close of the war. He was at the 
siege and capture of Petersburg, and partici- 
pated in many smaller skirmishes in the 
Shenandoah Valley. He was present at 
the surrender of General Johnston's army, 
and witnessed the closing scenes in the great 



drama of the rebellion. When the war 
was over he went to Dixon, Illinois, and 
was there until 1869. At that time he re- 
moved to Iowa, and in 1873 came to this 
county, and took up a homestead on section 
26, Arborville township, where we record 
him to-day. He built a sod house 14x16 
feet, and made it his home for the next four 
years. He immediately began to improve 
the farm, and has it in fine condition. It is 
all under cultivation, and is devoted to a di- 
versified system of agriculture. 

Mr. Will was married September 10, 
1868, to Miss Alice Ferguson, a native of 
Illinois. Her father, Henry Ferguson, was 
born in Indiana, and her mother, Mary 
(Allen) Ferguson, was a native of New 
York. She is the mother of four children, 
all of whom are living. They are Jennie 
M., Grace K. (now Mrs. Edwin Clark), 
Calvin W., and Florence M. The family 
are members of the United Brethren 
church, and regarded as faithful and 
efficient in their religious associations. He 
belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and takes a deep interest in the fortunes of 
that patriotic institution. He votes the 
Republican ticket, but has never sought or 
accepted an office, outside of the school dis- 
trict. He has been school director and 
moderator, and regards it a sacred duty to 
do what he can for the welfare of the 
schools. He has done well since his 
coming to the county. He only brought 
seventy-five dollars with him, and now has 
a good home and farm, and is highly 
respected by all who know him. 



JOHN WANKE, deceased, was for several 
years a leading agriculturist of precinct 
J, Seward county, and one of its most 
highly respected and honored citizens. He 
was born in December, 1849, in Mecklen- 
burg, Germany, and received a good prac- 
tical education in the common schools of 



600 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his native land. His parents were John and 
Mary (Gressman) Wanke, in whose family 
were only two children, the younger being 
Frederick, who is now living in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska. The mother died when 
John was quite young and the father after- 
ward married Miss Mary Boss, who is still 
living, but his death occurred in Fillmore 
county in 1895, when he was seventy-five 
years of age. The grandparents of our 
subject spent their entire lives in Germany. 

At an early day Mr. Wanke emigrated 
to America and took up his residence in 
Wisconsin, where he was married, on the 
15th of September, 1868, to Miss Louisa 
Matzke, who was born in Prussia, Germany, 
May 8, 1849, ^"d was only four years old 
when brought to the new world by her par- 
ents, Frederick and Regina (Streig) Matzke, 
who also located in Wisconsin. In their 
family were eleven children, nine of whom 
are still living, namely: William, Amelia, 
Elizabeth, Ferdinand and Mrs. Wanke all 
make their home in Nebraska; Mary in 
Illinois; and Frank, Matilda and Augusta in 
Wisconsin. The father died October 4, 
1 89 1, at the age of seventy-one years, but 
the mother is still living at the age of 
seventy-six years and makes her home in 
Wisconsin. Mrs. Wanke's grandparents 
died when she was very young, after having 
spent their entire lives in the Fatherland. 

For five years after their marriage Mr. 
and Mrs. Wanke continued to reside in Wis- 
consin, and on leaving that state they came 
at once to Seward county, Nebraska, where 
they purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
of railroad land at seven dollars per acre. 
Later they bought an additional eighty 
acres, but have since sold the latter tract. 
To the cultivation and improvement of his 
farm Mr. Wanke devoted his energies with 
marked success until life's labors were 
ended, making a most comfortable home 
for his family and converting the wild land 
into highly productive fields. In his native 



land he was confirmed in the Lutheran 
church, but after coming to America, at the 
age of fourteen years, he united with the 
Evangelical Association, with which he was 
connected up to the time of his death, which 
occurred February 7, 1884, his remains be- 
ing interred in the Seward county cemetery. 
He was a true and earnest Christian gentle- 
man and had the respect and confidence of 
all with whom he came in contact either in 
business or private life. In politics he was 
a Republican. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wanke were born 
seven children, as follows: C. Edward, 
George A., Edith, Julius, Dora, Laura and 
Daniel, all of whom still survive the father, 
and are still at home with the exception of 
Charles Edward, who is engaged in business 
in Milford, Nebraska; and Edith, who is 
now the wife of George Neff, of Lancaster 
county, this state. 

Mrs. Wanke was educated in the com- 
mon schools of this country and has pro- 
vided her children with good school privi- 
leges, so that they are now well fitted for 
life's responsible duties. Since her hus- 
band's death she has successfully managed 
the farm and has displayed remarkable busi- 
ness ability. She has watched with inter- 
est the development and progress of this 
section of the country during the last quar- 
ter of a century, and in connection with the 
other early settlers experienced all the 
hardships and privations of pioneer life. 
At the age of ten years she joined the 
Evangelical church, to which some of her 
children also belong, and she is an earnest 
Christian woman, beloved by all who know 
her. 



DANIEL GEORGE, who resides on sec- 
tion 28, Henderson township is one of 
the honored pioneers of York county, where 
he has made his home for almost a third of a 
century. He came here when the greater part 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7' 



601 



of the land was still in its primitive condition, 
when not a furrow had been turned upon 
acre after acre, and since that time has 
ever borne his part in the work of improve- 
ment and progress, withholding his support 
from no movement intended to enhance the 
general welfare. His life has been well 
spent and he is numbered among the lead- 
ing agriculturists of the community. He 
was born in 1835, probably in Hampshire, 
England, where his father, Henry George, 
owned a house and lot in a little town. He 
followed various occupations in that land 
and married Eve Marshall, daughter of Si 
Marshall. In 1839, when his son George 
was only four years old, he emigrated with 
his family to the United States, landing in 
New York city, whence he made his way 
westward to Wisconsin, where he entered 
a claim from the government. For this he 
paid a dollar and a quarter per acre, and 
continued its cultivation until 1876, when 
he sold his property there and started for 
Nebraska. He died in York county in 
1882, at the age of eighty-six years, and his 
wife passed away in September, 1877. 

Daniel George was reared in the usual 
manner of farmer lads living on the fron- 
tier. He early became familiar with the 
duties and labors that fall to the lot of the 
agriculturist and continued to assist in the 
cultivation of his father's farm until twenty- 
four years of age, when he was married and 
began farming on his own account. He 
wedded Miss Mary Henderson, daughter of 
David and Helen Henderson, who had come 
from England to America about 1834. 
Mr. and Mrs. George began their domestic 
life upon a farm in Wisconsin, and the 
former was engaged in the cultivation of his 
land when, in 1865 he joined the Forty- 
sixth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers and 
was assigned to Company K. His command 
was principally engaged on guard duty. One 
night, when stepping from the cars in Ala- 
bama, carrying with him a heavy weight of 



over sixty pounds, Mr. George sustained an 
injury in his shoulder, which forced him to 
remain in the hospital in Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, for two months. He was honorably 
discharged in September, 1865, and after 
sufficiently recovering his health he returned 
to his Wisconsin home. 

In 1866, accompanied by his wife and 
father-in-law and his family, Mr. George 
came to Nebraska, and located in the south- 
western part of York county on the bank of 
the southwest branch of the Big Blue river. 
There he secured from the government a 
quarter section of land and has since made 
his home thereon. It was entirely desti- 
tute of improvement, but with characteris- 
tic energy he began its development and 
now has a finely cultivated farm. 

Mr. and Mrs. George have three living 
children: Rose Ellen, Eve H. and Ger- 
trude M. The first named was married 
May 19, 1887, to Gene D. Wright, son of 
E. O. and Emily (Seely) Wright. They 
reside in York and own the watermill in the 
outskirts of that city. They have three 
children — Ted George, Helen, and Daniel 
Alan. The second daughter is a graduate 
of the Sutton high school and the youngest 
is now a student in the high school of York. 
In his political affiliations Mr. George has 
been a stalwart Republican since casting 
his first presidential vote for Abraham Lin- 
coln in i860. He belongs to Hayes Post, 
G. A. R., of Lushton, and is a representa- 
tive citizen, esteemed for his sterling worth, 
and his fidelity to every interest entrusted to 
his care. 



HARVEY SMITH BURGESS presents 
a striking example of what can be ac- 
complished by persistent attention to busi- 
ness and unflagging industry. He has a 
home on section 5, Reading township, But- 
ler county, and under his fostering care it 
has become a model farm. It is carefully 



602 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



tilled, made to produce abundantly and in 
the quality and value of the crops it yields 
compares favorably with any other tract in 
the county. 

Mr. Burgess is a native of the state of 
New York, and his childhood home was 
Greene county, among the Catskill mount- 
ains, where he first inhaled the vital air in 
1819. He came of an old New York fam- 
ily, and by both paternal and maternal 
lines of ancestry is related to some of the 
prominent people of the early days of the 
country. His father, David Burgess, was 
born in New York in 1778, and his mother, 
Abigail Ayers, was born in the same state in 
1783. She was a granddaughter of a 
prominent Quaker, Samuel Adams, and was 
herself a lady of much refinement and force 
of character. He spent his childhood and 
youth in his father's house and did not leave 
New York until he reached the mature age 
of forty-four years. He went to Michigan 
in 1863, and followed farming a num- 
ber of years. But he was not satis- 
fied with the outlook in that state, and de- 
cided to go further west. His first inten- 
tion was to settle in Kansas, but through 
the influence of a friend, S. W. Rising, 
he decided to change his destination 
and locate in Nebraska. He came 
into Butler county alone, but was soon 
joined by his family. He located on section 
4, Reading township, in the month of March, 
1 87 1 , and immediately put up a modest shel- 
ter — a house 12 x 16 feet, and only six feet 
high. At that time this was an exceedingly 
wild country. There was not a house in sight, 
nor as much as a tree to break the monot- 
ony of the prairie line. He built the first 
house in the township of Reading, and did 
not long lack for neighbors. Settlers rapidly 
followed his advent, and presently the 
county was quite fully populated. 

Mr. Burgess was married in Greene 
county. New York, January 30, 1844, to 
Harriet C. Brewer, a daughter of Samuel 



Brewer, and a grandaughter of James Whit- 
ney, who was an old Revolutionary soldier. 
The fruits of this union are eight children — • 
Minerva, Josephine, Eugene, George W. , 
Giles, DeWitt C., Anna and Ada Idell. 
Minerva Taylor lives in Missouri and 
Josephine Hill in Rising, Nebraska, which 
is also the home of her two brothers, 
George and DeWitt C. Anna Catlin is in 
Missouri and Ada Bowman is in Butler 
county. The Brewers were an old Holland 
family and exhibited many of the best 
traits that have made their blood vital to 
the progress and honor of the nation. 

His first wife died October 3, 1878, and 
he was again married May 12, 1880, to 
Mrs. Mary S. Dille, whose maiden name 
was Mary Paulus; she was a native of La- 
Grange county, Indiana. They have two 
children by this marriage — Harvey S. and 
Omer D. They belong to the Methodist 
Episcopal church of Rising City. In poli- 
tics Mr. Burgess is a stanch Republican. 



HIRAM P. WALKER is one of the 
sound and substantial contributions 
that Pennsylvania has made to the pros- 
perity of Nebraska, and his career has re- 
flected credit upon his native state. He is 
an honest and industrious man, strictly 
upright and straight foward in all his dealing, 
and wronging no man deliberately. The 
vocation of a farmer calls for the exercise 
of good judgment, broad views and single- 
qess of purpose. It developes neighbor- 
hood virtues, and makes for the noblest 
types of character. And the man whose 
name introduces this article may be regard- 
ed as representative of his calling. 

Hiram P. Walker was born in Somerset 
county, Pennsylvania, August i, 1854, and 
is a son of Eligha and Hannah (Frickey) 
Walker. They were both native Pennsyl- 
vanians, and were devoted to agricultural 
pursuits. They left their native state and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



603 



settled in Lee county, Illinois, in 1862. 
There the husband and father died in 1896, 
while his wife, the mother of our subject, 
still survives. They were the parents of 
one son and two daughters. 

Mr. Walker was educated in the com- 
mon schools of Pennsylvania and was very 
fairly prepared for the duties of life by their 
e.xcellent instruction. When he reached 
manly years he took up the vocation of 
farming, and followed it in Illinois until 
1880. At that time he came to York county, 
and bought a homestead on section 34, 
Morton township. It was improved in a 
way at the time of his entrance upon it, 
having a sod house, which after a few 
years gave place to a very comfortable 
frame structure. He has given time and 
thought to his farm, and it may now be 
compared not unfavorably with the best in 
the county. He has followed an approved 
system of general farming and stock raising, 
and has accomplished very substantial and 
creditable results. He was married in 1878 
to Miss Ella Troutman, a daughter of Mi- 
chael and Rachel (Winters) Troutman, a na- 
tive of Illinois. They are the parents of 
three living children, Claude C, Bessie A. 
and Era P. The family belong to the 
Lutheran church and parish. He belongs 
to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
and she to the Degree of Honor. In poli- 
tics he is a free-silver Democrat, but has 
never been an office seeker or wire puller in 
any sense of the word. He has attended 
to his farm, and now derives much pleasure 
and comfort from the beautiful home he has 
secured. He stands well in the community, 
and hardly knows what more to ask. 



A 



D. SPERRY, a public-spirited and en- 
- - terprising farmer of Seward county, 
has a good home on section 4, precinct D, 
and stands among the foremost men of his 
calling in this part of Nebraska. He has 



devoted his life to agricultural pursuits al- 
most exclusively, and his career is a 
striking illustration of the advantage of a 
single purpose, a resolute endeavor to ac- 
complish it. 

Mr. Sperry was born in Platteville, Wis- 
consin, November 15, 1846, and is a son of 
Alfred Wade and Sophronia A. (Palmer) 
Sperry, who were natives of New York and 
Pennsylvania, respectively. They were mar- 
ried in Ohio; but came to Wisconsin very 
soon afterwards, and settled near Platte- 
ville on government land, where they re- 
mained until 1857. That year they trans- 
ferred their interests to Lafayette county, 
where they improved a farm, and occupied 
it for thirteen years. In 1870 they entered 
Nebraska in search of a home, and found it 
on section 28, precinct C, Seward county. 
Here they spent the balance of their days. 
The husband and father died April 13,1 872, 
while his widow long survived him, living in 
Seward, where she passed away March 6, 
1895. They were the parents of eight 
children, two of whom served in the Civil 
war. Enoch died in the service, but the 
subject of this article, though he saw 
stirring scenes, and passed through tremen- 
duous hardships, survives to see for himself 
the wonder of the work which was wrought 
in the saving of the Union. 

Mr. Sperry grew to manhood in Grant 
and LaFayette counties, Wisconsin, and 
was educated in the public school. He has 
been a close reader and a careful student of 
the world, and has very largely atoned for 
the deficiencies of his early school training. 
When not quite seventeen he enlisted in 
Company I, Second Wisconsin Volunteer 
Cavalry. He was mustered in October 7, 
1863, and immediately joined his regiment 
at Vicksburg. The regiment operated 
through Mississippi and Tennessee during 
the remaining years of the war, and took 
part in numerous engagements, notably the 
second fight at Champion Hill and at Yazoo 



604 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



City. He was under the command of three 
noted cavalry officers, Generals Grierson, 
Slocum and Dana. After the surrender of 
General Lee the regiment was put under the 
command of General Custer, and marched 
up the Red river to Alexandria, Louisiana, 
and Austin, Texas, where its officers and 
members were mustered out, Mr. Sperry's 
discharge bearing date November 15, 1865. 
He was wounded in the left arm at Yazoo 
City, but soon recovered, and met with no 
other casualty worth recording. 

The wedding of A. D. Sperry and Miss 
Mary Louisa Kanouse occurred July 14, 
1867. She was a native of Kendalltown, 
LaFayette county, Wisconsin, where she 
was born July 31, 185 1. Her parents, 
Benjamin and Martha (Fletcher) Kanouse, 
came to Wisconsin from Ohio in 1850. The 
young husband and wife lived in Wisconsin 
a number of years, but made their appear- 
ance in Seward county, with their three 
children, January 8, 1872, and ten days 
later located their homestead where they 
now live. There were a few sod houses in 
sight, and their first habitation was like 
their neighbors. Five years later they put 
up a frame, to which from time to time 
very substantial additions have been made 
until it is both comfortable and roomy. In 
1872 Mr. Sperry had no crop, but broke ten 
acres, which he devoted to wheat the fol- 
lowing year. In 1874 he saved his wheat, 
but his corn went to the grasshoppers; but 
nothing discouraged him, and to-day he 
owns five hundred and twenty acres of 
highly cultivated land. Each of his boys 
has received a slice, and there are eight 
hundred and sixty acres held in the family. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sperry are the parents of 
six living children — Robert H., Alfred W., 
Benjamin K., Arthur D., Rhoda M. and 
Sabra A. He is a member of Ulysses post 
of the Grand Army, and of the Masonic 
lodge at Surprise. Politically he is a 
stanch Republican, and has held several 



minor offices, such as road overseer and 
township supervisor two terms. He has 
been treasurer of his school district for 
thirteen years, and of the Old Settlers' so- 
ciety for eight years. 



SENECA HUBBELL, a familiar figure 
in the vicinity of Bradshaw, Nebraska, 
and long known to the settlers of that part 
of York county, belongs to a family that was 
associated with the earliest history of south- 
ern Ohio. His grandfather with four 
brothers settled near Cincinnati, and owned 
the land on which the court house in that 
city now stands. He held it for some years, 
sold it at a good price, and went north to 
Miami county, where he owned a farm, on 
which he lived for some years. He died in 
Shelby county, where he had gone to make 
his home the last days of his life, and was 
within three years of the century mark when 
he died. His son, Foster Hubbell was 
also a man of length of years. He was 
born in Shelby county, January 12, i8ii, 
was a tailor by trade and died in Greene 
county, Indiana, February 28, 1897. Seneca 
Hubbell's maternal grandmother died when 
over ninety-nine years old. Her maiden 
name was Charlotte Anderson. Her daugh- 
ter, the mother of the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 
December 13, 1814, and died at Bloomfield, 
Indiana, October 31, 1892. 

Seneca Hubbell was born in Shelby 
county, Ohio, April 11, 1843, and from the 
above outline of a family history has what 
life insurance men would call a tendency to 
long life. He is a strong and rugged man, 
and bears the weight of years with ease, 
and may live to rival any of his ancestors. 
He was married at the age of twenty-two 
to Miss Martha Brown, at the home of her 
mother, Mrs. Catherine Brown, in Miami 
county, Ohio. The wedding occurred in 
June, 1865, and from it came three sons, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



605 



Charles A., George Elmer and John Orville. 
She died in August, 1875, and in the spring 
of 1879 her bereaved husband went to Den- 
ver, Colorado, to work at the carpenter's 
trade in that city, at Cheyenne, and at 
Grand Island, Nebraska. In the spring of 
1 88 1 he came to this county and located on 
the northeast quarter of section 21, town- 
ship 1 1 north, range 4 west, and began its 
improvement. He put up a dwelling about 
twelve feet square, and perhaps seven feet 
high at the eaves. He worked at his trade, 
while the boys carried on the farm. He 
went back to Ohio in 1881, and wedded Mrs. 
A. Fuller, who was living in the city of Piqua. 
She was a widow, and had two children, 
Gertrude and Albert E., both of whom are 
married and settled in homes of their own. 
He brought his wife home to York county, 
and in the years that have elapsed since 
their marriage they have converted wild and 
rugged prairie acres into a beautiful farm, 
fitted with modern appliances and adorned 
with fruit and shade trees. They have two 
chidren, Winfred R. and Allen C. These 
boys are respectively si.xteen and fourteen 
years old. They attend the district school, 
and are busy young men on the farm where 
their father and mother still reside. Their 
parents are not members of any religious 
order, but are counted among the best 
people of the neighborhood. They belong 
to the Ancient Order of United Workmen 
and the Degree of Honor, and are fond of 
neighborly associations. He has always 
been a Democrat, and feels that the path of 
national prosperity and honor is in the 
direction of the principles that party main- 
tains. He was township assessor two terms. 



WILLIAN M. SPRING, who has made 
his home in Butler county, Nebraska, 
since November, 1864, is not only one of the 
honored pioneers of this section of the state, 
but is also descended from good old Revo- 



lutionary stock, his ancestors having taken a 
prominent part in the early history of this 
country. He was born in New York city, in 
1836, a son of Gardner and Susan (Barney) 
Spring, the former a native of Newbury- 
port, Massachusetts, the latter of Connecti- 
cut. The father was a noted man and one 
of the leading Presbyterian ministers of his 
day. Our subject's paternal grandfather, 
John Spring, went as chaplain in Arnold's 
expedition to Quebec during the Revolution- 
ary war, and his maternal grandfather was 
Commodore Barney, of the United States 
navy. 

Like his illustrious grandfather, our sub- 
ject followed the sea from the age of twelve 
to twenty-one, and as a sailor traveled all 
over the world. In 1857 he left the east 
and removed to Henry county, Illinois, 
where he subsequently married Miss Corinne 
Johnson, who died in Butler county in 1896, 
leaving two children, Louis, now a Method- 
ist minister stationed in California; and 
Alice, wife of Lofe Halstead. Since the 
death of his first wife Mr. Spring has married 
Harriet, daughter of Lanson Franklin. 

In 1864 Mr. Spring resolved to try his 
fortunes in the far west, and with ox teams 
drove across the country from his home in 
Illinois, arriving in Butler county in No- 
vember of that year, after being eight weeks 
upon the road. Here, he homesteaded 
eighty acres on section 26, Platte township, 
near the village of Linwood, and has con- 
verted the place into one of the finest fruit 
farms in this region. He is a keen, prac- 
tical man, well gifted with mental and 
physical vigor, and the success that he has 
achieved in life is due entirely to his own 
efforts. He was a charter member of the first 
Congregational church organized in Butler 
county and has always taken an active and 
promirent part in all church work. He 
possesses, to a full measure, all of the fine, 
ennobling qualities for which his ancestors 
were so noted, and his honesty, integrity, 



606 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



gentleness and purity are a constant source 
of inspiration to iiis family and friends. 



GEORGE H. TERWILLIGER is one of 
the leading members of the Seward 
county bar. He has a clientele that includes 
many of the leading people and important 
corporations in this region, and his legal 
acumen and forensic ability entitle him to 
rank among the successful lawyers of this 
part of the state. Mr. Terwilliger is a 
native of Ringgold county, Iowa, where he 
was born November 15, i860. His parents, 
George W. and Clarissa (Himes) Terwilliger, 
were natives respectively of New York and 
Pennsylvania, and the husband and father 
came to Iowa when a boy and remained 
in that state until 1881. That year became 
to this county, spent a brief time, and 
moved on to Oklahoma territory, where he 
is still living. Young George attended the 
Iowa public schools and began life for him- 
self as a farmer. His ambitions, however, 
led him another direction, and he early be- 
gan to shape his intellectual development 
towards the legal profession as his life 
work. He accompanied his father when 
he came to this county and here he has re- 
mained. In 1886 he was a student in the 
Iowa State University, and in the following 
year began the study of law under the di- 
rection of a Mr. Anderson. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1888, and at once be- 
gan the practice of his profession in Seward. 
Mr. Terwilliger was married in 1889 to 
Miss Emma Knight. She was born in Iowa, 
received her education in Nebraska, having 
come to Seward county, Nebraska, when 
three years of age. She is a woman of 
many gifts and graces. They have one 
child, Ethel. The husband and father is a 
member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and is a Knight of the Maccabees, 
and is popular in fraternal circles. He is 
associated with the independent movement 



in politics, but does not seek office. As a 
leading lawyer of the county he finds his 
profession so exacting that he can give little 
time and attention to outside interests. 
His wife was a teacher in the public schools 
of Seward for a time. 



FRANCIS A. BAKER is one of Morton 
township's most reliable and progress- 
ive farmers, as well as one of the represent- 
ative pioneers of York county. He was 
born in Fulton county, Pennsylvania, in 
1858, and is a son of Jacob and Maria 
(Bergstresser) Baker, also natives of the 
Keystone state, where the father engaged 
in farming and school teaching during early 
life. Coming west in 1873, he went to 
Minnesota, but the same year came to Ne- 
braska, and in 1874 took up his residence 
in York county, having purchased a tract of 
railroad land in Morton township. It is the 
farm now owned and occupied by our sub- 
ject, and upon it the father died in 1879, 
the mother in 1886. He was a supporter 
of the Republican party. She was a sin- 
cere and faithful member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Their children are D. 
W. and Francis A. 

During his boyhood and youth our sub- 
ject pursued his studies in the schools of 
Pennsylvania, and when his parents left that 
state he came with them to the west. He 
took charge of the home farm in Morton 
township, and since their deaths has contin- 
ued to operate the same with results which 
cannot fail to prove satisfactory. He 
thoroughly understands his chosen calling, 
and has succeeded in converting the wild 
land into highly cultivated and productive 
fields, which yield a golden tribute in return 
for the care and labor bestowed upon them. 
Fraternally he is identified with the Modern 
Brotherhood of America, and politically 
is identified with the Republican party. 
For two years he most ably served as jus- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAriir. 



607 



tice of the peace and has also filled the office 
of school director in a most capable manner. 
Widely known, he has the confidence and 
esteem of the entire community, in which 
he has so long made his home. 



N 



ELS PETERSON belongs to that great 
number of Scandinavians who have 
done so much to redeem the west from the 
wilderness. He is a farmer, and his home 
is near Bradshaw, Nebraska, and during the 
years that have elapsed since his arrival on 
these shores he has thoroughly assimilated 
himself to American customs and fashions. 
He is a straightforward, honest man, and 
holds a good standing in the estimation of 
those who know him best. 

Nels Peterson was born in Sweden, 
January lO, 1846, and his father, according 
to local nomenclature, was called Pear 
Anderson. His mother was Cecil An- 
derson, and their home was in the district 
of Bloeking, Sweden. Nels came to this 
country at the age of twenty-three, and 
landed in Newark in the spring of 1869. 
He found employment on a railroad in 
Michigan. He went by water from Chicago 
to Duluth, and worked in a sawmill north of 
that Minnesota city for several months. In 
the fall of 1870 he made a journey to Bur- 
lington, Iowa, by a Mississippi steamboat, 
and from that point to Mt. Pleasant by 
rail. There he met an uncle, who had a 
farm near by, and accompanied him home, 
and worked upon neighboring farms four 
years at the rate of twenty-two dollars a 
month. Here he became acquainted with 
Mrs. Christine Peterson, and was married 
to her April 18, 1874. He rented a farm 
and began working for himself. By this 
time he had accumulated over five hundred 
dollars in money, and had property worth 
as much more. In March, 1878, he gath- 
ered up everything he owned and came to 

this county. He stopped .with John Sandal 
35 



about one month, and built a board house, 
a sod stable and chicken coop, and other 
necessary out buildings. When these were 
finished, he moved his wife and two sons, 
born in Iowa, into this new home on the 
southeast quarter of section 35, township 
II, range 4 west. He prospered, and in a 
few years was able to purchase an addi- 
tional eighty acres, which increases his farm 
to two hundred and forty acres of as good 
land as the county affords. He broke up 
at the beginning of his career eighty acres 
and planted trees, doing a thousand and one 
things that must be done in making a new 
home. He now has three hundred and 
twenty rods of osage hedge, and can show 
a fine orchard of all kinds of fruits. 

June 3, 1890, a terrible cyclone struck 
Bradshaw and vicinity, destroying nearly 
every building in that thriving little town. 
It swept across his farm, wrecking his barn, 
windmill, corncribs, granarj', and other 
adjacent buildings, narrowly missing his 
residence, from which it tore a few shingles. 
The damage which he suffered probably 
reached eight hundred dollars. He has a 
family of two sons and one daughter. She 
is now eighteen years old, and has assumed 
charge of the household, her mother having 
died about four years ago. Mr. Peterson 
believes his children should have a good 
education. With his family he belongs to 
the Lutheran church. He is a Republican, 
and is proud of his adopted state, which he 
holds presents the best opportunity in the 
world for a poor man to get ahead. 



DAVID HARMAN, a worthy representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of 
Valley precinct, Polk county, is the owner 
of a good farm of one hundred and si.xty acres 
on section 14, township 15, range 3. A na- 
tive of Switzerland county, Indiana, he was 
born May 19, 1839, a son of John and 
Nancy (Myers) Harman, who were born 



608 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



near Lexington, Kentucky. The Harmans 
were of Pennsylvania German stock. The 
maternal grandfather of our subject was 
killed by a wagon running over him while 
on his way to Kentucky. About 1830 John 
Harman, with his family, emigrated to Switz- 
erland county, Indiana, where they were 
numbered among the pioneer settlers, and 
after living there for several years, removed 
to Ripley county, that state. By occupation 
he was a farmer, and in religious belief both 
he and his wife were Baptist, regularly at- 
tending all church services and living up to 
their professions. He died in 1880, and 
she passed away ten years later, honored 
and esteemed by all who knew them. They 
were the parents of seven children, who 
reached years of maturity, namely: Lu- 
cinda; Jonathan ; Elizabeth, Mary Jane 
and Marion, all three deceased; David and 
Leonard. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
were passed upon the home farm in Switzer- 
land county, and his education was acquired 
in the subscription schools of the neigh- 
borhood, which he attended when his serv- 
ices were not needed at home. At the age 
of twenty he was given his time, and start- 
ed out in life for himself as a lumberman. 
Feeling that his country needed his services 
he put aside all personal interests to join 
the Union army, enlisting as a private Sep- 
tember iS, 1 86 1, in Company A, Thirty- 
seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and 
was first sent to Louisville, later going into 
winter quarters at Green River, Ken- 
tucky. The following spring the regiment 
moved to Bowling Green, and on to Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, under command of Gen- 
eral Nelson, and subsequently' took part in the 
battle of Stone River under General Rose- 
crans, and also the engagement at Chicka- 
mauga. His right hand being injured, Mr. 
Harman was detailed as a guard at division 
headquarters, and remained with the army 
through the Atlanta campaign, after which 



the regiment was sent back to Indianapolis 
and mustered out in October, 1864, as their 
term of enlistment had expired. Fortu- 
nately our subject was never wounded, cap- 
tured, or confined in the hospital by sick- 
ness. 

Returning to his Indiana home, Mr. 
Harman was married February 2, 1865, to 
Miss Susannah M. Gilliland, who was born 
in Ripley county, that state, January 24, 
1846. Her parents, William and Margaret 
(Conyers) Gilliland, were natives of Ohio 
and Kentucky, respectively, but were 
married in Indiana, where they made their 
home upon a farm throughout the remain- 
der of their lives, the mother dying April 
19, 1868, aged fifty-four years, the father 
March 29, 1881;, aged seventy-seven. Their 
children were as follows: Samuel C., a 
soldier of the Civil war, now deceased; 
• Sarah Ann, deceased; James; Elizabeth 
Margaret, deceased; William F. , who was 
a first lieutenant in the Eighty-third Indiana 
Volunteer Infantary, during the Rebellion; 
Catherine J., Susannah M., America Olive, 
John T. , Mary Alice, Newton Scott, and 
Abram Albert. Mrs. Harman's paternal 
grandfather was Samuel Gilliland, and 
maternal grandfather William Conj'ers, who 
was a soldier of the war of 18 12, and a 
pioneer of Indiana. In the county of her 
nativity Mrs. Harman was reared and 
educated, and by her marriage to our sub- 
ject has become the mother of five children; 
Eva Viola, who married E. P. Westcott, a 
resident of Polk county^ Nebraska, and has 
one child, Lonnie; Carrie Belle, deceased 
wife of William Miller, by whom she had 
one child. Bird D. Leroy, now living with 
our subject; Newton Edgar, Albert R. ; and 
Eurania, deceased. 

After his marriage Mr. Harman located 
on a farm in Ripley county, Indiana, where 
he continued to reside until 1872, when he 
removed to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, 
and after improving a new farm there, he 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



609 



came to Central City, Nebraska, in 1880, 
making that place his home for eighteen 
months. In April, 1882, he located upon 
his present farm, then partially improved, 
and to its further development and cultiva- 
tion he has since devoted his energies, 
placing sixty acres under the plow and 
fencing the entire half section, in 1884, at a 
cost of two thousand dollars. He has also 
erected all of the buildings upon the place, 
and now has one of the most highly im- 
proved farms of the township. He is en- 
gaged in mixed farming, raising both grain 
and stock. 

Socially Mr. Harman belongs to J. F. 
Reynolds Post, No. 26, G. A. R., and with 
the Baptist church he and his wife hold 
membership. He uses his right of fran- 
chise in support of the men and measures 
of the Republican party, and her sympathies 
are also with that great political organiza ■ 
tion. They took an active part in the district 
reunion at Silver Creek, and Mrs. Harman 
furnished dinner for the speakers. She is 
known far and wide as one of the best 
housekeepers in Polk county, and her table 
is unsurpassed. She presides with gracious 
dignity over her lovely home, which is well 
furnished and shows the refinement and 
elegant taste of the mistress. 



DR. RICHARD CARSCADDEN, de- 
ceased. — In the death of Dr. Carscad- 
den, York county lost one of its most able 
and popular physicians as well as one of its 
earliest settlers. He was born at New 
Castle, in the Dominion of Canada, Febru- 
ary I, 1840, a son of Robert and Elizabeth 
(Freeborn) Carscadden. The father was of 
French and the mother of Scotch descent. 
The father was a farmer by occupation and 
reared a family of seven children, six sons 
and one daughter. 

The Doctor received his preliminary 
training in the common schools of Canada, 



and also attended the Bellevue college. 
He then taught school in Canada for several 
years, and at the same time devoted him- 
self to the study of medicine. In 1861 he 
entered the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan and attended there one 
year. He then entered the Rush Medical 
college, at Chicago, Illinois, and graduated 
from that institution in 1866. He began 
the practice of his profession at Blackberry, 
Kane county, Illinois, remaining there for 
three years. He then moved to Sharon, 
Walworth county, Wisconsin, and made 
that his home for a short time. In 1879 he 
moved to York, Nebraska, and continued 
his practice in that city until his death, which 
occurred July 21, 1890. 

May 24, 1870, Dr. Carscadden was 
united in marriage to Miss Clara Sedgwick, 
a sister of S. H. Sedgwick, a sketch of 
whom will appear on another page of this 
volume. To this union have been born 
three children, whose names in the order of 
their birth are as follows: Ernestine P., 
Edna B., and Richard S., all of whom are 
now living. Mrs. Carscadden was appointed 
by Governor Boyd, April 30, 1891, to the 
office of superintendent of State Industrial 
Training School for girls, and held that po- 
sition until July, 1897. 

The Doctor was also a graduate from the 
Chicago Homeopathic college, and was 
president of the Homeopathic State Med- 
ical Society for several years. He also 
filled the chair in the medical department 
of the State University of Nebraska, teach- 
ing the treatment of the diseases of the heart, 
lungs, etc., for two years. He was also a 
member of the York County Medical Society. 
He became widely known, during his life, 
as a physician of marked ability, and en- 
joyed a valuable and ever increasing patron- 
age. In politics he was a Prohibitionist 
and was an ardent and enthusiastic temper- 
ance worker, not only in his own city and 
county, but in many parts of the state. He 



610 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRAnir. 



was a member of the Kni,s;hts of Pythias and 
some of the insurance fraternities, and was 
also a member of the Methodist church. 



EZRA B. SHAFER, who is pleasantly 
located on section 28, precine G., has 
resided upon his present farm for thirty-two 
years and is therefore one of the pioneer 
settlers of Seward county. The improve- 
ments which we see to-day have been 
effected by his industry and good judgment, 
and he has brought the soil to a fine state 
of cultivation. The farm buildings are neat 
and substantial, and with their surroundings 
represent the pitcure of a complete country 
home, where peace and plenty abound. 

Mr. Shafer was born on the 3d of August, 
1835, in Delaware county. New York, and 
is a son of Philip and Melvina (Benedict) 
Shafer, who were also natives of the Empire 
state, where the father followed farming 
throughout life. He reared a family of six 
sons and three daughters, but our subject 
is the only one to locate in Seward county. 
He attended the public schools of his native 
state and upon the home farm obtained an 
excellent knowledge of agricultural pursuits, 
so that he is now considered one of the 
thorough and skillful farmers of the com- 
munity. 

Leaving the parental roof at the age of 
seventeen years, Mr. Shafer went to Erie 
county, Pennsylvania, where the following 
three years were passed, and in 1854 re- 
moved to Illinois, in which state he made 
his home until coming to Nebraska in 
October, 1866. He secured a homestead 
on section 28, precinct G, Seward county, 
and upon that land still resides. He was 
among the first settlers on the Blue river, 
and in those early days the Indians often 
came round his log cabin. The wild land 
he has transformed into a good farm and he 
now has two hundred acres under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved. 



Mr. Shafer was married in 1861 to Miss 
Eliza M. Castle, a native of Mercer county, 
Illinois, a daughter of Luman H. and 
Catherine (Murray) Castle, who were 
natives of New York and Pennsylvania, re- 
spectively. Her father died in York county, 
Nebraska. Our subject and his wife have 
three children, one son and two daughters, 
namely: Estella Mae, Eva R. and Edward 
N. In politics Mr. Shafer is independent, 
casting his ballot for the man whom he 
considers best qualified to fill the office, re- 
gardless of party affiliations. He is held in 
high esteem for his sterling worth and many 
excellencies of character, and his friends in 
Seward county are many. 



WILLIAM TAYLOR, who is a num- 
bered among the early settlers of 
Thayer township, York county, has assisted 
materially in the development of its agri- 
cultural resources, and is justly regarded as 
one of its most enterprising business men. 
His childhood home was on the other side 
of the Atlantic, for he was born in county 
Down, Ireland, December 15, 1830, a son 
of Walter and Isabelle (Cochran) Taylor, 
who were also natives of the Emerald Isle, 
but of English and Scotch descent. They 
spent their entire lives in Ireland, where 
the father was employed as a gardener and 
farmer. 

The common schools of his native land 
afforded our subject his educational privi- 
leges, and he remained in that country until 
1856, when he boarded a vessel bound for 
ths United States, landing at Castle Garden, 
New York. From there he proceeded to 
Orange county, New York, where he made 
his home for two years, and in 1858 went 
to Mercer county, Illinois, where he found 
employment at farming until i860. In 
September, 1861, he joined the boys in 
blue, going to the front as a member of 
Company H, Thirty-seventh Illinois Volun- 



COMPENDIUM OF BTOGRAPHT. 



611 



teer Infantry, under Colonel Black, ex- 
commissioner of pensions. For three years 
he was in active service in the south and 
took part in the battles of Pea Ridge and 
Prairie Grove, Arkansas, the siege of Vicks- 
burg, and numerous skirmishes. On the 
expiration of his term of enlistment, he 
was honorably discharged in 1S64 and re- 
turned to Illinois, where he made his home 
until coming to Nebraska in 1872. In 
York county, he secured a homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres on section 18, 
Thayer township, erected a sod house 
thereon, and moved into it. Ten years 
later a good frame dwelling was built and 
in it the family still reside. 

On the 8th of December, 1864, occur- 
red the marriage of Mr. Taylor and Miss 
Jane Downey, daughter of John and Martha 
(Jamison) Downey, and a native of Ireland, 
whence she came to the United states in 
1 86 1. To them have been born twelve 
children, as follows: Hettie I.; John J., 
deceased; Frank W. , deceased; Benjamin 
H. ; Willie, deceased; Mattie; Evana; 
Norman, deceased; Joseph; Jessie; Samuel; 
and \\'alter. The family hold member- 
ship in the Presbyterian church of Bene- 
' diet, and in politics Mr. Taylor is identified 
with the Republican party. For six years 
he has most creditably served as justice of 
the peace, and has been an efficient mem- 
ber of the school board in his district for 
eleven years. He is held in high regard by 
the entire community in which he has so 
long made his home. 



HENRY WOOD is one of the honored 
pioneers of Butler county, having set- 
tled here in February, 1871, and has since 
engaged in agricultural pursuits on section 
22, Platte township, with most excellent re- 
sults. His farm, with its tasteful and sub- 
stantial buildings, its neat fences and its 
general air of thrift and comfort, forms one 



of the most attractive spots in the land- 
scape of the township. 

Mr. Wood first opened his eyes to the 
light of day November 10, 1840, in York- 
shire, England, and is a son of Abraham 
and Mary Wood. At the early age of 
twelve years he entered the employ of a 
railroad company, and continued to follow 
that occupation until coming to America in 
1 87 1. In his native land he married Miss 
Harriet Doughty, who died in Nebraska in 
1875, leaving five children: Henry A., 
Samuel W. and Clara R. (now the wife of 
Fred Hereford), who are not residents of 
Butler county;. and Ernest A. and Alfred 
v., who have been reared by the second 
wife of our subject, and treated by her as her 
own children. In 1876 Mr. Wood married 
Araminta Swan, a native of Coles county, 
Illinois, who came to Nebraska in 1865. 
Her parents were William M. and Rhoda 
(Briscoe) Swan, and she traces her ancestry 
back to early colonial days. Her maternal 
grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution- 
ary war, and fought under General Wash- 
ington. He was of English descent, while 
his wife was of Scotch lineage. By his sec- 
ond union Mr. Wood has five children, 
namely: John James, Rhoda P. , Ethel S., 
Charles Henry and Marion I. 

Crossing the Atlantic to try his fortune 
in the new world, Mr. Wood landed in 
New York city, in January, 1S71, and at 
once proceeded to Nebraska, passing 
through Burlington, Iowa, and Ashland, this 
state, on his way to Butler county. Being 
thoroughly familiar with railroad work, it 
was at first his intention to engage in that 
occupation in this country, but seeing an 
opportunity of getting a home for himself 
and family, he came to this region and for 
eighty-six dollars purchased a claim of 
eighty acres in Platte township, Butler 
county. He prospered in his new under- 
taking, and is to-day the owner of a fine 
farm of two hundred acres, which is well 



612 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



improved and under a high state of cultiva- 
tion. As a citizen and business man he 
stands high in the esteem of his neigh- 
bors. In the various enterprises inaugurat- 
ed for the advancement of the community 
he has been a cheerful and ready assistant, 
and takes a lively interest in the progress 
of the people around him. Both he and 
his wife are sincere and faithful members of 
the Methodist church, and are held in high 
regard by all who know them. 



JOHN W. STRAIGHT, M. D.— Among 
those who devote their energies to the 
practice of medicine and surgery and have 
gained a leading place in the ranks of the 
profession is Dr. Straight, who in a compar- 
atively short time has built up an excellent 
practice in Benedict and surrounding coun- 
try. He was born in Brown county, Ohio, 
February 22, j868, and is a son of Francis 
M. and Louise (Euans) Straight, highly re- 
spected farming people. In 1 88 1 the father re- 
moved to Omaha, Nebraska, but now makes 
his home in Wyoming. The Doctor's early 
education was secured in the common 
schools of his native state, and after the re- 
moval of the family to Omaha, he became 
a student in the schools of that city. On 
starting out in life for himself he was first 
employed as a stenographer and typewriter 
at Omaha in the state office of the Pheni.x 
Insurance Company of Brooklyn, and most 
acceptably filled that position for five years. 
In the meantime Dr. Straighthad begun 
the study of medicine, and in 1888 entered 
the Omaha Medical college, from which in- 
stitution he graduated with the class of 
1 89 1. This was supplemented by a year 
spent in the Douglas County hospital, 
where he gained an excellent practical 
knowledge of the science of medicine and 
surgery. In 1892 he opened an office in 
Louisville, Nebraska, where he remained 
for a year and a half, then moved to Curtis, 



and in 1895 came to Benedict. He is a 
progressve member of his profession, who 
keeps abreast of the latest discoveries and' 
theories by his perusal of medical journals, 
and his skill and ability are attested by the 
liberal patronage he enjoys, and which 
rank him among the leading physicians of 
York county. 

At Curtis, Nebraska, Dr. Straight was 
married, in 1894, to Miss Elizabeth Bower, 
a native of Illinois, and they now have a 
little daughter, Ruth E. Both hold mem- 
bership in the Methodist Episcopal church,- 
and the Doctor is also identified with the 
State and York County Medical societies- 
the Masonic Order, the Modern Woodmen 
of America, the Home Forum, and the 
Modern Brotherhood association. In his 
political affiliations he is a Republican, but 
has no desire for office, preferring to give 
his undivided attention to his large and con- 
stantly growing practice. 



WW. HOOPS is a prominent citizen and 
pioneer of precinct C, Seward county, 
is his settlement here dating from 1866. He 
one of Ohio's honored sons, his birth occurr- 
ing in Columbiana county, that state, Novem- 
ber 10, 1843. His parents, Thomas W. and 
Elizabeth (Elliott) Hoops, were both na- 
tives of Pennsylvania, but in early life re- 
moved to Ohio, where the father followed 
farming until 1880. It was in that year 
that he removed to Gage county, Nebraska, 
where he spent the remainder of his life, 
passing away October 8, 1894. ^'i his fam- 
ily were four sons, but our subject is the 
only one living in this state. 

The public schools of Ohio afforded Mr. 
Hoops his educational privileges, and when 
old enough he began to work on the home 
farm, thus acquiring an excellent knowl- 
edge of every branch of agriculture. Choos- 
ing the occupation to which he was reared 
as a life work, he followed farming in Ohio 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



613 



until 1866, when he came to Nebraska and 
took up a homestead in C township, Sew- 
ard county, where he now resides. Upon 
his place he erected a sod house and at 
once commenced the improvement and cul- 
tivation of his land. He now owns a quar- 
ter section, comprising one of the most 
fertile and productive tracts in Seward 
county, and is successfully engaged in its 
operation. Although his early life here was 
filled with many hardships, he is to-day 
reaping the reward of his industry in the 
enjoyment of a comfortable competence 
and pleasant home. 

In April, 1871, was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Hoops and Miss Lydia J. Mc- 
Fadden, a native of Indiana, and they have 
become the parents of six children, as fol- 
lows: H. Harrison, Machus, Lyman H. , 
Cora J., George and Rosie, all living. Re- 
ligiously Mr. and Mrs. Hoops are members 
of the Presbyterian church, while socially 
he belongs to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and politically is a supporter of 
the Republican party. Wherever known 
they are held in high regard. 



DR. ROBERT McCONAUGHY, York's 
leading physician, was born in Mount 
Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsyl- 
vania, April 6, 1852, a son of James and 
Harriett (Shallenberger) McConaughy, both 
of whom were born in Pennsylvania. 

James McConaughy was born at Ligon- 
ier, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 
in the year 18 10, a son of John and Mar- 
garet McConaughy, both of whom were 
natives of Pennsylvania. James McCon- 
aughy was educated in the common schools 
of Pennsylvania and the Washington and 
Jefferson College. He then spent some 
time at farming and at the carpenter trade, 
spending his leisure time reading medicine. 



In 1838 he entered the Jefferson Medical 
College, of Philadelphia, although he was 
compelled to work his way through college 
and practice some before completing his 
course. After graduating in 1845, he prac- 
ticed in Pleasant Unity two years. In 1840 
he moved to Mount Pleasant and made that 
his home and base of operations until 1886, 
when he moved to York, Nebraska, where 
he still resides. Since moving toNebraska, 
he has not practiced medicine. He had 
four brothers who were physicians, only one 
of whom, David W., is now living. He is 
still practicing in Westmoreland county, 
Pennsylvania. James, our subject's father, 
was vice-president of the State Medical 
Society of Pennsylvania in 1865, and presi- 
dent of the Westmoreland County Medical 
Society in 1859. He was married in 1844, 
and five children, two sons and three 
daughters, blessed his home. Of this 
family, our subject is the oldest son and 
second child, and one son and one daughter 
are now dead. 

Dr. Robert McConaughy, the subject of 
our sketch, was educated at the academy of 
Mount Pleasant, and at Lafayette College 
at Easton, Pennsylvania. He began read- 
ing medicine under his father in 1S72, and 
in 1873 he entered the Jefferson Medical 
College of Philadelphia, and in 1875 he 
graduated and began practice in partner- 
ship with his father. One year later he 
moved to Scottdale, and remained there 
four years. He then returned to Mount 
Pleasant, and in 1885, moved from thence 
to York, Nebraska, and has made that his 
home continuously since. He is a mem- 
ber of the York County Medical Society, and 
first vice-president of the State Medical 
Society, and for five years was railway sur- 
geon for the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri 
Valley railroad, and is the present surgeon 
of the Burlington & Missouri River railroad. 
He has been a member of the United States 
pension board for the past eleven years. In 



614 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



politics he is a Republican and is an ardent 
worker in that organization. 

Dr. McConaughy was married in 1892 
to Miss Floy Lawrence, a native of Iowa. 
The Doctor is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and held the office of grand 
medical examiner for Nebraska, in the latter 
organization, two years. He and his wife 
are both members of the Presbyterian 
church. 



GEORGE W. SMITH, for many years a 
leading citizen of Geneva, Nebraska, 
and long identified with prominent commer- 
cial enterprises of Fillmore county, has had 
a somewhat varied career, and has won his 
present enviable standing in the financial 
world by the exercise of those primal in- 
stincts of honesty, enterprise and integrity 
that are common to human nature. But he 
has had a clearer business vision perhaps 
than most men, and has been a little quicker 
to take advantage of the drift of events. 
He has inherited a good name, and traces 
his descent from the Mayflower voyagers 
through his maternal ancestry. 

Mr. Smith was born in Hillsdale county, 
Michigan, December 10, 1846, and was a 
son in the family of Job A. and Hannah 
(Wiborn) Smith. His father was a native 
of New Jersey, and came from a Scotch 
family which traces its origin back to Ger- 
man sources. His mother's family was 
purely English in its earlier days, and es- 
tablished itself on the soil of Massachusetts 
with the heroic company of those who came 
to a then untrodden wilderness, seeking 
peace and libert}' of conscience. Job Smith 
was a farmer in New York, where he had 
come as a young man and where he had 
early married. He followed a westward 
tide of emigration at an early da}- and en- 
tered into the milling business near Adrian, 
Michigan, which he followed for many years. 



He died at the home of his son, the subject 
of this sketch, in Geneva, about a dozen 
years ago. His mother died hi or about 
1S73 or '74. George was a child when his 
parents moved to Michigan, and was only 
nine years old when they went to Ionia 
county. They remained there two years, 
and then found a home in Branch county, 
where he remained until he had reached 
twenty-four years of age. He had good 
educational advantages, and for some time 
was a student in the high school at Cold- 
water. His father was a miller at Adrian, 
but was a farmer for the remainder of his 
life, and his children were mostly reared on 
the farm. The farm is a good place to 
grow men, and there deep draughts of vital 
energy have been taken by those who have 
swayed the affairs of the world. 

When Mr. Smith had passed his twenty- 
fourth birthday he left home and struck out 
for himself. He joined a brother in Owas- 
so, who was in the drug business and a 
practicing physician as well. He became 
interested in the study of medicine, and 
devoted much time to it. He sold out his 
interest in the store and went to Detroit to 
take a course of lectures in the Homeo- 
pathic college. He did not complete the 
full course, but returned to Owasso, and 
spent some time as assistant in his brother's 
office while pursuing his studies still further. 
He did not find medicine as attractive and 
profitable as he had supposed, and discover- 
ing business qualifications he took a position 
in a wholesale grocery establishment, which 
he held for two years. Then, in company 
with an intimate friend purchased a grocery 
store in Owasso, and carried it on verj' suc- 
cessfully for two years. The firm name 
was Smith & Lawrence, and the association 
continued until the spring of 1878, when it 
was terminated by the withdrawal of Mr. 
Smith, who had decided to come to Nebras- 
ka for a new business field. He looked the 
state over quite thoroughly and weighed 




ft 



r?^ 




GEOHGE W. SMITH. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



617 



the ad\antages of several points, and se- 
lected Geneva as a very desirable location. 
He came here very soon after the closing; of 
his business in Michigan and engaged in a 
loan office, which grew into the Geneva Ex- 
change bank the following year. It was the 
first institution of the kind in the town, and 
proved of vast advantage to the business in- 
terests of the region. He was its first presi- 
dent, and retained its uninterrupted control 
until 1888, when it became the First Na- 
tional bank of Geneva. In 1886 he also 
established a private bank at Milligan, which 
remained under his control for some five 
years when he sold it. He disposed of his 
interest in the First National bank in 1894, 
when it was consolidated with the Geneva 
National bank, and still bears that name. 

Since his retirement from banking in- 
terests, Mr. Smith finds his attention fully 
occupied in caring for his large personal 
interests and real estate holdings. He 
owns one thousand and forty acres of im- 
proved land in this county, and has brought 
it up to a high state of cultivation. He has 
always been a Republican until 1896. In 
that year he felt his duty in another direc- 
tion, and strongly supported the free silver 
movement. He says he is properly classed 
in politics as a Free Silver Republican. In 
former years he has taken a deep interest 
in the party movements, and has contributed 
liberally to its funds, but he has never been 
an aspirant for office nor has he held one, 
otherwise than serving his fellow-townsmen 
as mayor. He belongs to the Masonic 
chapter and commandery, and while not a 
member of any church contributes liberally 
to all. He was married, June 9, 1881, to 
Miss Addie F. Dempster, a native of Dun- 
dee, Illinois, and a daughter of Alexander 
R. and Sarah (Johnson) Dempster. Her 
father was born in Scotland, and her mother 
in Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the 
parents of four children, Warren J., Flor- 
ence (deceased). Hazel A. and George D. 



They occupy a fine home, thoroughly mod- 
ern in all its appointments and furnishing, 
which is a credit to the town its owner has 
done so much to build up and improve. 
Accompanying this sketch appears a portrait 
of Mr. Smith. 



THOMAS BIGGS, one of the most promi- 
nent and influential citizens of Stroms- 
burg precinct, Polk county, Nebraska, is 
successfully operating a large and well regu- 
lated farm, which he conducts according to 
the most modern and improved methods, on 
section 32, township 13, range 2. He was 
born October 22, 1844, in DeKalb county, 
Illinois, and is a son of John and Mary Jane 
(Gurney) Biggs. They were both natives 
of Northampton, near Welford, England, 
where they were married. The}' emigrated 
to America about 1832, and settled near 
Pontiac, Michigan. John Biggs took out 
his naturalization papers at Chicago, Illi- 
nois, in the year 1832. He entered new 
land in Michigan, and later he entered two 
hundred acres, on which part of the city of 
Chicago now stands. He next took up 
land in DeKalb county, Illinois, which he 
improved, and then removed to Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, about 1840. His place of 
abode was near Lawrenceburg in Indiana, 
and from there they removed to Morgan 
county, Illinois. From the latter place 
they went to Christian county, in the same 
state, where he entered new land, which he 
improved and resided upon until his death, 
which occurred in 1852. His wife survived 
him ten years and then passed to the world 
beyond in June, 1862. John Biggs was the 
son of an English gentleman, and knew 
little about work, though he had an excel- 
lent education, which he put to good use in 
America, by teaching school. He was the 
father of nine children, two girls and seven 
boys, three of whom, William, Thomas, 
the subject of this article, and Charles 



618 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHi: 



served in the United States army during the 
late Civil war. 

Thomas Biggs was reared and educated 
in the Common schools of Illinois. He was 
raised on a farm and at an early age he be- 
gan work on the same. He enlisted in 1862 
in Company K, One Hundred and First 
Illinois Volunteers, as a private. The regi- 
ment was sent to Cairo, Illinois, from 
whence they were ordered to Columbus, 
Kentucky, and attached to the Fourteenth 
army corps. At the battle of Holly Springs 
six companies of his regiment were captured, 
but his company was not among them. 
They were then ordered to Vicksburg, un- 
der General Grant, and were detailed to 
guard prisoners at Milliken's Bend and 
Chickasaw Bayou. After the fall of Vicks- 
burg, the regiment went to Columbus, Ken- 
tucky, where it was assembled in full, as the 
other companies had been exchanged. They 
were then ordered to Bridgeport, Alabama, 
and became a part of the Third brigade, 
First division of the Twentieth army corps 
under the command of General Joseph 
Hooker, which went to Knoxville to relieve 
Burnside's army there. They took part in 
in the Chattanooga campaign, and on 
May 4, 1864, participated in the battle 
of Lookout Mountain, that far-famed 
battle above the clouds. The regiment 
was then deployed at skirmishing, and 
in the battles of Resaca and Dalton, Georgia, 
their division lost 1,800 men. This was 
during the Atlanta campaign, in which they 
were engaged in the battles of Kenesaw 
Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and engaged 
in the siege of Atlanta, at the termination 
of which they started on the famous " march 
to the sea," under General Sherman. They 
were engaged in many battles and skir- 
mishes during that memorable campaign, 
among which were battle of Bentonville, 
through to Raleigh, North Carolina, and 
were present at the surrender of Johnston's 
army. The command to which he belonged 



then marched through Richmond to Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, where they 
partisipated in the Grand Review. They 
were then sent to Springfield, where they 
were mustered out in June, 1865. Mr. Biggs 
fought during the entire term of his enlist- 
ment without missing a day of duty, nor 
was he ever captured or wounded during 
his term of service. 

After the cessation of hostilities he made 
his home in Morgan and Sangamon coun- 
ties, Illinois until about 1868. On Septem- 
ber, 27, 1865, Mr. Biggs was united in 
marriage to Miss Margaret Jane Noble, who 
was born May 16, 1850, at St. Margaret, 
Canada. Her parents, John and Maria 
(Patterson) Noble, were both natives of 
Ireland, were married in Canada, and set- 
tled in Cass county, Illinois, where her 
father was accidentally killed in 1856. Her 
mother still survives and resides in Polk 
county. They were the parents of fouir 
children, and the mother subsequently 
married a Mr. Gormley. After the marriage 
of our subject he removed to Logan county, 
where they made their home until February, 
1873, when he located in Polk county, Ne- 
braska. He settled on his homestead in 
section 32 of township 13, range 2, on the 
15th of March of that year, and built a 
small frame house with the lumber which 
he hauled from Lincoln. He raised corn 
on his farm in 1873, but the following year 
his crop was destroyed by grasshoppers. 
The next year, i 875, he succeeded in garner- 
ing a good crop, but in 1876 he was again 
visited by that terrible pest, the grasshoppers. 
The next misfortune that befell him was the 
destructive hail storm of 1881, which de- 
stroyed his entire crop, and also broke every 
pane of glass in his residence, which he had 
built in 1880, having lost his former home 
by fire in 1879. But notwithstanding the 
misfortunes and adversity through which he 
passed, he is now one of the most substan- 
tial farmers in the vicinity. He owns seven 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



619 



hundred and twenty acres of fine land in 
this county, and also has forty acres of land 
at York, York county, all of which is under 
cultivation. The land' was all wild and 
unbroken when he secured it, but it is now 
in a very prosperous condition; he has an 
orchard consisting of four hundred apple 
trees, all bearing, and it is all the result of 
his own untiring energy. 

Mr. and Mrs. Biggs are the parents of 
sixteen children, eleven of whom are now 
living, viz: Jennie; Lulu, the wife of Berry 
McCart, and the mother of three children, 
as follows: Merle, Earle, and an infant; 
John, Kate, Daisy, Grace, Mabel, Edna, 
Dora, Frank and Roy. The family are all 
members in good standing of the Adventist 
church. Mr. and Mrs. Biggs are both 
members of the Forum at Benedict. He 
is also a member of the Modern Woodmen 
of America at Benedict, the G. A. R., the 
Masonic fraternity and the A. O. U. W. at 
Stromsburg. Politically he is a free-silver 
Republican. The family are old settlers 
here and belong to one of the most promi- 
nent families now living in this vicinity. 



PHILIP PRIDAY is one of the honored 
pioneers and representative citizens of 
Thayer township, York county, where he 
has made his home since 1872 and has been 
closely identified with its agricultural inter- 
ests. On first coming here he homesteaded 
eighty acres on section 18, which he still oc- 
cupies, and where he has built up one of the 
most desirable farms in the locality. While 
struggling with the primitive soil and bring- 
ing about the improvements which he has 
reason to view with satisfaction, he has also 
watched with the deepest interest the 
growth and development of this section of 
the state, and, in the establishment of one 
of its most valuable farms, has contributed 
his quota to its progress and prosperity. 
He now owns three eighty-acre tracts under 



a high state of cultivation and improved 
with excellent farm buildings. 

Wilkeshire, England, was the early 
tramping ground of our subject, his birth 
occurring there July 29, 1836. His parents, 
Richard and Sophia (Fry) Priday, were 
natives of the same shire, born in the vil- 
lage of Brinkworth, and there they lived and 
died. They were farming people and were 
highly respected by all who knew them. 
The maternal grandfather of our subject 
was John Fry. 

In the family of ten children, Philip 
Priday was the ninth in order of birth, and 
in the common schools of his native land he 
acquired his literary education. At an 
early age he begon farming, and continued 
to follow that pursuit in England until 1872, 
when he crossed the broad Atlantic, land- 
ing in Portland, Maine, whence he proceed- 
ed at once to York county, Nebraska, and 
took up a claim, as previously stated. He 
has since been numbered among the most 
successful and enterprising farmers of his 
community. 

In 1859 Mr. Priday was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Ann Jones, a daughter of 
John and Sarah Jones, both natives of Eng- 
land. They have no family. Mr. Priday 
assisted in the organization of his township, 
and has always taken an active and promi- 
nent part in public affairs, but has never 
sought office. Politically he is a Republican, 
and religiously, he and his estimable wife 
are both devout members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 



ZIONS CONGREGATION OF THE 
GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHE- 
RAN CHURCH, situated on Lincoln creek, 
Seward county, Nebraska, was organized 
in 1870, with the following roll of 
members: Fred Hartmann,Fred Scheumann, 
John Schoepf, William, Meyer, F. Mayland, 
V. Hermann, John Leuthke, August Daeh- 



620 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ling, Henry Daehling, William Daehling, 
J. Bertiam, William Burgenger, C. Temp- 
lin, L. Niels, Echardt Haufmann, H. Neu- 
jahr, Henry Railing, John Maack and 
Charles Boehnen. 

The first pastor of Zion's congregation 
was the Rev. T. Gruber, who was installed 
in November, 1870, and who also had 
charge of another congregation on Middle 
creek, Nebraska. The Rev. Gruber ac- 
cepted the call of another congregation in 
1873, and after this a student of theology, 
Mr. L. Huber, had charge of the congrega- 
tion for a time. In 1874, one of the mem- 
bers, Mr. Fred Hartmann, donated about 
three and a half acres of his estate to the 
congregation, and on this property a new 
church and parish house were erected, and 
the remainder of the tract was used for a 
cemeter}'. During the same year, the Rev. 
J. Seidel, of Quincy, Illinois, took charge of 
the congregation and served in that capacity 
for about two and a half years. During 
this time, the congregation added to its 
property by purchase three and a half acres. 
After the Rev. Seidel left, the Rev. T. 
Haessler, of Crete, Nebraska, accepted a 
call of the society and took charge of the 
work, and during the time that he was 
pastor, in 1877, a new and larger church- 
building was erected, and the old one was 
used by the parochial school that was or- 
ganized a short time previous in connectoin 
with the church. 

In 1879, when the congregation consisted 
of thirty-four members, it joined the Ger- 
man Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Mis- 
souri, Ohio and other states, which at 
present consists of about 1,500 pastors and 
and 2,000 congregations. After five years of 
service in this place, the Rev. Haessler took 
charge of another congregation, and in 1882, 
the Rev. J. Geo. Weller was chosen by 
this society as its pastor. In 1884, a new 
school was built, and in 1888, the present 
church, building was erected at the cost of 



about $4,000. In 1891, there were eighty 
pupils in the school, the work became too 
great for the pastor, and Mr. H. Hillmann 
was chosen as teacher. A fine large school- 
house, 26x40x12 feet, was also built dur- 
ing this year. After serving this society in 
the capacity of pastor for twelve years, the 
Rev. J. Geo. Weller accepted the position 
of professor of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Teachers Seminary, at Seward, Nebraska, 
and the Rev. J. Catenhusen, the present 
pastor, then took charge of the congrega- 
tion. At present, the congregation numbers 
sixt3^-two voting members, and an aggregate 
of about five hundred souls, and has eighty- 
seven scholars in the school, and the entire 
property is valued at about $6,000.00 
Since the organization, about 600 have been 
baptized, 260 have been confirmed, ninety 
couples united in the bonds of holy matri- 
mony, 125 dead have been buried, and for 
benevolent purposes, about $5,000 have been 
collected. 



CHARLES C. WULLBRANDT.— It is 
perhaps early in its history to speak of 
York county's oldest families, as that term 
would generally imply the occupation of the 
same lands and locality by many successive 
generations of the same family. But if any 
famil}' in York county can lay claim to that 
distinction it is that of which our subject is 
a member. He accompanied his parents 
to that locality in 1869, he being but four- 
teen years of age at that time. He now 
owns a large tract of valuable land, and 
makes his residence on section 24, McFad- 
den township. 

The parents of our subject, Charles H. 
and Fredericka (Holloch) Wullbrandt, were 
natives of Germany. Charles H. Wullbrandt 
was born in 1828, and was reared and ed- 
ucated in Germany, and was a carpenter 
and cabinet maker by trade. When about 
twenty years of age he came to America, 



COMPENDIUM OF BI0GRAPH2'. 



621 



and took up his residence in Brooklyn, New 
York, where he worked at his trade. In 
Brooklyn he met and married Fredericka 
Holloch, also a native of Germany, born 
there in 1830. Her parents both died, and 
she came to America at the age of fourteen 
to join her brother Christian. After his 
marriage, Charles H. Wullbrandt removed 
to Lasalle county, Illinois, in 1856. For 
a couple of years he worked on a farm for 
wages, then rented land, and successfully 
conducted farming for himself. In the fall 
of 1869 he removed to York county, Ne- 
braska, where he homesteaded eighty acres of 
land and pre-empted another tract of like 
extent. This land comprised the south- 
west quarter of section 14, McFadden town- 
ship. He was among the earliest settlers 
and like many others, at that time, was poor, 
having only a team and household effects. 
At first their residence was a combination 
of log house and dug-out. Many years of 
hardships were endured, but by hard work 
and intelligent economy he finally overcame 
all obstacles and is now one of the wealth- 
iest farmers in York county. His holdings 
in land aggregate seven hundred and twenty 
acres, all in McFadden township. For 
many years he was one of the most promi- 
nent men in that section of the state. He 
assisted in the organization of the township, 
and of school district No. 2, the second 
district organized in the county, and helped 
to build its school-house, the second in the 
county. It was a log-cabin structure, 
which has long since disappeared, having 
been destroyed by fire many years ago. Mr. 
Wullbrandt also served as a member of the 
county board of supervisors three years, 
and held a number of township and local 
offices. He and his wife now live in retire- 
ment in the village of Exeter; and perhaps 
none in York county could give a better 
account of its early history. 

When our subject, Charles C. Wull- 
brandt, went with his parents to York 



county he was but fourteen years old. The 
family consisted of five sons and two 
daughters, of which our subject is the 
eldest. He attended the log-cabin school 
in district No. 2, and worked on the farm 
by the month, almost from the time of their 
first settlement in the county until he reached 
his majority. He then located on a farm of 
his own, comprising the southeast quarter of 
section 23, McFadden township. At the 
time it had only forty acres broken. He 
improved it and added to it until he now 
owns four hundred acres, all in a body, 
three hundred acres of which are under 
cultivation, and the balance devoted to 
pasture and meadow. His residence is now 
situated on section 24. 

Charles C. Wullbrandt was married 
February 2, 1882, to Laura Mann, a native 
of Illinois, and daughter of William and 
Mena (Dunker) Mann. Mrs. Wullbrandt's 
father was a native of Pennsylvania, and 
her mother a native of Germany. They 
were among the earliest pioneers of York 
county, having located there in 1869. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wullbrandt are the par- 
ents of five children, named as follows: 
Eva L. ; Eddie A. and Harry A., twins; 
Henry C, and Ralph R. The family at- 
tend the Bethel United Brethren church, of 
which the parents are members. Mr. 
Wullbrandt also holds membership in the 
A. O. U. W. and the M. W. A. at McCool 
Junction. 



SAMUEL T. MAPPS holds an honorable 
place among the pioneers of Lockridge 
township, and has seen the settlement of 
York county almost from the beginning. He 
owns a productive and well kept farm, and 
sustains a high reputation for business honor 
and personal rectitude. 

Mr. Mapps was born September 29, 
18151, in Will county, Illinois, and is the 
oldest son of William and Elizabeth (Ken- 



622 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



drick) Mapps. His father was a cooper by 
trade, and followed that occupation through 
the greater part of his life. He settled in 
Illinois in 1845 and lived there until 1889, 
when he moved to this county. Samuel 
Mapps received his schooling in his native 
county, and became a farmer. He is a 
tiller of the soil by choice. He loves 
the heart of nature, and believes in 
coming close to mother earth. In 1882 he 
purchased a quarter section of Lockridge 
township, and immediately entered upon 
its cultivation. From that date he has been 
associated with all the affairs of this county. 
The land was unbroken prairie when it came 
into his possession, and by unflagging in- 
dustry he has brought it up to a great fertil- 
ity. He is a Populist, and has been town- 
ship assessor three years, and served one 
term as a member of the county board of 
supervisors. He was nominated for county 
treasurer in 1896, and though he made a 
gallant fight, fell short of election. As a 
testimonial of his ability and popularity as a 
citizen he was recently nominated by his 
party to represent York county in the state 
legislature. He has been twice married— 
the first time in 1872, to Miss Sarah Mills. 
She died, leaving him one child. He was 
again married in 1888 to Miss Flora Thamer, 
whose home was in this township. They 
have three children, Howard E. , Ralph E. 
and Hattie E. He is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is 
generally recognized as one of the leading 
men of the county. 



SAINT MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 
Luxemburg Settlement. Butler county. 
Rev. Carl Stapf, priest. — Between July 3, 
1869, and the year 1873, the following 
parties settled in the vicinity of the present 
site of the above-named church: P. N. 
Meysenburg, Mike Demuth, Jac Demuth, 
John Marx, John Sprung, John Meysenburg, 



M. M. Meysenburg, Bernard Schlentz, John 
Birkel, Peter Medinger, Nic Steiner, Frank 
Steiner, P. Birkel, Nic Reisdorf, P. De- 
muth, John Gills and John Frieden. 

On April 16, 1874, at the request of the 
above named settlers. Rev. Uhing, pastor 
of West Point, celebrated mass for the first 
time in the settlement, and almost the 
whole community received the sacrament of 
penance and holy communion, and six 
children were baptized. May 18, 1874, 
Father Bernard first visited the mission and 
for nearly three years he made regular visits, 
except during the winter months. Novem- 
ber 21, 1876, Father Bernard exhorted the 
people to build a church, as they had prior 
to that date held services at the residence 
of P. N. Meysenburg. In accordance with 
the wishes of Father Bernard the little 
society set to work and the following sub- 
scriptions were made: Nic Steiner, forty 
dollars; Frank Steiner, twenty-five dollars; 
M. Demuth, twenty-five dollars; P. Med- 
inger, twenty-five dollars; Nic Reisdorf, 
twenty-five dollars; John Frieden, twenty- 
five dollars; M. M. Meysenburg, twenty-five 
dollars; P. M. Meysenburg, fifty dollars; 
Jac Demuth, twenty-five dollars; John Mey- 
senburg, twenty-five dollars; P. Demuth, 
ten dollars; John Steiner, ten dollars; John 
Marx, twenty-six dollars and seventy-five 
cents; John Birkel, twenty-five dollars; B. 
Schlentz, thirty dollars; P. Birkel, twenty- 
five dollars; John Gills, two dollars; John 
Kosch, Sr. , five dollars; J. A. Reed and J. 
Richardson, twenty dollars; and S. W. 
Watson, five dollars. There was then a 
committee appointed for the purpose of 
collecting the money subscribed, viz: Mike 
Demuth, president; Nic Steiner, treasurer; 
and John Meysenburg, secretarj'. Also a 
building committee: John Bernard, Nic 
Meysenburg, Sr. ,Mike Demuth, B. Schlentz 
and Frank Steiner, of whom the first two 
named were president and vice-president, 
respectively. This committee selected for 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



623 



a location for the new church building, a 
two-acre strip of land which was deeded by 
John Meysenburg to the Rt. Rev. James 
O'Conner, Ro .an Catholic Bishop of 
Omaha, and to his successors for the use 
of the Catholics of Savannah township, 
Platte Valley, and vicinity, on the condi- 
tions that if the church should ever be re- 
moved the property should revert to the 
grantor of the deed or his heirs. On No- 
vember I, 1877, a subscription was taken 
up to the amount of ninety-two dollars and 
fifty cents for plastering the church, and on 
November 25, 1878, the new church was 
dedicated under the tjtle: Presentation B. 
\. M., by the Rt. Rev. James O'Connor, 
Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska. 

The priests who have had charge of this 
mission are as follows; Religious — P. 
Ambrosius O. S. F. , P. Anselmus O. S. F. 
Sr., P. SebastanusO. S. F. Sr. , P. Johannes 
O. S. F. , all of whom were from the Fran- 
ciscan Convent, at Columbus, Nebraska. 
The resident pastors — P. Cyrillus O. S. F., 
P. Seraphin O. S. F. and P. Bonifacius O. 
S. F. After the last-named priest severed 
his connection with the society, the church 
was presided over for several months from 
David City, by Rev. Reindorff, until he was 
taken sick and was removed to Columbus 
hospital, and again the Franciscans from 
Columbus took charge, in 1S83, and P. 
Bonifacius O. S. F. presided. Secular 
Priests — In 1883, the church was given 
a resident pastor. Rev. Muller from 
1883 to 1887, Rev. N. Stoltz from 1887 
to 1888, and during the last-named year 
the Luxemburg had two more pastors. 
Revs. F. Schraffl and J. P. Bayer. In 
the beginning of the year 1889, J. H. 
Hansen was appointed and had charge until 
1892, and was then succeeded by Rev. 
Felix Bronnenkant, who served from 1892 
until 1895. Iri July. '895' J- T. Reinhard 
was appointed, but was succeeded in Novem- 
ber of the same year by Rev. Carl Stapf. 



Building of the New Saint Mary's 
church. — After his arrival at the Luxemburg 
Mission, February 14, 1891, Rev. J. H. 
Hansen made an effort to build a new 
church. The subscription was taken by 
himself and P. N. Meysenburg to the 
amount of four thousand one hundred and 
thirty dollars. On July 28, 1889, the 
corner-stone of the New Saint Mary's church 
was laid, and the collection taken on that 
occasion amounted to seventy-seven dollars 
fifty cents. The building committee con- 
sisted of the following members: Nic 
Steiner,Treas. ; John Frieden, Mike Demuth, 
P. Birkel, P. Medinger, John Kosch, P. N. 
Meysenburg and Nic Reisdorf. On Febru- 
ary 2, 1890, services were held for the first 
time in the new church, and on the evening 
of the same day the building was entirely 
destroyed by fire, and again the old church 
was used for holding services. Steps were 
taken to rebuild the destroyed church and 
a meeting was called on April 13, 1890, at 
the old church for that purpose. The con- 
gregation elected as members of this com- 
mittee: Nic Steiner, treasurer, John Mor- 
bach and Frank Steiner; and the pastor, J. 
H. Hanson, appointed, as the church trus- 
tees, P. N. Meysenburg and John Frieden. 
The contributions of the congregation were 
liberal and the pastor and committees were 
not only able to rebuild the church, but 
also to buy the sacred vessels and vestments 
for the sacred functions. The second new 
church was dedicated in 1891 by Rt. Rev. 
Thomas Bonacum, bishop of Lincoln. 

The present priest of Saint Mary's 
church, Rev. Carl Stapf, was born in Baden, 
Germany, in the year 1872. He was edu- 
cated in the University of Louvain, Bel- 
gium, where he was ordained in 1895. He 
still lacked thirteen months of the required 
age of twenty-four years, but gained permis- 
sion from Rome to take orders under age. He 
selected the diocese of Lincoln and came 
directly to Butler county, where he was 



624 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



given charge of the Saint Mary's church of 
the Luxemburg settlement, in Savannah 
township. 



EDWARD C. BIGGS has been engaged 
in the practice of law for some years at 
Seward, Nebraska, and his career illustrates 
the value of clear and definite aims in life, 
and the concentration of energy upon their 
accomplishment. He is a lawyer, and to 
the law he has given all his power, and to 
say that he stands well before the court and 
the public as a reliable and well furnished 
practitioner, is to state the simple truth. 
He is still a young man, and his friends are 
certain that if he keeps his health large 
things are before him in the future. 

Mr. Biggs was born in Webster City, 
Iowa, July lO, 1863, and was a child of 
Clinton E. and Mary A. (Maxwell) Biggs. 
They came from Maryland and Virginia, 
and the husband and father was killed in 
the .Civil war, when he was only twenty- 
one years of age- He was in the Second 
Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, and his young life 
was but one of a vast number of the brave 
and true that were paid as the price of the 
safety of the Republic. The young and 
fatherless lad grew up in Webster City, 
where his education was begun in the pub- 
lic school. He attended an academy at Dixon, 
Illinois, and the State Agricultural college at 
Ames. He selected the law as his life work, 
and took a two years course in the law 
department of the State University at Iowa 
City, graduating with the class of 1888. 
He was a good student, and completed the 
required studies with credit. He made his 
way directly to this county, and immediate- 
ly began the practice of his profession at 
Seward. He formed a partnership with E. 
P. Smith, under the firm name of Smith & 
Biggs, which continued for two years. The 
firm of Biggs & Thomas then came into 
existence, which lasted until the election of 



Mr. Thomas to the county bench in 1898. 
At present Mr. Biggs is carrying on his 
practice alone. 

Edward C. Biggs and Miss Nellie S. 
Startsman were united in marriage in 1890, 
and though the union has proved a fortu- 
nate one, the home is as yet devoid of the 
presence of little children. He has pleasant 
social and fraternal relations, and his face 
is often seen in mystic regions. He is a 
Mason of approved standing, and is a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and the I^nignts of Pythias, and his 
is a welcome presence at any of these fra- 
ternal gatherings. He is a stanch Demo- 
crat, and was a delegate to the national 
convention of 1896. He is a leader of the 
part}' in this county, and his voice is often 
heard on the hustings. 



PHILIP B. HUFF.—The agricuhural 
community of Lockridge township, 
York county, Nebraska, has a worthy repre- 
sentative in the person of the gentleman 
whose name heads this sketch. He resides 
on section 23 of the above-named township, 
and is well known and popular throughout 
the entire count}'. He was born in Tusca- 
rawas county, Ohio, July 18, 1845. 

The grandfather of our subject, Charles 
Huff, served in the Napoleonic wars, 
during which the entire company of which 
he was a member was annihiliated, he 
being the only one to escape. The 
saber which he used is now a family relic 
and belongs to our subject. The parents of 
the gentleman.of whom this biography is writ- 
ten are Jacob and Catherine (Bamer) Huff, 
both natives of Germany, who emigrated to 
the United States in 1836. The father 
was born in 181 5, and came to the United 
States to avoid serving in the German army, 
which every subject of the kaiser is obliged 
to do. He was a farmer by occupation, 
and upon his arrival in this country he first 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



625 



settled in Ohio. From there he removed 
to Marshall county, Indiana, where he died 
in the seventy-eighth year of his life. He 
was the father of ten children, three sons 
and seven daughters. 

Philip B. Huff was the fourth child in 
order of birth of a family of ten children. 
He was educated in the common schools, in 
both English and German branches of 
study. He followed the occupation of a 
farmer until he had attained the age of 
twenty-one. He then secured a position in 
a sawmill, where he remained for the ne.xt 
seven years, after which he resumed his oc- 
cupation of farming, which he followed or 
the following six 3'ears. In 1880 he came 
to York county, Nebraska, and purchased a 
farm which he now owns. The farm con- 
sists of three hundred and twenty acres of 
excellent land, which he has brought to a 
high state of cultivation, and is now the 
happy possessor of one of the best improved 
farms in the county. He has followed gen- 
eral farming exclusively since his arrival 
in the county, and has had unparalleled suc- 
cess in the pursuit of his chosen vocation. 

The marriage ceremony of our subject 
was celebrated January 3, 1868, in Mar- 
shall county, Indiana, the bride being Sophia 
Miller, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of 
Gideon Miller. To this happy union have 
been born nine children, on whom they have 
bestowed the following names: Emma 
Matilda, Wilbur G., John H., Charles E., 
Jacob E., Frank H., Philip G., Claud W., 
and Verna C. all of whom are still living. 
The family are all members in good stand- 
ing of the United Brethren church, at 
which they are regular attendants. Mr. 
Huff is a Populist in his political life, but 
has never sought any office. Socially he is 
a member of the Ancient Order United 
Workman, and he is well known and highly 
respected throughout the entire county, 
where he has a host of friends and acquaint- 
ances. 

3Q 



JOHN ROBBINS is a well-known and 
substantial citizen of York county, who 
is now directing his attention to the cultiva- 
tion of his fine farm on section 30, Stewart 
township. He is one of the prominent, 
self-made men of the community — a man 
honored, respected and esteemed wherever 
known, and most of all where he is best 
known. 

Mr. Robbins was born in Jay county, 
Indiana, February 12, 1844, a son of Ran- 
dolph and Mary Jane (Hewitt) Robbins, 
natives of New Jersey and Ohio, respect- 
ively. As early as 1S40 the father located 
in Jay county, Indiana, where he cleared 
and improved a farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres, but subsequently he returned to 
Springboro, Ohio, where he conducted a 
shoe-shop for four years. The following 
two years he spent in Putnam county, Illi- 
nois, then lived in Mason county, that state, 
for five years, and two years in Jacksonville, 
Illinois. His next home was in Butler 
county, Kansas, where his death occurred 
in April, 1897. Both in Indiana and Ohio 
he served as a member of a light horse com- 
pany in the militia. His wife died at the 
early age of thirty-three years, and three of 
their seven children are also deceased. 
Those living are Rhoda, John, Amos and 
Oella. 

Our subject spent the greater part of his 
boyhood and youth in Illinois, and he early 
became familiar with agricultural pursuits, 
but his literary training was verj' limited, as 
he only attended school about six months. 
He remained at home until twenty-two 
years of age, and was married, in 1866, to 
Miss L. J. Ragan, native of Ohio, and a 
daughter of C. C. Ragan, who died in Sew- 
ard, Nebraska. Eleven children bless this 
union, as follows: Herman B., Collin R., 
Voorheis B., Burkby A., Weldon R., Dot- 
tie E. and Lavilda B., and four who are 
dead. 

For two years after his marriage, Mr. 



620 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Robbins lived on his father's farm in Mason 
county, Illinois, but in 1869 came to York 
county, Nebraska, and located upon his 
present homestead. For three months he 
lived in his wagon box while putting up a 
pole house and breaking prairie. For his 
mail he had to go to Seward, a distance of 
twenty-four miles, while his nearest market 
was Nebraska City, where corn sold at one 
dollar per bushel. Bacon was worth thirty 
cents per pound at Lincoln. In 1870 he 
sowed seven acres of oats and alike amount 
of wheat and corn. While breaking his land 
he sowed the corn in every third furrow, and 
in this way raised a good crop. From his 
seven-acre patches he raised two hundred 
and eighty bushels of corn, sixteen bushels 
of wheat, and one hundred and forty 
bushels of oats, and also raised thirty bushels 
of potatoes along the creek. In the fall of 
1 870 he replaced his pole house, daubed 
with mud, by a dug-out, in which he lived 
for one year and then built a double log 
house with a clay floor. Three years later 
a small frame house was built, and in 1896 
his present comfortable and commodious 
residence was erected. He now owns eight 
hundred and eighty acres of valuable land, 
of which three hundred and sixty are under 
excellent cultivation, and upon his land are 
three sets of farm buildings. In January, 
1892, he removed to the city of York, where 
he was engaged in the grain business until 
his return to the farm in 1895, since which 
time he has given special attention to the 
raising of wheat. 

Since coming to Nebraska, Mr. Robbins 
has been an important factor in the growth 
and upbuilding of this region, and is to-day 
numbered among its most honored and use- 
ful citizens. He assisted in organizing both 
his township and county, and has been a 
most efficient member of the school board 
since the district was organized with the 
exception of three years. He has also filled 
the offices of road overseer and treasurer of 



Stewart township to the entire satisfaction 
of all concerned. In his political sentiment 
he is a stanch Republican. 



PN. MEYSEN BURG, one of the earliest 
of the Luxemburg settlers, whose home 
is now in section 35, Savannah township, 
Butler county, first located on section 30, 
township 16, range 3, July 3, 1869. 

Mr. Meysenburg was born in Luxem- 
burg, Germany, December 11, 1838, a son 
of Nicholas Meysenburg, and the first 
twenty-five years of his life were spent in his 
native country. He left the old country 
April 29, 1863, and came to New York, and 
without stopping in that city moved directly 
to and settled in Cascade, Iowa, and made 
that his home until 1869. Here he was 
married, January 19, 1869, and shortly 
after started, with his wife, father, brother 
and sister, on a prospecting tour through 
Kansas and Nebraska. Upon reaching the 
Platte valley, July 3, 1869, he decided to 
locate there and lost no time in preparing a 
habitation and notifying his friends of the 
location of his new home, and- many of them 
joined him later. In the following August 
he was joined by Jacob and Michael De- 
muth, who also moved to this locality from 
Cascade. They met Mr. Meysenburg on 
the prairie not far from his claim. Our 
subject bought his first farm for two dollars 
and fifty cents per acre, but he is now the 
proprietor of one thousand and six hundred 
acres of land that will compare favorably 
in value and fertility to the best in Butler 
county. Mr. Meysenburg is one of the sub- 
stantial and leading members of the Catholic 
church in that community. He was one of 
the potent factors in the organization of a 
society in the township, first as a Francis- 
can mission and later as a charge of a 
secular priest, as will be seen in the sketch 
of Rev. Carl Stapf, on another page of this 
volume. His contributions, both for church 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



627 



€rection and the support of the society, have 
always headed the Hst and he has always 
wielded a powerful influence throughout the 
valley. For several years before the church 
was built, mass was celebrated in Mr. 
Meysenburg's home. 

Mrs. Meysenburg, who bore the maiden 
name of Miss Mary B. Dehner, is a sister of 
John Dehner, now of Bone Creek township, 
Butler county. To this union have been 
born six children, now livmg, upon whom 
they have bestowed the following names: 
John, Annie, Margaret, Carrie, Henry and 
Stephen, and five died in infancy. 



JOHN N. ROBERTS is one of the 
worthy and highly respected citizens of 
Seward county whose identification with its 
history dates back to poineer days, for here 
he has made his home for a third of a cen- 
tury, and has watched with interest the 
wonderful changes that have here been 
made. He has taken a most active and 
prominent part in the work of transforma- 
tion, and on the rolls of Seward county's 
most honored pioneers his name should be 
found among the foremost. 

Our subject was born in Fulton county, 
Illinois, October 2, 1838, a son of John 
Roberts, now deceased, and there he con- 
tinued to make-his home until April, 1865, 
when he started for the west, driving over- 
land and arriving in Seward county on 
the 2nd of May, of that year. He took a 
homestead on section 19, precinct G, where 
he now resides, and his was the first farm- 
house west of the Blue river. It was a rail 
pen covered with boards, the lumber for 
which he hauled from Nebraska City, pay- 
ing eighty-five dollars per thousand for cot- 
ton wood. Later he built a log house, in 
which he lived for many years and which 
was often filled with Indians who were 
traveling along the Blue river. As years 
passed by the comforts of civilization were 



added to his pioneer home, and as he pros- 
pered in his farming operations he at length 
became the owner of three hundred and 
twenty acres of valuable land, which now 
adjoins the city of Seward. 

On the 6th of August, 1863, Mr. Roberts 
was united in marriage with Miss Margaret 
Shreves, a native of Pennsylvania and a 
daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Cook) 
Shreves, who were natives of Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, respectively. Mr. and Mrs. 
Roberts have a family of five children: 
Samuel O. ; Margaret L. , now the wife of 
A. Y. Williams; Vernice L. , and John F. 
and Julia R., twins. In politics, Mr. Rob- 
erts is a Populist, and he has been called 
upon to fill the offices of township treasurer 
and school director. In 1894 he was can- 
didate of his party for representative to the 
lower house of the legislature, but was de- 
feated. He is one of the most popular and 
influential citizens of his community, and by 
all who know him he is held in high regard. 



DJ. HYMAS. — Among the worthy citi- 
zens that England has furnished to 
Nebraska is this gentleman, now a well- 
known and influential farmer of Waco 
township, York county, residing on section 
12. He was born in the county of Essex, 
England, January 29, 1841, and is a son of 
Edward and Mary (Sewall) Hymas, both of 
whom died in the mother country, where 
Mr. Hymas followed agricultural pursuits as 
a means of livelihood. 

The subject of this review was reared to 
manhood in the land of his birth, was edu- 
cated in the common schools and was trained 
to farm labor. In 1863 he chose as a com- 
panion and helpmeet Miss Harriet E. Gar- 
rard, and they were united in the holy bonds 
of matrimony. The lady is also a native of 
Essex county, England. In 1870 they 
crossed the briny deep to the new world 
and spent a short time in Canada, but the 



628 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



same year removed to Lincoln, Nebraska. 
In 1871 Mr. Hymas secured the farm in 
York county upon which he now resides and 
has since made his home. There were few 
settlers in the county at the time and the 
greater part of the land was wild prairie, 
which had never been used for purposes of 
cultivation. Mr. Hymas had very little 
money and in those first years had to work 
on the railroad or at anything he could get 
to do in order to gain the means with which 
to purchase the necessaries of life. He 
built a small frame house and afterward 
made a sod addition to it, living in that 
home for about ten years, when it was re- 
placed by his present comfortable residence. 
In 1872 he began breaking his land and 
raised some sod corn, pumpkins, melons, 
etc. The next year he raised a fair crop, 
but in 1874 the grasshoppers destroyed 
nearly everything. All things come to him 
who will but wait, however, and after sev- 
eral years the labor and care which Mr. Hy- 
mas had placed upon his farm was manifest 
in its splendidly improved condition. His 
possessions now aggregate three hundred 
and forty acres, and in addition to his York 
county farm he has one hundred and si.xty 
acres in Keith county, Nebraska. On the 
home farm he has three hundred acres under 
a high state of cultivation, while the remain- 
ing forty acres is used for pasturage. The 
Keith county farm is also partially improved. 
He carries on general farming, raises a 
high grade of stock, and is recognized as 
one of the most progressive and enterpris- 
ing agriculturists of the community. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Hymas were born 
thirteen children, nine of whom are living, 
namely: Harriet Elizabeth, Albert Joseph, 
Ada May, Jane, Alice Maud, Bertha, Willie 
Edward, Lillie V. and Rose M. The par- 
ents are members of the Presbyterian church, 
at Utica, and are people of sterling worth, 
having the warm regard of all. Mr. Hymas 
also belongs to the Ancient Order of United 



Workmen, of Utica. In politics he is a Re- 
publican, and is now treasurer of his school 
district. 



GEORGE W. KEIM, a representative 
and prominent agriculturist of Fillmore 
county, owns and operates a valuable and 
well improved farm on section 6, Chelsea 
township. He was born in Pennsylvania, 
June 27, 1842, and is a son of Daniel and 
Susan (Ulch) Keim, who removed from that 
state to Miami county, Indiana, when our 
subject was a lad of seven years. There 
the father purchased a farm, which he 
operated until well advanced in life. As 
his children had all left home and he was 
unable to care for so large a tract, he sold 
the place and bought fifteen acres in the 
same county, residing thereon until called 
from this life in 1880, when over eighty 
years of age. His wife survived him for 
some years, but they now sleep side by side 
in a little cemetery in Miami county. 

Mr. Keim, of this review, remained with 
his father until nearly twenty-one years of 
age, attending the commonschools and aiding 
in the work of the farm. A few days before 
he attained his majority he enlisted in 
Company I, Thirtieth Indiana Volunteer 
Infantry, enrolling his name among the boys 
in blue March 27, 1864. He was soon 
transferred to Company E, and joined his 
regiment at Tunnell Hill, near the Tennes- 
see river, it being a part of General Sher- 
man's command. He participated in the 
battle of Resaca, followed by the engage- 
ments of Dallas, Kingston and New Hope 
Church. After crossing the Chattahoochee 
river the regiment went on the .\tlanta 
campaign, and were in many battles and 
skirmishes, including that of Jonesboro, 
where our subject leaped over the breast- 
works and received a bayonet wound. 
Although it was quite severe he could not 
be prevailed upon to leave the ranks and go 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



629 



to the hospital. Later the regiment, with 
many others, was detailed to reinforce 
General Thomas, who had been ordered to 
check General Hood's army, which was 
following General Sherman's command. 
Then followed the battles of Franklin and 
Nashville, after which a part of General 
Thomas' army went into winter quarters at 
Huntsville, Alabama. From that place the 
Thirtieth Indiana was ordered to Butt's 
Gap, Tennessee, where they remained a 
week and then proceeded to Nashville. The 
command next went down the river to New 
Orleans, and from there to Victoria, Texas, 
and on to Goliad, that state, where they 
where mustered out November 25, 1S65. 

Mr. Keim then returned home and re- 
sumed farming. On the 24th of February, 
1867, at the home of the bride in Miami 
county, Indiana, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Elizabeth Christiana Smith, whom 
he had known since she was a child of eight 
years. She was educated in that county. 
Her parents, Adam and Barbara (Shutz- 
baugh) Smith, were both natives of Ger- 
many, and when young came to the United 
States, their marriage being celebrated in 
New York. They lived for a time in Ohio, 
but finally located permanently in Indiana. 
Mr. Smith was a tailor by trade, but gave 
as much attention to farming as to that busi- 
ness. Our subject and his wife have two 
children: Eli and Ella, who have received 
good common-school educations and now 
assist their parents in the farm work and 
household duties. 

After his marriage Mr. Keim located on 
a small farm in Miami county, Indiana, 
given him by his father, but in 1872 sold 
his personal property and came west, first 
locating in Washington county, Nebraska, 
where he rented a farm and lived for four 
years. The following two years were 
spent in Sonoma county, California, where 
he engaged in farming and in the fruit busi- 
ness. On the return of the family to Ne- 



braska they stopped at Kearney, but find- 
ing no suitable location in that neighbor- 
hood, they came to Filmore county, landing 
in Geneva March 8, 1879. In Chelsea 
township Mr. Keim purchased a tract of 
railroad land on section 6, where he has 
since made his home. Although some of 
the land had been broken, no building had 
yet been erected, but he now has one hun- 
dred and sixty acres under a fine state of 
cnltivation and well improved with a good 
residence and substantial out-buildings. 
Upon the place he has planted apples, 
peaches, plums, cherries, currants, straw- 
berries, raspberries, grapes, etc. , and be- 
sides having enough for his own use, he has 
sold thousands of bushels of apples. Since 
casting his first presidential vote for Abra- 
ham Lincoln in 1864, Mr. Keim has been 
a stalwart supporter of the Republican party, 
and takes an active and commendable inter- 
est in public affairs. Both he and his wife 
were reared in the Luthuran church, but 
there being no church of that denomina- 
tion near their home, they generally attend 
the Christian church. They are widely and 
favorably known, and their friends are many 
throughout Fillmore county. 



CHARLES M. TURNER, an enterpris- 
ing and well-to-do agriculturist of 
Morton township, York county, is a native 
of Illinois, born at Freeport, Stephenson 
county, on the 27th of October, 1854, and 
is a son of John and Mary (Krutzfelt) 
Turner, who are both of German birth and 
in 1854 crossed the broad Atlantic and took 
up their residence in Illinois, where they 
still reside. In their family are four sons 
and one daughter who, are still living. 

Mr. Turner, whose name introduces this 
sketch, spent his boyhood and youth in Illi- 
nois, and on starting out in life for himself 
engaged in farming in that state, carrying 
on operations there until coming to Ne- 



630 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



braska in 1883. In Morton township, York 
county, he purchased the farm on which he 
now resides, and to its cultivation and im- 
provement has since devoted his energies, 
converting it into one of the most desirable 
places of the locality. 

In 1883 Mr. Turner led to the marriage 
altar Miss Rebecca May, a native of Penn- 
sylvania, and to them has been born an in- 
teresting family of five children, namely: 
John W., Charles J., Alta M., Pearl E. and 
Minnie S. The parents are both earnest 
and consistent members of the United 
Brethren church and hold a high place in 
the estimation of their fellow citizens. In 
his political affiliations, Mr. Turner is a 
Populist, but has never held office, political 
honors having no attraction for him. He 
is public spirited, however, and an earnest 
promoter of the schemes to advance the 
material interests of his township and coun- 
ty, or elevate society. 



CLAYTON BURGESS is one of the pros- 
perous and substantial citizens of York 
county whose lives have been devoted to 
agricultural pursuits, and who show in their 
successful career that they thoroughly un- 
derstand their chosen calling and are likewise 
men of sound judgment and good business 
ability. Our subject's fine farm of three 
hundred and sixty acres is pleasantly lo- 
cated in Arborville township, and is to-day 
under a high state of cultivation and well 
improved with good buildings. 

Mr. Burgess was born in Kent county, 
Delaware, December 26, 1847, and is a son 
of William and Eliza (Burchard) Burgess, 
prominent farming people, who spent their 
entire lives in that state. The father was 
three time, married and had fourteen chil- 
dren, eight sons and six daughters. The 
subject of this sketch was reared and edu- 
cated in his native state, and since starting 
out in life for hmiself has devoted his entire 



time and attention to agricultural pursuits. 
With the tide of emigration he came west- 
ward in 1867 and first settled in Fremont 
county, Illinois, but in 1869 came to 
Omaha, Nebraska, and later in the same 
year located in Harrison county, Iowa, 
where he made his home until 1874, which 
year witnessed his arrival in York county. 
Here, he took up a homestead of eighty 
acres, and as he prospered in his new home, 
he has extended the boundaries of his farm 
from time to time as his financial resources 
permitted until he now owns three hundred 
and sixty acres of valuable and highly pro- 
ductive land. Upon his land he first built 
a sod house, in which he lived while break- 
ing his first tract, but to-day he has one of 
the best improved farms of the county, it 
being all under fence and equipped with a 
fine set of farm buildings. 

In Hamilton county, Nebraska, Mr. Bur- 
gess was married, in 1877, to Miss Harriett 
M. Millsapp, a native of Iowa, by whom he 
has had ten children: William B. ; Effie, 
deceased; Omar C. ; Charles C. ; Ethel; 
Roy; George W. ; Edna; Hattie B. and 
Annie. The family attend the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in which the parents hold 
membership. Although a stanch Democrat 
in politics, Mr. Burgess has never sought 
nor cared for official honors, preferring to 
give his entire time and attention to his ex- 
tensive business interests. He is, however, 
a public-spirited citizen, devoted to the 
best interests of his township and county, 
and as such has won the respect and esteem 
of all who have the pleasure of his acquaint- 
ance. 



JOSEPH K. WILLIAMS.— Few people 
remain long in Polk county without be- 
coming familiar with this name, which is 
borne by one of its earliest pioneers and 
most enterprising men. Here he has made 
his home since the 7th of December, 1870, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



631 



and to-day has an excellent farm on section 
4, township 13, range i, having converted 
the wild land on which he settled into rich 
and productive fields. 

Mr. Williams was born in Louisa county, 
Iowa, October 7, 1847, and is a son of Isaac 
and Mary (Story) Williams, who were mar- 
ried in that state, but were natives of 
Indiana, and Pennsylvania, respectively. 
His paternal grandfather, Philip Williams, 
was a pioneer of Indiana, and the ma- 
ternal grandfather, Kennedy Story, who 
emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, 
was one of the early settlers of Iowa, 
where he spent his last days. The latter 
had two sons, Thomas and Joseph, who 
were among the boys in blue during the 
Civil war, the former being a member of the 
famous Graybeard Regiment of Iowa, and 
the latter of the Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry. Our subject's paternal uncle, 
Philip Williams, was a member of an In- 
diana regiment. Isaac Williams died in 
185 1 in Louisa county, Iowa. Of his four 
children our subject is the only survivor. 
The mother is now the wife of E. P. Scull, 
a native of New Jersey. In 1870 they came 
from Iowa to Nebraska and located upon a 
homestead on section 4, township 13, range 
I, Polk county, but since 1892 have made 
their home in Custer county, this state. 
Of the three children born to them, two are 
living — William E. and Richard. 

Reared on a farm in Louisa county, 
Iowa, Joseph K. Williams early became fa- 
miliar with all the duties which fall to the 
lot of the agriculturist, and his literary train- 
ing was much more meager than his busi- 
ness education. At the age of fifteen years 
he began the battle of life for himself, and 
until twenty-three he worked as a farm hand 
in Iowa for sixteeen dollars per month. 

Mr. Williams was married, October 23, 
1870, to Miss Nancy A. Wykert, who was 
born in Louisa county, Iowa, November 29, 
1854. Her father, Francis Wykert, was 



born in Virginia, in May, iSii, and was a 
son of Thomas Wykert, a pioneer of Iowa. 
In the latter state Francis Wykert married 
Miss Eliza J. Harnett, a native of Ohio, 
born May 6, 1821, and a daughter of Elijah 
Harnett, who at an early day settled in In- 
diana. Mrs. Williams' parents continued to 
reside upon a farm in Louisa county, Iowa, 
until the father's death, which occurred in 
1872, but the mother died in Polk count}', 
Nebraska, in 1881. They had six children: 
Lydia; Nancy A.; Francis H., deceased; 
Thomas A.; Mrs. Ida Oesterreicher; and 
Florence V. The children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Williams are as follows: twins, who 
died in infancy; Melville W. ; Elijah H.; 
Robert Nelson, deceased; Oscar J.; Mary 
J. ; and Lemuel Franklin. 

Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Williams came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
and as previously stated located upon their 
present farm December 7, 1870, at which 
time the country round about was still in 
its primitive condition, and their nearest 
neighbors lived along the Blue. In a little 
dug-out they lived with his step-father for 
ten months, and Mr. Williams broke the 
land on both claims. Upon his own place 
he built a dug-out in 1871, making it his 
home for four years, while he gave his at- 
tention to the improvement and cultivation 
of his land. In 1871 he raised no crops; 
the following year only a small crop of 
wheat; in 1873, his harvests were' very 
good; but in 1874 the grasshoppers de- 
stroyed his corn, though he raised two hun- 
dred and nineteen bushels of wheat. Dur- 
ing the great snow storm in April, 1873, the 
wooden latch of his little dug-out was 
broken, and the family had to crawl out of 
the east window and make their way to his 
step-father's home. They experienced all 
the hardships and difficulties of pioneer life, 
and in 1870 Mr. Williams had to go as far 
as Columbus, a distance of twenty-five miles, 
to market, but as time has advanced and 



632 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



the country become more thickly populated, 
the comforts of civilization have been added 
to their home, and he now has one of the 
best farms in his community, it being sup- 
plied with all the conveniences and acces- 
sories of a model farm of the nineteeenth 
centur3'. Ho owns one hundred and sixty 
acres, of which one hundred and ten have 
been placed under the plow, while the re- 
mainder is used for a pasture, orchard and 
hog pens. He raises both grain and stock, 
making a specialty of Poland China hogs. 
After four years the little dug-out was re- 
placed by a good sod house, and three years 
later, in 1878, a good frame residence was 
erected. 

Fraternally Mr. \\'illiams is a Master 
Mason, belonging to the lodge in Shelby, in 
which he has served as junior warden. He 
is also a member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen at that place, and has 
held office in the same. As a Populist he 
takes considerable interest in political affairs, 
and has been called upon to serve as justice 
of the peace, a school officer in district No. 
30? five years, a director in district No. 67 
three years, and as moderator in the latter 
district. His children have been provided 
with good school priviledges, one daughter 
having been a student in Stromsburg col- 
lege. Mr. Williams has ever cheerfully 
given his support to those enterprises that 
tend to public development, he is always 
mentioned as one of the invaluable citizens 
of his community, and on the rolls of Polk 
county's most honored pioneers his name 
should be found among the foremost. 



JOHN G. MICKEY. — A prominent posi- 
tion among the stockraising element of 
Polk county, Nebraska, is held by the gen- 
tleman whose name heads this article and 
whose portrait appears on another page. 
He makes his home in the city of Osceola, 
where he has resided for some years. He 



was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
April 3, 1829, and is a son of John R. and 
Elizabeth (Gearhart) Mickey. His father 
was a native of Pennsylvania, where he 
died in 1S30, and his mother was a native 
of Germany. In 1834 Mrs. Mickey moved 
with her family to Shelbyville, Shelby 
county, Indiana, where they made their 
home for two years. They next located on 
a farm in Henry county, Iowa, near where 
the town of Trenton now stands. Mrs. 
Mickey then married a Mr. Mosher and 
located six miles further north in the same 
county. She had four children by her first 
marriage, viz: Oliver P., the father of John 
H. Mickey, a sketch of whom will be found 
on another page of this volume; May, who 
died in 1886; Jane Harman, who resides in 
Riverside. Iowa; John G., the subject of 
this biography. Mrs. Mosher had one child 
by second husband, Elizabeth Farmer, now 
a widow and resides in Wayland, Iowa. 
John G. Mickey was raised on a farm, 
and obtained a very limited education. He 
began life as a farm hand, engaged in work- 
ing for others a part of the time, and finally 
started out to make his own way in the path- 
way of fortune at the age of twenty-one. 
He engaged in general farming and stock- 
raising, and finally gave his entire attention 
to the handling of stock. He resided in 
Iowa, and followed the occupation of his 
choice in Washington and Henry counties 
of that state. In 1873 he moved to Ne- 
braska, and located in what is now Canada 
precinct, on the east one-half of section 30, 
township 15, range i west, in Polk count}'. 
The land was all wild and unbroken with 
the exception of sixty acres, which some 
one had broke, and there was a small. sod 
shanty on the place. Mr. Mickey made his 
home in the sod house until the following 
fall when he erected a small frame house, 
adjoining it, where he resided about five or 
six years. He then put up a new frame house, 
in which he lived until the railroad 



^'CL 





JOHN G. MICKEY. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



G35 



was built to Osceola. He had by diligent 
labor cultivated and improved the estate, 
the north quarter of which was a filing and 
the south quarter was taken up as a tree 
claim. It was considered the best improved 
timber claim in the county, when he came 
to Osceola to live, and engaged in the grain 
and stock business. He purchased stock at 
Stromsburg, Osceola and Shelby. In 1S83 
he made a visit to California, and on his re- 
turn he again took up his residence on the 
farm in Canada precinct, where he made his 
home for the next seven years. He then 
took up his residence in Osceola, where he 
has made his home ever since, after selling 
his other farm in Canada precinct. His 
present estate was partly improved, but he 
has since erected the residence, and put in 
all the modern improvements, as well as 
constructing the present well devised stock- 
yards. He has been engaged in hand- 
ling stock ever since he was twenty 
years of age, and is now considered the best 
judge of the same in the county. He now 
feeds from two to three hundred head every 
year. He has also dealt largely in fin e stock, 
having raised from forty to eighty head of 
short horn cattle every year for some time 
past, and the herd of them which he owned 
he considered the best he had ever seen. 
He has followed the occupation of a stock- 
man exclusively, and for years he held the 
reputation of being the best stock auctioneer 
west of Omaha, having followed that calling 
in Merrick, Polk and Butler counties. His 
present holdings consist of a three hundred 
and twenty acre farm in Osceola precinct, 
all of which is well improved, his home 
place consisting of ten acres, and he also 
owns several town lots in the city of Os- 
ceola. 

Mr. Mickey was married in 1852 to Miss 
Martha J. Kenton, who was one of the old 
Simon Kenton stock of Kentucky. She 
was born in Ohio in 1834, and died in 1866, 
having been the mother of five children: 



Lucy E., the wife of Henry Hughes, who 
resides in Polk county; they have no chil- 
dren. Emma, the wife of John Kinney, who 
resides in Merrick county, and is the moth- 
er of seven children, five boys and two 
girls. Henry L., who married Clara Hart- 
man; they are the parents of six children; 
they also reside in Polk county. Mary J., 
the wife of a Mr. Hindman; they have no 
children and reside in Merrick county, and 
Anna B., the wife of John Rathburn; they 
have three children and live in Shelby, 
Nebraska. Mr. Mickey married his second 
wife, who bore the maiden name of Nancy 
J. Marshall, April 3, 1867. They have no 
children, and are both members of the Meth- 
odist church. Socially, he is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity of Osceola, of which he 
he was the organizer and first master, and 
held that office for six years. He is also a 
member of the I. O. O. F. He was at 
first a Douglas Democrat in politics, but 
has a stanch aderent to the principles of the 
Republican party since the first term of 
President Lincoln. He has taken quite an 
active part in the local affairs of the county, 
and for six years he was county com- 
missioner of Polk county, two years of 
which he served as chairman of the county 
board. He wields considerable power in 
the political organization of his county, and 
exerted his influence in having the railroad 
extended through Osceola. He has also 
been an active worker in the educational 
matters in his precinct, and when he resided 
in Canada precinct he was a member of the 
local school district board. He is one of 
the old settlers of the county, and has 
watched with interest the rapid growth and 
development of the same, in which he has 
performed no unimportant part. He is a 
man of the strictest integrity, honest and 
upright in all his dealings with his fellow 
men, and is justly entitled to the respect 
and esteem in which he is held by his fellow 
men. 



636 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



JOHN L. DORSEY is very successfully 
engaged in general farming and stock 
raising on section 30, Arborville township, 
York county, where he owns a quarter sec- 
tion of choice land. He came here in the 
spring of 1872, homsteaded the land where 
he now resides and immediately commenced 
its improvement. He has worked untiring- 
ly and his labors have been well rewarded. 
Mr. Dorsey was born in Shelby county, 
Ohio, April 26, 1847, a son of Charles and 
Hannah (Wooley) Dorsey, who in 1869 
removed from the Buckeye state to Logan 
county, Illinois, where the father died four 
years later. He was a farmer by occupa- 
tion and reared to man and womanhood a 
family of si.\ children, two sons and four 
daughters. The mother's death occured in 
York county, Nebraska. 

His early life being passed in his native 
state, John L. Dorsey, was educated it the 
public schools of Ohio, and upon the home 
farm acquired an excellent knowledge of 
agricultural pursuits before he had attained 
his majority. In 1864 he put aside his farm 
duties to enter the service of his country, 
enlisting in Company F, One Hundred 
Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and 
during his four months' service he helped 
repel the raid on Washington, District of 
Columbia, and also did garrison duty in 
that city. After being discharged he return- 
ed to Ohio, where he continued to make 
his home until 1865, when he removed to 
Logan county, Illinois. It was in the fall 
of 1871 that he came with his brother and 
S. B. Flick to York county, Nebraska, 
driving the entire distance. They located 
homesteads and returned to Illinois over- 
land, where they spent the winter. In the 
spring of 1872 Mr. Dorsey came to York 
county, and located permanently upon his 
land, being accompanied by his wife and 
his brother's family. He has since made 
his home upon his present farm, his first 
house being of sod, in which the family 



lived until 1877, when it was replaced by 
a good frame residence. He soon broke his 
land, and now the entire tract of one 
hundred and sixty acres is under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved. He 
is interested in both farming and stock 
raising. 

In Logan county, Illinois, in 1870, Mr. 
Dorsey wedded Miss Blanch A. Latham, a 
native of Covington, Kentucky, and a daugh- 
ter of Frederick and Mary (Johnston) La- 
tham, who removed to Illinois in 1864. 
Nine children bless this union, namely: 
Ernest L. , Maud G., Myrtie M., Harry E., 
Lois M., Grace E., Archie E., Elizabeth 
K., Knight L. The parents are faithful 
members of the Christian church, and fra- 
ternally Mr. Dorsey belongs to the Knights 
of the Maccabees and the Grand Army of 
the Republic. He is a stanch adherent of 
the Populist party and its principles, and 
has been called upon to fill several minor 
offices. He is recognized as one of the lead- 
ing citizens of his township, and his circle 
of friends and acquaintances is extensive. 



WILLARD P. STAFFORD.— The sub- 
ject of this sketch stands second to 
none among the worthy agriculturists of 
precinct F, Seward county. As a judicious 
tiller of the soil he has met with success, 
and as a man and citizen holds a good posi- 
tion among his neighbors. His life has been 
one of unabated industry, and his affairs have 
been so conducted as to win the confidence 
and esteem of all with whom he has come 
in contact. 

Mr. Stafford was born on the 4th of 
August, 1853, in the city of Providence, 
Rhode Island, but in 1855 he was taken to 
Illinois by his parents, Charles G. and Mary 
(Burrows) Stafford, also natives of Rhode 
Island. They settled in Fulton county and 
there spent their remaining days, the mother 
dying in 1878, the father in 1891. He was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



631 



a carpenter by trade, but also followed 
farming. In his family were four sons, all 
now deceased with the exception of our 
subject, and four daughters. 

In the common schools of Illinois Wil- 
lard P. Stafford pursued his studies during 
boyhood, and upon the home farm early be- 
came familiar with all the duties which fall 
to the lot of the agriculturist. On laying 
aside his text books he took up the occupa- 
tion to which he had been reared and fol- 
lowed farming in Illinois until 1S83, whenhe 
came to Seward county, Nebraska, and set- 
tled on land in precinct D. Two years 
later, however, he removed to his present 
farm in F precinct, to the improvement 
and cultivation of which he has since de- 
voted his attention with marked success. 

Asa companion and helpmeet on life's 
journey Mr. Stafford chose Miss Clarinda 
Hott, a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, 
and a daughter of Adam and Barbara Hott, 
and their marriage was celebrated in Illi- 
nois in 1874. Four children bless their 
union, namely: Walter E., Iva, Charles G. 
and Glenn C. Politically Mr. Stafford is a 
Republican, and socially is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Modern Woodmen of America. 



CARSTON STAHR, the hard-working 
and highly respected owner of a farm 
on section 4 of Beaver township, York 
county, is one of the men who have helped 
make Nebraska great and powerful. He 
came here at an early day, applied himself 
assiduously to the making of a home out of 
the prairie wilderness, asked no favor of fate 
or fortune, but toiled and labored through 
sunshine and storm, and now as he enters 
the afternoon of his life finds himself, if not 
rich and great and powerful, at least com- 
fortable and independent. We honor such, 
and render the tribute of willing praise to 
their manly qualities, and it is a pleasure to 



inscribe their names in this book of remem- 
brance. 

Carston Stahr was born in Oldenburg, 
Germany, December 28, 1836, and spent 
the first part of his life in his native town, 
where he became a farmer. He was married, 
in 1862, to Margaretta Hopkin, a native of 
the same state with her husband. Her 
birthday was June 4, 1838, and ten years 
after her marriage she came into York 
county with her husband and settled on the 
homestead where they now live. At that 
time there were only a few settlers in the 
entire region. They lived remote from each 
other, and were full of cares and anxiety. 
And yet life on the prairie in those pioneer 
days was not without its social relaxa- 
tions and companionable pleasures. They 
thought nothing of driving fifteen or twenty 
miles to spend the day, and took more 
pleasure in neighborhood delights than those 
who came after them might imagine. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stahr had their first home 
in a dug-out, in which they lived for about 
six years. That gave way to a sod house, 
and that in turn to their present handsome 
and charming residence, which was put up 
in 1883, at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. 

In 1872 Mr. Stahr rented a few acres 
and raised some corn. He also broke 
ground and made his place ready for farm- 
ing the coming year. He suffered from the 
flying pest of the air in 1874, and saw his 
corn vanish before clouds of grasshoppers. 
His wheat did not suffer, and from that 
time he has been able to gather crops and 
sell on a good market, and he has crowded 
his work to the utmost. He owns four 
hundred and eighty acres of ground, and 
has it all, with the exception of less than 
forty acres, under a high cultivation. In 
addition to this large estate he has given 
two hundred and sixty acres to his sons, 
and is proud and happy over the way his 
boys are doing. He is the father of eight 
children, all but one of whom are now living 



638 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Their names are William, John, Carston, 
Lillie, Charles, Frederick and Henry. Mary 
was the name of the one child who died 
early in life. Mr. Stahr and his kind- 
hearted wife are members of the Lutheran 
church, to which they are much devoted and 
liberal contributors. He has been an official 
in this religious organization, and has served 
as cashier of the parochial school board. 
He is a Republican in his political affilia- 
tions. He has been treasurer of the school 
district in which he lives for three years, 
and is regarded as an efficient and capable 
school officer. The success which has 
crowned a life of toil may be regarded as 
quite remarkable. Mr. Stahr brought less 
than two hundred dollars into York county, 
and all that he owns to-day has come 
through his hard work and close manage- 
ment. He could not speak a word of Eng- 
lish when his feet first rested on American 
soil, and in the face of all this, which to 
men of a weaker strain would have been in- 
vincible, he has become wealthy and influ- 
ential. 



JOHN F. VARNER, a leading and repre- 
sentative farmer of Seward county, re- 
siding on section 30, precint B, was born 
in Highland county, \'irginia, February 
II, 1838, and is a son of David and 
Sarah (Rexroad) Varner, who were also 
natives of the Old Dominion, where as 
a farmer the father carried on operations 
until called from this life. He had a fam- 
ily of six sons and one daughter, of whom 
Peter and our subject settled in Seward 
county Nebraska, the same year, and 
David A. is also a resident of this county. 
John F. Varner was reared and educated 
in much the usual manner of farmer boys 
of his day, pursuing his studies in the little 
log school-house so common in Virginia at 
that tmie. At an early age he turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits, and con- 



tinued to follow the same until drafted for 
service in the Confederate army during the 
Civil war, becoming a member of Company 
H, Thirty-first Virginia Infantry. During 
the three years he was m the service he par- 
ticipated in the battles of Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania, and Petersburg and Winches- 
ter, Virginia. At Cold Creek, he was cap- 
tured by the Union forces but managed to 
make his escape. Besides these engage- 
ments he was in many fights of less impor- 
tance in the valley, but fortunately escaped 
without wounds. 

After the close of the war Mr. Varner 
removed to West Virginia, but after living 
there a year he returned to the old home- 
stead and remained there until 1870, which 
year witnessed his arrival in Nebraska. 
He first settled in Plattsmouth, but the fol- 
lowing spring (1871) he came to Seward 
county and took a homestead on section 30, 
B township. Building a dugout, he lived 
in that primitive dwelling for seven 3'ears, 
and at once commenced to break and im- 
prove his land, but his team soon gave out 
and the first year he only broke twenty 
acres. Provisions ran very low in the 
Varner household and for four days they 
were without food, but after enduring all 
the hardships and privations incident to life 
on the frontier, success at length crowned 
their efforts, and Mr. Varner is now the 
owner of a vauable farm of two hundred 
and forty acres, all under a high state of 
cultivation and well improved with good 
buildings. He gives his attention exclusive- 
Ij' to general farming, and the comforable 
competence he has secured through his in- 
dustry, enterprise and good management is 
certainly well deserved. 

On the loth of June, 1867, in \'irginia, 
was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Varner 
and Miss Mary A. Beverage, also a native 
of that state, and to them were born the 
following children: Howard A., Sarah A., 
John D., Thomas C. , Leroy, Arthur F.,and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



639 



Pearl F., deceased. The mother has also 
departed this life, dying in November, 1896. 
She was a consistent member of the United 
Brethren church, to which Mr. Varner also 
belongs. In politics he is a Populist, but 
has never cared for the honors or emolu- 
ments of public office. 



JOSEPH MATOUSEK.— It has been 
said that biography yields to no other 
subject in point of interest and profit, and it 
is especially interesting to note the progress 
that has been made along various lines of 
business by those of foreign birth who have 
, sought homes in America — the readiness 
with which they adapt themselves to the 
different methods and customs of America, 
recognize the advantages offered and utilize 
the opportunities which the new world af- 
fords. As a boy of fourteen years Mr. Ma- 
tousek came to the United States, and with 
no capital started out in a strange land to 
overcome the difficulties and obstacles in 
the path to prosperity. So succesful has 
he been that he is now one of the most sub- 
stantial business men of Brainard, Nebraska. 
Mr. Matousek was born in 1862, in 
Bohemia, where his father died when he 
was about three years old, and at a very 
early age he was thrown upon his own re- 
sources. When fourteen he came to this 
country with his future father-in-law, John 
Rak, and located near Lincoln, Nebraska, 
where he worked on a farm by the month. 
Subsequently he went to Saunders county, 
and in 1887 came to Butler county, 
where he was employed on a farm for one 
season. For the following four years he 
engaged in the saloon business, and then 
embarked in the lumber business at Brain- 
ard, where he has continued to carry on 
operations along that line under the firm 
name of Joseph Matousek & Company, 
dealing in lumber and and building material 
of all kinds. He is also interested in the 



elevator firm J. T. McElvain & Company, 
at Brainard and Bruno, and owns a good 
farm in Richardson township, Butler county, 
all of which property has been acquired 
through his own unaided efforts and excellent 
business ability. 

On the 1st of January, 1883, Mr. Ma- 
tousek was united in marriage with Miss 
Anna Rak, a daughter of John Rak, and 
they have become the parents of three sons, 
namely: Edward, Joseph, Jr., and Albin. 
Politically Mr. Matousek is a stanch adher- 
ent of Republican principles, and he is now 
efficiently serving as township treasurer and 
treasurer of the school district. Socially 
he is identified with the Modern Woodmen 
of America and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. For the success that he has 
achieved in life he deserves great credit; he 
not only began life in the new world empty- 
handed, but on landing here was unable to 
speak the English language. He is there- 
fore a brilliant example of a self-made man 
and a grand exemplification of the progress 
that an ambitious foreigner can make in this 
land of unbounded opportunities. 



CHRIST SPARLING is widely known 
as one of the most prominent and in- 
fluential citizens of Benedict, York county, 
Nebraska, where he is successfully operat- 
ing a large and well regulated store of 
general merchandise. He is also recognized 
as being one of the first' settlers of York 
county. Mr. Sparling s active, intelligent 
and progressive, and every enterprise that is 
calculated to be of benefit to his locality 
receives his earnest support and encourage- 
ment. He was born in the central part of 
Russia, on June 18, 1862, and is a son of 
Abraham and Catharine (Faourt) Sparling. 
They were both natives of Germany, but 
had settled in Russia some time previous to 
the birth of our subject. The father was a 
farmer, and followed that calling in Russia, 



640 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



until 1874, when they started for the United 
States, but they had only proceeded as far 
as Berlin, Germany, when the father died. 
They carried the body with them to Ham- 
burg, for which they were compelled to pay 
a fine, as this was contrary to the laws of 
the country. The widow, however, came 
directly to the United States, and arrived at 
New York with her nine children, from 
whence she came to Lincoln, where they 
remained but a short time, and then located 
in York county, Nebraska. They purchased 
railroad land in West Blue township, upon 
which they built a dugout, and the widow 
and family began the onerous task of break- 
ing the land. When the family arrived in 
this county, they had but ten dollars in 
money, as the fine they had been forced to 
pay took nearly all of their hard-earned 
savings. But Mrs. Sparling was endowed 
with that persistency of purpose that is one 
of the chief characteristics of the natives of 
the " Fatherland " and went to work with 
the determination to succeed. There could 
be but one result to such untiring energy, 
and that is success, and when she died, in 
1 89 1, it was a consolation for her to know 
that she had left her family of nine, which 
she had raised in the county, well provided 
for. 

Mr. Sparling, the subject of this sketch, 
was educated in his native land, and com- 
pleted his studies after he emigrated to 
this country. He worked on the home farm 
for three years, and then secured a position 
with J. S. Knott, of York, as a clerk in the 
general store, which place he retained for 
nine years. In 1887 he came to Benedict 
to take charge of a branch store, which he 
and Mr. Knott had established in this place 
under the firm name of Knott & Sparling. 
The partnership still exists, and they carry 
a general stock of dry goods, groceries, boots 
and shoes. They built and now own the lar- 
gest store in the town, in which they do a 
large business. 



Mr. Sparling was married in April, 1888, 
to Miss Blanch Grievis, a resident of Polk 
county, and a daughter of James and Sarah 
Grievis, who came from Iowa. To this 
happy union were born two sons, Clifford 
E., and Lynn C., both of whom are still 
living. Socially he is a member of the A. 
O. U. W., and the M. W. A. and in his 
political views he uses his right as a citizen 
to support the Populist party, of which he 
is a stanch adherent, though he has never 
sought office. Mr. Sparling has achieved 
success in his life's work, and being a man 
of excellent business qualifications, gifted 
with a character of the highest order, he 
has been able to attain a position of promi- 
nence in both this and Polk counties. 



GUSTAF MALMQUIST, a well-known 
and highly respected citizen of Baker 
township, York county, whose home is on 
section 19, was born in Sweden, May 6, 
1853, and is a son of Paul and Gustav 
(Malmgrin) Malmquist, now deceased, who 
spent their entire lives in that country. 
The father was for ten years a member of 
the regular Swedish army, but during that 
time there were no hostilities. Afterward 
he turned his attention to agricultural pur- 
suits and became the owner.of a good farm 
of about eighty acres. 

Upon that place Gustaf Malmquist spent 
his boyhood and his youth, receiving a good 
common-school education, which was sup- 
plemented by one year's attendance at col- 
lege. When his school-days were over he 
emigrated to America in 1871, in company 
with N. B. Swanson, who is now one of his 
neighbors, and on landing in New York, 
went immediately to Johnson county, Iowa, 
where he secured work on a farm. Two 
years later he went to Henderson county, 
Illinois, where he worked on a farm for four 
years, and was afterward employed on a 
cotton plantation nearVicksburg, Louisiana, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



641 



for about nine months. In 1876 he paid a 
visit to his old home in Sweden, being ab- 
sent three years, and on his return to Amer- 
ica, in May, 1879, came direct to York 
county, Nebraska, and bought one hundred 
and sixty acres of land on section 27, Baker 
township. The following fall he sold that 
place, however, and went to Custer county, 
this state, but not being favorably impressed 
with that locality, he returned to York 
county and purchased his present farm of 
eighty acres adjoining the village of Charles- 
ton. It is now under a high state of cul- 
tivation and well improved as the result of 
his earnest persistent effort. 

In 188 1 Mr. Malmquist led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss Selma Peterson, also a na- 
tive of Sweden, and a daughter of John and 
Marie Peterson, who brought their family 
to America when she was six years old, and 
located in Burlington, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. 
Malmquist have a family of four children: 
Gertie, Paul, Gail and Walter. The par- 
ents both hold membership in the Evangel- 
ical Lutheran church at York. Socially, 
Mr. Malmquist is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and in politics 
is independent, always voting for the man 
whom he thinks best qualified to fill the 
office, regardless of party affiliations. 



WILLIAM H. GOULD, who, after the 
labors of a long and busy life, is 
spending his later years in ease and retire- 
ment at his pleasant home on section i. 
Baker township, York county, adjoining 
the corporate limits of the city of York, was 
born in New York city, January 10, 1826, a 
son of David and Nancy (Monsell) Gould, 
both of whom were born in Suffolk county. 
Long Island, of English ancestry. For 
many years the father was engaged in the 
grocery business in New York city, but aft- 
erward removed to Fairhaven, Connecticut, 
where he died at the advanced age of ninety- 



two years. The death of his wife occurred 
in the same place. 

Reared in New York, William H. Gould 
acquired his education in the public schools 
of that city, and at the age of eighteen 
years commenced learning the wagonmak- 
er's trade, which he followed there for 
about ten years. He then moved to Suf- 
folk county, Long Island, where he con- 
tinued to work at his trade until he removed 
to Macomb, Illinois, in 1856. He con- 
ducted a shop there until coming to York 
county, Nebraska, in the spring of 1873, 
when he purchased forty acres of railroad 
land on section i. Baker township, upon 
which he has since lived. It was all wild 
prairie with hardly a tree or a shrub upon 
it, but to-day the place is under a high 
state of cultivation and some of the trees 
upon it measure seven feet in circumference. 
When he located thereon he built a sod 
house 20x35 feet, proposing to have a large, 
commodious home, but not being an adept 
at sod house construction, he only attained 
success in so far as the dimensions were con- 
cerned, for he afterward learned from ex- 
perience that it had not been built so well 
for warmth as for room. It was his first 
experience in sod-house building, however, 
and he could not be criticized too severely 
for his inefficiency, as he did the best he 
knew how. If it had been a wagon, how- 
ever, the finished product would have stood 
the test of an expert's most critical examin- 
ation. Mr. Gould was the first to engage 
in wagonmaking in the village of York, 
where he maintained a shop for many years. 
As there were no railroads in the place, he 
at first hauled material for his shop from 
Fairmont, a distance of twenty miles, and 
he constructed some of the first buggies 
used by the pioneers in York county. As 
years went by he also gave considerable at- 
tention to the improvement of his farm, and 
now has one of the most valuable pieces of 
property in the county. The land for 



642 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



which he paid twelve dollars per acre he 
has been offered one hundred dollars for. 
At present he is living retired in a modern 
and comfortable residence upon his home- \ 
stead, surrounded by all the comforts and | 
many of the luxuries of life. 

On the 7th of December, 1S53, Mr. 
Gould was united in marriage to Jane E. 
Bounds, who was born in Bergen coun- 
ty, New Jersey, October 17, 1828, a daugh- 
ter of John and Agnes (Bross) Bounds, the 
former a native of Pennsylvania, the latter 
of Bergen county, New Jersey. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Gould have been born six children, 
as follows: Mrs. Ida Miller, a resident of 
Sedalia, Missouri; Lucy, who has been prin- 
cipal of the Lincoln school in York for 
eight years; David, a horseshoer of that 
place; Everett, a merchant of York; Mrs. 
Lizzie Boak, a resident of the village of 
New York; and Alfred B., who conducts a 
wagon shop in York. The parents ex- 
perienced many hardships in establishing a 
home in a new country, but now in the 
evening of life they not only enjoy a well 
deserved prosperity, but have the further 
satisfaction of having nearly all of their chil- 
dren comfortably established around them. 

In politics Mr. Gould is a stanch Repub- 
lican, and has always been an active worker 
in the party's ranks, wielding considerable 
influence, but he has never sought political 
preferment or held office of any kind. He 
is a prominent member of the Knights of 
Pythias and Odd Fellows fraternities at 
York, and has passed all the chairs in the 
latter organization, while religiously he and 
his wife are both consistent members of the 
Congregational church. 



JT. POTTER, M. D., is a recent ad- 
dition to the professional population of 
Seward, having been a resident of this thriv- 
ing Nebraska town only about three years. 
In that time, however, he has attained a 



high place in the estimation of the people 
as a high-minded and scientific physician, 
anxious to bring to the sick and ailing the 
full provision of medical skill. He is a 
brother of D. D. Potter, M. D., to whose 
sketch that appears elswhere the reader is 
referred for an outline of the family history, 
and for other matters of interest that may 
not appear in this connection. 

Dr. Potter was born in Cortland county. 
New York, February 2, 1850, and com- 
pleted his literary and general education in 
the schools of his native county, and was 
graduated from the famous State Normal at 
Cortland. After this, he taught school four 
years, the last two of which were in Sanga- 
mon county, Illinois. He attended the 
medical department of the Methodist Uni- 
versity at Syracuse, New York, and received 
his graduating diploma in 1875. He prac- 
ticed medicine some years at Port Jervis, N. 
Y., and while a resident of that city acted as 
surgeon for the Erie railroad, and was as- 
sociated with the examining board for the 
pension department. In 1884 he moved 
to Sedgwick county, Kansas, and followed 
his professional labors there for eleven years. 
That section of the west did not prove en- 
tirely satisfactor}', and in December, 1895, 
he came to this city, and formed a profession- 
al partnership with his brother. Dr. D. D. 
Potter, which still exists. 

Dr. Potter was united in marriage, in 
1888, to Miss Mary Topping, a resident of 
Sedgwick, Kansas. The union has been a 
very fortunate one, and has been blessed 
by the birth of one daughter, Helen Lucile. 
He is an ardent student of his profession, 
and neglects no opportunity of advance- 
ment. He is associated with the best 
minds of his great calling, and belongs to 
the American Medical association, the Kan- 
sas State Medical society, and the Seward 
County Medical society, and in these various 
gatherings his utterances are listened to 
with the respect that is due to a man sin- 



COMPENDIUM OF BlOGRAriir. 



64;? 



cerely desirous of the truth. He is a wel- 
come contributor to leadinp; medical publi- 
cations, and has an acknowledged standing 
as an unusually skillful surgeon. He took a 
post-graduate course in New York in 1885, 
and reads the best books and papers of his 
calling. He is a Republican, but does not 
take a very great interest in politics. His 
interest lies along the line of his life work, 
and into the practice of medicine he puts 
all the enthusiasm and strength of his na- 
ture. He has been largely successful, and 
has won a flattering patronage in Seward 
and the surrounding country. 



HENRY GROBE.— Among the energetic 
citizens of York county, who are of 
alien birth, is the gentleman whose name in- 
troduces this narrative. Like others of his 
countrymen he has to the new world the 
habits of economy and frugality which are 
inherent characteristics of his native land, 
and the exercise of which, accompanied by 
industry and good management, has raised* 
him from poverty to comparative aifluence. 
For a number of years he successful!}' en- 
gaged in farming in Morton township, but 
is now living in the village of Benedict. 

In Saxony, Germany, Mr. Grobe was 
born August 23, 1844, a son of John H. and 
Lena (Harthouse) Grobe, natives of the 
same province. As a life work the father 
engaged in butchering and masonry, spend- 
ing his entire-life in Germany, where his 
death occurred in August, 1S45, when our 
subject was only a year old. In the family 
were five children, four sons and one daugh- 
ter. In 1859 the mother came to the 
United States and settled in Dixon, Illinois, 
where she passed away in 1888. 

In the schools of his native land, Henry 

Grobe began his education, which was 

completed in the public schools of Illinois. 

On starting out in life for himself, he 

worked as a farm laborer, remaining in the 
37 



Prairie state until 1869, when he moved to 
Iowa, where he resided for three years. 
In the spring of 1865, he had enlisted in 
the Union army as a member of Company 
I, Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, and was 
with that regiment until hostilities ceased, 
mainly doing guard duty, though they did a 
great deal of marching. It was in the fall 
of 1 87 1 that Mr. Grobe first came to Ne- 
braska, and after spending about a year in 
Ashland, Saunders county, he secured a 
homestead in York county — the northwest 
quarter of section 34, Morton township. 
With his own hands he built his little frame 
residence, the lumber for which he hauled 
from Lincoln. He wasted no time in be- 
ginning the improvement of his farm, plac- 
ing acre after acre under the plow until he 
had one of the best cultivated and most 
highly improved farms of the locality. He 
successfully engaged in both farming and 
stock raising, and is now the owner of two 
hundred and forty acres of valuable land. 
He continued to reside upon his farm until 
1893, when he removed to the village of 
Benedict, where he now makes his home. 

In December, 1864, Mr. Grobe led to 
the marriage altar Miss Angelina Cook, a 
native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of 
Solomon G. and Mary A. (Ma}-) Cook, who 
are now living in York county, Nebraska. 
Mr. and Mrs. Grobe ha\e a family of six 
children: Charles H., George E. , EnosE. , 
Milton E. , Lena T. and Nettie A., now 
Mrs. John Myers. The family is identified 
with the Lutheran church, and Mr. Grobe 
also belongs to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and the Home Forum. His 
political support is always given the Re- 
publican party, and he has n ost capably 
filled the offices of town clerk two years, 
assessor two years, school treasurer many 
years, and road commissioner four years. 
Thoroughly honest, upright and reliable, he 
is highly honored and respected by the en- 
tire community in which he lives. 



644 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



SAMUEL WRIGHT RISING is an hon- 
ored resident of Rising City where he is 
living, retired from active business. He is 
one of the oldest settlers of Butler county, 
formerly being one of its successful farmers, 
and is now passing the evening of his life 
enjoying the fruits of his labor. 

Mr. Rising was born in Oneida county, 
New York, July i, 1820, a son of John Ris- 
ing, also a native of New York state. Our 
subject's grandfather, Josiah Rising, came 
from England to New York, before the Rev- 
olution, and participated in that war. He 
also participated in the war of 18 12, serv- 
ing in his son's stead. He married Miss 
Huldah Miller of Massachusetts. Our sub- 
ject's father, John Rising, was married in 
his native state to Miss Lucinda Wright, 
and they became the parents of a family 
of eight children, whose names in the order 
of their birth are as follows: Aschel M., 
Samuel Wright, Lucy(Morey), Jane(Morey) 
John, Elizabeth Warborton and Andrew J. 

Samuel Wright Rising, the subject of 
this sketch, moved frcn New York with 
his parents in 1837, or when he was si.xteen 
3'ears of age, and settled in Michigan. His 
father bought a large tract of land in Hills- 
dale county, Michigan, at ten shillings per 
acre, and this farm afterwards became one of 
the finest in that section and has taken 
second prize in the county. Our subject 
was married in Hillsdale county, Michigan, 
December 20, 1841, to Miss Polly Rising, 
his first cousin. Her father, Jesse Rising, 
was a younger brother of John Rising, our 
subject's father. After their marriage they 
continued to live in Reading township, of 
that county, and their children were born 
there. The names of the children in the 
order of their birth are as follows: Albert 
Wright, Dennis William, Joseph Miller, and 
Jessie Hirman, all of whom are living. 

In the winter of 1870, at the suggestion 
of his son Albert Wright, who was then liv- 
ing in Iowa, our subject went west and 



joined him, and they together went to But- 
ler county, Nebraska, driving across the 
prairie. They located on a farm where 
Rising City now stands, December 13, 
1870, and our subject built his home on 
section 10, the first house erected in Read- 
ing township. The township, also, was 
named, at the suggestion of Mr. Rising, 
after the township which was his former 
home in Hillsdale county, Michigan. He 
afterward assisted many of his friends in 
securing homes in that new country, and 
through his efforts there was quite a colony 
induced to try their fortunes on the prairie 
of Butler county, Nebraska. Many of the 
prominent farmers and business men of the 
community, also, migrated hither from 
Reading township, Hillsdale county, Mich- 
igan. In addition to his farm work Mr. 
Rising was for a number of years engaged 
in the farm implement business at Rising 
City in partnership with D. W. Rising, and 
he together with A. W. Rising and A. F. 
Turpening were the founders of that city. 
Socially our subject is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity. 



STATE BANK OF NEBRASKA.— This 
is one of the leading financial institu- 
tions of Seward county. The bank was 
originally organized in 1873. In 1881 the 
entire capital stock, fi.xtures, etc., were pur- 
chased by John Cattle, Sr. , and the bank 
was incorporated with the following officers: 
president, John Cattle, Sr. ; vice-presidents, 
John Cattle, Jr., and Walter Cattle; cashier, 
C. W. Barkley. The bank has a capital of 
sixty thousand dollars and does a general 
banking business. 

John Cattle, Sr., was born and reared 
in England. In 1 874 he came to the United 
States, but soon returned to his native land. 
In 1876 he again came to the United States 
and located in Seward county, Nebraska. 
He brought a large amount of wealth from 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



645 



the old country and made extensive im- 
provements in Seward county. He was 
married in England in 1846 to Miss Alice 
Sarby. There were born to them three 
sons and three daughters, only two of whom 
are now living. The family on coming to 
Seward county immediately took rank among 
the most influential in the state, and have 
retained this position up to the present day. 
John Cattle, Jr., is the treasurer of the 
Seward cereal mills. The father, John Cat- 
tle, Sr., owns over two sections of farming 
land in Seward county and in connection 
with his sons jointly own eight business 
blocks in the city of Seward. They have 
been very successful in business and occupy 
a high position in this part of the state. 



GEORGE MOZEE, M. D.— In compar- 
ison of the relative value to mankind 
of the various professions and pursuits it is 
widely recognized that none is so important 
as the medical profession. From the cradle 
to the grave human destiny is largely in 
the hands of the physician. Dr. Mozee, of 
Geneva, is one of the ablest representatives 
of this noble calling in this section of the 
state, and he deservedly enjoys a large and 
lucrative practice. 

The Doctor was born in Henry county, 
Indiana, July 27, 1845, and is a son of Will- 
iam R. and Ruth J. (Brandon) Mozee, na- 
tives of Kentucky. The father, who was a 
carpenter by trade, removed to Henry coun- 
ty Indiana, but after spending a few years 
there returned to his native state, where he 
and his wife both died. 

Dr. Mozee was only about si.x or seven 
months old when his parents returned to 
Kentucky, and in Grant county, that state, 
he was reared to manhood, receiving his early 
educational training in the public schools of 
Williamstown, the county seat. Immedi- 
ately after leaving school he tookup the study 
of medicine with Dr. Daugherty, of Scott 



county, Kentucky, and subsequently en- 
tered the Cincinnati College of Medicine 
and Surgery, from which he was graduated 
with the class of 1866. About a year later 
he located at Caving Rock, Hardin county, 
Illinois, where he carried on a successful 
general practice for sixteen years. In 1883 
he came to Nebraska and located in Geneva, 
where he soon succeeded in building up a 
good practice that he still enjoys. 

In February, 1867, Dr. Mozee was 
united in marriage with Miss Mary J. Freis, 
a native of Hamilton county, Kentucky, and 
a daughter of Charles and Emily J. (Policy) 
Freis, the former a native of Germany, the 
latter of Kentucky. The Doctor and his 
wife have become the parents of six children, 
namely: Minnie, Charles C, Carrie A., 
Aggie E., Roscoe and Everett. 

Dr. Mozee occupies a prominent posi- 
tion among his brethren of the medical fra- 
ternity, and for several years has been a 
member of the insanity examining board. 
He has always taken a deep and commend- 
able interest in educational affairs and for a 
number of years has been a member of the 
school board, serving as its president at the 
present time. Socially he belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, and the Fraternal 
Aid, of which he is medical examiner, and is 
also a member and examiner for the Degree 
of Honor, and the Court of Honor. Politically 
he affiliates with the Democracy. He is a 
member of the county Medical society and 
has filled several offices in the same. 



ANSON B. CODDING, the well-known 
county surveyor of York count}', who 
has for twenty-five years been prominently 
identified with the growth andjdevelopment 
of this region, and as a public-spirited 
citizen has been thoroughly interested in 
whatever tends to promote the moral, and in- 
tellectual welfare of the community, was 



646 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



born in Bloomfield, Ontario county, New 
York, January 19, 1835, and is a son of 
Robert F. and Charlotte E. (Beebe) Cod- 
ding, also natives of the Empire state and of 
English descent. The patenal grandfather 
of our subject was a native of England and 
bore the name of Coddington, which he had 
changed to Codding by the New York 
legislature, of which state he was a resi- 
dent. Robert F. Codding was both a 
farmer and civil engineer, following those 
vocations in New York until 1837, when he 
removed to Summit county, Ohio, and later 
to Morrow county, the same state, where 
his death occurred in 1882. He served as 
justice of the peace in Ohio, and also filled 
a number of other township offices, in a 
capable and satisfactory manner. In his 
family were twelve children, seven sons and 
five daughters. 

Reared in Ohio, Anson B. Codding ac- 
quired his elementary education in the 
common schools of that state, afterward 
supplementing the knowledge there obtained 
by a course in Oberlin college. On leaving 
that far-famed institution of learning, he 
commenced teaching school, and success- 
fully followed that profession during the 
winter months for some time. Having 
studied civil engineering, he went to Minn- 
esota in 1856, purchased a set of surveyor's 
tools, and sub-divided large tracts of land 
in that state for the early settlers. He was 
at St. Peter, Minnesota, during the Indian 
uprising in 1858, and did guard duty at 
Cordova. Later in the same year he went 
to La Salle county, Illinois, where he follow- 
ed farming for one year, and in that state 
was married, in April, 1858, to Miss 
Louisa W. Wirt, a resident of Lee county, 
Illinois, and a daughter of George and 
Mary (Kraft) Wirt, natives of Pennsylvania 
and Ohio, respectively. Of the four chil- 
dren born of^this union, two are now living: 
Minnie E. , wife of Charles E. Stratton, and 
Roy G. 



For two years after his marriage, Mr. 
Codding resided in Missouri, where he en- 
gaged in teaching school, and then returned 
to Illinois, making that state his home until 
the fall of 1872. when he came to York 
county, Nebraska. He located a claim on 
section 34, Morton township, erected a 
small frame house and at once began to 
break his land, devoting his time to agri- 
cultural pursuits for three years. He then 
removed to the city of York, having been 
elected county surveyor 1873, and continu- 
ously re-elected, beingthe present incumbent. 
A first class civil engineer, he has most 
ably performed the duties of that position, 
and his straightfoward, honorable course in 
life has gained for him the confidence and 
high regard of all with whom he has come in 
contact, either in business or social life. In 
his political views he is an ardent Republic- 
an, and as a popular and influential citizen, 
he has become a leader of the party in York 
county. In the Methodist Episcopal church, 
he and his family hold membership. 



WILLIAM DAYTON, whose pleasant 
home is on section 20, McFadden 
township, York county, is one of the early 
pioneers of this region, and has distin- 
guished himself' by his untiring industry, 
genial spirit, and neighborly instincts. He 
is upright and strightforward in all his deal- 
ings, and everybody knows him as a man 
whose word is as good as his bond. 

Mr. Dayton was born in Alleghany 
county. New York, December 4, 1835, and 
is a son of William and Susan (Longcore) 
Dayton. His father was probably born in 
Scotland, and his mother was of Dutch de- 
scent, and was probably born in New York. 
The senior Dayton was a farmer, and spent 
the greater part of his life in New York, 
where he died in 1842, when the subject of 
this sketch was only seven years old. Mrs. 
Dayton died in 1864. The subject of this 



COMPENB/i'M OF BIOGRAPHY 



647 



writing was thrown upon his own resources 
when only fourteen years of age, and found 
work in the lumber camps of New York. 
This was his business for a number of years, 
and in 1855 he removed to Pennsylvania to 
continue this occupation. He entered the 
Union army in March, 1864, enlisting in 
company G, Eighty-second Pennsylvania 
Volunteer Infantry, and served through the 
war. He was in the army of the Potomac, 
and participated in many of the desperate 
struggles that marked the closing months of 
the Rebellion He was in the battle of the 
Wilderness, and was shot through the right 
lung. He was treated at the Emergency 
hospital, at Washington, from May until 
October, 1864. He was transferred to the 
hospital at York, Pennsylvania, where he re- 
mained until the following March. When he 
was able to leave the hospital he was assign- 
ed to the Veteran Reserve Corps, Company 
A, Twenty-second Regiment, and served in 
this capacity until he was mustered out at 
Camp Dennison, Ohio, in .\ugust, 1865. 

Mr. Dayton returned to his home in 
Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, when the 
war was over, and resumed the cultivation 
of a small farm, which he owned in that 
community. In the spring of 1871 he filed 
a soldier's homestead claim to a quarter of 
section 20, of what is now known as Mc- 
Fadden township. At that time there was 
only one house where the city of York now 
stands, and there were only a few scattering 
settlers in the entire county outside of the 
river bottoms. There was only one house 
between him and Fairmont on the south, 
and the same was true of York on the north. 
He was of an extravagant disposition accord- 
ing to the opinion of a few settlers on the 
Blue, for he put up a frame house, fourteen by 
fourteen feet, which was among the very few 
frame houses to be found in the entire coun- 
try at that early day. And when he built a 
frame granary his neighbors were satisfied 
he would soon be bankrupt. He hauled 



the lumber from Lincoln, and some of it 
cost as much as fifty dollars a thousand feet. 
His house was but roughly completed, and 
one winter in it convinced him that some- 
thing more than appearance was necessary 
on the prairies, and he sodded the house to 
the roof before a second winter came upon 
him. He bought a farm team and wagon 
in Omaha, and paid for it four hundred and 
twenty-five dollars. He improved his land, 
and as the years went by his home increased 
in comfort, and he is to-day ranked among 
the solid and prosperous men of the county. 
Mr. Dayton was married July 7, 1856, 
to Miss Hannah P. Shoemaker. She is a 
native of Columbia county, Pennsylvania, 
and is a daughter of John Shoemaker, who 
was born and bred in the same county. To 
this union have come four children, Elmer, 
John, George and Amanda. She died and 
he married again, August 15, 1879, Miss 
Annie Green becoming his wife. She is a 
daughter of John and Esther Green, who 
came to this country in 1872, and is the 
mother of one child, Katie M. He is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen at McCool 
Junction, and is a Republican. 



HENRY GOUDY.— Being a western 
man by birth and training this gentle- 
man is to-day one of the most progressive, 
enterprising and energetic agriculturists 
residing in Thayer township, York county, 
Nebraska, where he owns a fine and well, 
improved farm. In addition to general 
farming he feeds considerable stock, and in 
this branch of his business is also meeting 
with good success. 

Mr. Goudy was born on the 19th of 
February, 1841, in Des Moines county, 
Iowa, and is a son of Gilbert and Mary 
Goudy, the former a native of Scotland, the 
latter of New York state. They were 
pioneer settlers of Iowa, having located 
there in 1837, and with the agricultural 



648 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



interests of the state were prominently 
identified until life's labors were ended. In 
the public schools of his native state our 
subject acquired his education, and was 
reared to habits of thrift and industry, 
which have been the means of bringing to 
him success in his subsequent business 
career. As soon as old enough to be of any 
assistance, he began to aid in the labors 
of the farm and soon acquired an excellent 
knowledge of farming in all its different 
branches. He continued to live in Iowa 
until 1883, when he came to York county, 
Nebraska, and purchased his present farm, 
to the cultivation and improvement of 
which he has since devoted his time and 
attention with most gratifying results. He 
is also one of the most successful stock 
raisers of the township. 

While still a resident of Iowa, Mr. 
Goudy was married in 1867, the lady of his 
choice being Miss Cynthia H. Clark, a 
native of Ohio, who with her father, William 
Clark, emigrated to Iowa at an early day. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Goudy were born two sons, 
namely: Gilbert W. and Emil N. The wife 
and mother, who was an earnest and faith- 
ful member of the Christian church, was 
called to her final rest in November, 1895. 
She had the love and respect of the entire 
community. 

In political sentiment Mr. Goudy is an 
ardent Republican. He is widely and 
favorably known throughout his adopted 
county, and as a public-spirited citizen takes 
an active interest in the welfare of the 
community. 



JOHN AUGUST FLOREN, one of Sew- 
ard county's homesteaders who, by 
thrift and perseverance, has become one of 
its well-to-do and influential farmers, has a 
fine tract of four hundred acres of land in 
precinct K, his home being situated in sec- 
tion 19. 



Mr. Floren was born Januarys, 1845, in- 
Skaraborg, Lan Sweden, where his parents 
spent their entire lives, the father reach-- 
ing the age of eighty-six, and the mother 
the age of seventy-five years. They were 
farmers by occupation, but were always 
renters, not being able to purchase a farm 
of their own. Our subject assisted his par- 
ents on the farm until he reached the age 
of twenty-six years. He then started for 
America, going by rail as far as Gottenburg,. 
from thence by ship to England', thence by 
rail to Liverpool and from there embarked 
for New York, landing June 21, 1871. He 
then proceeded to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and 
was there employed as a farm laborer at 
eighteen dollars per month until October of 
that year. About this time, he left the 
vicinity of Council Bluffs to go still farther 
west. He traveled by rail as far as Lincoln, 
Nebraska, and there found a farmer by the 
name of Johnson, who lived on the Blue 
River, and rode with him as far as Walnut 
Creek, in Seward county. He filed a home^ 
stead claim to eighty acres of land on Wal- 
nut Creek, built a sod shanty upon it and 
moved in his furnitue which comprised little 
else than his trunk which he brought from 
the old country. He soon provided himself 
with a small stove and settled in his new 
home, possessed of a property which, in 
Sweden, would make him a rich farmer. 

In this rude and poorly furnished shanty, 
our subject spent three years in bachelor 
quarters, but of this he became dissatisfied, 
and wished for a companion who should 
bear him company through the journey of 
life and who would also assume the man- 
agement of his household affairs, and on 
September 2, 1 874, he was married by Judge 
O. B. T. Williams, probate judge of Sew- 
ard county at that time, to Miss Anna Norin. 
Miss Norin was the only daughter of John 
Norin, who lived in the same county as the 
parents of our subject. She preceded Mr. 
Floren to America in company with her 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



649 



brother, having left Sweden in August, 
1870. They set sail from Gottenburg and 
landed at Hull, England. From thence 
they went by railroad to Liverpool, and 
there embarked on an Inman line steamer 
for New York city. From there they at 
once proceeded to Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
where Miss Anna's services were soon en- 
gaged in the Deaf and Dumb asylum, where 
she remained four years, during which time 
she made the acquaintance of Mr. Floren. 

After developing and improving the 
eighty acres that comprised his original 
homestead, Mr. Floren purchased an adjoin- 
ing eighty acres in 1873, and in 1877 he 
sold the entire tract because there was not 
other land adjoining that he could purchase, 
and the other quarter-section was much too 
small. He then went to precinct K, Sew- 
ard county, and purchased a tract of rail- 
road land. To this he has added from time 
to time as his circumstances would permit, 
until he is now the owner of a fine farm of 
four hundred acres, all in one body, three 
hundred and twenty acres of which are under 
cultivation, and the entire tract is well im- 
proved and furnished with such surround- 
ings as make life enjoyable. There are two 
orchards on the farm that furnish the family 
with apples, cherries, plums, peaches, etc., 
and the house and out-buildings are commo- 
dious, comfortable and convenient in their 
arrangement. 

Mr. and Mrs. Floren are the happy par- 
ents of a family of seven children, six of 
whom are now living, whose names, in the 
order of their birth, are as follows: Minnie 
E., Nettie, Carl F., Jessie, Arthur L. and 
Frank W. Miss Minnie E. received a high- 
school education in Seward, which she sup- 
plemented with a course in the Lincoln Nor- 
mal school, and is now teaching her fifth 
term and has gained a reputation that is 
second to none among the instructors of 
Seward county. Miss Nettie is also a 
teacher and is now serving her third term, 



and is meeting with marked success in the 
pursuit of her calling. She was educated 
in the same institutions as her older sister. 
Master Carl F., having completed the course 
given by the school of his district, is now 
attending the business college at Lincoln. 
The other children are still attending the 
district school. 

Politically, our subject was formerly a 
Republican, but becoming dissatisfied with 
the policy of that party, he forsook it, and 
for the past few years he has used his elect- 
ive franchises in the support of the candi- 
dates of the Populist party, considering it a 
duty to vote for the man best qualified for 
the office he seeks, regardless of party lines. 
Mr. and Mrs. Floren are members of the 
Presbyterian church at Tamora, but as this 
place is several miles from their home, the 
children attend the Methodist Sunday-school 
at Goehner. 



AARON ANDERSON has, since pioneer 
days, been identified with the agricul- 
tural interests of Polk county, and now has 
an excellent farm on section 27, township 14, 
range 2, which he has transformed from a 
wild, unbroken tract into well cultivated 
and productive fields. He thoroughly un- 
derstands his chosen vocation, and in his 
undertakings has met with well merited suc- 
cess. 

Mr. Anderson's early home was on the 
other side of the Atlantic, for he was born 
in Orebro, Sweden, September 25, 1843, ^ 
son of Andrew and Christina (Anderson) An- 
derson, both natives of Mosos, Torsjri, 
Sweden. The father was a land owner and 
successfully engaged in the operation of his 
farm until his death, which occurred in 
i860. Subsequently the mother came to 
America, and made her home with our sub- 
ject and another son until she, too, was 
called to the world beyond, in April, 1882, 
her remains being interred in the Stroms- 



650 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



burg cemetery. In the family were twelve 
children, of whom seven reached years of 
maturity, namely: Caroline and Sophia, 
who still live near Stockholm, Sweden; 
Louisa, deceased; Charlotte, also a resi- 
dent of Sweden; Charles, deceased; Gus- 
tave, of Stromsburg, Nebraska; and Aaron, 
of this sketch. The family were all con- 
nected with the Swedish Lutheran church, 
and were highly respected people. 

Mr. Anderson remained on the home 
farm until si.xteen years of age and attended 
the local schools to a limited extent. At 
the age of sixteen he began learning the 
cabinetmaker's trade in Orebro, and after 
serving an apprenticeship of three and a 
half years, he worked at the trade in his na- 
tive land until 1867, when he crossed the 
briny deep, landing in New York city, on 
the 24th of June, after a voyage of three 
weeks. He proceeded to Janesville, Wis- 
consin, where he worked at his trade for 
one year, and then went to Chicago, Illi- 
nois, to meet his old sweetheart, who was 
coming from Sweden. They were married 
in that city, August 14, 1868. Her maiden 
name was Carolina Hernblom, and she was 
born in Hofoa, Sweden, Januarj' i, 1843. 

In Chicago Mr. Anderson worked at his 
trade until the spring of 1874, when he came 
to Polk county, Nebraska, and located upon 
his present homestead, build thereon a small 
frame house, which he enlarged eight years 
later, completing it in 1891. The first year 
he raised a small amount of wheat, but the 
grasshoppers took all his corn. In 1875 
those insects also took a part of his crops, 
but since then he has steadily prospered and 
is now quite well-to-do, owning one hundred 
and eighty acres of land, of which one hun- 
dred and sixty acres are under[excellent cul- 
tivation and well improved. In the fall of 
1874 he went to Des Moines, Iowa, where 
he worked at his trade during the winter, 
but since then has devoted his entire time 
and attention to general farming and stock 



raising, making a specialty of Poland China 
hogs. 

Mr. Anderson has been called upon to 
mourn the loss of his estimable wife, who 
died March 18, 1893, and was laid to rest 
in the Stromsburg cemetery. She was a 
consistent member of the Swedish Baptist 
church, to which he also belongs, and is now 
serving as deacon. Their children are 
Joseph, who married Selma Olson and lives 
in Omaha; Huldah; Albert Emanuel, of 
Omaha; Frank Theodore; Ida Caroline; 
Edwin Anton; Inez Edwina; and Julia 
Agnata. They have all been given good 
common-school educations, and the daugh- 
ters are now keeping house for their father 
in his pleasant home. He is a member of 
the Scandinavian Mutual Insurance com- 
pany, of Polk county, and for many years 
has been a member of the school board in 
district No. 64. He takes considerable in- 
terest in political affairs, but is not identified 
with any particular party, always endeavor- 
ing to support the man best qualified for the 
office. 



DR. THOMASJ. HATFIELD, a leading 
dentist and prominent citizen of York, 
Nebraska, was born in Owensburg, Greene 
county, Indiana, October 11, 1851, and is a 
sonof -Armistedand Mary (Richison) Hatfield. 
The grandfather. Ale Hatfield, was a native 
of England, and was descended from the 
Roundheads. During his boyhood he came 
to the new world with his parents and set- 
tled in Virginia, where he grew to manhood 
and subsequently married Miss Naocy 
Young. During early life they removed to 
East Tennessee and located in the midst of 
the Cumberland mountains on the east fork 
of the Cumberland river, where the inhabit- 
ants were very few indeed. This isolated 
spot had many attractions for Mr. Hatfield, 
who was a devotee to the chase, and while 
cultivating his little valley farm for bread 




DR. T. J. HATFIELD. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



653 



he furnished his table with all the deer and 
bear meet the family could eat. There he 
and his wife spent the greater part of their 
lives. The farm on which they lived con- 
tained not more than thirty acres and had 
thirty-four corners marked with stone stakes 
and trees. During their early residence 
there the nearest cabin was fifteen miles 
from their home, and no wagon could be 
driven within twenty miles of this hunter's 
paradise. There they reared their children. 
Some of them reached man and womenhood 
unable to read and write; and in fact not 
one had ever seen a newspaper or book of 
any kind, or had been in a school- 
house until past middle life. The boys 
were experts with the rifle and also with 
the hoe, the only agricultural implement in 
use among those hills; while the girls were 
taught to grow and spin fla.\ and and weave 
all the cloth used in making the various 
garments worn by all. 

It was in this mountain home, and 
amidst these surroundings that Armisted 
Hatfield grew to manhood. He was born 
in Fentress county, Tennessee, March 9, 
1809, and on reaching man's estate married 
Miss Mary Richison, a native of East 
Tennessee. After their marriage they left 
the mountain wilds and moved to south- 
eastern Indiana, settling on a farm in 
Greene county, in 1828, where h"e made his 
home for thirty-two years, while devoting 
his energies to the development and culti- 
vation of his land. 

Dr. Hatfield is the youngest of the fam- 
ily of twelve children, of whom ten reached 
years of maturity. In the county of his 
nativity he spent his boyhood and youth 
and attended the public schools. At the 
age of twenty he married Miss Martha 
Rush, a daughter of B. Rush, and they 
have become the parents of one son. Homer 
R., who has also chosen dentistry as a life- 
work, and is now a student at the North- 
western University at Chicago. 



The Doctor continued to work with and 
for his father until he attained the age of 
twenty-five years, when his father, who had 
accumulated considerable property, sold his 
farm and left our subject and his wife free 
to seek other employment. He then com- 
menced the study of dentistry in the office 
of Dr. Driscoll, with whom he remained for 
a year, and then entered the dental depart- 
ment of the University of Indiana, at In- 
dianapolis. On leaving college he returned to 
his old home, and among the people who had 
known him all his life he opened his office, 
remaining there four years. He then came 
to Nebraska and settled in the growing city 
of York, where he soon succeeded in estab- 
lishing a large and lucrative practice, which 
he still enjoys. In political affiliations he 
has been a life-long Republican, while so- 
cially he is a member in good standing of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and 
his wife of the Daughters of Rebekah. For 
over a quarter of a century they have been 
faithful members of the Christian church, 
and are honored and highly respected citi- 
zens of York, where they have found a 
pleasant home. A portrait of Dr. Hatfield 
appears on another page. 



SOLOMON SHRADER, one of the rep- 
resentative and prominent agricultur- 
ists of Butler county, residing on section 6, 
Read township, has for almost a quarter of 
a century been identified with its interests, 
and has been an important factor in the 
growth and upbuilding of the community. 
Mr. Shrader was born July 18, 1829, in 
Union county, Pennsylvania, and is a 
worthy representative of an old Penns3'l- 
vania Dutch family, his paternal grand-fa- 
er being a resident Berks county, that state, 
while his father, Frederick Shrader, was for 
many years a well-known and highly respect- 
ed farmer of Union county. In the county of 
his nativity our subject was reared upon a 



654 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



farm, early becoming familiar with every de- 
partment of farm work, and acquiring his 
literary education in the public schools of 
the neighborhood. He was married in 
Union county, in July, 1852, to Miss Cath- 
erine, daughther of Frederick Catherman,of 
that county, and there they began their do- 
mestic life. At the end of two years, how- 
ever, they removed to Centre county, 
Pennsylvania, where the following three 
years were passed. An older brother of 
Mr. Shrader had emigrated to Illinois and 
on his return to Pennsylvania induced our 
subject to sell his property there and re- 
move to the Prairie state, which he did in 
1857, settling on a farm in Carroll county, 
where he experienced all the hardships and 
privations incident to pioneer life. To the 
cultivation and improvement of his land he 
devoted his energies for many years. 

Before leaving the east three children 
had come to bless the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Shrader, namely: George Rosa B. 
and William; and in Illinois the family cir- 
cle was increased by the following: Frances, 
Edwin, Fred, Kate, and Alberta. Of these 
George, is engaged in farming in Butler coun- 
ty, Nebraska, William is a resident of Osceola, 
Nebraska, Fred, a young man of especially 
bright prospects, was educated at Shenan- 
doah, Iowa, and died shortly after his gradua- 
tion in 1 89 1, his death proving a sad blow to 
his family and to his host of friends and ad- 
mirers among all classes. Rosa B. is the wife 
of George U. Warner, of Polk county, Ne- 
braska; and Kate and Alberta, at home,-are 
bright and facsinating young ladies of liberal 
education and superior talents. 

In the spring of 1874 Mr. Shrader came 
to Nebraska to visit his oldest daughter — 
Mrs. Warner — and before returning to 
Illinois purchased a quarter section of land 
in Butler county, on which he located 
March 15, of that year, after disposing of 
his property in Illinois. Here his expe- 
riences as a pioneer were duplicated, and 



from the wild unbroken land he has de- 
veloped a fine farm, whose well-tilled fields 
and neat and thrifty appearance plainly in- 
dicate the perseverance, industry and enter- 
prise of the the owner. Mr. Shrader and his 
family have taken a prominent and active 
part in the public affairs of the locality, and 
are justly numbered among the valued and 
useful citizens of the community. 



J 



AMES SHIPP.— The life of this gentle- 
man is a striking example of persever- 



ance and industry. He has had somewhat 
remarkable experience in his struggle with 
the world, but prosperity has at length 
crowned his efforts, and he is now the owner 
of a valuable farm on section 26, Baker 
township, York county. He was born in 
Cambridgeshire, England, March 2, 1846, 
a son of Thomas and Mary (Tubbs) Shipp, 
farming people of that country, who with 
their family emigrated to America in 1S58, 
and located in Warrick county, Indiana. 
For several years they made their home in 
that county, but finally sold their farm and 
removed to Gibson county, the same state, 
where they spent the remainder of their 
lives. 

The subject of this sketch was twelve 
years old when he accompanied his parents 
on their removal to the United States, and 
in Warrick and Gibson counties, Indiana, 
he grew to manhood. His summers were 
wholly devoted to farm work, and while at- 
tending school during the winter season, he 
worked nights, mornings and Saturdays for 
his board. In Gibson county, he was mar- 
ried February 24, 1870, to Miss Angeline 
Broadwell, a native of Warrick county, In- 
diana, and a daughter of David and Cath- 
arine (Welty) Broadwell, a sketch of whom 
will be found on another page of this vol- 
ume. Mr. and Mrs. Shipp have become the 
parents of nine children, namely: David, 
now deceased; Jonn; Charles; May; Will- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



655 



iam; Richard; Nellie; Marcia, deceased; 
and Clyde. 

The first three years of his married life, 
Mr. Shipp passed in Warrick county, 
Indiana, but in the fall of 1873 came to 
York county, Nebraska, having bought the 
supposed right to eighty acres of land on 
section 26 Baker, townshisp, of Lee Matte- 
son, a young man from Iowa. He paid Mr. 
Matteson three hundred and fifty for his 
claim which he found out later did not exist 
but he never saw his friend (.') Matteson nor 
the three hundred and fifty dollars again. He 
afterward made up his mind that all men 
were not honest. Going to the land office, 
Mr. Shipp filed a homestead claim to the 
land and has lived upon the same ever since. 
The only improvement on the land was a 
dugout near its eastern border, and in this 
he, his wife and one child made their home 
during the winter-together with his broth- 
er-in-law, James White, with his wife and 
child — this rude habitation serving as a 
home for two families. Mr. White had 
homesteaded eighty acres adjoining that of 
our subject, and in 1874 they broke twenty 
acres of land spiece, having one team be- 
tween them. While Mr. White broke his 
land, Mr. Shipp planted sod corn, using an 
ax to make the neceassry excavation in the 
sod. The corn grew in fine style, and the 
prospects for a crop were good, but the 
grasshoppers came and destroyed it totally, 
together with all their vegetables. All they 
raised that year was a little wheat, and the 
hardships they were forced to endure can be 
little realized by the present generation. In 
the fall of 1874 Mr. Shipp built a comfort- 
able sod house on his land, and after living 
in it for seven years was enabled to build 
a frame house i6x 24 feet, which now serves 
as a kitchen to his present residence, which 
was erected in 1890, and is 16 x 26 feet, and 
two straies in height. He has placed his 
land under a high state of cultivation, and 
having rented two hundred and sixty acres 



of land, is now successfully carrying on farm- 
ing operations on an extensive scale. 

Mr. Shipp has always taken considerable 
interest in educational affairs, and for fif- 
teen years has been the efficient treasurer of 
his district. In 1895 he also served as 
assessor of Baker township. Politically he 
is a stanch Republican in politics, is an 
active party worker, while socially he affili- 
ates with the Ancient Order of United 
Workman at Charlston; and religiously both 
he and his wife are leading members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church at the same 
place, of which he is one of the trustees. 



WH. TAYLOR, a wealthy and pros- 
perous farmer of West Blue town- 
ship, York county, enjoys the distinction of 
being one of the very oldest settlers in this 
part of Nebraska. He has been here now 
a full third of a century, and has counted 
step by step all the slow and difficult pro- 
cess b-y which history has been made west 
of the Missouri. He knows all the story of 
the state by experience. He was part of it. 
He lives on section 8, and loves to dilate 
upon the story of the past. It is to him 
and to all who have come through it a his- 
tory of surpassing interest. 

Mr. Taylor was born December 20, 1837, 
in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and was 
a son to William and Hester (Shaffer) Tay- 
lor, and by his paternal ancestry is of Ger- 
man extraction. His father and mother 
have always lived in Fayette county, and 
there he spent his life until he had reached 
full manhood. He was one of a family of 
five girls and four boys who reached matur- 
ity. Four are now living. His parents 
were members of the Methodist church, and 
were in every way excellent and worthy 
people. Our subject had one brother, John, 
who served in the Union army during the 
Civil war, and was taken prisoner and con- 
fined in Andersonville. 



056 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



The subject of this writing began for 
himself in the great world of business soon 
after reaching his twenty-second year. He 
had been very fairly educated in the public 
schools, and felt quite prepared for the 
struggles and competitions of business. He 
left the overcrowded east, and found work 
as a farm hand in Livingston county, Illi- 
nois, in the year immediately preceding the 
firing on Fort Sumter. That direful event 
shook the country, and sent hosts of brave 
and ardent young men to the front. He 
was among the very first to enlist, and his 
record shows his enlistment April i8, 1861, 
as a member of Company D, Twentieth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was attached 
to the drum corps as a fifer, and was with 
the regiment fourteen months. Its arena 
of operations was in Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Missouri, and for the greater part of 
this time was under the immediate com- 
mand of General Grant. He was in the 
battles of Fredericktown, Missouri, and 
Fort Henry, and was taken sick at this 
latter point from exposure and hardship. 
He was in the hospital for more than a year, 
and was discharged in June, 1862. It was 
a blow to the ambitious soldier, but it could 
not be helped. He returned to his Illinois 
home, and began work selling coal out of a 
coal yard. He also worked in an elevator, 
and applied himself heartily to whatever op- 
portunity was offered him. In 1865 he 
came to Nebraska and took up a homestead 
where he now resides. His nearest neigh- 
bor was four miles away. Indians were 
plenty, and at times inclined so be danger- 
ous. His market town was Nebraska City, 
one hundred miles to the east. The town- 
ship, county and state were without or- 
ganization. In 1866 he broke the prairie 
and the next year raised his first crop. The 
first three years of his stay in the state he 
spent in Missouri, chopping wood, but after 
that his farm became important enough to 
demand all his time. He lived in a dug- 



out three years, and moved from that into 
a log cabin, and into his present residence 
in 1884. 

Mr. Taylor is the proprietor of a 
quarter section of as fine land as the 
sun shines on, one hundred acres of which 
are devoted to cultivation. His is a general 
farming, and he devotes all his energies to 
his farm. He was married in 1870 to Miss 
Sarah Ong, a native of Pennsylvania, where 
she was born in Fayette county, August 6, 
1849. She is a daughter of Isaac Ong, who 
came to York county in 1868, and now re- 
sides at McCool. She is the mother of one 
child, and is a member of the Christian 
church. In politics Mr. Taylor is a stanch 
Republican. He was the first constable in 
West Blue township, and held that position 
ten years. He has been district treasurer 
and moderator of district No. 7. He helped 
to organize the first school district in York 
county, and walked thirty miles to engage 
the first teacher. He helped to organize 
the township, and had a hand in the organ- 
ization of the county and state. He was 
present at the first election in the county and 
state. He voted for the first governor of 
Nebraska, and has retained a lively interest 
public affairs. 



JULIUS C. BOYE, one of the most pro- 
gressive and enterprising agriculturists 
of Seward county, carries on operations on 
section 33, precinct N, where he has a fine 
farm. He is a native of Iowa, born in Linn 
county. May 19, 1848, and is a son of Har- 
man and Isabel (Patterson) Boye, the former 
of Danish, the latter of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent. The father was born in Denmark, 
but when a child was brought to this coun- 
try and grew to manhood in the city 
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he 
worked at the cabinet maker's trade until his 
removal to Iowa in about 1830. He con- 
tinued to follow his chosen occupation until 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHY 



657 



1850, when he was attacked with the "gold 
fever" and went to Cahfornia, spending 
four years on the Pacific slope, during which 
time he was fairly successful. On his re- 
turn to fowa he purchased a farm and . 
turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. 
It was in 1S47 that he married Mrs. Isabel 
(Patterson) Grafton, widow of Dr. Grafton. 

The subject of this sketch lived with 
his father on the home farm and attended 
the common schools until twenty years of 
age, when he entered the Agricultural col- 
lege in Story county, Iowa, where he pur- 
sued his studies for a year and a half, thus 
becoming well fitted for his life work. Re- 
turning home he aided his father in the 
work of the farm until twenty-three years 
of age, and during the following two years 
engaged in business on his own account as 
a farmer and railroad man. Collecting his 
hard-earned savings he crossed the Missouri 
river and landed in Seward county, Nebras- 
ka, March 14, 1874, with the intention of 
making his future home here. He pur- 
chased a farm on section 13, precinct M, 
built the usual sod-house and commenced 
to break and improve his land. 

On the 1st of October, 1874, Mr. Boye 
was united in marriage with Miss Esther 
Huffman, and took her as a bride to his 
new home, where they lived for three years. 
He then traded his farm for one hundred 
and sixty acres on section 33, precinct N, 
erected a frame house, and again commenced 
to develop a farm from wild land. Here 
his wife died in July, 1884, leaving him 
with three small children, the youngest 
, only two months old. Being unable to 
conduct his farm and care for his children, 
he moved to the city of Seward, where 
their grandmother could assist him in at- 
tending to their wants. In March, 1888, 
he returned to the farm, and on the iSth of 
January, 1889, he married Mrs. Myra 
Hazelwood, who lived south of Seward, and 
with whom he had been acquainted for a 



number of years. To them have been born 
three children, but all died in infancy. Two 
of the children of the first marriage are still 
living: Mable M. is now the wife of Harry 
Miller, son of Arthur J. and Melissa Miller, 
and they have one child, Vera. They live 
upon a part of the old homestead, not over 
a half mile from her father's house. Julius 
Roy is now fourteen years old, and when 
not attending the district schools of the lo- 
cality he assists his father in the labors of 
the farm. Mr. Boye is a firm believer in 
the advantages of a good education and 
proposes that his son shall attended higher 
institutes of learning and also prepare for a 
profession, if he so desires. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boye are the owners of 
four hundred and eighty acres of beautiful 
rolling prairie land, well watered and under 
a high state of cultivation. If good crops 
are an evidence of good farming as well as 
good land, the amount of wheat, corn, oats, 
barley and potatoes raised upon his farm 
will place our subject in the front rank of 
Seward county's best and most skillful farm- 
ers. He has always been a supporter of 
the Republican party, casting his first 
presidential vote for General Grant and his 
last for William McKinley. He and his 
wife are faithful members of the Evangeli- 
cal Association, both being regular in their 
attendance at church and Sunday-school. 
There is a neat little church only a mile 
east of their farm, where they can be found 
each Sunday listening to the preaching of 
Rev. Keefer, the present pastor. 



WILLIAM CRISP is one of the honored 
veterans of the Civil war whose de- 
votion to his country was tested not only by 
his service on the field of battle but in the 
the still more deadly dangers of the 
southern prison den. This gallant soldier 
is now a leading citizen of Osceola, Polk 
county, having retired from farm work. 



C58 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Crisp was born January 9, 1834, in 
Cambridgeshire, England, but was brought 
to America in 1838 by his parents, Joseph 
and Martha (Webrow) Crisp, who Hved for 
six years in New Yorli state and then re- 
moved to Hillsdale county, Michigan, locat- 
ing on a new farm in the town of Cambria. 
There the mother died in January, 1867, 
the father in 1869. In their family were 
seven children who reached years of matur- 
ity, viz: Ann, now deceased; Elizabeth, 
a resident of New York; Charles, deceased; 
John and Joseph who live in Michigan; Will- 
iam, of this review; and George, deceased. 
Three of the sons were soldiers of the Civil 
war, Charles being a member of the 
Eighteenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 
and dying from disease while in the service 
in Kentucky. George was a member of the 
Fourth United States Sharpshooters and 
was killed before Petersburg, Virginia. 
Thus two of the sons laid down their lives 
on the altar of their country. The father 
had been a member of the British army for 
seven years, first being under the command 
of Sir John Moore, and later under the Duke 
of Wellington. He was all through the 
Spanish peninsula campaign ending with 
the battle of Waterloo, where he was 
slightly wounded by a bullet just grazing 
his scalp. 

The subject of this sketch accompanied 
his parents on their emigration to America 
and on their removal to Michigan, and 
acquired his education in the public schools 
near his home. He was married, Septem- 
ber 9, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth Wamsley, 
who was born September 6, 1838, a sister 
of Christopher Wamsley, whose sketch ap- 
pears elsewhere in this work. Four chil- 
dren blessed this union: William, born 
November 11, 1856, died September 15, 
1885. Cornelius Loca, born September 
26, 1858, became a member of Company 
H, Fourth United States Infantry, regular 
army, and died October 5, 1883. Alice, 



born May 21, i860, married Joseph James, 
and died December 17, 1896, leaving six 
children, five still living — Earle, Tod, Rob- 
ert, Josiah and Ray. Mortimer R., born 
February 4, 1870, is now a Methodist min- 
ister. 

After his marriage Mr. Crisp located on a 
farm in Hillsdale county, Michigan, and to 
the cultivation and improvement of the 
wild land he devoted his energies until Au- 
gust, 1862, when he enlisted as a private in 
Company D, Eighteenth Michigan Volun- 
teer Infantry. At that time excitement was 
very high, and while breaking land with a 
two-yoke team of cattle, he and his 
brother Charles got to talking about the war. 
They soon stopped work, unhitched the cattle 
and started off to enlist. His wife with a 
baby in her arms went to intercept him but 
missed him, and he soon afterward went to 
the front, leaving her with three small chil- 
dren. His command first went to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and then under General Lew Wallace 
went in pursuit of Buckner in Kentucky. 
Mr. Crisp was in the engagement at Dan- 
ville, Kentucky, under Buell, and also in 
the siege of Cornith, and was on duty at 
Nashville, Tennessee, under General Mit- 
chell. He was one of the train guards on 
the railroad between Chattanooga and 
Louisville, then went to Murfreesboro after 
the battle in that at that place, and pro- 
ceeded with General Rosecrans to Chatta- 
nooga. Subsequently he was in the battles 
of Resaca, Decatur and Athens, and at the 
last-named place was taken prisoner Sep- 
tember 24, 1864. After spending one night 
in the stockades at Meridian, Mississippi, he 
was sent to Castle Morgan, Cahawba, 
Alabama, where he was confined until March 
24, 1865, his food being a pint of corn meal 
every twenty-four hours, it being ground 
cob, husk and all. Everything was done by 
the captors to torment the prisoners. The 
prison was located in the flats of the Ala- 
bama river, which in the spring of 1865 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



659 



overflowed its banks, and for twelve days 
this prison pen was covered with from one 
to six feet of water, there being not a dry 
spot on the entire grounds. The prisoners 
were almost naked; their sufferings were in- 
tense; vermin could be measured by the 
hundred bushels; and the death rate was 
about fifty per day. After the flood sub- 
sided there were about five hundred bodies 
ta|;en from the place. Vain efforts were 
made to break out, and they took their 
guards prisoners, but the next day two regi- 
ments of rebels and artillery were brought up 
and released the guards. As a punishment 
the prisoners were not given food for three 
days. During the raid of Wilson's cavalry 
in Alabama, the prisoners were taken across 
the Tombigby river to Gainesville, then to 
Meridian, and from there to Jackson, Mis- 
sissippi. At Big Black river they were re- 
captured by the Union cavalry and went into 
camp near Vicksburg for six weeks. 

On the 24th of April, 1865, two thou- 
sand five hundred prisoners from the rebel 
prison pens were put on board the steamer 
Sultana, at Vicksburg, bound for St. Louis, 
but when just above Memphis, Tennessee, 
the boiler exploded, causing a total wreck, 
which was followed in a few moments by a 
fire, which entirely destroyed the boat. 
Only about six hundred soldiers were saved, 
one thousand nine hundred being lost. At 
the time of the explosion, between two and 
three o'clock, a. m., Mr. Crisp was asleep 
on the boiler deck only about sixteen feet 
from the boiler, and was suddenly awakened, 
finding himself under the boiler. He had 
to remain there, being fastened down by a 
portion of the boiler, and the heat was al- 
most unbearable. After making a desper- 
ate effort he succeeded in crawling out and 
reached a crowd of men huddled together 
at the bow of the boat. Both arms, should- 
ers and a part of his body were scalded and. 
burned terribly, and the left arm was ren- 
dered useless by a part of the boiler falling 



on it. The boat had headed down the 
stream, and when the advancing flames be- 
gan to singe his hair, Mr. Crisp jumped into 
the river, but was immediately grasped by 
a drowning man and pulled under. Getting 
loose, he came to the surface and swam 
down stream and crossed to the Arkansas 
side, three and a half miles from the scene 
of the disaster. He landed on a tree stand- 
ing in the water, where he remained for 
about four hours, being rescued by a Con- 
federate soldier. He was taken to Memphis, 
where he remained in the hospital for two 
weeks and then sent to Cairo, Illinois, but 
could proceed no farther for twenty-four 
hours. By train he went to Indianapolis, 
and after resting another day proceeded to 
Columbus, Ohio, where he was in a hospital 
for two weeks. He was then ordered in the 
stockade on reaching Jackson, Michigan, 
but instead went home. He had suffered 
so much during his three years' absence and 
was so terribly changed by his horrible ex- 
periences, that his wife did not know him. 
At the end of two weeks he reported again 
at Jackson, and was again ordered into the 
stockades, but obtained a leave of absence. 
He was finally mustered out at Detroit, 
Michigan, June 25, 1865, but was unable to 
resume work for about a year. 

In July, 1873, Mr. Crisp came to Polk 
county, Nebraska, and secured a homestead 
— the northeast quarter of section 10, town- 
ship 15, range 3. For a few months the 
family lived in a tent, then in a sod house 
for four years, and at the end of that time 
removed to a comfortable frame residence. 
The land being all wild, they raised nothing 
the first year, and the following year their 
crops were destroyed by the grasshoppers. 
Thus they were forced to endure all the 
hardships and privations of frontier life, but 
Mr. Crisp was persevering and industrious, 
and now has eighty acres under a high state 
of cultivation and improved with good build- 
ings. In 1895 he laid aside business cares 



GOO 



COMPEXDIi'M OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and has since lived retired in Osceola, en- 
joying a well-earned rest. He is a leading 
and active member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church of that place, and has been a 
local minister for that denomination since 
1856, laboring untiringly for the betterment 
of his fellow men. He is an honored mem- 
ber of the Grand Army Post at Silver Creek, 
and is an ardent Republican in politics, tak- 
ing a very active part in the campaign of 
1896, making a number of stump speeches 
throughout Polk county. He has efficiently 
served as school treasurer in district No. 57, 
and in days of peace is as true to his duties 
of citizenship as he was when he followed 
the old Hag to victory on southern battle 
fields. 



DIETRICH BRANDT was the first 
homesteader in H precinct, Seward 
county, Nebraska, and has known the west 
in every stage of development and been 
identified with its growth and prosperity. 

Mr. Brandt was born in Germany, Jan- 
uary 28, 1834, began school in that coun- 
try at the age of six years, and continued 
same until ten years of age. At this time 
he migrated to America with his father and 
older brother, his mother having died about 
four years previous to this time. They 
landed in New York in the fall of 1845, and 
from thence proceeded to Adam, county, 
Indiana, where they rented an eighty-acre 
farm for one-third of the crop it should 
produce, and made this their home for five 
years, and here the father, Conrad Brandt; 
died in the fall of 1850, at the age of fifty- 
two years. 

In the following spring, our subject and 
his brother went to Clayton county, Iowa, 
where, for a time. Master Dietrich made a 
living by working by the month. By the 
time he reached the age of twenty, however, 
he was able to purchase a fifty-acre farm at 
the rate of twenty dollars per acre. This 



farm, at the time Mr. Brandt purchased it, 
was entirely unimproved, but it soon yielded 
to the pluck and enterprise of its new owner 
and became quite a respectable habitation for 
our subject and the amiable lady who at 
that time became his wife. 

Mr. Brandt made his home on his Iowa 
farm for fifteen years, and then emigrated, 
with a covered wagon and team of oxen, for 
Nebraska. Arriving at Nebraska City, he 
left his wife and family of three children 
while he, together with Conrad Grotz and 
Louis Leibrock, went farther into the in- 
terior of the state on an exploring expedition. 
After locating his claim in H precinct, 
Seward county, our subject returned to Ne- 
braska City for his family. They then 
moved to their new home, but for three 
weeks they were obliged to live in their 
covered wagon until the dug-out could be 
completed. In this rude domicle, which 
was in size 16 x 18 feet, they spent two 
years, and from it every evening could be 
heard the sound of wolves, deer and ante- 
lope, mingled with the yells of the Indians. 
Later he built a log house in which he lived 
until 1890, and this structure is still stand- 
ing as a relic of pioneer life. He then 
moved into his present spacious, and, in- 
deed, very comfortable home. During the 
early part of his life in the west, Mr. 
Brandt had to drive to Nebraska City, a 
distance of seventy-five miles, to get his 
groceries, and, in fact, do all of his market- 
ing, and consequently the supply of pro- 
visions would sometimes run low, and the 
good wife was compelled to use the coffee 
mill to grind wheat and corn to supply the 
family with bread and " Johnniecake." This 
mode of living is now a thing of the past 
with Mr. Brandt, and he is now the fortu- 
nate owner of a farm of three hundred and 
twent}' acres that compares favorably with 
the best farms in the precinct and he is now 
enjoying the fruits of a life of industry 
and honest labor and the confidence 



COMPEXn/LM OF BIOGRAPHV 



0(51 



and esteem of his fellow citizens, the waj^es 
of an honorable and upright life. Politically 
our subject is a Democrat, having cast his 
first presidential ballot of James Buchanan, 
the Democratic candidate from Pennsyl- 
vania, and attends religious services at the 
Evangelical Lutheran church, in Middle 
Creek. 

Mr. Brandt was married while living in 
Iowa to Miss Catherine Leibuck, who was 
born in Germany, came to this country at 
the age of sixteen years and became his 
wife at the age of eighteen. Mrs. Brandt 
died in Iowa, and our subject subsequently 
married Mary Heidenreich in Wisconsin, 
who migrated with him to Nebraska, and 
who is still living and enjoying with him 
the results of their labors in doing their part 
to subdue and civilize the wild and barren 
west. Mrs. Brandt is a daughter of Charles 
and Sophia (Brinkboff) Heidenreich, and 
was born in 1846. Her parents came to 
this country from Germany about the year 
1856 and made their Ihome for many years 
in Dane county, Wisconsin. The mother 
died in that state and the father afterward 
tnoved to Lancaster county, \\'isconsin. 
Mr. Brandt has a bright, interesting family 
of fifteen children, whose names in the order 
of their birth are as follows: Cardine, Eliza- 
beth, Lizzie, Charlie, William, Annie, Min- 
nie, Henry, Louis, Ida, Martha, Lena, 
Johnnie, August and Clara, all living but 
two Elizabeth and Lizzie. 



CHARRES H. STARK, who may be 
nearly always found on his homestead 
farm, section 24, Hays township, is one of 
the early pioneers of this county, and by 
example and teaching has contributed very 
substantiall}' to the onward movement of 
this region. He is a man of intelligence, 
entertains broad and enlightened views, and 
is an earnest advocate of sound morals and 
progressive education. 

38 



Mr. Stark was born in Allegany county, 
Maryland, April 4, 1838, and is well past 
the sixtieth milestone of his life journey. 
He is a son of Jervis Stark, who was born 
in Limerick. Ireland, and came to this 
country early in life, and settled in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, where he found and 
wooed his wife. Her maiden name was 
Sarah Dean, and she is still living in the 
Quaker commonwealth, and is over eighty 
years old. Jervis Stark was a contractor 
and builder of macadamized roads, and was 
employed in this line for many years. He 
constructed a fine road in Virginia, leading, 
to Cedar Creek, afterwards immortalized 
in the history of the Civil war as the scene 
of Sheridan's Ride. He became a hotel 
keeper later in life, and was a man of 
considerable attainment and character. He 
was married about 1830, and died in Vir- 
ginia in 185 I. 

Mr. Stark retnained in Virginia until he 
was fifteen years old, when he returned to 
Pennsylvania after the death of his father. 
He had more than an ordinary education, 
and was a faithful student both in the com- 
mon school and the academy. In 1S61 he 
journeyed westward and engaged in farming 
near Magnolia, Illinois. In the spring of 
1864 he enlisted at Chicago in Company 
F, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry. He served un- 
til November of the same year, and was 
mostly on garrison duty during that time. 
He returned to Illinois, and February 14, 
1865, he was married to Miss Kate 
Stanton. She was a daughter of Jer- 
emiah and Sarah (Sutton) Stanton, and is 
also a Pennsylvanian born and bred. They 
settled on a rented farm where they spent 
the first four years of their wedded life. 
But they had dreams of a farm and a home 
of their own, and an old settled country 
like Illinois seemed to afford little counte- 
nance to that notion. They determined to 
seek their fortunes in Nebraska, and in 1869 



GC)2 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



came to York county driving overland the 
entire distance. It was a wild country upon 
which they looked. Game abounded. 
Buffalo had not entirely disappeared, and 
Indians were still numerous. But they had 
stout hearts, and set to work bravely to 
make a home in the wilderness. They 
filed a homestead claim to eighty acres, 
and this modest beginning has grown into 
a handsome and well kept farm of two hun- 
dred acres in a high state of cultivation, with 
all the latest notions of enlightened agricul- 
ture. 

Mr. Stark is an old settler, and a highly 
respected member of the community. For 
two terms he served on the county board, 
and for many years he has been a member 
of the school board. He assisted in the 
organization of the first school district in 
the county, and from the first has taken a 
deep interest in the cause of popular educa- 
tion. He helped organize the United Breth- 
ren church, which now has its location in 
McCool Junction. Its first services were 
held in a dug-out on the banks of the Blue 
River, near the crossing of the Kansas City 
and Omaha Railroad. He is a charter 
member of the Modern Woodmen at Mc- 
Cool Junction, and is connected with the 
Hays Grand Army post at Lushton. He is 
the father of si.x living children, whose 
names are Sarah, Jrevis N., Stanton F. , 
Annie, Nettie, and Charles William, and 
and has buried three children, Florence, 
Walter L., and Thomas L. During early 
days he taught school, and was among the 
first teachers in York county. All his life 
he has been an earnest friend of learning 
and religion, and through his character and 
teaching this community has been substan- 
tially benefited. 



M 



RS. CAROLINE TOWNSEND BAR- 
RETT, residing on section 33, Hays 
township, York county, is a lady of large 



business capacity and marked intelligence, 
and is distinguished for her straightforward 
womanly course, no less than for the tact 
and energy she has employed in her busi- 
ness affairs. She bore the maiden name of 
Caroline Townsend, is a native of Delaware 
county, New York, and a daughter of More- 
house and Anny (Johnson) Townsend, na- 
tives of Connecticut and New York, respect- 
ively. For thirteen years during early life 
the father sailed the seas, but later engaged 
in farming for a number of years. After 
his children attained maturity and moved 
west, he finally joined them in Illinois, but 
died in Beatrice, Nebraska. The mother 
survived him for several years, and passed 
away at the home of Mrs. Barrett, at the 
age of ninety-three years, being at that 
time the oldest lady in York county. 

In 1854 Caroline Townsend gave her 
hand in marriage to William Barrett, and 
after living upon a farm in New York for 
nine years they removed to Ogle county, 
Illinois, whence they came to York county, 
Nebraska, in the fall of 1875, purchased 
one hundred and si.xty acres of railroad 
land on section 33, Hays township, en- 
tirely unimproved. The lumber for their 
home was shipped from Burlington, Iowa. 
Soon after coming here, Mrs. Barrett was 
left a widow with eight children to rear 
and educate, which she has done in a most 
commendable manner. She deserves great 
credit for the able manner in which she has 
for years successfully conducted her farm- 
ing operations and made a home for her 
children. Left alone in a new country, 
practically without money and the obliga- 
tions of a farm with scarcely any improve- 
ments and with few tools or machinery to 
work the same, she has succeeded in main- 
taining a home for her family under most 
distressing and discouraging circumstances, 
and the result has only been obtained after 
undergoing many hardships and years of 
hard work. Assisted by her children as 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



6G3 



they grew up, she at length paid for her 
farm and now has one hundred and sixty 
acres under excellent cultivation and well 
improved. It is also well stocked and 
equipped with modern machinery. Mrs. 
Barrett is a faithful member of the Fair- 
view Methodist Episcopal church and a most 
estimable lady. 

The children, who have now all left the 
paternal roof, are as follows: Morehouse, 
a farmer of Frontier county, Nebraska; 
Martha, wife of Edward Hendricks, of Mc- 
Cook, Nebraska; Mary, wife of William 
Search, a farmer of York county; Ellen, 
wife of John Taylor, of Ida county, Iowa; 
Anderson, a farmer of York county; Anny, 
deceased; Jennie, wife of George Jenkins, 
a farmer of Fillmore county, Nebraska; and 
David, who is engaged in mining in Klon- 
dike, Alaska. 



GEORGE HAYWORTH, who owns a 
fine farm on section 26, McFadden 
township, is one of the leading men of York 
county, and is recognized as a representa- 
tive farmer in this section of Nebraska. He 
has passed through the hardships and priva- 
tions of pioneering, and has plucked a large 
success from trial and trouble. 

Mr. Hayworth was born in Davis county. 
North Carolina, April 14, 1846, and is a son 
of Riley and Percilla (Chambers) Hayworth. 
Riley Hayworth was a farmer in North 
Carolina, and coming of Quaker anteced- 
ents, held no slaves. He spent some years 
in Virginia after the birth of the son whose 
name introduces this article, and then feel- 
ing the need of the air of freedom, emigrated 
with his family to Iowa, where he settled 
in Appanoose county, where he spent the 
closing year of a long and honorable life. 
He died in 1895, out-living his wife thirty- 
two years. 

Mr. Hayworth was about eleven years 
old when his parents settled in Iowa. They 



had previously given five years to a trial of 
the possibilities of life in Indiana, and in 
that state he received. the most of his early 
education. In May, 1S64, he enlisted as a 
member of Company G, One Hundred and 
Thirth-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for 
one hundred days. Upon his discharge he 
re-enlisted in Company E, Thirty-ninth Illi- 
nois Veteran regiment, and served until 
the close of the war. The One Hundred 
and Thirty-fifth Indiana did post and guard 
duty at Bridgeport, Alabama, and the Illi- 
nois Veterans had a hand in the battles 
around Petersburg, and helped secure the 
surrender of General Lee. In one of these 
battles Mr. Hayworth fell into the hands of 
the rebels, and was subject to a brief cap- 
tivity at their hands. When the war was 
over, and white-winged peace had spread 
her wings abroad, he came back to Iowa, 
and resumed the occupation of farming in 
Appanoose county. 

Mr. Hayworth made a trip to York 
county, in August, 1871, and was so pleased 
with the promise of the land, that he 
brought his family back with him the fall 
of the same year. They passed the winter 
in a dug-out on Indian Creek; as it was one 
of the severest ever known in this section of 
the country, they suffered greatly from the 
snow and the cold. But all things come to 
an end, and the winter gave way to spring 
at last, and in the early spring he filed a 
soldier's homestead claim to section 26, 
McFadden township, and thus secured the 
home which has been his to the present day. 
His first residence conformed to the simple 
habits of the time. It was a sod house 
fourteen feet square, but it was a home, 
and gave promise of better things to come. 
The first year he broke about forty acres, 
and raised corn enough for his stock. And 
now, after a quarter of a century of the 
hardest work, he has a fine improved farm 
in a high state of cultivation, which contains 
two hundred and forty acres of choice land. 



664 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



He is a Republican, and takes an active 
part in the management of the machinery of 
the party. He is a member of the Exeter 
post of the Grand Army of the Repubhc, 
and is a leading spirit in its councils. He was 
married December 17, 1867, to Miss Mary 
Ford, a native of Indiana, and a daughter 
of Jacob and Catherine (Jordan) Ford, Her 
father was born in Pennsylvania, and her 
mother in Kentucky, and were much re- 
spected people in their day. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hayworth are the parents of twelve chil- 
dren, nine of whom are living. Their names 
are Lewis L. , Lucy E., Missouri E., Flora 
A., Frances P., Alice, Jacob E., Aurelia J. 
and Thomas. George W., Charles W., and 
Mary C. died in early life. Mr. Hayworth 
served his country well, has been an hon- 
orable and useful citizen, and now, as the 
evening shadows begin to slowly gather, he 
can look back upon a career of honor and 
usefulness. 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN SPROUT, who 
resides on section 4, Chelsea town- 
ship, is one of the leading farmers of Fill- 
more county. He was born August 24, 
1846, in Dupage county, Illinois, and is the 
son of Alexander and Anna (Fry) Sprout. 
His grandparents on the maternal side were 
Jacob and Elizabeth Fry, who were Penn- 
sylvania Germans. They immigrated to 
Illinois in an early day and commenced 
farming. Jacob Fry was also a minister of 
the Gospel. Both of them died in Illinois, 
Elizabeth Fry living to be eighty years of 
age. 

Alexander Sprout lived on his farm in 
Illinois for about forty years, when he 
moved to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
in the fall of 1883 bought a farm and lived 
there until his death, which occurred Janu- 
ary 23, 1898, at the age of seventy-six years. 
The mother, who is seventy-six years of age, 
is still living on the old farm, which is man- 



aged by the youngest son. Our subject 
received his education in the common 
schools of his district, and acquired such an 
education as the district schools of that 
time afforded. He lived with his parents 
until he was twenty-four years of age, at 
which time he was united in marriage to 
Miss Frances E. Jayne, the daughter of 
Horace and Lucy Jayne, and to their mar- 
riage were born five children, Jessie M., 
who married George J. Babb, and is now 
living in Champaign county, Illinois. She 
is the mother of one child, Walter. The 
other children, Earnest W., Grace L. , Lee 
C. and Melvin R. are at home and engaged 
in farming. Earnest W. attended the 
Lincoln Normal for two years, and Lee 
C. will attend the Lincoln Business col- 
lege, in order that he may acquire a 
complete business education. After his 
marriage our subject purchased a small 
farm and commenced work for himself. 
His industry and perseverance were at- 
tended with success, for in three years he 
was able to purchase more land, his farm 
then consisting of ninety-five acres of good 
fertile land. He lived on this farm for ten 
years, and seeing the advantages which the 
west offered he gathered everything together 
and loaded them on the cars and started 
for Nebraska, reaching there in November, 
1886, and immediately purchased a quarter 
section in Chelsea township, and where he 
is living at the present time. 

Mr. Sprout's first wife died on April i, 
1894, and on September 14, 1898 he was 
married to Mrs. Ada Friend, who was a 
daughter of John and Charity Lott, and to 
whom by her previous marriage were born 
two children, Edna A., and John M., both 
of whom are living. Our subject has a well 
improved, nicely located farm of three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of fine farming land, 
all under a high state of cultivation. His 
buildings are modern and substantial, and 
all over his entire farm you can see eviden- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl^. 



665 



ces of his thrift and industry, and he is con- 
sidered by all his neighbors as being a prosper- 
ous and successful farmer. In 1864 our 
subject, who was then but eighteen years of 
age, thought he was old enough to be a 
soldier, and on June 16 of that year, in re- 
sponse to the President's call for three 
months' volunteers, he went to Elgin Illinois, 
and enlisted in company H, One Hundred 
and Forty-first regiment, Illinois Volunteers. 
After drilling a short time his regiment was 
sent by rail to Cairo, Illinois, and from there 
to Paducah, Kentucky, and at that place 
made their headquarters during their entire 
stay in the army. From Paducah they were 
sent by boat up the Mississippi river, and 
landed in Missouri, and immediately started 
in chase of the Confederate General Forrest. 
They followed him for some ten or fifteen 
days, but at no time did they succeed in 
overtaking him, as at every point they 
thought they had succeeded in running him 
down the wily General managed to elude them 
and was always in some other place. While 
his regiment did not see much active fight- 
ing service, yet in holding the camps they 
released thousands of trained soldiers who 
were allowed to do active service, and to 
participate in the great final battles of the 
war, so that they really did serve their 
country just as much as though they had 
been allowed to do fighting service. He 
was of an active stirring disposition, healthy 
and rugged, and at no time during his en- 
tire term in the service was he in the hospital, 
and during some of their long and most 
arduous forced marches, he was never left 
behind. He looked upon the hardships of a 
soldier's life as something that could not be 
avoided, and as he was of a bright and jolly 
disposition his companionship was much 
sought by his fellow comrades. He was 
mustered out of the service at Camp Fry, 
Chicago, October 10, 1864, and at once re- 
turned home and began work on his father's 
farm as before. He has always enjoyed the 



best of health, and at the present time, at 
fifty two years of age, has never been sick in 
his life. 

Mr. Sprout is a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church of Geneva, and has 
always taken much interest in all matters 
pertaining to church work. His wife is a 
member of the Congregational church in 
the same place, and is also and active 
church worker. He also belongs to the A. 
O. U. W. fraternity. Politically he is with 
the Independent party and is an ardent be- 
liever in bi-metalism. He is also greatly 
interested in educational matters, and has 
always taken an active part in any move- 
ment that would benefit his community. 
He has taken great interest in township af- 
fairs, and at various times has served as 
assessor, school director and supervisor of 
roads. He is held in high regard by his 
neighbors and friends, and commands the 
respect of all who know him. 



PETER KELLER.— Among the substan- 
tial and prosperous agriculturists of 
Seward county may well be named the 
gentleman whose name introduces this 
sketch. His home and farm, which is not 
lacking in evidence of thrift and enterprise, 
is situated on section 7, precinct H. 

Mr. Keller is a native of Germany, his 
natal day being March 21, 1852, and lived 
in that country until twenty-eight years of 
age. He received his preliminary educa- 
tion in the common schools of the Father- 
land, between the ages of six and fourteen 
years, after which he entered the surveyors, 
and the higher schools, and the training he 
received in these institutions proved valu- 
able to him in his mechanical work. At the 
age of twenty, he entered the German army, 
and, after serving three years, returned to 
his study, taking courses in the schools at 
Bensheim, Worms and Manheim. After 
completing his education at the age of 



666 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



twenty-six, Mr. Keller spent two years in 
Germany and then started for the new 
world. He took transport in a steamer 
from Hamburg to New York and from 
thence proceeded to Johnson county, Iowa, 
where he was employed as a farm laborer for 
about eighteen months, ^^'hile in Iowa, 
our subject was united in marriage to Miss 
Kate Seibert, and soon after moved to 
Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was employed 
for one year by the B. & M. railroad com- 
pany as a mechanic and machinist in the 
roundhouse. 

While living in Iowa, Mr. Keller pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres of rail- 
road land in Seward county, Nebraska, at 
eight dollars per acre. At the time of this 
purchase, he was possessed of only fifteen 
dollars, and after paying ten dollars down 
for his farm, it took his remaining five 
dollars to pay his fare home to Iowa. Upon 
severing his connection with the railroad 
company in Lincoln, in 1883, he moved, 
with his wife and child, to his farm in H 
precinct, Seward county, furnished it with 
a residence 14.x 20 feet, a team of mules, a 
cow, a hog and a wagon, and began to break 
and to otherwise prepare his new farm for 
crop-raising and fit habitation for himself 
and family. That Mr. Keller has suceeded 
in this venture can be easily proven by a 
few minutes' reconnoiter of his surround- 
ings. The original quarter section has been 
added to from time to time until it now 
comprises two hundred and forty acres, is 
well stocked and finely improved with build- 
ings, forest trees and fruit trees of every 
description. The barn, however, was struck 
by lightning during the past season, but is 
now being replaced by a new building. Mr. 
Keller attends religious services at the Con- 
gregational church. 

Mrs. Keller, who has been previously 
mentioned in this article, was also born in 
Germany, the date of her birth being No- 
vember 26, 1853. She was educated in 



Germany, and at the age of twenty-eight 
years, she left home and came alone to 
America, stopping for a time in Baltimore 
and from thence moved to Iowa, where she 
met our subject, and was united to him in 
marriage October 9, 1881. To this union 
have been born four children, upon whom 
they have bestowed the following names: 
Fred, Lizzy, Mary and John, all of whom 
are living and are still making their home 
with their parents. Our subject's father, John 
Keller, was born in Germany and spent his 
entire life in the land of his nativity, and 
the mother also lived and died in Germany. 
Mrs. Keller's father, Frederick Seibert, was 
also a native of the Fatherland, and her 
mother, who bore the maiden name of Kate 
Roth, is still living at the age of seventy- 
three years. 



RICHARD MATTHEWS, who saw the 
early days of McFadden township, and 
knowns of his own experience what pioneer- 
ing means, is now spending the last days of 
a busy life in the cultivation of his farm, 
and the enjoyment of a wide circle of friends 
in York county. 

Mr. Matthews was born in county Gal- 
way, Ireland, December 5, 1847, and was a 
son of David and Mary (Donahoe) Matthews. 
They were natives of the same county in 
which Richard was born. The husband and 
father was a farmer and became prosperous 
in his native land, where he died in the full- 
ness of years. His wife survives and still 
resides in Ireland. Richard was reared on 
his father's farm, and had a good education 
in the schools of that country. He learned 
the carpenter's trade and worked at it until 
he reached the United States in 1871, He 
crossed the ocean on the ' ' Java, " landing 
in New York, July 12, and for seven years 
he worked at his trade in that city. He 
spent some time in Troy, and later went to 
Washington, District of Columbia, and in 



COMrENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



0G7 



March, 1878, was first seen within the 
borders of York county, Nebraska. The 
previous year he had entered into a partner- 
ship with a Mr. Henehan, who had come to 
the county and bought a considerable tract 
of land. The two were associated in farm- 
ing for several years, when they dissolved 
partnership, and divided everything equally. 
Since coming here he has increased his real 
estate holdings, and now owns a very com- 
plete farm of two hundred and forty acres, 
more than half of which is under a high 
state of cultivation. His first home was a 
sod-house, 14x24 feet. It had a lumber 
roof, and was regarded as one of the larg- 
est and most aristocratic in the county. Yet 
it is recalled that when a severe storm was 
raging it was sometimes necessary to hoist 
an umbrella in order to keep protected from 
the penetrating rain. But this was pioneer- 
ing, and everything was accepted with a 
hearty good nature. Mr. Matthews had his 
home on the northwest quarter of section 
27, and he has improved it beyond the im- 
agination of anyone who could have looked 
at it on the occasion of his entrance upon 
the raw prairie. This place he exchanged 
in October, 1896, for his present home, on 
section 23. He was married in 1881 to 
Miss Nora Lally, a native of Ireland, who 
came to this county from the city of New 
York. They are the parents of two boys, 
William D. and Richard, Jr. He belongs 
to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
at McCool Junction. He is independent in 
his political relations, and with his family 
belongs to the Catholic church at Exeter. 



WILLIAM F. KAPKE, a well-known 
farmer residing on section 20, I 
precinct, Seward county, is a man whose 
success in life shows what can be ac- 
complished by industry, perseverance and 
economy, especially if a sensible wife aids 
him in his efforts to secure a home and com- 



petence. He is a native of Germany, born 
in 1835, but when a child of seven years was 
brought to America by his parents, Martin 
and Louisa (Tank) Kapke, who were also 
born in that country. They became pioneer 
settlers of Wisconsin, locating there when 
that state was almost an unbroken forest, 
filled with Indians, wolves, bears and deer, 
and they had many things to contend with 
and many dangers to encounter in making 
for themselves a home in that wild country. 
The mother died in Wisconsin at the age of 
seventy-four years, and was buried in 
Sheboyagon county. Subsequently the 
father made his home with our subject and 
died in Nebraska at the age of eighty-three, 
being laid to rest in Middle Creek cemetery. 
In their family were four children, three 
sons and one daughter, all of whom reside 
in Wisconsin with the exception of our 
subject. 

At the age of six years William F. 
Kapke entered school and continued his 
studies in the common schools of this 
country until fourteen, after which he as- 
sisted his parents on the home farm until 
twenty-three. On the 3d of November, 
1859, he was married by Rev. Adolph 
Schwamkoskie to Miss Wilhelmina Klug, 
who was born in Wisconsin, July 5, 1839, 
and attended the public schools of that 
state until twelve years of age. She was 
then confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran 
church, our subject being confirmed in the 
same church at the age of fourteen. Her 
parents, Charles and Christine (Knuth) 
Klug, were both natives of Germany and 
when young came to the United States, 
being married in Wisconsin, where they 
spent the remainder of their lives, the 
father dying at the age of seventy-six and 
the mother at the age of seventy-eight 
years. Their family consisted of three chil- 
dren, Mrs. Kapke and two sons, one of 
whom is now living in Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin, the other in Seward county, Nebraska. 



668 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. and Mrs. Kapke are the parents of 
eleven children, namely: Frank, who mar- 
ried Minnie Thomas and lives on a farm in 
Seward county; Mary, wife of John Thomas, 
a contractor and builder; Matilda, wife of 
Henry Thomas, a farmer; Willie, deceased; 
Paul, who married Maud McGrew; Fred, 
who married Kate Wissel; Bertha, wife of 
Charles Miller, a broker of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska; and Minnie, now Mrs. Steiner; 
Willie, Ida and Clara, all at home. All 
have been provided with good common- 
school educations and ha\e been confirmed 
in the Evangelical Lutheran church. 

For several jears after their marriage 
Mr. and Mrs. Kapke continued to reside in 
Wisconsin, where they worked hard to sup- 
port their growing famih', and by close 
econom}' they saved enouf;h money to pur- 
chase a home of their own. Mrs. Ivapke 
had been inured to hard work while still 
under the parental roof and she has proved 
a true and faithful helpmeet to her husband, 
aiding him in every possible way. She 
never wasted a moment and every possible 
attention was given to her children. In the 
spring she would help her husband in mak- 
ing maple syrup, as there were many maple 
trees upon their farm. From the wild land 
they developed a little farm, cutting down 
the trees, burning the brush, andfinallj', with 
a yoke of oxen, breaking the earth, so that 
with a hoe or rake a little grain or vege- 
tables could be planted. One of their mis- 
fortunes, also, v/as that their house was 
burned. Generally the cultivated farms in 
that wild region were from ten to twenty 
acres in extent, and our subject and his 
wife improved about six acres, each year 
adding one or two more to the cleared tract. 
She could generally drive the ox team while 
breaking the land. Thus they continued to 
work until the spring of 1878, when they 
decided to try their fortune on the prairies 
of the west, and accordingly came to Ne- 
braska. For ten years they lived on a farm 



in Lancaster county, and they remo\ed to 
Lincoln, where Mr. Kapke worked at his 
trades as a carpenter and brick mason, and 
his wife successfully conducted a boarding 
house, thus carrying on operations for 
nine years. The spring of 1898, however, 
witnessed their arrival in Seward county, 
and they now live on a farm on section 20, 
I precinct, their energies being devoted to 
agricultural pursuits. 

Duritig the Civil war Mr. Kapke was 
drifted, and served for nine months as a 
member of Company F, Sixth Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Childs. 
He was wounded at the battle of Hatchie's 
Run and sent to the hospital at Wilmington, 
Delaware. At the close of the war he 
was honorably discharged, but on ac- 
count of his wound was unable to be pres- 
ent at the grand review in Washington, 
District of Columbia. Mr. and Mrs. Kapke 
have the respect and esteem of all who know 
them and have made many friends during 
their short residence in Seward county. 
Their children have been well reared, re- 
ceiving a moral and religious training from 
a Christian mother, and in them the parents 
take a just pride. 



REV. JAMES F. McCOY, an earnest and 
efficient christian worker and a minister 
of the Christian church, is making his home 
on a farm in Ulysses township and in con- 
nection with his ministerial work is success- 
fully operating his farm. He settled on sec- 
tion 18, of the above-named township in 
March, 1878. He was born in Montgomery 
county, Indiana, January i, 1840, a son of 
Stephen McCoy, an early settler of Indiana, 
locating in that state in 1823. He was a 
native of North Carolina, where he was born 
in 1799, among the younger members of the 
family. Two of his older brothers partici- 
pated in the war of 18 12. Grandfather 
McCoy was a Revolutionary soldier. He 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



669 



migrated from Ireland and located first in 
Pennsylvania and later in North Carolina. 
Our subject's mother bore the maiden name 
of Miss Sarah Lindsey. She was a native of 
Virginia and of Scotch descent. 

The subject of our sketch is one of a 
family of thirteen children, there being ten 
boys in the family, eight of whom grew to 
maturity. In his early life he had very 
limited educational advantages and barely 
passed the rudiments. He was married at 
the age of twenty years to Miss Margaret A. 
Cowan, a daughter of John N. Cowan, for- 
merly of Ohio, and to this union have been 
born four children, now living as follows: 
John S. , of Surprise, Nebraska, Ellen A., 
a teacher in the Surprise schools; Ida J., 
wife of A. F. Krause, of Philips county, 
Nebraska, and Charles F., now living on the 
home farm. 

Mr. McCoy enlisted in company B, 
Seventy-second Indiana volunteer infantry 
and was mustered into service in August, 
1862, but owing the disability he was dis- 
charged before his time of enlistment ex- 
pired. The company to which he belonged 
was attached to the Army of the Cumber- 
land. Prior to his moving to Nebraska, in 
June, 1878, our subject was ordained a 
minister of the Christian church, and since 
locating in Butler county his ministerial 
work has covered a large field and he has 
become well and widely known throughout 
this part of the state. He is a man of 
earnest, practical nature. His heart and 
soul are in his work and he has infused new 
life into the societies in which he has 
labored, and is very popular with his people 
and greatly beloved by them. 



JAMES WHOLSTENHOLM, who re- 
sides on section 26, McFadden town- 
ship, came to York county with his parents, 
John and Hannah (Lonsdale) Wholsten- 
holm, in September, 1871. The family was 



among the first to be established in this 
part of the county, and has been associated 
with much of its early history. 

The gentleman, whose name introduces 
this article was born in Peoria county, Illi- 
nois, January 18, 1854. He was reared on 
the paternal homestead, and had such an 
education as the neighboring common 
schools afforded. When he became of age 
he pre-empted eighty acres in section 26, 
and as he has grown in years, his farm has 
increased in its acreage, until he now owns 
two hundred and forty acres. When he lo- 
cated here he lived in a dug-out, but after 
his marriage he put up a handsome frame 
residence. He has made many improve- 
ments on the farm, including a modern resi- 
dence, barns and a number of convenient 
out-buildings. 

Mr. Wholstenholm was married Septem- 
ber 28, 1878, to Miss Mary Wullbrandt, a 
native of LaSalle county, Illinois, and a 
daughter of Charles H. and Fredricka (Hol- 
loch) Wullbrandt, who were natives of Ger- 
many and were among the pioneers of this 
country. They are the parents of five chil- 
dren, C. Ernest, William, Elva M., Jessie 
J. and Richard E. He is a member of the 
Ancient Order of the United Workmen at 
McCool Junction and takes an active inter- 
est in the affairs of that fraternal society. 
He is a Republican, and has been assessor 
of the township, and a member of the 
school board. She is a member of the 
Pleasant Ridge United Brethren church. 



ELLIS LONSDALE is one of the earlier 
settlers of York county and among a 
generation of strong and sturdy men, who 
have endured privation and suffered want 
that they might win a home, he stands peer 
to any for simple straightforward manhood 
and rugged integrity. His home is on sec- 
tion 36, McFadden township, and it has be- 
come one of the best improved farms of 



670 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



this end of the countj-. He came to York 
county in 1878, and for two years farmed 
land rented of John Runnals, about six 
miles northwest of his present farm. In 
1S80 he leased one hundred and twenty 
acres of school land which now constitutes 
his home. He bought it after si.x years of 
rental. He built a frame house, 14x24, in 
the spring of 1880, and began the im- 
provement of the farm. He plowed the 
first land in section 36 and made the first 
improvements that were known on that 
tract. Now he has a fine property, which 
is highly cultivated. He has good buildings 
and a beautiful maple grove of three acres 
which, is the result of his own planting. 

Mr. Lonsdale was born in Oldham, 
England, June 26, 1849, and is a son of 
John and Alice (Crabtree) Lonsdale, who 
were natives of the same county. His 
father was a weaver, and followed that 
trade in England. In 1854 he emigrated to 
the United States, and locating his family 
near Philadelphia, found employment in 
the woolen mills for nearly ten years, when 
he removed to Peoria and went into the 
manufacture of lime, and was thus engaged 
when he died March 18, 1878. Hiswifesur- 
vived him for many years, and died in her 
Illinois home May 15, 1896. 

Ellis Lonsdale was about five years old 
when his family came to this country, and 
when he was about eight years old began 
working in wool. He worked in the various 
departments of the mills for many years, be- 
ing principally employed as a wool carder, 
however. In Peoria he was a teamster in the 
summer, and a coal miner in the winter, 
and in this manner he passed the fourteen 
years following 1864. By this time he had 
come to feel the desire of a country home 
and he found it in this county. 

Mr. Lonsdale was married to Miss Sarah 
E. Pritchard, in Peoria, Illinois, June 25, 
1873. She married in her native city, and 
was of English descent, her parents John 



and Ann (Lonsdale) Pritchard, being na- 
tives of Oldham, England. Her father had 
an eventful history. He brought his family 
from England in 1843, and located on a 
farm near Peoria, which was then known as 
Fort Lafayette. He cleared a woodland 
farm, and hauled its produce to Chicago 
with ox teams. He is still living on the old 
homestead at an advanced age, and expects 
to soon pass the eighty-eighth milestone. 
His wife died in 1869. 

Mr. Lonsdale is a prominent farmer of 
McFadden township, and from his first ap- 
pearance here was known as a reliable and 
public-spirited citizen. He is a Populist, 
and in 1893 was elected to the county 
board. He has been justice of the peace. 
He is interested in secret work, and finds 
not a little satisfaction and pleasure in the 
three orders with which he is associated, 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. and 
Mrs. Lonsdale are the parents of seven 
children: Chester E., Levina E., John I. 
(deceased), Hannah, Maria E. , Margaret, 
and Corbitt C. 



JAMES SMITH MARSHALL, a leading 
citizen of Garrison, Butler county, Ne- 
braska, is the possessor of a handsome 
property which now enables him to spend 
his years in the pleasurable enjoyment of 
his accumulations. The record of his life, 
previous to 1892, is that of an active, enter- 
prising, methodical and sagacious business 
man, who bent his energies to the honorable 
acquirement of a comfortable competence 
for himself and family. In advancing his 
own interests he also materially assisted in 
the growth and upbuilding of this section of 
the state, and has been an important factor 
in its prosperity. 

Mr. Marshall traces his ancestry in this 
country back to colonial days, being a direct 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



671 



descendant of Captain James Smith, better 
known as Indian Jim, for whom our subject 
is named. He was born in Mercer county, 
Pennsylvania, August 2, 1824. His father, 
William Marshall, a native of eastern Penn- 
sylvania and a mechanic by trade, removed 
to Mercer county in early life, and was 
there married to Miss Nancy Bolton, of 
Harmony, Pennsylvania, a daughter of 
William Bolton. Our subject was the only 
child born to this union, his mother dying 
when he was quite small, but his father mar- 
ried again and he holds in kindly remem- 
brance the affectionate care of his step- 
mother. In his native town he was reared 
to manhood, attending first the public 
schools, and later being a student in the 
Mercer academy. During his youth he 
drove canal boats and engaged in any occu- 
pation which he could secure, early gaining 
an enviable reputation for doing things well. 
In 1848, Mr. Marshall was married in 
Butler county, Pennsylvania, near the town 
of Harlansburg, to Miss Rebecca Emery, a 
daughter of William and Lydia (Harlan) 
Emery, who settled in northwestern Penn- 
sylvania at an early day. The children 
born of this union in Pennsylvania are 
Parker, Charles, Elmer, Anna May, Lewis 
and Frank, while Minnie, the youngest, 
was born after the removal of the family to 
Nebraska. Parker married Nellie Upson 
and has one son, Emery. Charles married 
Ella Stewart and has four children — How- 
ard, Vera, Edna and Leslie. Anna May is 
the wife of Robert Johnson and they have 
one daughter, Ella. Minnie is now the 
wife of Logan Rogers and has one child. 
Hazel. 

During his residence in his native state, 
Mr. Marshall entered the service of his coun- 
try during the war of the rebellion, as a 
member of Company D, One Hundred and 
Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- 
try, and when his term of enlistment ex- 
pired was honorably discharged. In the 



spring of 1871 he emigrated to Butler coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and located on section 14, 
Union township, where he engaged in farm- 
ing with marked success for some time. 
Subsequently he gave his attention to 
the mercantile business in Garrison, as a 
member of the firm of Marshall & Emery, 
his partner being his brother-in-law, \\'ill- 
iam C. Emery, and they were among the 
pioneer business men of that thriving little 
village. Later he retired from the com- 
pany, but in 1888 again entered the old 
firm, this time under the name of Marshall 
& Son. At the present time, however, he 
is practically living retired, although he still 
looks after his extensive real estate interests. 
For many years he was the land agent for 
J. G. Dodge, and his operations and sales 
along this line were very great. He is a 
most energetic, enterprising and reliable 
business man, whose success has been the 
result of honest persistent effort in the line 
of honorable and manly dealing. His aims 
have always been to attain the best and he 
carried forward to successful completion 
whatever he has undertaken. Reared a 
Whig, he joined the Republican party on 
its organization and has since been one 
of its strongest supporters, and he always 
gives his support to all measures which he 
believes calculated to prove of public bene- 
fit. He is a member of the G. A. R. post at 
David City — A. Lincoln post. No. 10. 



JAMES J. GILMORE, who resides inside 
the corporate limits of McCool Junction, 
and is engaged in farming, is one of the 
pioneers of Nebraska, having located upon 
a farm in Saunders county, in 1869. He 
filed a claim to eighty acres of land at that 
time and saw the beginning of the career of 
the state as a great agricultural community. 
Lincoln at that early day was without rail- 
road facilities and was a mere village. He 
put up a small frame house of three rooms, 



•672 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and just as it was completed, it was blown 
away by a tornado. It was nothing to dis- 
courage him, a small thing like that, and he 
replaced it by another on the same lines, and 
then went back after his family in Hancock 
county, Illinois. He brought wife and two 
children, together with modest household 
■efiects, in a covered wagon across the coun- 
try, arriving on the Saunders county farm, 
Septembers, 1869. The two houses which 
he had built had cost him nearly five hun- 
dred dollars, as the lumber was very high, 
much of it having to be hauled from Platts- 
mouth, on the river. He had little money 
left for making a beginning in farming, but 
as he had learned the carpenter trade he 
worked at it for some months. Wages were 
good and his labor was in demand, and he 
was soon in a condition to make the needed 
improvements on his place. He put it in 
good shape, and sold it in 1883, for the 
purpose of securing a larger farm in this 
county, where land was much cheaper. He 
bought one hundred and si.xty acres on 
section 13, Hays township, and here he has 
since lived. A portion of this land is inside 
the limits of McCool Junction, and has 
been platted and put on the market. The 
village was laid out in 1887, and has 
rapidly grown in importance. 

Mr. Gilmore was born in New York, 
July 7, 1835, and is a son of Patrick and 
Nancy (Ellis) Gilmore, natives of Ireland, 
who came to this country when young, and 
were married in the metropolis of the west- 
ern world. His mother died in 1842, and 
his father moved to Hancock county, Illi- 
nois, and engaged in farming, where he died 
in 1863, being si.xty-four years old. He was 
among the first settlers of that county, and 
there it was that James received a common- 
school education in a log building, consist- 
ing largely of " the three R's, — reading, rit- 
ing and 'rithmetic." He was married to 
Miss Rose Dougherty, July 20, 1863. She 
was a daughter of John and Winnifred 



Frances (Clark) Dougherty, who were born 
in Ireland, and emigrated to this country in 
1847. Her father was a machinist, and 
worked in New York for some ten years. 
During that time he was sent to St. Louis, 
New Orleans, and other places to assist in 
installing machinery in steamboats, and 
other labor requiring dexterity and skill. 
He moved his family to Hancock county, 
where he still lives. Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore 
went to California, where he had previously 
spent four years. They spent two years on 
the Pacific shore, and then returned to 
Illinois. They did not long remain there, 
but soon came to this state, where they have 
led a prosperous career. They have five 
children: Frank (recently enlisted in Com- 
pany H, Third Nebraska Volunteer In- 
fantry), Anna (the wife of Charles Fravell, 
of Colorado), Nellie (wife of Henry Kelly, 
of Fairfield), John and Nellie. The two 
younger children are still at home. Mr. 
Gilmore is a Populist, and takes much in- 
terest in reform movements. 



JOSHUA D. P. SMALL, a leading and 
influential farmer who makes his home 
on section 10, Leroy township, York county, 
was born in Provincetown, Barnstable coun- 
ty, Massachusetts, on the point of Cape 
Cod, October 28, 1835, and is a son of 
James and Betsy (Cook) Small. His pa- 
ternal grandfather, Abram Small, who re- 
moved from near Portland, Maine, to Prov- 
incetown at an early day, was a sea cap- 
tain, as was also the maternal grandfather, 
Samuel Cook. Our subject's father also 
followed a sea-faring life for many years, 
was master of a vessel, and about 1843 was 
drowned, together with his two eldest sons, 
Joshue (1st) and James, the ship on which 
they sailed being wrecked. The wife and 
mother died not long afterward from a 
broken heart. Thus at the early age of 
nine years our subject was left an orphan. 



CO.'lfPJ^.XniL'M OF BIOGRAPfir. 



675 



and when about fourteen he, too, went to 
sea, engaging in whaling and mackerel fish- 
ing for about six j'ears. Two of his younger 
brothers were also seamen and became cap- 
tains of vessels. 

In 1855 Mr. Small quit the sea and re- 
moved to Bureau county, Illinois., but at 
the end of a year located in La Salle coun- 
ty, that state, where he engaged in farming 
until the spring of 1865, when he went to 
Livingston county, Illinois. There he oper- 
ated rented land until the fall of 1872, when 
he started overland for Nebraskain a " prai- 
rie schooner," leaving Illinois October 28 
and arriving in York county on November 
23, driving a pair of three-year-old colts. 
He had shipped his household effects and 
his family also traveled by train. He im- 
mediately bought and located upon his pres- 
ent farm, which had been pre-empted by a 
Mr. Harris, and about twenty acres of the 
tract broken. To-day the entire farm, of 
one hundred and sixty acres, is under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved. 

In 1854 Mr. Small married Miss Aurelia 
F. Ryder, also a native of Provincetown, 
Massachusetts, and a daughter of Stephen 
.and Susan (Case) Ryder, who were also 
born in that state. Four children bless this 
union: Wallace F., Ida S., Samuel C. and 
James F. His fellow citizens, recognizing 
his worth and ability, have frequently 
elected Mr. Small to public office, including 
the positions of township asseseor and 
justice of the peace, serving in the latter at 
the present time. In politics he is one of 
the leading Populists of York county, has 
been a member of the state executive com- 
mittee and state central committee for 
several years, has been a delegate to all 
county and state conventions of his party, 
and was a delegate to the first national con- 
vention, where he assisted in the organiza- 
tion of the party. He has been a Mason 
since 1864 and is a charter member of York 
Lodge, No. 56, A. F. & A. M. 



Provincetown, Massachusetts, the birth- 
place of both Mr. and Mrs. Small, is a his- 
toric place. The Mayflower first anchored 
in Cape Cod harbor and the Pilgrims first 
went ashore at Provincetown, although they 
afterward went to Plymouth Rock, about 
thirty miles west across the bay. Province- 
town is also the birthplace of N. M. Dyer, 
captain of the protected cruiser Baltimore, 
and our subject is well acquainted with him, 
being boys together. An account of the 
successful action of the Baltimore at the 
Phillpine Islands, where our troops won 
such a glorious victory over the Spanish, 
was read with more than ordinary interest 
by Mr. Small on account of knowing one of 
the commanders who bore so important a 
part in that conflict. 



CHARLES H. JOHNSON, who is one 
of the model farmers of Fillmore 
county, was born in Morgan county, Ohio, 
June 1 1, 1865. He was reared upon a farm 
and received his education in the common 
schools of McConnellsville Ohio. He lived 
in Ohio until 1888, when became to Indi- 
ana, but only stayed there a few years, and 
in 1 891 he determined to come to the west- 
ern states, as they offered a better opportun- 
ity for investing his money in farming land. 
With that object in view he came to Ne- 
braska, and, being favorably impressed with 
the land in Fillmore county, he purchased 
four hundred acres of fine farming land in 
Stanton precinct, just one mile from Ge- 
neva, paying in consideration the sum of 
fourteen thousand dollars. Under his care- 
ful and successful management, the farm 
has grown into a model of its kind. The 
improvements are all made in accordance 
with modern ideas. The buildings are 
large and spacious, and erected with a view 
to convenience and durability, and on all 
sides one sees the results of careful manage- 
ment combined with thrift and industry. 



674 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Charles H. Johnson was the son of 
William H. and Elizabeth (Newman) 
Johnson, who were married in Morgan 
county, Ohio, about 1857, and to whom 
were born five children: James, who died 
at the age of thirteen, Pearlie, Mary, Annie, 
and Charles H., the subject of this sketch. 
William H. Johnson was a prosperous and 
successful farmer, and during his life accu- 
mulated a considerable fortune. Both are 
dead, his death occurring December 29, 
1878, and that of his wife in March, 1884. 
They were interred in Malta cemetery, in 
Morgan county, Ohio. At their death the 
estate passed into the hands of the four 
children. The grandparents of our subject, 
John Wesley Johnson and Elizabeth (Beck- 
with) Johnson, were natives of Connecticut, 
in which state they were married. They 
soon after came to Ohio, settling first in 
Muskingum county, but afterward locating 
on a farm near Malta, in Morgan county. 
They resided here until the time of their 
death. John Wesley Johnson died about 
the year 1828, and his wife the year follow- 
ing, each having attained the age of about 
fifty years. They were of English descent. 
The parents of Elizabeth (Newman) John- 
son, David and Mary (Petitt) Newman, 
were natives of New Jersey. David New- 
man was born about the year 1800 and 
Elizabeth about 1805. The removed to 
Morgan county, Ohio, soon after their 
marriage, located on a farm and erected a 
house. They continued to reside there 
during the remainder of their lives. David 
Newman died at the age of eighty-eight 
years, and his wife at the age of seventy- 
nine. They were interred in the Malta 
cemetery. Both were of German descent. 

At the age of twenty-five years, Charles 
H. Johnson was married at McCool, Porter 
county, Indiana, on January 13, 1891, to 
Miss Olive M. Robbins, who was then 
twenty years of age. She was the only 
child of Amos and Laura E. (Stauffer) Rob- 



bins, and was born November 20, 1870. 
Her parents lived principally in Indiana, 
and were very prominent people, as well 
as very wealthy, and of whom Mrs. Johnson 
is the only heir. Her father's death oc- 
curred at McCool, Indiana, September 11, 
1879, at the age of forty-seven years. Her 
mother still resides at McCool, Indiana, 
and has considerable property. The grand- 
parents of Olive M. Johnson, were Samuel 
Putnam and Caroline C. Robbins, the for- 
mer born in Massachusetts about 1812, the 
latter born in Athens county, Ohio, in 181 5. 
They were married June 18, 1837, in Athens 
county, Ohio, and the same year emigrated 
to Porter county, Indiana, where they were 
among the earliest settlers. They lived on 
the farm on which they originally settled 
for fifty-two years and accumulated quite a 
fortune. Samuel Putnam Robbins died 
April 8, 1889, and his wife October 19. 
1898. Abraham Stauffer was born in Penn- 
sylvania about 1825, and his wife, Emily 
Brombaugh Stauffer, was born near Balti- 
more, Maryland, about 1828. They were 
married in Maryland about 1849 and emi- 
grated to La Porte county, Indiana, the 
following year, and soon after to Porter 
county, Indiana, where they both died, 
Abraham's death occurring in March, 1887, 
and that of his wife on September 15, 1891. 
Both he and his wife rest in the Robbins 
cemetery near McCool, Indiana. He in- 
vented and built the first threshing machine 
used in Porter county, Indiana. 

Both Charles H. Johnson and his wife 
are very fortunate in that they came from 
representative families, who have always 
occupied a prominent position, and socially 
and financially ranked with the best. To 
their marriage have been born three chil- 
dren, Walter, Guy and Carlos, all of whom 
are living at home. Politically our subject 
is an ardent Republican. He cast his first 
ballot for Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and 
since that time has continued not only to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



675 



vote the Republican ticket but has taken an 
active part in Republican politics. While 
he has devoted his time in the interest of 
his chosen party, yet he has not allowed it 
to interfere with his business, and has had 
at all times his entire farm under his direct 
management. He occupies a prominent 
place in his community, and has won the 
respect of all. 



WALTER W. SENG has a wide reputa- 
tation as a real estate man and insur- 
ance agent at McCool Junction, Nebraska, 
where he handles farms and residences, 
does insurance and collections, and is prac- 
tically without competition. He came to 
this city in 1890, and since that time has 
built up an extensive business, which is now 
thought to be the largest in the county. 
He represents companies that insure against 
fire, lightning, tornado and hail, and he is 
also the local agent for three loan compa- 
nies beside carrying private accounts. 

Mr. Seng was born in Carroll county, 
Illinois, December 27, 1861, and is a son of 
Casper and Catherine (Fuchs) Seng, who 
first saw the light in Sellenrodt, Germany, 
and came to this country when young, and 
were married in Lanark, Illinois, July 4, 
1857. They had married without resources, 
and went to work on a farm, caring for 
forty cows, and receiving the modest sum 
of eighteen dollars a month for their united 
labor. They worked four years in this 
manner and by that time had accumulated 
considerable savings. They bought a four- 
hundred dollar span of horses, and rented a 
farm of one hundred and twenty acres, and 
took their place among the independent 
farmers of the west. From this humble be- 
ginning, through the exercises of that char- 
ateristic thrift, energy and good management 
which are the birthright of every son of 
Germany, they have finally risen to affluence. 
They bought their first land in 1864, paying 



for it fifteen dollars an acre. A second pur- 
chase was made in 1870, and cost at the 
rate of forty-five dollars an acre. Part of 
this purchase money was borrowed at 
twenty-five per cent. , and nearly wrecked 
the family in the hard times of 1872 and the 
following years. But the senior Seng with 
the help of his older children weathered the 
storm, and in 1881 bought more land at 
sfxty dollars an acre, and when he died in 
1883 he had a farm of two hunderd and 
fifty acres of land as highly improved and 
thoroughly cultivated as is to be found in all 
that region. His widow survives him and 
resides on the old homestead, which is un- 
der the management of her sons George 
and Henry. 

Walter Seng was reared on the farm in 
his native county, and was educated in the 
district school, and completed his student 
days by three terms in the Lanark high 
school under the admirable management of 
Prof. Oldt. He was married to Miss Kate 
Kness, December 27, 1882. She was a na- 
tive of Carroll county and was a daughter 
of George and Elizabeth Kness, who came 
from Schmidten, Germany, and reached 
this country in 1857. After their marriage 
Mr. and Mrs. Seng located on a rented farm 
near Brookville. His capital at that time 
consisted of a team, wagon, plough, and a 
few other farming implements, given him 
by his father, and a cow, which was a pres- 
ent to his wife from her parents. Two years 
later he moved to the farm where his brother 
now resides. In 1887 he made a trip to 
Nebraska, and bought the southwest quar- 
ter of section 26, township 9, range 2. He 
returned to Illinois and the following Octo- 
ber brought back with him his family and 
made his permanent home in York county, 
Nebraska. He farmed this successfully un- 
til 1890, when he moved to McCool Junc- 
tion, and engaged in a business which has 
greatly grown under his fostering care. His 
health had become impaired by excessive 



676 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



labor, and before coming to the Junction 
he had been confined for six months to his 
bed. His ambitious nature would not tol- 
erate idleness, and he has been very busy 
since embarking on his present enterprise. 
He bought eighty acres of land August 14, 
1895, and now owns two hundred and forty 
acres of good farming land. He has been 
active in promoting settlement in this coun- 
ty, and it is said that through his influence 
more than a dozen families have come into 
it from his old home in Illinois alone. He 
has done an extensive business in selling 
farms, and has brought a host of people 
here, none of whom have ever regretted their 
coming. He is the father of four children, 
Harry L., William C, Myrtle M. and Ver- 
nie V. He belongs to the McCool camp of 
the Modern Woodmen of America, and his 
wife is a member of the associated order of 
the Royal Neighbors. They are both mem- 
bers of the Evangelical Lutheran church, 
and he is non-partisan in politics. 



THOMAS A. HERDMAN.— Among the 
young and enterprising citizens of Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska, there is probably 
none more energetic or thoroughgoing than 
the gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch. For some time he was actively 
identified with the business interests of 
Lincoln, but is now principally engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in H precinct, Seward 
county. 

Mr. Herdman was born in Ottawa, Can- 
ada, in 1865, a son of Charles E. Herdman, 
whose birth, occurred in the same place, 
June 29, 1833. While yet in his teens, the 
father began life on his own account in the 
lumber business, in which he was very suc- 
cessful, continuing to engage in the same 
until 1869, when he removed to Lincoln, 
Nebraska. There he became a prominent, 
successful and influential business man, 
carried on several profitable enterprises. 



such as milling, dairying and ice business, 
and since has sold all interests and moved 
to Worrigul, Victoria, Australia, and is large- 
ly interested in agricultural pursuits, such 
as fruit and wool business. He married 
Fanny Stephens, of Quebec. The paternal 
grandfather of our subject was a major 
commanding second field battery. New York, 
United States army, in the war of 1S12. 

Thomas A. Herdman was quite young 
when he accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Nebraska, and in the public 
schools of this state he acquired his literary 
education. Early in life he became inter- 
ested in the confectionery business, which 
he carried on quite extensively in Lincoln 
until 1894, when his health failed, and he 
was forced to retire. Since then he has 
followed farming, and until recently was 
employed as a traveling salesman, in Lan- 
caster and Seward counties, by the Ameri- 
can Woolen Mills Company, of Chicago, 
Illinois. He is energetic, wide-awake and 
progressive, and no doubt a brilliant future 
awaits him. He married Miss Etta M. Root, 
a native of Michigan, and to them have been 
born two children: Master Charles A. and 
Carrie A. 



WILLIAM E.McCLOUD is one of the 
public-spirited citizens of York coun- 
ty, to whose energy and foresight this local- 
ity is indebted for many improvements. 
He is a thorough and skillful agriculturist 
who has won success in his chosen calling 
and has materially advanced the interests of 
the community while promoting his individ- 
ual prosperity. 

Mr. McCloud was born August 26,1839, 
in Pocahontas county, Virginia, a son of 
George R. and Mary Jane (Warner) Mc- 
Cloud, the former also a native of Pocahon- 
tas county, the latter of Pendleton county, 
Virginia. As far back as both families can 
be traced, their representatives have all 



CCUfPEiXDIi'M or BIOGRAPlir. 



677 



been tillers of the soil. Our subject's 
grandfather, Nathaniel McCloud, was born 
in the Highlands of Scotland, a son of Will- 
iam P3. McCloud, and came to America be- 
fore the Revolutionarj- war, in which he 
aided the colonies in their struggles for 
independence, remaining in the service un- 
til hostilities ceased. Soon after the war 
he married Miss Margaret McMahon, a na- 
tive of Ireland, who had come with her par- 
ents to the new world. He died at the age 
of eighty-six years, while she lived to be 
over one hundred. Of their children two 
sons were in the Confederate army during 
the Civil war, and one was among the boys in 
blue. The numerous cousins of our subject 
were pretty equally divided between the 
two armies. George R. and Mary Jane 
McCloud reared a family of ten children, 
five sons and five daughters, all of whom 
married and reared families of their own. 
Of these George W., the third son, was in 
the artillery service with the army of the 
Potomac, first under General McClellan, 
and later under General Grant, who ended 
the unpleasant difficulty at Appomattox. 

On leaving home in 1857 William E. 
McCloud went to Appanoose county, Iowa, 
where he became accjuainted, and was mar- 
ried July 15, 1858, to Miss Ann M. Sears, who 
was born September r 3, 1838, in Muskingum 
county, Ohio, whence she removed to Iowa 
with her father, Pressly W. Sears. Her 
grandfather, Charles L. Sears, was a native 
of England and came to America in colonial 
days, being among the first settlers of Fair- 
fax count}', Virginia. At the outbreak of the 
Revolutionary war he joined the Patriot 
army, and never laid down his arms until 
independence was achieved. Mr. and Mrs. 
McCloud have become the parents of 
ten children, four sons and six daughters, 
who in order of birth are as follows: Charles 
A., Mary J., Hattie A., Rose L., Carrie C, 
William E., Jr, Frank A., Jessie B., Anna 

M., and James R., all born in Appanoose 
39 



county, Iowa, with the exception of the 
two youngest, who were born in York 
county, Nebraska. 

After his marriage Mr. McCloud con- 
tinued to engage in farming in Appanoose 
county, Iowa, until the spring of 187S, 
when he came to York county, Nebraska, 
where he has since made his home. For 
nearly forty years he has given his attention 
to fanning and dealing in live stock, and 
in his life work has met with a well 
deserved success. Socially he is a Knight 
Templar Mason, belonging to the blue 
i lodge, chapter and commandery in York 
county. At one time he was master of the 
Grange in Iowa, and was enthusiastic in all 
matters pertaining to the welfare of the 
farmer and laboring classes. Although not 
members of any religious denomination, he 
and his wife are firm in the belief that tem- 
perance, morality and education should be 
fostered in every state and community. 
In early life Mr. McCloud was a Democrat 
in political sentiment, but for the past 
eighteen years has given an unwavering sup- 
port to the Republican party. 



LH. WAI'iNER, the versatile newspaper 
man who succeeded H. A. Brainerd 
five years ago as editor and publisher of the 
" Nebraskan " at Milford. Seward county, 
Nebraska, was born in Medina county, Ohio, 
in 1849. He removed with his parents to 
Wisconsin at the age of seven years. There 
he received a liberal education, graduating 
from Ripon College in 1875. He taught 
about eight years, and it was his original in- 
tention to enter the ministry, and with that 
end in view he entered the Chicago Theo- 
logical Seminary. After one year in that 
institution, he went to preaching, and then 
returned to teaching in Wisconsin; he con- 
tinued teaching there eight years, receiving 
a life professional certificate from the state 
superintendent of public instruction. He 



678 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



then decided that newspaper work promised 
a larger field for his labors and he abandoned 
teaching and went to Nebraska, and founded 
the Cedar Rapids Era. In 1887 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar. Four years later he re- 
moved to Craig, Nebraska, where he estab- 
lished the Burt County News, and was con- 
nected with that paper until the fall of 1893, 
when he went to Milford and took charge 
of the •' Nebraskan." He is also edilor of 
the Pleasant Dale "Quiz," which was es- 
tablished in 1890. 

Mr. Warner is an active supporter of 
Republican principles. For many years he 
has been prominent in musical circles, and 
has done much to promote the cause of 
good music in the communities that have 
been fortunate enough to claim him as a 
member. He has directed the rendering of 
the operetta " Oueen Esther" at various 
places, and has been active in organizing 
bands and musical bodies. 

L. H. Warner is a son of Herschell and 
Sallie A. Warner, of New York, and is a 
grandson of Noah Warner of Waterbury, 
Connecticut. L. H. Warner's family con- 
sists of a wife, Nellie J., and four daughters; 
Agnes G. married to L. O. Howard, who 
is editing the Burt County News in Nebras- 
ka; Fannie J., a widovv;her husband, W. D. 
Smith, was first sergeant of Troop K. 
Third United States Volunteer Cavalry, and 
spent the summer at Camp Thomas, near 
Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was dis- 
charged September 8, 1898, and died 
September 27, 1898, of typhoid fever; 
Ruth A. and Fern L., aged respectively 
eight and five at this date, December 22, 
1898, complete L. H. Warner's family now 
living; he lost a daughter, Jean, in 1882, 
aged seven months. 



jETER J. JONES, who is classed 
1 among the successful farmers of Polk 
county, is well worthy of notice in a work 



P' 



of this kind, and to be ranked among the 
men who have distinguished themselves 
as useful and enterprising citizens. He is 
pleasantly located on section 15, township 
14, range 3, where he owns an excellent 
farm of three hundred and twenty acres. 

Mr. Jones was born on the 23d of De- 
cember, 1833, in Smoland, Sweden, where 
he grew to manhood and acquired his liter- 
ary education. Being reared upon a farm, 
he early became familiar with agricultural 
pursuits, and is now one of the most skill- 
ful and thorough farmers in community. On 
coming to the United States in 1864 he first 
located in Marshall county, Illinois, where 
he worked by the month for a few years, 
and then operated rented land. In 1869 he 
wedded Miss Mary Charlotte Hult, also a 
native of Sweden, and four children grace 
their union, namely: Helma Amelia, John 
Albert, Edwin Emanuel and Harmon Ale.xis. 
The children have all been provided with 
good school privileges, and the daughter is 
now the wife of Otto Branting, by whom 
she has two sons — Lawrence Fred and 
Edwin. 

In 1878 Mr. Jones emigrated to Ne- 
braska, and the following jear took up his 
residence upon his present farm, which at 
that time was all wild land. After erecting 
a small frame residence he moved into it in 
1879, and at once turned his attention to 
the improvement and cultivation of his land. 
Acre after acre has been placed under the 
plow until now two hundred and fifiy of the 
three hundred and twenty acres are under a 
high state of cultivation and yield a ready 
return for the labor bestowed upon it. The 
commodious and pleasant residence, erected 
in 1888, is surrounded by good and substan- 
tial barns and out-buildings, and everything 
about the place betokens the thrift and en- 
terprise of the owner. In connection with 
general farming he raises an excellent grade 
of stock. 

Although attending strictly to his busi- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ness affairs, Mr. Jones has never neglected 
the hoher duties of life, and is now serving 
as deacon of the Lutheran church, to which 
he and his family belong, taking an active 
and prominent part in its work. He is a 
stanch supporter of the Republican party, 
takes a commendable interest in political 
affairs, and has acceptably served as judge 
of elections. He is also a member of the 
Scandinavian Mutual Insurance Company. 
Although he commenced life for himself in 
limited circumstances, due success has not 
been denied him, and he is to-day one of 
the most substantial, as well as one of the 
most reliable and influential, citizens of his 
community. 



NORMAN FREDERICK TILDEN, a 
well-known blacksmith of York, has 
for several years been actively identified with 
the industrial interests of York county, and 
is numbered among its useful and honored 
citizens. He was born November 13, 1859, 
in Henry county, Illinois, and is a worthy 
representative of an old and highly respect- 
ed family of New England. The genealogy 
of the Tilden family is lengthy and forms 
interesting reading. 

His father, Orrin Tilden, was born in 
Windsor county, Vermont, and was a son of 
Josiah and Elizabeth (Tracey) Tilden, the 
former born in 1760, the latter January 14, 
1790. They made their home on a farm 
near White River Junction, Windsor county. 
In his native state Orrin Tilden married 
Miss Orrill K. Moore, whose birth occurred 
July 14, 18 18, and they continued to reside 
with his parents until 1854, when they left 
the Green Mountain state and removed to 
Henry county, Illinois, locating on a farm 
near Woodhull. To the cultivation and 
improvement of his place the father devoted 
his energies until life's labors were ended, 
dying there in 1879, at the age of seventj- 
two years. His estimable wife is still living 



and in her eightieth year. In their family 
were six children, four sons and two daugh- 
ters, namely: Josiah H., Mary G., James 
F., Frances E. , Cyrus F. and Norman F. 

In company with his oldest brother, 
Norman F. Tilden left the old homestead 
in Illinois and made their way to Bradshaw, 
Nebraska, arriving there in the spring of 
1879, which was then a thriving little rail- 
road town in York county. There they set 
up a shop and engaged in general black- 
smithing and repairing. Wishing to extend 
his business, our subject removed his shops 
to the city of York in 1888, and soon suc- 
ceeded in building up a large and profitable 
business which he still enjoys, and which is 
well merited, for he is a skilled and expert 
workman as well as a reliable business man. 

At the age of twenty-five years, Mr. 
Tilden was married, March 31, 1885, to 
Miss Mary U. Byrnes, who was then twenty- 
two. Her parents are Robert C. and 
Paulina I. (Miller) Byrnes. Mr. and Mrs. 
Tilden have three children: Robert B., 
Dwight M., and an infant. The parents 
both hold membership in the Presbyterian 
church, while socially he is identified with 
the Ancient Order of United Workman and 
the Royal Highlanders, and Mrs. Tilden 
belongs to the ladies' auxiliary lodge of both 
societies. Both merit and receive the es- 
teem and confidence of all who know them. 



CHARLES HENRY CHALLIS. the well- 
known editor and proprietor of the 
Ulysses Dispatch, who has made his home 
in Butler county since the spring of 1880, 
was born in Ottawa, Illinois, September 
7, 1853, and is a son of H. G. Challis, a 
native of Berkshire, England. His mother 
having died at his birth, he was reared b\' 
foster parents, and obtained his earl}' edu- 
cation in the public schools. 

At an early age Mr. Challis manifested a 
desire to learn the printer's trade and served 



680 



COMPENBUrM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his apprenticeship with Cullen & Sapp, of 
Ottawa, Illinois. When about twenty-one 
years of age he went to Chicago, where he 
soon became an expert job printer, bnt 
close confinement and strict attention to 
business so impaired his health that, at the 
end of two years, he was forced to abandon 
the work for a time and came to Nebraska. 
Here he engaged in outdoor work on a 
farm while recuperating his health, and then 
again took up his chosen vocation, his first 
newspaper work in Nebraska being on the 
Exeter Enterprise. 

In 1880, after the railroad had been pro- 
jected to Ulysses, Mr. Challis came here 
and founded the Ulysses Dispatch — the first 
newspaper in town and the first in the 
county outside of David City, being now 
the second oldest in Butler county. The 
first number, a si.x-column folio, was printed 
on an old Washington hand-press and was 
issued on the 10th ol May, 1880. It was 
first published as a Republican paper, but 
its policy has always been anti-monopolistic, 
and at an early day it espoused the cause of 
populism, and is now one of the influential 
organs of the People's party in this region. 
It was the first Populist paper in the county 
and for a time the only one. Its influence 
in the community has been far-reaching 
and productive of great good. Mr. Challis 
is a member of the Free Silver Press organ- 
ization of Nebraska, having been promi- 
nently identified with its organization. 

In Ottawa, Illinois, in 1S78, Mr. Challis 
was united in marriage with Miss Sarah E. 
Baumgardner, a daughter of Isaac B. and 
Barbara Baumgardner, old and honored 
residents of that city, where the father was 
for many years engaged in the hardware busi- 
ness. The Baumgardners were formerly from 
York county, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. 
Challis have one daughter, Blanch, now six- 
teen years old. 

Being a strong temperance man, our sub- 
ject does all within his power to advance 



the cause, and he is a consistent and active 
member of the Christian church, serving as 
superintendent of the Sunday-school for four 
years. Both individually and through his 
paper, he stands for all that is best socially 
and politically, and is recognized as an im- 
portant factor in the development of the 
county. 



WILLIAM WALTERS.— Among the 
successful and progressive farmers of 
York county, the gentleman whose name 
stands at the head of this sketch holds a 
prominent place. For almost thirty years 
he has now made his home in this section 
of the state, and to-day owns and success- 
fully operates a fine farm on section 24, 
Henderson township. 

Mr. Walters was born in Fulton county, 
Illinois, September 26, 1832, a son of 
William and Elizabeth (Royer) Walters, 
the former of German and the later of Irish 
descent, though the Royers were originally 
from England. In the old country and in 
America, the family have principally follow- 
ed agricultural pursuits. During his minority 
and up to the time of his marriage our sub- 
ject lived upon his father's farm ten miles 
north of Vermont. At the age of twenty- 
one he decided to marry, and on the 22nd 
of December, 1853, led to the marriage 
altar Miss Marietta Shields, a daughter of 
Joshua and Elizabeth (Sivly) Shields, and 
granddaughter of Joseph and Elizabeth 
(Harvey) Sivh', who were of German line- 
age and farming people, while the Shields 
were of Irish origin and merchants by occu- 
pation. 

Mr. and Mrs. Walters had known each 
other from early childhood, their homes 
being in the same neighborhood. For a 
year after his marriage he continued to 
work on his father's farm, and then pur- 
chased a small farm in McDonough county, 
Illinois, which he operated until 1864. 



C0MrENnn\}f or BioGRAriir. 



681 



Owing to the ill health of his wife, he 
rented his place, and, accompanied by her 
mother and stepfather, they started by 
wagons to the Pacific coast. After spend- 
ing the winter at Walla Walla, Washington, 
Mrs. ^^'alters and her four children started 
on a visit to her mother, who had located 
fifteen miles west of Portland, Oregon. By 
wagon they proceeded to a landing on the 
Columbia river, and then went down that 
stream by boat, while Mr. Walters returned 
to Walla W^alla and engaged in freighting 
between that point and Boise City, Idaho, 
with oxen. He remained in this mountain- 
ous region eighteen months and then joined 
his family in Oregon. With them he then 
started for the Grand Round valley in the 
Blue mountains, and on this trip made his 
way from peak to valley and from valley to 
peak across the Cascade mountains until he 
at last reached his destination, traveling and 
camping in the wilds where no foot of man 
had ever trod. In this way they passed 
months along the valley stream.=, which 
were filled with mountain trout and salmon, 
camping now on grassy mountains and now 
between great rocks, where the sough of 
the pines mingled with the murmur of the 
brooklets. At length Mrs. Walters began to 
creep back to health, her hand grew stronger, 
her eye grew brighter, the music of her 
voice returned, and the cool breeze fanned 
her pale cheeks back to the wonted glow of 
youth. In May, 1869, they started for 
their Illinois home by v\'agon, traveling by 
day and camping out by night, until they 
reached home in September, having been 
absent four years and four months. After 
spending seven years there, they decided to 
come to Nebraska and arrived in York 
county in March, 1876. After looking 
around for a time, Mr. Walters purchased 
the southwest quarter of section 24, Hen- 
derson township, to which he has since added 
until he now has an excellent farm of four 
hundred and sixtj' acres, which he has placed 



under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved with good buildings. 

Of the seven children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Walters, onlj' four reached years of 
maturitj', namely: Harvey L., who mar- 
ried Jane Davis, a daughter of George and 
Rebecca Davis; Clinton D., who married 
Alice Search, daughter of William and Sa- 
linda Search; Ezra P., who married Bina 
Hager, daughter of Oliver and Elizabeth 
Hager; and Frank E.,who has been a wan- 
derer for the past eight years, and when 
last heard from was in the gold fields of 
Klondike. 

In early life Mr. Walters was a Democrat, 
and now votes with the Populists, being an 
enthusiastic believer in the free and unlim- 
ited coinage of silver. His first vote was 
cast for James Buchanan in 1856, his last 
for W. J. Bryan in 1896. Though not 
members of any religious denominatian, he 
and his wife are believers in the Christian 
religion, and they enjoy the respect and es- 
teem of all who know them. 



STEPHEN R. PHILLIPS, a well know 
farmer of Seward count}-, lives on sec- 
tion 20, of Precinct D., and has established 
himself among the leading men of this part 
of Nebraska. He is active and industrious, 
believes in the gospel of hard work, and has 
a good mind. He takes broad views of the 
world, and is a man of business habits. 

Mr. Phillips was born in Fayette county, 
Pennsylvania, September 23, 1838, and is 
a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Randolph) 
Phillips. Henry Phillips was born in Vir- 
ginia, married his wife in Pennsylvania, of 
which state she was a native, and lived 
there until 1852, when he moved to Mt. 
Vernon, Ohio. Three years later he 
journeyed still farther west, and located in 
Fulton county, Illinois, near Vermont. He 
made his final change in 1 880 when he came 
to this state, where he died February 6, 



682 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1896, at the adavanced age of eighty-six. 

His wife died December 17, 1888, when 

she was seventy-seven years old. They 

reared six children to maturity, Parmelia 

(Mrs. Crable), Stephen R., Elizabeth (Mrs. 

Smithers),Hattie (Mrs. Lovell), William and 

J. Albert. Stephen R. and William were 

soldiers in the Civil war, and served with 

honor. 

Mr. Phillips spent the first fourteen years 

of his life in his native county, where he at- 
tended school, and came to a very fair mas- 
tery of the blacksmith trade. He followed 
the star of the family fortunes west, and 
was married March 27, 1862, to Miss Mary 
E. Strickler. She was born in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1842, and 
is a daughter of George W. and Sarah (Gan- 
ders) Strickler. Her father was born in 
Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and served 
in the state militia when a young man. Her 
father removed to Adams county, Illinois, 
in 1855, ten years after the death of her 
mother. He died there June 19, 1858. 
Mr. Phillips enlisted in the Union army, in 
February, 1865, as a member of Gompany 
D, One Hundred and Fifty-first Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantry. He saw the last of the 
war under the command of General Thomas 
in Georgia, and was mustered out in 1866. 
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips came into Seward 
county in 1871 by the overland route, driv- 
ing all the way. They made a location 
where they are now living, and though there 
were few settlers anywhere within reach 
they were not long in coming. The land 
was wild prairie, and their dwelling place a 
sod house, but their hopes were high, and 
their hearts unshaken. They raised their 
first crop the following year and sold it in 
Lincoln. They had reverses and disappoint- 
ments, but they kept on, and were soon in 
a very comfortable condition. In 1882 they 
moved to Seward, where they lived for five 
years, and then came back to the farm. In 
1892 they built their present residence, 



which took the place of a frame structure, 
sixteen by twenty-two feet, erected six years 
after their entrance upon the place. He 
has well-improved the farm, and it presents 
a very different appearance to-day than 
could have been imagined so long ago. 

Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of 
nine living children, who, with their chil- 
dren, constitute a numerous progeny. Hat- 
tie G., their eldest daughter, is the wife of 
J. M. Smiley, who lives in precinct K, of 
this county, and is the mother of two sons, 
Garl P. and Earl B. William H. is wedded 
to Miss May Kuby, lives in Sioux county, 
Nebraska, and has one child, Lelia Ruth. 
Wilmer W. is a member of Gompany H, 
Twenty-second United States regular infan- 
try, and was at Santiago de Guba. He 
enlisted in 1896, was in the battles of El 
Ganey, July i; night attack, July 2; San 
Juan Hill, July 3, and the bombardment of 
Santiago; was made corporal May 7, 1898, 
and sergeant September i, 1898. George 
F. belongs to Troop F, Eighth United 
States regular cavalry, and is now on his 
way to Guba. Thornton A. is in Montana, 
and Robert R. is at home. Joseph S. is a 
member of Battery B, Fourth United States 
light artillery, and was at Santiago, and at 
Porto Rico, and now at Savannah, Georgia. 
Harry G. and Louis G. are younger sons 
and still remain under the parental roof. 
In these times of peace and prosperity, it is 
unusual to find so small a war as that with 
Spain calling, at present writing, three 
sons from one family. But it serves to 
show the stock, and the state of Nebraska 
may well be proud of such a record. 

The subject of this writing is a man of 
social instincts, and finds a peculiar satisfac- 
tion in the intimacies and associations of 
the Grand Army, and has been senior vice- 
commander of the Seward post. He is a 
member, of the Seward lodge of the Ancient 
Order of United Workm.en, and devotes 
much care and thought to the problems of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



683 



fraternity. He has voted, in recent years, 
the Republican ticket, and has been as- 
sessor of the precinct, and justice of the 
peace. For more than twenty j'ears he has 
been a member of the school board, and 
takes the success of the district school very 
much at heart. For nine years he was 
postmaster of the Orton post-office, which 
was in his house, and created for the con- 
venience of the neighborhood. It is not 
now in existence, but it served to illustrate 
the kindly spirit of the man, who would do 
much to accommodate the neighborhood. 



CHRISTIAN ENDERLE.— Many of 
York county's most progressive and 
successful citizens are those whose early 
home was on the other side of the Atlantic, 
and who have achieved success through 
their own well-directed efforts. Among 
these may be numbered Mr. Enderle, who 
owns and operates a good farm on section 
34, Brown township. 

He was born in Wittenburg, Germany, 
November ii, 1848, and was about five 
years old when with his parents, Christian 
and Joanna (Haak) Enderle, he left Ger- 
many and came to the United States. As 
the father owned only a few acres of land 
in the old country, he engaged in carpen- 
tering in connection with its operation, and 
thus supported his family. They arrived 
in New York city about the last of April, 
1854, proceeded to Buffalo, New York, then 
crossed Lake Erie and landed in Detroit, 
Michigan, from there went to Chicago, and 
on to Milwaukee, where they spent two 
weeks, after which they located in Dodge 
county, Wisconsin, where the father took 
a claim of government land. The land 
was covered with a heavy growth of timber, 
including oak, walnut, and beech, which he 
at once began to clear, burning the trees 
and brush. Eighty acres were cleared in 
this way and transformed into most pro- 



ductive fields. The father died in 1881, 
but the mother is still living on the old 
home farm. 

Christian Enderle remained under the 
parental roof, working for his father, until 
he attained the age of twenty-three, when 
he came to York county, Nebraska, in 1871, 
and took up a claim in Brown township, 
but the same day returned to Wisconsin. 
The next year, however, he commenced the 
improvement and cultivation of his land and 
also worked for a few months for Mr. Hofer, 
of York. Returning to Wisconsin, January 
12, 1873, he was there married, on the 4th 
of the following February, to Miss Johanna 
Maske, a daughter of Christian and Minnie 
(Tesch) Maske. Her father has been dead 
about nine years, and her mother, now 
seventy-six years of age, makes her home 
with her oldest son. The oldest brother of 
our subject, Jacob Enderle, was a member 
of Company A, Forty-fifth Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war, 
and when the struggle was over returned 
home as well as when he entered the serv- 
ice. Mr. and Mrs. Enderle have a family 
of twelve children, who in order of birth are 
as follows: Albert L., Louis A., Lydia A., 
George S., William F. , August C, Mary 
J. and Emma W., twins, Margaret K. , 
Arthur A., Frederick L. and Martin F. 
The children attend the public schools and 
aid in the work of the farm with the excep- 
tion of Lydia A., who is now the wife of 
Carl E. Hahle, whose farm is near that of 
our subject. 

On the 2d of March, 1S73, soon after 
his marriage, Mr. Enderle and his wife came 
to York county and began life in their new 
home. After living in the sod-house for 
ten years a more commodious and substan- 
tial frame dwelling was erected, it being en- 
larged and improved in 1892. Good barns, 
granaries and corncribs have also been built, 
and the farm, which comprises two hun- 
dred and forty acres, is now under a high 



G84 



COMPENDIi'M OF BIOGRAPIir. 



state of cultivation. Mr. Enderle thor- 
oughly understands every department of 
farm work, and for the success that he has 
achieved in life he deserves great credit, for 
he started out with no capital. For the 
last five years he has been a supporter of 
the Republican party, and he and his fam- 
ily are identified with the Lutheran church. 



LARS JORGENSON, deceased, was iden- 
tified with the founding of Staplehurst, 
and it was largely due to his foresight that it 
exists. He was a man of affairs, and was 
intimately associated with se\eral important 
business enterprises. He was an honorable 
man of irreproachable habits and the utmost 
personal integrity. In his day he easily stood 
among the most influential men of Seward 
county. Of foreign extraction, he familiar- 
ized himself with the habits and speech of 
his adopted countr\', and was broad and pa- 
triotic in his views. He gave a willing as- 
sistance to education, morality and religion, 
and had an open ear for the appeals of 
charity. On another page will be found a 
portrait of Mr. Jorgenson. 

Mr. Jorgenson was born in Denmark, 
August 20, 1S42, and his parents were born 
and spent all their days in that country. 
He attended the Danish schools, and re- 
mained in his native land until he reached 
full manhood. But he did not seem to find 
around him kindly surroundings for his en- 
terprising spirit, and he came to the United 
States in the spring of 1868. - He made his 
home, on first coming to this country, in 
in Dwight, Illinois, and there he followed 
the occupation of farming for five \'ears. 
At the expiration of this time he returned to 
his native land and spent a year amid the 
scenes of his youth. It was a pleasant and 
protracted visit, but he did not find a fitting 
arena for his life and its labors, any more 
than he had seen it long before, and he once 
more sought American soil. He had learned 



of the rapid growth of Nebraska, and its 
amazing opportunities, and he determined 
to try it for himself. He came to Seward 
county in the spring of 1874, and purchased 
a tract of land from the railroad. This he 
converted into a farm, and devoted several 
\ears to its cultivation. Later on he pur- 
chased a half section of land, which became 
the site of the town of Staplehurst. He 
platted it, and disposed of it at good prices. 
It was largely due to his unceasing exertions 
that the town has attained its present com- 
mercial importance. In 1885 he purchased 
the Bank of Staplehurst in company with E. 
Jacobs, and was its president up to the time 
of his death, which occurred January 27, 
1894. Aside from his banking enterprises 
he had extensive farming and real estate in- 
terests, owning at the time of his death 
eleven hundred and sixty-two acres of farm 
land and other property, and did much to 
help the general progress of the county. 

Mr. Jorgenson was married on November 
19, 1875 to Miss Maren Sohnesen a native 
of Denmark. They had five children, all 
of whom are now living. Their oldest son, 
John L. , is now cashier of the Staplehurst 
bank. The other children are Hans, Louie, 
Annie and Mary. The parents were Danish 
Lutherans, and the husband and father was 
a Mason, and a Modern Woodman of 
America. He was a democrat, but had no 
hunger for public position and honor. 



DANIEL BEISHLINE, who lives near 
Bradshaw, York county, is one of the 
numerous company of industrious and 
upright people who have come from Penn- 
sylvania, to make the wilderness of Ne- 
braska blossom as a rose. They brought 
with them the habits of economy and thrift, 
were intlexibi}' just and honest, and to-day 
this state is very largely indebted to them 
for its present advanced position in agricul- 
ture, business, and intelligence. And in all 




LARS JORGENSON, Deceased. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



687 



this the subject of this writinj:^ has been a 
not unworthy representati\e of the great 
state from which he came. 

Daniel Beishline was born in Columbia 
county, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1850, and 
was a child in the home of the family of 
Levi and Maria (Wenner) Beishline, who 
were both natives of the same state. , His 
paternal grandfather was Henry Beishline. 
His father is still living on the old home- 
stead in Columbia county. His maternal 
grandfather was a farmer in Luzerne coun- 
ty. He is of German ancestr\- by both 
lines of descent and has inherited the best 
traits of the blood. He grew to manhood 
in his native state, in which he remained 
until after his marriage to Miss Emma J. 
Coleman. This occurred November 27, 
1 873, and five years later, with his wife and 
child, Verna Maud, he came by railroad to 
this county, where he bought a farm de- 
scribed as south-half of southeast quarter 
of section nine, township eleven, and east- 
half of north-east quarter of section sixteen, 
township eleven, both range four west, and 
on this they built a sod-house, which proved 
a comfortable and convenient home for over 
thirteen years. Its walls, two feet thick, 
made the house cool in summer and warm 
in winter. Curtains sej arated the bed 
rooms from the kitchen and the parlor. 
The breaking up of the prairie was begun, 
and by the ne.xt spring forty acres of wheat, 
fifteen acres of barley, and twenty-five of 
corn were planted, which yielded well. They 
worked hard, not only farming their own 
land, but renting other pieces as well, until 
they had attained a comfortable independ- 
ence. They lived through many hard ex- 
periences but they kept on, and at last have 
become comfortaby well-to-do. 

In 1892, Mr. Beishline had accumulat- 
ed enough to warrarnt the erection of a con- 
venient home of lumber. It has seemed all 
the more pleasant because of the long time 
it was waited for. They are now cultivat- 



ing one hundred and ten acres, and have 
fifty acres in grass and meadow. They have 
four children, Verna Maud, Warren Clark, 
Robert Ray, and Mearl Lee. Miss Maud is 
as helpful about the house as her older 
brother on the farm. The smaller children 
are attending school and are fast growing 
into stout lads. Mrs. Beishline has three 
brothers and four sisters. The sisters are 
all married and are the mothers of families. 
Two of them live in Pennsylvania, and the 
others in this state. Her brother William 
Henry lives on an adjoining farm. The 
other is still living in the old Pennsylvania 
home. Mr. Beishline has three sisters and 
one brother, none of whom have ever left 
the native state. He says he favors the 
gold standard, but frequently breaks over 
party lines to vote for better men on other 
tickets. He is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and his daugh- 
ter of the Degree of Honor. He has served 
on the school board and makes satisfactory 
reports each year. They are both mem- 
bers of the Bradshaw Methodist Episcopal 
church. As they look back over the years 
they feel well satisfied with their coming to 
this state. 



SAMUEL WHITNEY ALLEN.— The 
farming interests of Olive township, 
Butler county, have a worthy exponent in 
the person of the gentleman above-named, 
who operates a farm in section 18. The 
entire tract of one hundred and sixty acres 
is improved and tillable, and altogether 
makes up an estate whereon a remunerative 
business can well be done by a man who de- 
votes himself closely and intelligently to his 
work. In the way of buildings every ar- 
rangement has been made for the econom- 
ical conduct of the farm, and for the com- 
fort of the family a nice residence has been 
constructed. 

Mr. Allen was born in the southern part 



688 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



of Wisconsin, in May, 1852, a son of Solo- 
mon Case Allen. The father was a native 
of Tioga county, New York, and was there 
reared and married. His wife, Annie C. 
(Whitney) Allen, was a daughter of Samuel 
Whitney, after whom our subject was named 
and with whom he first moved to Butler 
county, Nebraska, a year before the rest of 
the family settled there. Soon after their 
marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Case Allen 
moved to the southern part of Wisconsin, 
where our subject was born, but when he 
was still a child, the family moved to Ogle 
county, Illinois. Here our subject spent 
his early life and received a common-school 
education, which he supplemented with a 
course in the high school at Ashton, Illinois. 
After locating in Butler county, Nebraska, 
in 1874, he spent a few years in prospecting 
and in agricultural pursuits, and then pur- 
chased the farm on which he now resides 
and began to improve it and to make it an 
attractive home and profitable farm. 

In 1883 our subject was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Sarah J. McKellips, a daugh- 
ter of Phylander McKellips, and to this 
union have been born a bright interesting 
family of four children, upon whom they 
have bestowed the following names: Edith, 
Claude, Frank and Edward. Mr. Allen is 
a very pleasant neighbor, genial, warm- 
hearted, and has an agreeable family, and 
resides in one of the most hospitable homes 
in the township. He has labored hard on 
his farm to make it one of the best stock 
and grain farms in the county and has pro- 
vided it with excellent improvements and 
fine buildings. 



SAMUEL R. LICHTENBERGER. one 
of the many hard-working and honor- 
able men who have enwrought their very 
personality into the making of the west, 
and particularly of the great state of 
Nebraska, has his home in the township of 



Bradshaw, York county, and for many 3'ears 
has taken a prominent part in its develop- 
ment. 

Mr. Lichtenberger was born in Somer- 
set county, Pennsylvania, January 8, 1847. 
His father, Joshua Lichtenberger, was 
deputy sheriff at one time of his native 
county, and was born March 10, 18 10. 
He served for eight years and proved him- 
self a man of character and resolution. 
John Lichtenberger and some of his rela- 
tions came from England and settled in and 
around Philadelphia, and Reading, before 
the Revolutionary war. The Lichtenbergers 
are a numerous family in that state, and 
were largely represented in the Continental 
army under General Washington. John 
went to Ohio on business, but died on the 
way. The mother of the subject of this 
article was Mrs. Eliza A. (Scneyder) 
Lichtenberger. Her father, Jacob Scney- 
der, came from Germany when he was 
sixteen years old, and settled in Somerset 
county. After accumulating considerable 
property, he laid out the town that has 
become the city of Somerset. Here he 
lived to a venerable age, and was killed by 
a kick from a vicious horse. 

Samuel R. Lichtenberger enlisted in 
March, 1864, in Company D, Fifteenth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry, and served through 
the last days of the war. He was mustered 
out September 16, 1865. His regiment 
had a part in the great march from Atlanta 
to the sea. He made the entire march 
without being wounded or in the hospital. 
He was mustered out at Springfield and 
went to Dixon, Lee county, Illinois, where 
he rented a farm and engaged in its cultiva- 
tion. After the war his father and his 
whole family had moved into that neighbor- 
hood. In 1873 they all came to this coun- 
ty, where his father, himself and one 
brother filed homestead claims. He lived 
on his claim for nearly eleven years alone, 
and then was married, January 16, 1883, to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



689 



Miss Sarah J. Dixon, a daughter of Robert 
and Mary (Mills) Dixon, who were mar- 
ried in 1863. Since their marriage they 
have lived on the homestead, which has 
increased to four hundred acres. When 
the subject of this article came to this 
county he had nothing that he could call 
his own except a sound body and an en- 
ergy that rose superior to every mishap. 
He owns in his own name a large farm, and 
has an equal interest with his brother in 
one thousand acres in the northwestern part 
of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Lichtenberger 
have a family of three children, Virginia M., 
Josiah and Cleon C. He belongs to the 
Masonic order and the Knights of Macca- 
bees. His wife is a member of the Ladies, 
and neither is connected at the present time 
with any church. He has been for twenty 
years treasurer of his school district, and 
for five years its moderator. 



WILLIAM H. COLEMAN, a resident 
of Bradshaw township, York county, 
Nebraska, was born May 2, 1844, in Colum- 
bia county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of 
David Coleman, who was born in North- 
ampton, of the same state. May 4, 1809. 
He was a farmer, and died in Asbury, Au- 
gust 16, 1874. His mother was Rebecca 
Hess, who was born July 19, 18 17, and died 
September 22, 1897. 

William was twenty years old when he 
enlisted in Company E, Two Hundred and 
Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He 
was enrolled August 31, 1864, and at the 
conclusion of the war was honorably dis- 
charged at Alexandria, Virginia, May 31, 
1S65. He was engaged in the taking of 
Petersburg, Virginia, and the capture of 
Fort Stedman. Upon his return from the 
war he farmed his father's place one year, 
and then betook himself to Capron, Illinois, 
where he found employment as a farm 
hand. In the summer of 1870, in company 



with a friend, he made the voyage across 
Iowa in a "prairie schooner, " landing in 
York county in the early part of the follow- 
ing summer. He selected the southwest 
quarter of section 10, township 11, range 
4 west, and being unmarried he built a 
little sod-house, and settled down to the 
business of making a home in a new country, 
and as all have done before, he broke and 
planted sod corn. He set out trees, and 
made his home attractive. He remained in 
this lonely condition until May 31, 1879, 
when he was married to Mrs. Charlotte 
Amelia McArthur, who had established on 
a neighboring farm the previous year. They 
began the earnest work of improving their 
new home, and now, at the end of nineteen 
years, their farm, which at first was a prairie 
wilderness, is now a beautiful home. She is 
the daughter of John E. Mason and Caroline 
Stryker. Her parents were married Jul\- 
8, 1838, at Strykersville, W^'oming, county 
New York, wherethey lived for eleven years. 
They moved from there to DeKalb county, 
Illinois, where her mother died in 1857. 
Her father followed her to Nebraska, and 
died March 2, 18S9. She married Mr. 
McArthur in 1867, and lived with him se\en 
years at his home in the state of New York, 
and bore him two children, John W. and 
Eliza R. The}- are both married and ha\'e 
families. Her son was married to a Miss 
Sword in Pueblo, Colorado, and her daugh- 
ter is the wife of Joseph Shoefstall, and 
both are residents of Elwood, Nebraska. 
Their father was a brave and honored sol- 
dier in the late war for the Union. He en- 
tered as a private and through his own abil- 
ity rose from the ranks to the position of 
first lieutenant. He died April 2, 1875, 
and his ashes rest in Fairhaven cemetery. 
New York. 

Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have one daugh- 
ter, the sole fruit of their marriage, Edith 
May. She is now eighteen years old, and 
is employed obtaining an education, both 



690 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



musical and literary, and seems to be the 
life of the rural home. Her father is a 
Populist, and does not fear reproach that 
word seems to carr\' to certain minds. He 
stands by the cause of free silver, and holds 
that the future welfare of the country re- 
quires its restoration to the coinage as an 
equal partner. He belongs to no religious 
organization, but his wife is a member of 
the Methodist church. 



JAMES CRAIG BORTNER, a prosper- 
ous and successful farmer of section 3, 
Stanton precinct, has made his home in Fill- 
more county since 1S74, and his name is 
inseparably connected with its agricultural 
interests. His thoroughly American spirit 
and great energy have enabled him to mount 
from a lowly position to one of affluence. 
One of his leading characteristics in business 
affairs is his fine sense of order and com- 
plete system and the habit of giving careful 
attention to details, without which success 
in any undertaking is never an assured fact. 

Mr. Bortner was born in Crawford coun- 
ty, Pennsj'lvania, October 13, 1847, a son 
of Thomas and Anna J. (Craig) Bortner. 
His paternal grandparents were Jacob and 
Beulah (Newbol.d) Bortner, and his mater- 
nal grandparents were James and Elizabeth 
(Hastings) Craig. Our subject remained 
under the parental roof until eighteen years 
of age and acquired his education in the 
public schools of Pennsylvania. He then 
married Miss Eliza Jane Mumford, a daugh- 
ter of William and Rachel (Scoudan) Mum- 
ford. As her mother died when she was 
two years old she was reared by a Mrs. 
Thatcher, with whom she remained imtil 
she gave her hand in marriage to our sub- 
ject, at the age of twenty. 

For about eight years Mr. Bortner op- 
erated his father-in-law's farm in Pennsyl- 
vania, but in 1S74 he disposed of his per- 
sonal property and by train moved to Fair- 



mont, Nebraska, where he arrived on the 
30th of April. Securing a team at a livery 
stable, he drove to Stanton precinct May 27, 
and being pleased with the locality he bought 
one hundred and sixty acres, on which he 
erected one of the first frame houses in the 
precinct, moving into the same when it was 
minus a door and window. Heat once be- 
gan to break and improve his land, and the 
first year broke about thirty-five acres. He 
also planted some sod corn on land which 
he rented from a neighbor. He had to use 
o.xen in breaking his land for the first two 
years, and with the same team he hauled 
his fuel the first winter from the Little 
Blue, a distance of thirty-five miles, but 
the second winter was able to purchase a 
team of horses. In 1874 the grasshoppers 
destroyed everything, but notwithstanding 
these misfortunes, Mr. Bortner has pros- 
pered, and in 1881 finished paying for his 
first tract of one hundred and si.xty acres. 
The following year he bought eighty acres 
at eight dollars per acre, and as his finan- 
cial resources have increased he has bought 
additional land until he now has four hun- 
dred and eighty acres of as fine farming 
land as is to be found in the state. His 
comfortable and commodious residence is 
pleasantly located only a mile and a half 
from the city of Geneva, and everything 
about the place betokens the enterprising 
and progressive spirit of the owner, who is 
acknowledged to be one of the most syste- 
matic and skillful farmers of the commu- 
nity. In connection with general farming 
he is also engaged in stock raising. Since 
casting his first presidential vote for U. S. 
Grant he has been unwavering in his sup- 
port of the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party, while socially he affiliates 
with the Masonic fraternity at Geneva. 

Mr. Bortner has been called upon to 
mourn the loss of his first wife, who died 
Ma}' 13, 1890, her remains being interred 
in the Geneva cemeterv. She was a true 



COMPENDIUM OF BlOGRAPin'. 



m\ 



JW. MATS ON, proprietor of a good 
farm on section 29, township 14, 
range 3, Polk county, is one of the most 
energetic and enterprising agriculturists of 
the community. He is a man of sound 
judgment and intelligence, and is well 
worthy representation in a work of this 
kind. 

His father, George Matson, was born in 
Ockelbo Yestrikland, Sweden, in 1826, and 
1849 came to this country, first locating in 
Knox county, Illinois, where he worked as a 
farm hand, and also split rails in winter un- 



christian woman, loved and respected by 
all who knew her. Hy this union there was 
one son, Jasper, who married Laura Archer. 
Our subject was again married December 
26, 1894, his second union being with Miss 
Mary Leonard, a daughter of Joseph and 
Adeline (Folger) Leonard. Her parental 
grandparents were Joseph and Sarah (Swain) 
Leonard, and her maternal grandparents 
were Judge Jethro and Mary (Barnard) Fol- 
ger, who were from Indiana. She is a 
descendant of Benjamin Franklin, and is of 
English and Irish e.xtraction. One of her 
ancestors was Walter Folger, of Nantucket 
Island, the inventor of the one hundred year 
clock. Secretary of the Treasurer Folger, 
one of President Arthur's cabinet officers, 
belonged to the same family. Mrs. Bortner ' 
was born in Shelby county, Indiana, April 
25, 1853, attended first the district schools 
and later the Spice Land Academy, and 
then successfully engaged in teaching both 
in Indiana and Nebraska. For six years 
she had charge of a school in Aurora, this 
state, and it was there she became 
accjuainted with her future husband. She 
was reared in the Society of Friends, and 
Mr. Bortner was reared in the Freewill ' 
Baptist church. . Wherever known they are 
held in high regard and their friends are 
many in Fillmore county. 



til he acquired enough money so as to be able 
to buy some land, which he did soon after. 
He and his father bought forty acres of 
land together, which he farmed for a few 
years; then he sold his share of the forty 
acres, and in the early '50s he was married in 
Illinois to Miss Ellen Peterson, who was 
born in Skone, Sweden, in 1824, and they 
continued to reside in that state until 1853 
when they removed to Carver county, 
Minnesota. There the father purchased 
one hundred acres of timber land, which he 
improved and resided upon for about eight 
years, and sold it in 1864, and then re- 
turned to Illinois in the same county where 
they formerly lived, where he again pur- 
chased eighty acres of prairie land which he 
improved and resided on until 1872. The 
same year he sold his eighty-acre farm and 
moved to Polk county, Nebraska, to improve 
his six hundred and forty acres of railroad 
land, which he bought the previous year. He 
took an eighty-acre homstead on the east 
half of the northeast quarter of section 32, 
township 14, range 2, being the first settler 
in that locality. 

In the spring he built a plank barn, 
14 X 28 in which the family lived until fall, 
when he erected the first large frame house 
in the neighborhood. The same year he 
broke sixty acres of land and raised some 
good sod corn. The following year raised 
twenty-four bushels of spring wheat to the 
acre, and also some corn; in 1S74 raised 
wheat, but his corn was destroyed by the 
grasshoppers; and two years later those in- 
sects took half his corn crop. The first 
summer spent in Polk county he made fifty 
trips to Cokimbus, Nebraska, which was the 
nearest market, a distance of twenty-nine 
miles. In 1888 he sold his homestead and 
one hundred and sixty acres of the railroad 
land, and moved to Los Angeles county, 
California, and settled on a small farm, 
where he still resides, and, with the excep- 
tion of our subject, the other members of 



692 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the family still live in that state. The 
parents are members of the Swedish Bap- 
tist church at Los Angeles, and are highly 
respected, have always been honored by all, 
and he has always given his support to 
those who were in need, and helped to 
make the world better. The children are 
|. W., G. H., F. A., Mary A. and A. E., 
of whom all are still alive. George Matson 
has had various positions during his life. 
In Minnesota he held the office of assistant 
postmaster and a member of the town 
board, and also was school director in Illi- 
nois. In Nebraska he organized school dis- 
trict No. 29, and was the first director. He 
has had the office of church treasurer at 
various times. 

J. W. Matson, of this review, was born 
in Carver county, Minnesota, May 16, 1857, 
and at the age of six years accompanied 
his parents to Illinois and resided with 
them until 1872. When he was fifteen 
years of age he accompanied his parents to 
Nebraska in 1872. In the public schools 
of tho'se two states and also of Nebraska 
he acquired his education, and he remained 
with his parents until his marriage. On 
the 1 6th day of May, 1884, he wedded 
Miss Johanna Jonson, a native of Sweden, 
by whom he has three children, Alice H., 
Elmer E. and Harold R. After his mar- 
riage Mr. Matson rented some of his fa- 
ther's railroad land and farmed it for four 
years, and in 1888 he moved out to Los 
Angeles county, California, with his par- 
ents, but after spending four years there 
removed to a place seven hundred miles 
farther north at Red Bluff, Tehama county. 
A year later, however, he returned to Polk 
county, Nebraska, with only four hundred 
dollars in money, and rented again the 
place he formerly farmed, having lost on 
the Pacific coast about four thousand dol- 
lars and five years lost time. He now 
owns one hundred and twenty acres of land, 
well improved and under a high state of 



cultivation. In connection with general 
farming he is engaged in stock-raising, 
making a specialty of thoroughbred Guern- 
sey cattle. He is a member of the Scan- 
dinavian Mutual Insurance Company, of 
Polk county, and is also a member of the 
Stromsburg Co-operative Creamery Com- 
pany, of which he is a director. Mr. and 
Mrs. Matson are sincere and faithful mem- 
bers of the Swedish Baptist church, of 
Stromsburg, of which he is a trustee, and 
politically he is identified with the Republi- 
can party. He has served as clerk of elec- 
tions in Polk county and as school director 
in district No. 29, and at all times is de- 
voted to the best interests of the locality, 
giving his support to all measures for the 
public good. 



THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, at Sew. 
ard, Nebraska, was founded about the 
year 1878, under the charge of Reverend 
Fr. O'Brien. He was at the head of its 
affairs for some years. The church began 
to show decided life under the ministrations 
Father A. P. Lysagt. He came to Seward 
about 1884, and remained for eight years. 
He was of Irish descent, and a man of much 
administrative ability. He was succeeded 
by Rev. Dennis A. Kelley, who put new life 
into the rising church. He did good work 
for it. Several changes were then made 
and the history of the church is brought up 
to 1897. In that year its present pastor, 
Rev. W. Murphy, took charge. He was 
born in Bennington county, Vermont, in 
1847, and was educated in the public school 
of his native town. He entered H0I3' Cross 
college at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 
1862, and spent six 3'ears in its scholastic 
shades. He devoted two years to theologi- 
cal study at Troy, New York, and two at 
Montreal, Canada. In the spring of 1873 
he was ordained to the priesthood, and had 
a brief charge in \'ermont. He spent three 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



693 



years in Europe in farther study, and in 
1879 he was stationed at Peoria, Illinois, 
and was there engaged for five years. He 
was then transferred to the diocese of 
Omaha, and was under the episcopal direc- 
tion of Bishop O'Conner. He was assigned 
to Grafton, and held the pulpit there two 
years. He was again transferred, this time 
to Lancaster county, and did mission work 
for five years, which was followed by five 
years in Johnson county, Nebraska. In 
1897 he came to this county, and began 
work as pastor of the Catholic church in 
Seward. The parish is gradually increas- 
ing in strength and numbers under his 
ministrations, and at the present moment 
has about seventy-five families. It sustains 
a mission in Ulysses, and maintains the 
various organizations which are intended to 
promote its strength and efficiency. 



SOLOMON A. MYERS.— Among the 
prominent agriculturists and poineer 
citizens, of York county, who have assisted 
materially in its development, is Mr. Myers, 
a resident on section 20, Thayer township. 
He was born in Clay county, Indiana, De- 
cember 16, 1850, a son of James and 
Sophia (West) Myers, natives of Ohio, and 
Indiana, respectively. The paternal grand- 
father, Solomon Myers, was born in Ohio, 
but at an early day removed to Indiana, 
where he spent the remainder of his life. 
His son James was reared to farm life, and 
on adopting a life-work he chose agriculture, 
which he has always followed. He now 
makes his home in Indian Territory. 

The subject of this sketch is the fourth 
in order of birth in a family of eight children 
— four sons and four daughters. He was 
reared to manhood in Illinois, and began 
life for himself as a farmer in that state. 
In 1 876 he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and secured a homestead claim on section 
30, Thayer township, at that time all wild 



prairie land with only a sod house upon it. 
The place is now one of the best farms in 
the county, the land being under a high 
state of cultivation and improved with good 
and substantial buildings. For the past 
fourteen years, Mr. Myers has extensively 
engaged in buying, feeding and shipping 
stock, and has also given considerable at- 
tention to the breeding of a superior grade 
of road horses, owning two of the best stal- 
lions in the county. 

In 1870, Mr. Myers married Miss Eliza 
R. Kost, a native of Illinois, by whom he 
had four children: William E.,JohnW., 
Orin F., deceased, and James C. The 
wife and mother died in 1887 and two years 
later Mr. Myers was united in marriage 
with Miss Jessie R. Rose, a native of Iowa. 
To them has been born one son, Charles 
B. The family is connected with the Meth- 
odist church, and socially Mr. Myers affili- 
ates with the Masonic Order and the Mod- 
Woodmen of America. Politically he is a 
supporter of the men and measures of the 
Republican party, and he has been honored 
with election to a number of official posi- 
tions, being assessor of his township, and 
for some time a member of the county 
board of commissioners in tho early history 
of the county. 



WILLIAM M. WALROD is a farmer 
living near Bradshaw, Nebraska. He 
has made a home for himself and won a 
place in the honor and esteem of the world 
by the display of those qualities which are 
characteristically American. He is bold 
and enterprising, industrious and careful, 
and while his adventurous spirit displayed 
itself in settling in a new country, he has 
yet been careful and cautious, keeping close 
to shore, preferring safety and moderate re- 
sults to dash and danger in business. He 
has a good name, and is an active worker 
for the advancement of every movement of 



694 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



morals and religion that interests the com- 
munity. 

Mr. \N'alrod was born June 30, 1843, in 
New York. His father, James, was born in 
Holland Purchase, in that state, September 
18, 18 1 8, and was a farmer all his life. 
Peter A. Walrod was the grandfather of 
William, and of Holland birth. He was 
born Ma\' 17, 1781, and was a hotel keeper. 
Eliza B. Ho\ey, the mother of William 
Walrod, was born June 20, 1825, in Ohio. 
Our subject's paternal great-grandmother, 
Hannah Hoover, was born in Germany, in 
1796. His grandfather came from Holland 
in 1827, and settled in Holland Purchase, 
and from that tract he moved to Wyoming 
county, where he died at the advanced age 
of eighty-two. His grandmother died at 
the age of seventy-six. She had a history 
quite out of the common run. During the 
war of 18 1 2 she was an ardent patriot, and 
with two of her brothers participated in a 
battle against the British. She carried 
powder to the gunners and rendered valuable 
service to the cause. James Walrod was 
married October 19, 1840, to Miss Hovey, 
daughter of John and Eliza Hovey, in the 
little New York village of Pike. They 
lived on a farm for four years, when they 
moved to De Kalb county, Illinois, and pur- 
chased a farm, on which they spent a second 
four years. From this place they moved to 
Kane county, where they remained but a 
brief time, moving to Sac county, Iowa, 
where he died November 7, 1886. The 
mother is still living on the Sac county 
farm, and is now seventy-three years old. 

William Walrod enlisted in the One 
Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois \'olun- 
teer Infantry August 15, 1862, when he was 
only eighteen. He was in many of the 
most important battles of the west, among 
which were those at Port Gibson, Raymond, 
Jackson, Champion Hill, Black River, Can- 
ton and the forty-seven days' siege of Vicks- 
burg. He was at the taking of Spanish 



Fort, and the defenses of Mobile. He 
passed through twenty skirmishes, many of 
which assumed the dignity of small battles. 
Although his place was in the front rank 
and his number No. i, yet he was not 
wounded in an\' of these engagements, and 
was in the hospital only twice during his 
period of service. He was mustered out of 
the army at Chicago August 16, 1S65, and 
immediately set out for his old home in 
Kane county. 

Mr. \\'alrod was married to Miss Calista 
A. Sheldon October 19, i86s. She was an 
old school-mate, and has made her husband 
a most helpful companion. The\' made 
their home on the farm until 1871, when 
the}' moved to this county and took a home- 
stead clami on the southeast quarter of sec- 
tion 10, township II, range 4 west. Here 
they have made their home to the present 
time. He says there was nothing on the 
land but grass, sunflowers and a govern- 
ment stake on one corner. He began with 
the inevitable dug-out on the side of a ra- 
vine, with the improved feature of a shingle 
roof instead of the ordinary sod. When he 
had paid for filing his papers he had one 
lone five-dollar bill in his hands, which soon 
disappeared, leaving them without money 
save for letter postage. He broke the 
prairie and planted trees. He now has a 
fine orchard of one hundred and twenty-five 
trees of the best fruits that can be raised in 
the state. His residence is set in the midst 
of most pleasant and attractive surround- 
ings. His lawn is rich with Kentucky blue 
grass, and is kept in perfect order. He is 
the father of five children, four of whom 
are living and married. S. Eugene and W. 
Homer are married and have families of 
their own. Albert A., Ellen and Effie M. 
Eugene is a farmer, and Homer is a miner 
in the gold fields of the Black Hills. Al- 
bert is twenty-five years old, and in the 
spring of 1898 became a member of Com- 
pany A, First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, 



COMPENDIl^r OF BIOGRAPHT. 



G95 



but at the time of mustering the regiment 
failed to pass the critical examination. He 
and his sister. Miss Effie, are the only chil- 
dren at home. Mr. Walrod has been a 
life-long Republican, and says he still votes 
in the same way he shot in the '60s. He is 
a member of the Ancient Order of the 
United Workmen, and is a man of char- 
acter, and with his wife is a member of the 
Bradshaw Methodist Episcopal church, and 
had been for many years its recording 
steward. 



JOHN C. MULFINGER is the manager 
of the Seward Cereal Mills, and at the 
head of this very important Nebraska insti- 
tution he has won an enviable reputation 
for business proficiency and personal pro- 
bity. The enterprise over which he pre- 
sides is an extensive affair, and very ma- 
terially enhances the profits of the farmers 
of the neighboring regions. It is owned by 
a corporation consisting of five well-known 
business men, of whom the manager is the 
leading spirit. George J. Harrison is the 
vice-president; John Zimmerer is the presi- 
dent; John Cattle, Jr., is the treasurer, and 
C. W. Barkley is the secretary. They are 
alert and shrewd, and their products are 
taken up in the best markets of the coun- 
try. 

Mr. Mulfinger was born in Monroe coun- 
ty, Ohio, April 11, 1852, and was the only 
son of Michael and Mary J. (Neff) Mulfinger. 
His father was born in Germany, and came 
to this country in 1821. He began life as a 
baker, but in later years became a clergy- 
man of the German Methodist Episcopal 
church. He was a man of much force of 
character, and did a good work as a clergy- 
man. He died in Illinois. 

Mrs. Mulfinger was a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, and died in Illinois also. Her son 
received a good education, partly in Illinois 
and partly in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He 

40 



was also a student at Wallace University, 
and at Baldwin University, Berea, Ohio, 
where he spent two years. He became a 
miller, and learned his trade in Iowa, where 
he followed it for ten years in Iowa and 
central Illinois. In 1871 he went into a 
mill at Lincoln, Nebraska, and was there 
three years. In Fillmore he was engaged 
in the grain trade, and in the fall of 1879 
came to Seward, and erected an elevator. 
He acted as its manager at first, but later 
secured an interest in it, and still contmues- 
in its operation. In 1893 he was elected 
county treasurer, and two years later re- 
ceived the honor of a re-election by an in- 
creased majority. In the city of Seward 
he has long been regarded as one of its most 
progressive and public-spirited citizens. He 
was mayor for two terms and has served in 
the city council for seven years. The very 
complete system of water works which the 
city possesses to-day was put in under his 
administration. He has been connected 
with the fire department for fifteen years, 
and was its chief for seven years. He was 
prominent in the erection of the Seward 
Cereal Mills, and has been conspicuous in 
its management from the first. 

Mr. Mulfinger was married in 1875 to 
Miss Mary J. Harrison, with whom he be- 
came acquainted at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
where she was born and reared, and was 
attending the State University. They are 
the parents of two children, Francis A. and 
Alta |. He is a member of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows and is a Knight 
of Pythias. He is a Republican, and is at 
the present moment chairman of the county 
central committee. 



SB. CLARK, an influential and popular 
citizen of Seward county, is a worthy 
representative of one of the oldest and most 
distinguished pioneer families. He is a na- 
tive of the far-off state of Vermont, his 



696 



COMTENDIi'M OF BIOGRAPH2' 



birth occurring at Luningburg, December 
30, 1839, while his parents, Rev. Elijah L. 
and Nancy (Munger) Clark, were born in 
Whiting, Vermont. The father was a Bap- 
tist minister, and engaged in preaching in 
the Green Mountain state. Later moved 
to Franklin county, New York, and in Oc- 
tober, 1865, he became a resident of Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska, locating on the farm 
■where our subject now lives. After com- 
pleting a dugout, in which the family lived, 
he turned his attention to the improvement 
and cultivation of his farm, which at that 
time was all wild. He organized the first 
Baptist church in the county, and served as 
its pastor until his death, which occurred in 
1873. In early life he had given some at- 
tention to the study of law, and for a time 
•engaged in practice in the early courts of 
'this state, meeting with fair success. He 
became one of the most prominent and in- 
fluential citizens of this section of the state, 
and was elected a member of the lower 
house of the legislature, where he ably rep- 
resented Seward county for one term. It 
was at this time that the state capital was 
■moved from Omaha to Lincoln, and as he 
favored the removal, he was compelled to 
hide to escape mob violence. Besides this 
position, he filled some minor offices of hon- 
or and trust with credit to himself and to 
the entire satisfaction of his constituents. 
His wife died in 1S74. In their family 
were eleven children, six sons and five 
daughters. Three of the sons became min- 
isters of the Gospel, one died from wounds 
received in the Civil war, and two others 
were also in the Union service. 

S. B. Clark received a good practical 
education in the public schools of his native 
state, and when quite young turned his at- 
tention to farming, following that pursuit 
in Vermont and New York states, coming to 
Seward county, Nebraska, in 1S66. He 
secured a homestead near Milford, which 
he operated until the death of his father, 



when he bought the old homestead and has 
since successful!}' engaged in its cultivation 
and improvement. 

While still a resident of Vermont, Mr. 
Clark was married in August, 1859, the 
lady of his choice being Miss Jennie Byrne, 
who was born in Ireland and came to the 
United States about 1853 or 1854. They 
have become the parents of four children, 
who all live in Seward county, namely: Ed- 
ward L. ; Effie C, now the wife of H. H. 
Furnald; Allison B. ; and Adelbert O. The 
parents both hold membership in the Con- 
gregational church and politically Mr. 
Clark affiliates with the Republican part}-, 
which he assisted in organizing in Seward 
county. For some years he served asdeputy 
sheriff, and his duties, whether public or pri- 
vate, are always discharged with the atmost 
fidelity and promptness, which wins the com- 
mendation and esteem of his fellow citi- 
zens. 



TAMES VARNUM WOOD, a widely 
J known and highly respected citizen of 
Olive township, Butler county, who is 
making his home and base of operations in 
section 14, was born in Newfield, York 
county, Maine, June 24, 1845. His father. 
Job P. Wood, was born at Acton, York 
county, Maine, June 5, 1S03. He was 
reared as a tanner, curner and shoemaker, 
but later in life engaged in farming in his 
native state. Our subject's grandfather set- 
tled in York county, Maine, late in the 
eighteenth century. His great-grandfather, 
Daniel Wood, better known as Major Wood, 
fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. The 
Wood family is of Scotch origin but came 
from England to America in the latter part 
of the seventeenth century and was one of 
the prominent colonial families. Our sub- 
ject's mother, Mercy Durgin, a daughter of 
Josiah Durgin, was born in York county, 
Maine, and was from Revolutionary stock. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



697 



Mr. Wood's grandmother, Hannah Bean, 
was of Scotch descent. The mother of our 
subject's maternal grandfather, Josiah Dur- 
gin, was Rebecca Stuart, who came to 
America in 1746, and was supposed to have 
been a descendant of the reigning house of 
Stuarts, and our subject's paternal grand- 
mother bore the maiden name of Miss 
Grant, and was a distant relative of U. S. 
Grant. 

Our subject was reared in his native 
state, with the advantages of the common 
school, until he enlisted, August 6, 1862, 
in Company I, First Maine Cavalry, at the 
age of seventeen years. He was in active 
service in this capacity until he was wounded 
at Boydton Plank Road, Virginia, 1864. 
During this time he participated in the first 
and second battles of Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville and Gettysburg, where he acted 
in the capacity of orderly for General Wads- 
worth, who commanded the First Army 
Corps. After receiving his wound he was 
sent to the hospital and there remained 
until he was discharged May 20, 1865, at 
Augusta, Maine, on account of disability. 
He then returned to his home and resumed 
his studies in the public schools, and com- 
pleting his studies at the Wakefield x\cad- 
emy, at Wakefield, New Hampshire. After 
teaching two terms of school he went to 
Boston, and was engaged as bookkeeper in 
the Faneuil Hall Market. After severing 
his connection with this firm, he entered 
the employ of J. S. & E. Wright, Winthrop 
Square, Boston, and later was with J. T. 
Kelly & Co., 609 Washington street, Bos- 
ton. When he left the employ of the last- 
named firm, in September, 1869, he went 
to Chicago, Illinois, and from thence to 
Clinton county, Iowa, and made that his 
home until he moved to Butler county, 
Nebraska, his present home. He filed a 
homestead claim to the northeast quarter of 
section 14, township 15, range 2, having 
commuted same in February, 1872, and 



then returned to eastern Iowa, where he 
was engaged for two years in teaching and 
railroad work. Early in March, 1874, he 
returned to Butler county, Nebraska, and, 
on the 26th of that month, was married 
there to Miss Adah Vanderkolk. Miss Van- 
derkolk moved to Butler county in 1868 
and taught the first school in the county. 
She was born at Pella, Iowa, in August, 
1850, and died in Butler county, September 
27, 1876. To this union were born two 
children, Merta M. V. and Viegar V., both 
of whom died in infancy. After the death 
of his first wife, our subject was united in 
marriage to Miss Tabitha Vanderkolk, a 
sister of his former wife. She was born in 
Friesland, Holland, January ti, 1846, and 
came to this country with her parents when 
two years of age. To this union were born 
five children, of whom we have the follow- 
ing record: Varnum P. W., born Novem- 
ber 5, 1879; Adah M., born December 11, 
1 881; John S. and Katie C. , twins, born 
June 8, 1884, and John S. died at the age 
of nine months; Amelia T., born July 25, 
1888. Mrs. Tabitha Wood died November 
14, 1895, and April 3, 1897, our subject 
was united in marriage to Etta Papa, a na- 
tive of Friesland, Holland, born February 
29, 1864. 

Our subject was united with the Park 
Street Congregational church of Boston, in 
June, 1869, and after moving to Butler 
county, he became a member of the First 
Congregational church of Butler county, 
Nebraska. He next joined the Summit 
church, of that county, and is now identified 
with the First Congregational church of 
David City. Mrs. Tabitha (Vanderkolk) 
Wood organized and superintended the first 
Sunday-school in Butler county, and both 
she and her sister, Adah, were charter mem- 
bers of the First Congregational church of 
Butler county. Mr. Wood is a member of 
the A. Lincoln post No. 10, Grand Army of 
the Republic. 



G98 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPBT. 



HON. DAVID E. SEDGWICK, M. D., 
one of the prominent physicians and 
surgeons of York, York county, was born in 
Bloomingdale, Illinois, November 12, 1850, 
and a brief history of his parents will ap- 
pear in the sketch of Judge S. H. Sedgwick, 
on another page of this volume. 

Our subject was educated in the Whea- 
ton College, of Illinois, attending there for 
five years. He then began to read medi- 
cine, and in 1873, entered the Rush 
Medical College, of Chicago, Illinois, from 
which he graduated in 1875. He began 
the practice of his profession in Wrights- 
town, Brown county, Wisconsin, remaining 
there until the fall of 1879. During that 
year he was elected to the legislature from 
Brown county. In 1880 Dr. Sedgwick 
came to York county, and has followed the 
practice of medicine here since that date. 
The Doctor is a stockholder and one of the 
directors of the York Water Company. He 
is a member of both the state and the coun- 
ty medical societies, and in politics he is 
identified with the Republican party. 

Dr. Sedgwick was married, in 1875, to 
Miss Jennie Treat, of Wisconsin, and their 
home has been blessed by the presence of a 
family of three children, all of whom are 
still living, and whose names, in the order 
of their birth, are as follows: Julius P., 
Allen E. and Frederick G. The Doctor 
affiliates, socially, with the Masonic fra- 
ternity, holding his membership in the 
commandery, Knights Templar, and is also 
a member of some of the insurance fraterni- 
ties. As a physician he has been very 
successful and enjoys a large and ever in- 
creasing patronage. 



JOHN J. LICHLITER, one of Butler 
county's enterprising and prosperous 
farmers, whose home is in section 31, Olive 
township, settled in this community in 
December, 1878. He was born in Hamp- 



shire county, Virginia, January 15, 1833, a 
son of George P. Lichliter. The father 
was a native of Maryland, a shoemaker by 
occupation, and died in Ohio in 1857, at an 
advanced age. He was a soldier in the war 
of 1812. His father migrated to the col- 
onies from Germany with his father in 1769, 
settled in Virginia and both participated in 
in the Revolutionary war. Our subject's 
mother, Rosa (Cook) Lichliter, was born in 
Maryland. The parents were married at 
Cumberland, Maryland, and eleven children 
were born to them, ten of whom grew to 
maturity, and of whom our subject is the 
seventh child and the third son. The eld- 
est brother went to Ohio and from there 
enlisted in the Mexican war. After the 
close of that struggle he returned to Ohio 
and later moved from thence to southern 
Illinois, from where he enlisted in the Civil 
war. He died in Illinois. The second 
brother, George W., enlisted in the Civil 
war from Ohio, and died in Kentucky, dur- 
ing his service. 

John J. Lichliter, the subject of this 
sketch, left his native county in Virginia in 
early youth, moved to Ohio with his parents 
and settled in Kno.x county. He later 
moved to Richland county, and located in 
the village of Newville. This was about 
the close of the Me.xican war. After living 
there four years he moved to Coshocton 
county and made that his home two years. 
From thence he went to Illinois, stopped in 
Livingston county for about a year, and then 
went to Ogle county and settled on a farm 
near Rochelle. He was married to Miss 
Ruth Slaughter, daughter of Joseph Slaugh- 
ter, an old settler of Ogle county, and 
orignally from Coshocton county, Ohio. 
The ceremony was performed September 
20, 1856, and to this union two sons were 
born in Ogle county; Stuart Wilson and 
Joseph G., both of whom are now living in 
Butler county, Nebraska. 

Politically our subject was a Peter 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



699 



Cooper Greenbacker when there was but 
three members of that party in Butler 
county, and when this party merged into the 
Labor Union party he was elected a mem- 
ber of the board of supervisors, and in that 
capacity superintended the construction of 
Butler county's new court house. Mr. 
Lichliter is interested in everything that has 
a tendency to promote the public good, and 
his farm and pleasant surroundings testify 
clearly to the success he has made in life. 



JESSE IvNIGHT, one of the earliest set- 
tlers of Bee township, Seward county, 
has had a varied and eventful career. He 
is a grizzled veteran of the great war for the 
Union; he made his way through countless 
dangers to Pike's Peak, and began pioneer- 
ing in Nebraska more than a quarter of a 
century ago. He has looked into the face 
of want and danger, and did not shrink, for 
the prize was great. Out of turmoil, stife, 
suffering and privation he has won an honor- 
able name, and at sixty years of age finds 
himself in the possession of a comfortable 
competence and securely intrenched in the 
good opinion of his friends and neighbors. 
Jesse Knight was born in Randolph 
county, Indiana, September 6, 1838, and 
was a son in the family of George and 
Armilla (Hiatt) Knight. His parents came 
from North Carolina. His grandfather, 
Andrew Knight, moved from North Carolina, 
his native state, to Indiana at an early day, 
and there spent his remaining days. 
George Knight was a farmer, and devoted 
all his years to agriculture. He came into 
Indiana in 181 5, remained there for thirty- 
five years, and moved into Dallas county, 
Iowa, in 1850. This was his home until 
1896, when he appeared in Seward county, 
and made his home with his son William 
until his death, which occurred November 
5, 1898, being nearl}- ninet\' five years of 
age. 



Jesse Knight received a very limited ed- 
ucation in Indiana and in Iowa, where he 
began farming. The great gold excitement 
in Colorado carried him to the Rocky 
Mountains in i860. He enlisted in Com- 
pany K, 2nd Colorado Volunteer Infantry, 
and served throughout the war. He partic- 
ipated in several severe engagements, the 
most important of which were the battles 
at Independence and Newtonia, Missouri. 
He was a faithful and efficient soldier, and 
was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, 
Kansas. When the war had closed he came 
back to Iowa, and engaged in farming in 
that state until 1870. That year he sought 
a home in the unbroken wilderness of Ne- 
braska, and entered a homestead claim upon 
the land where he is now living. His first 
residence was the familiar and omnipresent 
dug-out, and after that his first work was 
the turning back of the rich prairie sward, 
that should smile and break forth in count- 
less harvests. He has made a fertile and 
attractive farm, and has it all under a high 
cultivation. He was married in Iowa, in 
1868, to Miss Martha J. Sheely. She is a 
native of Vermillion county, Indiana, and 
is a lady of warm heart and hospitable 
spirit. They have two children, Zelpha M. 
and Lula A., both of whom are living. The 
mother and daughters are members of the 
Christian church, and Mr. Knight is an 
active member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. He is a Republican, and has 
filled the office of assessor, but has never 
been an office seeker. He attends to his 
own business, has a good farm, and enjoys 
the respect and confidence of his friends 
and neighbors. 



THOMAS SIMPSON, one of the oldest 
settlers of Morton township, was born 
in Delaware, in 18 14, a son of Clements 
and Mintie (Dutton) Simpson, both of whom 
were natives of Delaware. The father was 



700 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



a farmer and shoemaker by occupation. In 
1818, he moved to Zanesville, Ohio, and 
spent the remaining years of his life in that 
state. He was twice married, and our sub- 
ject is the oldest child by the second mar- 
riage. 

Thomas Simpson, the subject of this 
sketch, was educated in Ohio and began 
farming when quite young, and followed 
that occupation in that state for several 
years. He then moved to Indiana and was 
engaged in the pursuit of agriculture in that 
state for fifteen years. He then moved to 
Illinois, and settled on a farm near Peoria 
and made that his home until 1872, when 
he moved to York county, Nebraska, took 
a homestead claim on section 6, Morton 
township. Here he erected a small farm 
house and began to improve his farm, and 
from time to time has enlarged his residence 
and farm until he now has a cozy home and 
a well-improved and well-cultivated farm, 
and he is recognized as one of the leading 
farmers of the township. 

Mr. Simpson was married to Miss Re- 
becca A. Clark, of the state of Ohio. To 
this union have been born six children, four 
of whom are now living, and of whom we 
have the following record: Ellen, now 
Mrs. Parker; William M. ; Caroline, now 
Mrs. Calhoun; and Thomas C, who is still 
living at home. Mrs. Simpson died in 
Tazewell county, Illinois. In politics Mr. 
Simpson is a stanch advocate of the policy 
of the Populist party, but has never sought 
a public office. He was one of the earliest 
settlers of the county, chose for himself a 
fine farm, built a pleasant home, and during 
his residence here has made many warm 
friends throughout the entire communit}'. 



DR. B. F. LANG, physician and surgeon 
at York, York county, was born in 
Somerset county, Maine, December 12, 
1856, and was educated at the Friends' 



Classical School at Providence, Rhode Isl- 
and, graduating in 1880. He then took up 
the study of medicine, entering the Pulte 
Medical College, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
graduated from that institution in March, 
1883. 

Doctor Lang began his practice at Cam- 
bridge, Ohio, where he remained until 1887. 
He then moved to Cass county, Nebraska, 
and from thence, in 1891, he moved to 
York. He is a member of the State Homeo- 
pathic Medical Society. Socially he affili- 
ates with the Highlanders and the Modern 
Woodmen of America. In politics Dr. Lang 
has always taken a wholesome interest and 
stanchly advocates the Free Silver doctrine. 
The Doctor is the only homeopathist in York 
county, and enjoys a very large and grow- 
ing patronage. 



J 



OSEPH C. DIETRICK.— Among those 
who supported the timid steps of civil- 
ization in its early progress westward we 
mention the gentleman whose name heads 
this brief chronicle. He has witnessed the 
rapid changes that have occurred in York 
county, and the state of Nebraska, during 
the past twenty-five or thirty years, and 
none is more familiar with its history than 
he. His pleasant homestead is located in 
section 5, Baker township. 

Joseph C. Dietrick was born in Monroe 
county, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1S41, the 
son of Henry and Catherine (Smith) Die- 
trick, who were also natives of Monroe 
county, Pennsylvania. Henry Dietrick was 
a carpenter by trade, but in later years he 
adopted the more domestic life of a farmer. 
He died in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, 
as did also his beloved wife. 

Reared on the farm, our subject grew to 
manhood with the sturdy qualities of coun- 
try youth. His education was obtained in 
the public schools of his native county. At 
the age of twenty-one he found employment 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



701 



in the lumbering districts of Pennsylvania, 
securing a place after a time in the sawmills 
and lath and shingle mills of that region. 
However, he abandoned this line of work, 
and went to Bureau county, Illinois, where 
a few years were spent at farm work. While 
on a visit to his liome in Pennsylvania he 
decided to join his father in a trip to Iowa, 
where a brother of the latter was living, in 
Henry county. While there he secured a 
position as attendant in the hospital for the 
insane at Mt. Pleasant. After about four 
years of service in that capacity, he went to 
Nebraska, arriving in York county in Sep- 
tember, 1870. He filed a homestead claim 
to eighty acres of land in section 4, Baker 
township, a tract adjoining his present farm 
on the east. On the site of the present city 
of York there were then but two frame 
houses, each, about 14 x 18 feet, they having 
been erected by the parties who held pre- 
emption claims to the surrounding lands. 
Between the site of this future city and the 
homestead of our subject there were but 
four houses. These were built of sod, and 
stood in the bottom lands along Beaver 
Creek, no houses at that time having been 
erected on the "divide." Mr. Dietrick 
hauled lumber from Nebraska City and 
Columbus during the winter, and in the 
spring of 1871, constructed a small house 
about 12x14 feet, said to be the first frame 
structure west of the city of York. By hard 
work he broke about thirty-five acres of his 
land that season and planted it to sod corn, 
which yielded him a good crop. Having 
pre-empted his land, he returned to Iowa 
in December, 1871, and resumed his old 
position in the hospital at Mt. Pleasant. 

February 26, 1874, Mr. Dietrick was 
married to Laura Simpson, a young lady 
employe in the above named institution at 
Mt. Pleasant, whose society he had enjoyed 
and whose favor he had won during his last 
term of service there. She was the daugh- 
ter of William and Nancy (Range) Simpson, 



natives of Pennsylvania. The young couple 
in July, 1874, left the hospital and lis'ed 
about one year on a farm which he rented 
in Iowa. In the fall of 1875 they drove 
overland to their new home in York county, 
Nebraska. After partially improving his 
homestead, he traded it for a portion of his 
present farm. He now owns one hundred 
and sixty acres of excellent land, all under 
a high state of cultivation, and enhanced by 
many and valuable improvements, including 
a modern residence and commodious out- 
buildings for the protection of his stock and 
machinery. He is one of the substantial 
farmers of York county. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dietrick are the parents of 
six children, named as follows: Ethel, 
Paul, Attie, Walter, Arthur and Mabel. 
Ethel is now the wife of William Towle. 
They reside in York county. In political 
sentiment Mr. Dietrick is independent, sup- 
porting with his vote and influence the men 
and the measures he deems best calculated 
to subserve the interests of the community, 
state and nation. 



HENRY H. MARTIN is a prominent 
contractor and builder of Geneva, 
Nebraska, of whose skill many notable ex- 
amples are to be seen throughout the city. 
Thoroughly reliable in all things, the qual- 
ity of his work is a convincing test of his 
own personal worth. He is a native of 
New York, born June iS, 1836, and is a 
son of Charles and Hannah (Kent) Martin, 
who died in that state, the former when 
our subject was only thirteen months old. 
There were only two children in the family, 
and the older, Charles J., died at the age 
of sixty years. 

Henry H. Martin is indebted to the 
common schools of New York for his edu- 
cational advantages. At the age of eighteen 
he went to Iowa, and in that state and Illi- 
nois he learned the carpenter's trade, which 



702 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



he has made his life work. During the 
Rebelhon, he enlisted as a private in the 
Seventh Illinois Cavalry, under Captain 
McDonald, but when discharged at Nash- 
ville, Tennesssee, was holding the rank of 
first lieutenant of Company F. Since 1893 
he has received a pension of twelve dollars 
per month from the government. 

On coming to Geneva in November, 
1875, the place consisted of about seven 
buildings, and as its leading contractor and 
builder he has since erected three-quarters 
of the buildings now standing. Specimens 
of his skill and handiwork are also seen in 
surrounding towns and counties, and among 
the most notable buildings he has erected 
are the largest business houses at Gene\'a, 
which are ornaments to the citj'. As a 
designer and architect he is one of the best 
in this section of the state and he always 
conscientiously discharges his part of every 
contract. Since first coming to Geneva, he 
has made his home here continuously with 
the exception of one year spent in Cali- 
fornia, and he has the respect and esteem 
of his fellow citizens to a high degree. He 
cast his first presidential vote for James 
Buchanan, but since that time has been a 
stalwart supporter of the Republican party. 

Mr. Martin has been twice married, his 
first wife being Miss Corinne Denio, who 
died in Illinois, leaving five children, all of 
whom are now married with the exception 
of Wilber. They are as follows: Louis, a 
resident of Utah; Clara, of Nebraska; Wil- 
ber, of California; Harvey, of Missouri; and 
Edward, of Oregon. In Illinois Mr. Martin 
was married, in 1892, to Miss Alice Street, 
who was born in that state, July 4, 185S, 
and was educated in its common schools. 
Immediately after their marriage she came 
with her husband to Geneva, and their 
home has been blessed by the birth of three 
sons, namely: Burt, Seymour and Frank. 
Mrs. Martin's father, Seymour Street, died 
at the age of forty-three years and was 



buried in Fairmont, Illinois, but her mother 
is still living and finds a pleasant home with 
our subject. She bore the maiden name of 
Abbie Gubtil. In her family were five chil- 
dren: Luella; Frank; Dwight; Allison, who 
died in Illinois during infancy; and Alice, 
wife of our subject. 



SEDGWICK W. PETTIS, deceased.— It 
is an important public duty to honor 
and perpetuate, as far as is possible, the 
memory of an eminent citizen — one who by 
his blameless and honorable life reflects 
credit, not only upon his community, but 
also upon the county and state. In Mr. 
Pettis, who is now deceased, we find not 
only one of the highly respected citizens of 
York county, and one of its honored pio- 
neers, but also a veteran of the Civil war, 
who devoted the opening years of his man- 
hood to the defense of his country from the 
internal foes, and whose death resulted from 
his arduous service. His portrait is shown 
on another page. 

He was born July 3, 1844, in Wyoming 
count}'. New York, a son of Zina H. and 
Amanda (Sedgwick) Pettis, also natives of 
the Empire state, where the mother passed 
away. In the latter part of the fifties the 
father removed to Shebo3gan county, Wis- 
consin, and passed his lastdaj's upon a farm 
there. Our subject was about fourteen 
years of age when he accompanied his fa- 
ther to Wisconsin, having previously ac- 
quired the greater part of his education in 
the public schools of New York. In Sep- 
tember, 1862, at the early age of eighteen 
years, he joined the boys in blue as a mem- 
ber of Company F, Twenty-seventh Wiscon- 
sin \'olunteer Infantry. His company was 
the second of the regiment to arrive at Camp 
Washburn, Milwaukee, where they were 
afterward mustered into the United States 
service, but were not ordered south until 
the 30th of the following March, going first 




MR. AND MRS. S. W. PETTIS AND DAUGHTER. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



705 



to Columbus, Kentucky. From that time 
on Mr. Pettis was in active service until the 
close of the war, and while on the Camden 
e.xpedition in Arkansas, April lo, 1864, he 
received a wound in the left leg, which at 
the time was not considered serious, but it 
so affected his nerves as to give him almost 
constant pain and finall) caused his death 
December 27, 1894. 

After the war Mr. Pettis returned to 
Wisconsin, and in that state married Miss 
Amanda Townsend, who was born in Mon- 
roe county. New York, January 29, 1845. 
In the spring of 1871 they came to York 
county, Nebraska, and for their homestead 
secured the northeast quarter of section 22, 
Leroy township, at which time the present 
city of York contained but two frame houses 
and one sod shanty. They had one child 
at that time — Martin, then ten months old. 
Their first year here was spent in a dug-out 
and the}' experienced all the hardships and 
privations of pioneer life, their stock con- 
sisting of only one team, a cow and a pig, 
and their cash capital fifty cents on their 
arrival at their new home. Their neighbors 
were few and far between, but quite a num- 
ber of other settlers arrived during the fol- 
lowing summer and fall. Aided by his good 
wife, Mr. Pettis succeeded in making a good 
home and finally was able to surround his 
family with all the comforts and many of 
the luxuries of life. 

After coming to York count)' the wound 
he had received during the war began to 
give him a great deal of trouble, and for 
many years he suffered with the same. 
Hoping to get relief he underwent three 
surgical operations, first cutting out some 
of the nerves and then amputating the leg 
above the knee, but these only afforded 
temporary relief. About two years before 
his death it was thought best to amputate 
the leg the second time, and from that time 
on he was confined to his bed, a constant 
sufferer until relieved b\- death. Ever\- 



thing that kind friends and a loving, devot- 
ed wife could do to relieve his suffering was 
done. He was a prominent member of the 
Grand Army Post at York, and he and his 
wife assisted in organizing the Methodist 
Episcopal church at that place, of which he 
was ever afterward a consistent and active 
member. 

Mrs. Pettis, who is a most estimable 
lady, honored and respected by all who 
know her, still resides on the old home- 
stead in Lero}' township. She has two 
children — Eliza Hart, now a resident of Co- 
lumbus, Nebraska, and Ruth, at home. Her 
parents were Hiram and Eliza (Baldwin) 
Townsend. The father died August 6, 
1898, aged eighty-two 3'ears. The mother, 
now seventy-five years old, is a highly es- 
teemed citizen of Sheboygan count}'. Wis- 
consin. The father was a native of Ver- 
mont, where his mother died, and later dur- 
ing his boyhood he removed to Monroe 
county. New York, where he was reared 
and educated. In 1841 he married Eliza 
Baldwin, a native of that county. 



JEREMIAH STANTON, who keeps a 
small confectionery, tobacco and cigar 
store in the village of McCool Junction, is 
one of the first settlers of York county, and 
with the exception of John Smith, of McCool 
Junction, probably no other person has re- 
sided in York county for so long a period 
as has Mr. Stanton. He located on the 
site of the present village of McCool Junc- 
tion in May, 1866. , 

The subject of this sketch was born in 
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1 8 1 7. 
His parents were Thomas and Catherine 
(Leichliter) Stanton, the former a native of 
Maryland, of English descent, and the lat- 
ter a native of Virginia of German parent- 
age. They both died in Pennsylvania. He 
was a farmer by occupation, and our subject 
was reared on a farm, and received his 



706 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



schooling in the lop; cabin subscription 
schools of Pennsylvania. Mr. Stanton says 
the course was confined to the three R's — 
Readin', 'Ritin', Rithmetic. He grew to 
maturity in his native state, and in 1839, 
while working in Virginia, he was married 
to Sarah Sutton, at Woodstock, Virginia. 
She was a native of Fayette county, Penn- 
sylvania, and daughter of William Sutton. 
They became the parents of five children, 
named as follows: Catherine, Eliza J., 
Francis, Dennis F. and Thomas. Francis 
and Dennis F. served in the Civil war, the 
former dying in the hospital at Vicksburg, 
and the latter a short time after his return 
home. Mrs. Stanton died in 1848. 

In 1855 Mr. Stanton went to Marshall 
county, Illinois, where he farmed about 
four years, and then, in 1859, went to Cali- 
fornia, crossing the "plains" by wagon 
train. The wagon broke down in the 
Rocky Mountains, and they had to pack 
through the rest of the way. They arrived 
in California with one horse, having left the 
other on the Humbolt river. The trip was 
one of severe trials, especially in crossing 
the "plains," food and water being very 
scarce, and Mr. Stanton in fact walking 
most of the distance. In California he 
worked on the farm, receiving high wages. 
He left San Francisco on New Year's day, 
1863 for Illinois, going by water, by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama, and arriving in 
New York January 25th. 

In the spring of 1866 Mr. Stanton left 
Marshall county, Illinois, and settled in 
York county, Nebraska, filing a claim to a 
quarter of section 18, township 9, range 2, 
on which the present village of McCool 
Junction is situated. He immediately set 
to work and constructed a "dug-out" and a 
stable on the bank of the west fork of the 
Big Blue river. He was accompanied to 
his new home by Fernando McFadden and 
family, who located on section 8. 

The first season Mr. Stanton broke and 



cleared about fifteen acres with the team he 
had driven from Illinois. He planted 
about four acres of corn, and the grasshop- 
pers destroyed it. The first winter was a 
severe one, and Mr. Stanton says it was 
"dig out" most of the time during that 
winter, as his means of exit were repeated- 
ly closed up by heavy snows. Mr. Stanton 
had fortunately brought an old scoop-shovel 
with him from Illinois, and with this weapon 
he says he spent at least half his time that 
winter battling with snow-drifts. When 
spring came the river overflowed, and he 
was forced to abandon his "dug out," first 
however, piling his seed-corn and wheat on 
bo.xes and tables to keep it out of the water. 
He was not able to return to his home for 
about ten days, during which time he visited 
several settlers along the river. Indians were 
numerous but not troublesome except for 
their begging and petty thieving. On one 
occasion Mr. Stanton made a bargain with 
an Indian to tan a beaver skin for seventy- 
five cents. The Indian improved the ac- 
quaintance by begging and carrying off al- 
most everything that came under his view, 
so that the tanning of the beaver skin cost 
Mr. Stanton at least ten dollars before the 
job was completed. The first winter Mr. 
Stanton had only his horses and dogs for 
company, but the monotony was varied by 
the howl of wolves and the whoop of In- 
dians. He had brought his provisions from 
Nebraska City, one hundred miles distant, 
paying fabulous prices for everything. 
Flour sold for nine dollars per hundred 
pounds, and corn at one dollar per bushel. 
He says that the few deer he shot during 
the winter were so poor that he could not 
get enough tallow to grease a bullet patch. 
He found it necessary to go to Nebraska 
City again after getting in his crops in 1867, 
as his larder had exhausted, and he was 
accompanied on this trip by a son of Fer- 
nando McFadden. Prices had not dimin- 
ished in the meantime. Corn, wheat, po- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



707 



tatoes and vegetables gave a heavy yield in 
1867, and from time on Mr. Stanton was 
not dependent upon Nebraska City markets. 
He was able to sell his farm products to the 
new settlers coming in, who took all his 
surplus at good prices. He improved his 
farm, and built a log cabin, in which he 
lived until it was destroyed by fire. He 
then erected a frame residence. The vil- 
lage of McCool Junction now stands upon 
the land homesteaded by Mr. Stanton. 

Mr. Stanton, growing tired of living 
alone, and wishing also to shift the arduous 
duties of looking after his own mending and 
baking, prevailed upon Mfs. Rhoda A. Cus- 
ter to share his home. They were united 
in marriage in 1871. Mr. Stanton is an 
original member of the West Blue Baptist 
church, which he assisted in organizing in 
1873, and of which he has been an officer 
for many years. His estimable wife died 
in 1883. Our subject is now conducting a 
small business in McCool Junction, and is 
well known throughout the county. In 
politics he is a stanch Democrat, although 
he has never been active in part}' affairs. 



MRS. TILLIE C. (ROSS) BUCKLEY, 
who is the present postmistress of 
Stromsburg, Polk county, is one of the 
prominent personages of that county, and 
because of her prominence along education- 
al lines and the public position which she 
holds, a work of this character would be in- 
complete without a review of her life. Mrs. 
Buckley is a daughter of Mary (Walker) 
Ross, who was born in England. She was 
married in Des Moines, Iowa, and was the 
mother of two children. The maternal 
grandfather was Thomas D. Walker, a na- 
tive of England, who came to America in 
about 1848, and settled first in Canada, 
near Quebec, and soon came to the United 
States, settling at Des Moines, Iowa. He 
later came to Nebraska City, Nebraska, and 



erected the first brick house in that place, 
and still later moved farther west, settling 
in Denver, where he erected the first brick 
residence, and burned the first kiln of brick 
in that city. He traveled over the entire 
country, and died at Des Moines, Iowa, 
aged eighty-four years. He was married in 
England to Miss Mary Keagy, and they be- 
came the parents of two children, a son and 
a daughter, both of whom are now living. 

The son, John D. Walker, now resides 
at Des Moines, Iowa, and lives retired. 
The daughter and the mother of our sub- 
ject is now Mrs. E. Dunn, having married 
Mr. Dunn at Omaha, Nebraska, about 
1869. Mr. Dunn for the past thirty years 
has been in the employ of the Union Pa- 
cific Railway at that point. They have 
one son, Lovell E. 

Our subject was born at Nebraska Cit\', 
Nebraska, August 3, 1861. She was reared 
and educated at Omaha, Nebraska, attend- 
ing the schools of that city. In the fall of 
1877 she came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
and began teaching school two miles west 
of Stromsburg, and followed that calling 
successfully until her marriage, December 
2, 1880, to Mr. P. T. Buckley (a sketch of 
whom appears elsewhere). She has two 
children, Newton E. and Beulah I. Mrs. 
Buckley enjoys the distinction of being the 
first lady to serve on the school board of 
Stromsburg, having been elected to that 
position in the spring of 1896. She has 
taken an active interest in educational af- 
fairs, and is especially interested in the 
young, having educated two young girls be- 
sides her own children. 

On February 8, 1898, Mrs. Buckley was 
appointed postmistress of Stromsburg by 
President McKinley, being the first lady to 
fill that position in that place, and at the 
present time is the only lady filling a presi- 
dential office in Nebraska. She was a 
charter member of the Stromsburg Womens 
Club, which in turn became one of the 



708 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



charter clubs of the state federation. She 
is now a member of the executive board of 
the Francis M. Ford Club of Stromsburg, 
of which she assisted in the organization, 
and named the same. Mrs. Buckley was 
among the pioneer school-teachers of Polk 
county, and did much to help bring about 
the present condition of the schools of Ne- 
braska. Her son Newton is now attending 
school at Omaha, and has carried off honors 
each year, and is now captain of the Omaha 
High School Cadets. Portraits of Mr. and 
Mrs. Buckley are shown elsewhere in this 
volume. 



LEWIS TIMM, a well-known farmer 
residing on section 26, township 15, 
range 3, Valley precinct, Polk county, is of 
foreign birth, but his duties of citizenship 
have ever been performed with a loyalty 
equal to that of any native son of America, 
and when the nation was imperiled by re- 
bellion, he went to the defense of the Union 
and protected the cause of his adopted 
country on many a southern battle field. 

Mr. Tim was born October 3, 1844, in 
Mecklenburg, Germany, of which place his 
parents, Christopher and Mary (Timm) 
Timm, were also natives. There the father 
supported his family by day labor, but the 
mother's family were well-to-do farming 
people, owning land. In 1857 the family 
started for the United States on the sailing 
vessel Howarth, which left Hamburg, 
bound for New York. The ship having lost 
her way, they drifted up among the ice- 
bergs, their food almost gave out, and they 
were obliged to condense the steam from 
salt water to drink. Ship cholera also 
broke out, and both parents and a sister of 
our subject died from the disease and were 
buried at sea. The other children finally 
landed at New York city after being sixteen 
weeks upon the water. Here the}' were 
met by their brother John, he and another 



brother, Joachim, having previously come 
to this country and settled at Wolcottsville, 
New York. The younger children were 
taken to St. Joseph county, Michigan, and 
distributed among stringers. The family 
numbered eight children, of whom five are 
still living: Joachim, who now makes his 
home in Polk county, Nebraska; John, who 
died in 1873; Helmuth, a resident of St. 
Joseph county, Michigan; Frederick, of 
Polk county, Nebraska; Lewis, of this 
sketch; Christopher, of Polk county; Minna, 
who died on shipboard; and Rega, deceased. 
The parents were devout members of the 
Lutheran church. Four of the sons were 
Union soldiers during the Civil war, Hel- 
muth being a member of the Eighty-eighth 
Illinois Volunteer infantry; Frederick and 
Lewis, members of Company A, Eleventh 
Michigan Infantry; and Christopher, a mem- 
ber of Company K, Thirty-ninth Illinois 
Volunteers. 

On reaching St. Joseph count}-, Michi- 
gan, Lewis Timm was placed with a Ger- 
man farmer, who at one time gave him a 
terrible whipping, and when about to re- 
ceive another he left. He then worked for 
a nurseryman until the Civil war broke out. 
To a limited extent he attended a very poor 
school in the old country, and the education 
he has acquired in America has all been ob- 
tained through his own unaided efforts. 

On the 22nd of August, 1861, Mr. Timm 
enlisted as a private in Company A, Elev- 
enth Michigan \'olunteer Infantry, and was 
first sent to Bardstown, Kentucky, and later 
to Elizabethtown, where he was engaged in 
guarding bridges. After guarding railroads 
and wagon trains at Nashville, he partici- 
pated in the engagements at Gallatin, Fort 
Riley and Stone River, Tennessee, also the 
second battle of Stone river January 2 and 
3, 1863, and the battles of Elk River, Davis 
Cross Roads, Chickamauga and Missionarj' 
Ridge, November 25, 1863. In tr}ing to 
jump a ditch when his regiment started to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



709 



charge at Missionary Ridge, he missed his 
footing and fell back into the water, wetting 
his ammunition. He soon got out, ran on 
and overtook his regiment half way up the 
hill. He secured a new supply of car- 
tridges from a comrade, and during the en- 
gagement was stationed near the color 
bearer of the state Bag, who had his thumb 
shot off. Seeing the colors trailing in the 
dust, Mr. Timm grasped the flag pole, but 
on raising it the color tore loose, and he 
dropped the pole and grasped the flag, 
which he carried to the top of the ridge. 
As he stood there wa\ing the flag above his 
head and watching the rebels retreat, Cap- 
tain Patrick H. Keegan, of Company I, who 
temporarily had command of the regiment, 
came up and took the colors from our sub- 
ject's hands, ordering him to get a gun and 
begin firing, which he did. After the bat- 
tle this incident was reported to Col. W. L. 
Stoughton, commanding the brigade, who 
directed that Mr. Timm be given any office 
in his company which happened to be va- 
cant, and the captain offered him the posi- 
tion of corporal, but he declined. With his 
regiment he assisted in the capture of 
Ferguson's battery with all its equipments, 
was in the engagements at Graysville, Geor- 
gia, Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, New Hope 
Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Rough Station, 
Peach Tree Creek, and the siege and cap- 
ture of Atlanta, where he was wounded 
August 7, 1864, a musket ball passing 
through his right hand at the base of the 
thumb. From the field hospital he was 
sent to the general hospital, and later to 
Nashville, where he remained until his time 
e.xpired. At Chickamauga, while busily en- 
gaged in loading and firing, a canister shot 
struck his cartridge box, spoiling it and two 
of his cartridges, but he was not injured, 
and while returning from picket duty at 
Chattanooga, he stooped to pick up two 
poles lying on the ground, and in doing so 
the enemy fired three shells at him, but 



fortunately missed their aim. On the 30th 
of September, 1864, he was honorably dis- 
charged and returned to Michigan. 

Soon afterward, however, Mr. Timm lo- 
cated in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, 
where he engaged in farming until 1866, 
when he purchased one hundred and twenty 
acres, and later eighty acres more in Calu- 
met count}', that state, to the improvement 
and cultivation of which he devoted his time 
until coming to Polk county, Nebraska, in 
1873. He has since lived upon his present 
farm, his first home here being a board 
shanty si.xteen by sixteen feet, which has 
since been replaced by a more comfortable 
residence twenty-two by sixteen feet with a 
kitchen twelve by twelve. Here he owns 
two hundred and forty acres, one hundred 
and sixty of which are under a high state of 
cultivation and well- improved. In 1874 his 
crops were destroyad by the grasshoppers, 
the following year his home was burned, 
and again in October, 1878, his residence 
was destroyed by fire, his present dwelling 
having been erected in 1888, but notwith- 
standing these discouragements, he has per- 
severed in his attempt to secure a home and 
competence, and success has at length 
crowned his efforts. 

In May, 1867, Mr. Timm was imited in 
marriage with Mrs. Hannah (Persohn) Rich- 
ards, who was born in Prussia, Germany, 
October 26, 1846, and came to America in 
1857 with her parents, Joachim and Caro- 
lena (Lange) Persohn, who settled near 
Waukesha, Wisconsin. The father died in 
1891, but the mother is still living. Their 
children were Carl, Minna, Etta, William, 
Mrs. Timm, Carolina, deceased, and Tina. 
By her first marriage Mrs. Timm has one 
daughter — Mrs. Emma Sautter, who has 
five children. Twelve children bless her 
second union, all still living, namely: Fred, 
who married Anna Miller and has three 
children; Lena, who married Frank Klink- 
man and has three children; Eddie, who 



710 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



married Pollie Keisel; George; Christ, who 
married Rega Heuftle; Maggie, who mar- 
ried Philip Wiesemann and has one child; 
Charlie; John; Ernest; Hattie; Hannah and 
Laura. The parents are devout members 
of the German Methodist Episcopal church, 
in which he has served as trustee, treasurer 
of the board, and teacher in the Sunday- 
school. He is an honored member of the 
Grand Army Post at Osceola, and is inde- 
pendent in politics. He has acceptably 
served his fellow citizens in the capacity of 
road overseer for six years, and as a mem- 
ber of the school board for ten years, and 
he always gives his support to any measures 
which he believes calculated to advance the 
moral, intellectual or material welfare of 
his township or county. 



JOHN WALKUP has been a resident of 
Lockridge township, York county, Ne- 
braska, since 1870. He lives on section 12 
of the above-mentioned township, where he 
has a well improved and highly cultivated 
farm. He has been a conspicuous figure in 
the development of the resources of this 
part of the county, and ranks among the 
leading agriculturist, of the county. He 
was born in Union county, Ohio, November 
14, 1845, s^nd is a son David and Elizabeth 
(Brewer) Walkup, both natives of Pennsyl- 
vania, sketches of whom will appear on an- 
other page of this volume. 

Our subject was reared in Jefferson coun- 
ty, Iowa, where he resided until 1870, when 
he removed to York county, Nebraska. He 
took up one hundred and si.xty acres of land 
on section 12 of Lockridge township, where- 
on he has made his home ever since. He 
came by team from Lincoln to his present 
home when coming to the county, and upon 
his arrival he built a frame house, which he 
sodded up. He has cultivated and improved 
his farm, until he now has one of the most 
desirable pieces of farming property in the 



county. He is considered authority on all 
subjects pertaining to agriculture, as he has 
followed farming all his life. 

In 1862 Mr. Walkup enlisted in Com- 
pany D, Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer In- 
fantry, in Jefferson county, Iowa, and 
served three years in the War of the Rebel- 
lion. He participated in the following bat- 
tles: Prairie Grove, siege of Vicksburg, 
where he was slightly wounded, and the 
siege of Mobile. During the three years of 
active service he participated in all of the 
battles and skirmishes in which his regi- 
ment partook. 

Mr. Walkup was united in marriage in 
1867 to Miss Sarah Stanesbery, a native of 
Indiana, and a daughter of John and Esther 
Stanesbery, who were natives of New Jer- 
sey and Indiana respectively. They re- 
moved to Iowa in 1857, where they spent 
the remainder of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. 
Walkup are the parents of si.x children, 
three of whom, Edward A., Wilbur and 
Arthur W. , are now living, and two daugh- 
ters and one son who are dead. Mr. Walk- 
up takes an active interest in the political 
welfare of the community in which he lives, 
though he has never sought any office. He 
is a stanch supporter of the principles of the 
Republican party. Socially he is a member 
of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is 
also a member of Ben Hur. Mr. Walkup 
is a prosperous and well-to-do farmer, and 
has a large circle of friends and acquaint- 
ances. 



GUSTA F. BURKE, one of the first set- 
tlers of Lockridge township, York 
county, was born in Sweden, June 14, 
1844, a son of John P. and Mary C. (John- 
son) Burke, both natives of Sweden. They 
were farmers by occupation and followed 
that calling in their native country until 
1857, when they migrated to the United 
States and settled in Knox county, Illinois. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



711 



In 1859 they moved to Jefferson county, 
Iowa, and in 1880 moved to York county, 
Nebraska. They died at the home of our 
subject, the father in the year 1894, and 
the mother in 1883. The mother was born 
Augfust 2, 1813. They were the parents of 
a family of four children, two sons and two 
dauyht^rs, three of whom are now living 
and are making their home in York county, 
Nebraska. 

Our subject was educated in Sweden, 
and came with his parents to the United 
States in 1857. He lived with his parents 
in Illinois and Iowa, and assisted them on 
the farm. In 1873 he came to York county, 
Nebraska, making the trip overland with a 
team and wagon, and arrived March 20. 
A few days later he bought a quarter sec- 
tion of land in section 29, Lockridge town- 
ship, which was then raw, unbroken prairie, 
and at once began to make improvements. 
He first constructed a dugout, iOxi2 feet, 
in which he made his home for one year. 
He then hauled lumber from Seward, Ne- 
braska, and built a small frame house. In 
:886, however, this little frame shanty had 
to give place to a handsome, modernly con- 
structed and finished home, which is con- 
ceded one of the most elegant farm resi- 
dences in York county. 

Mr. Burke was married March 16, 1869, 
to Miss Charlotte Linstrom, also a native of 
Sweden. Her parents, Charles G. and 
Christina, came to the United States in 
1857 and settled in Jefferson county, Iowa, 
and later moved to York county, Nebraska, 
where they both died. Our subject and 
Mrs. Burke have become the parents of one 
daughter, Mary E., who was born in Henry 
county, Iowa. She is now the wife of 
Charles A. Morgan and resides in York 
county. They have a family of five chil- 
dren. In political matters Mr. Burke in- 
variably uses his influence and elective fran- 
chises in the support of the candidates of 
the Republican party, but has never sought 



public office. He and his wife are both 
members of the Swedish Lutheran church, 
and assisted in the erection of the first 
church building in the count}*. Mr. Burke 
is in every respect a self-made man. He 
started in life with nothing, and, in fact, 
had no capital when he arrived in Nebraska, 
and throughout his life has depended upon 
his own resources and his own energy; busi- 
ness prudence and sagacity have won him 
a comfortable fortune. He has not been 
without his share of reverses, and among 
other things he lived through the grasshop- 
per scourge, but in the face of all he has 
persevered, made the most of his advan- 
tages, and always looking on the bright side 
of life and he has been rewarded by the 
acquisition of a good property and a high 
reputation. 



ANDREW J. SHAMBAUGH.— -Promi- 
nent among the successful and enter- 
prising farmers of Arborville township, York 
county, may be found the subject of this 
biographical sketch, who is considered one 
of the most industrious and worthy citizens 
of this part of the county. He was born 
near New Rumley, in Harrison county, 
Ohio, June 16, 1855, and is a son of George 
and Matilda (Hazelette) Shambaugh, natives 
of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. The 
father, who was a farmer by occupation, 
died in Harrison county, Ohio, July 25, 
1894, at the ripe old age of eighty-one years. 
In his family were si.\ sons and three daugh- 
ters, and of these our subject and one 
brother came to York county, Nebraska. 

During his boyhood and j-outh Andrew 
J. Shambaugh attended the public schools 
of his native state and also obtained a thor- 
ough knowledge of agricultural pursuits 
upon the home farm. On starting out in 
life for himself he chose the occupation to 
which he had been reared and successfully 
operated the old homestead until coming 



712 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



west in 1886. In that year he took up his 
residence in York county, Nebraska, pur- 
chased a half section of land in Arborville 
township, to the cultivation and improve- 
ment of which he has since devoted his en- 
ergies with most gratifying results. The 
entire tract is now under a high state of 
cultivation, and in connection with general 
farming he is engaged in the raising of hogs. 
In 1880, in Carroll county, Ohio, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Shanibaugh 
and IVIiss Mary C. Vorhes, a daughter of 
James and Elizabeth (Scottj Vorhes, who 
were both natives of Ohio, and died in Car- 
roll county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Sham- 
baugh have one daughter, Maggie P. The 
family is identified with the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, and socially Mr. Shambaugh 
affiliates with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, the Knights of the Maccabees and the 
Royal Highlanders. In political sentiment 
he is a Populist, and at one time he was the 
candidate of his party for county treasurer. 
He is a man of recognized ability, and, with 
his amiable wife, stands high in the commu- 
nity where they make their home. Those 
who know them best are numbered among 
their warmest friends, and no citizens in 
Arborville township are more honored or 
highly respected. 



PEDER C. NELSON buys grain at 
Staplehurst in Seward county and 
thereby renders service to the farming com- 
munity that centers upon that thrifty Ne- 
braska town. He studies the conditions of 
the markets, keeps in touch with the great 
commercial centers, and gives his patrons 
the benefit of his experience and observa- 
tion. He is a good and honest man, and 
fills a valuable place in Staplehurst. He is 
one of the oldest settlers of this county, 
and saw its beginnings. 

Mr. Nelson was born in Denmark, No- 



vember 16, 1S44. His parents were Nelson 
and Marin Rasmusen. They lived and died 
in Denmark, which has been the home of 
the Rasmusen family for unnumbered gen- 
erations. In their home Mr. Nelson grew 
to manhood, and was educated in the Dan- 
ish schools. He was bred a farmer, and at 
the age of twenty-four set out for the United 
States. Landing in New York, he made 
no stop until he reached the little city of 
Dwight, Illinois. There he spent the en- 
suing five years. In 1874 he entered Ne- 
braska, and bought a tract of railroad land, 
two and one half miles west of Staplehurst. 
He built a small house and immediately un- 
dertook the conversion of the unbroken 
prairie into a cultivated farm. It was a 
serious undertaking, but in eight years it 
was accomplished. In 1882 he left it, 
came into the thriving young town, and en- 
tered into the grain business with Mr. 
Jacobs, and is now engaged in that very 
important enterprise. They are the pro- 
prietors of a well-appointed elevator, and 
the volume of trade for the last si.xteen 
years aggregates an immense total. 

Mr. Nelson entered into matrimonial 
relations with Miss Mary Fo.x, February 
28, 1874. She was a native of Illinois, and 
an accomplished lady. From this union 
came seven children, whose names are 
Leana, Nelson, Jr., Sophia, Ida, Hans, 
Mamie, and Erick. She died in 1892, and 
he was married two years later to Miss 
Jebina \'edster. She was born in Denmark, 
and is the mother of two children, Robert 
and Peder \'. They are members of the 
Danish Lutheran church. He is associated 
with the Modern Woodmen of America. He 
usually votes the Democratic ticket, but 
has never sought office, and has held no 
public position. His business has com- 
manded his entire attention, and it has well 
rewarded his close devotion. He came to 
Staplehurst practically without means, and 
to-day he owns two fine farms, and two 



COMTEK' DIUM OF BlOGRAPlir 



7ia 



large elevators. He may well look back 
upon his career with satisfaction, for it has 
been an unusually creditable and successful 
one. The church organization of which he 
is a member is now erectins; a new Danish 
Lutheran church and Mr. Nelson is a mem- 
ber of the buildinir comraitt'ee. 



HORACE GARFIELD, deceased, came 
came to Butler county in 1S58. He 
was then a boy of twelve years of age, and 
had come into the state in company with 
his parents from Venango county, Pennsyl- 
vania. His father, Solonnon Garfield, had 
left Pennsylvania with the intention of 
locating in Kansas, but passing through 
Missouri, he was prevented from crossing 
the river on account of his political con- 
victions. He turned his feet north, and 
settled in the Platte valley, on the present 
site of r^inwood, in the spring of 1858, and 
spent the ne.xt four jears in this vicinity. 
The Gartields and the Blairs during this 
period had many thrilling experiences with 
the Indians, who were very numerous and 
were determined to drive the white settlers 
away. After repeated attempts to dislodge 
the Garfields they apparently abandoned 
their purpose, and eventually became quite 
friendly. In the year 1863 the Garfields 
moved up Silver creek and there established 
a ranch known as Garfield's Ranch, and 
there Solomon Garfield died in 1865. As 
narrated elsewhere, the mother, Margaret 
Garfield, returned to Butler county, and 
secured a home for her fatherless brood by 
homesteading a tract of land on section 4 of 
Bone Creek township. Here the four 
brothers grew up to a strong and sturdy 
manhood, and furnished the world rare 
illusirations of the character that might be 
nurtured under extreme danger and privation. 
Horace Garfield had learned to read be- 
fore his parents had left the east, but during 
the earlv years of his history in this state 

41 



there was little opportunitx' for schoc;litig, 
and his education was utterly neglected. 
He found himself at tlie age of eighteen 
with scarcely the rudiments of an education. 
His determination to advance was woi to be 
overcome. With what books he could 
j secure he studied by the firelight, and when 
1 he could afford it the light of a candle, and 
j prepared himself for the practice of law. 
i It was a rough road to enter a great pro- 
fession, and only a great soul could travel 
it. He became a lawyer, and was recog- 
nized as the first on the bar of his own 
county, and very quickly acquired a reputa- 
tion throughout the state as a practitioner, 
and a master of his own profession. He 
was a member of the legislature, and a 
man of wide reputation. He won his high 
standing not less by his strong and steady 
character, his thorough knowledge of his 
profession, than by his upright character 
and intle.\ible honesty. 

Mr. Garfield was married in 1874 to 
Miss Elizabeth Morgan. This happy matri- 
monial partnership was broken all to soon 
by the death of his wife in i88r. The be- 
reaved husband did not long sur\'i\e her, 
passing away in 1884. They left only one 
child, a son, Horace F. Garfield, who was 
born in Butler county in 1875. The young 
orphan spent the ne.xt nine years of his life 
with his grandmother, and at fifteen years 
of age struck out for himself. He went to 
Superior City, Nebraska, where he remained 
one year. He spent a year in northern 
Michigan and ?vIinnesota, and in 1883 re- 
appeared in Butler county. In 1895 the 
young man secured an engagement with the 
Northern Pacific Railroad as a fireman on 
a locomotive. He held the position for 
some months, but tiring of the excitement 
and nervous strain threw it up and came 
back again to Nebraska and established 
himself in the blacksmithing business at 
Edholm, where this history finds him. He 
is as yet unmarried, is a bright and genial 



714 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



character, and has many friends. He re- 
members the good name he bears, and well 
sustains its dignity and honor. 



GEORGE W. BOWERS.— In time to 
come this volume will acquire added 
value as a repository of records whose his- 
torical significance will then be fully appre- 
ciated, but readers will doubtless peruse 
with special interest the stories of gallant 
service in that great struggle which settled 
once for all that this nation is, in truth, 
"one and indivisible." It has often been 
said that the letters sent home during the 
war by the soldiers of all grades would make, 
if published, a better history of the war than 
that yet given, and the suggestive views of 
the conflict in the individual experiences 
contained in this book certainly give new 
color to many historic scenes. 'Mr. Bowers 
was one of the boys in blue who served 
throughout the entire struggle and made for 
himself a war record both honorable and 
glorious. He is now a leading farmer of 
York county, Nebraska, residing on section 
8, Lockridge township. 

Born in Summit county, Ohio, July 29, 
1S40, our subject is a son of Jacob and 
Lydia (Rowe) Bowers, natives of Pennsyl- 
vania, who removed to Ohio in an early 
day, and in 1848 became residents of Joliet, 
Will county, Illinois, where they spent the 
remainder of their lives, the father dying in 
1893, aged eighty-one years, the mother in 
1898, aged eightj'-six. They were farming 
people and were highly respected by all who 
knew them. All of their eight children are 
still living. 

George W. Bowers, who is the third in 
order of birth in his family, was reared 
and educated in Illinois, and for fourteen 
years engaged in boating on the Erie canal 
and Mississippi river, being thus employed 
until the outbreak of the Civil war. 
Prompted by a spirit of patriotism he en- 



listed in McAllister's battery of light artil- 
lery, and with that command served for 
three months and twenty days. Returning 
to Chicago, he joined the Chicago Board of 
Trade Battery, light artillery, for three years 
or until the close of the war, and partic- 
ipated in the following battles: Stone 
River, Elk River, Chickamauga, Peach 
Tree Creek, Big Shanty, Farmington, Dal- 
las, Jonesboro, Stone Mountain, Pulaski, At- 
lanta, Decatur, Chattahoochee River, Love- 
joy Station, Nashville, Selma and a number 
of engagements of minor importance, forty- 
two in all, including thirteen hard-fought 
battles. Fortunately he escaped without 
wounds, and when mustered out was serv- 
ing with the rank of sergeant. He assisted 
in the capture of Jeff Davis. 

After the war Mr. Bowers returned to 
Illinois, where he made his home until 1 871, 
which year witnessed his arrival in York 
county, Nebraska. He homesteaded his 
present farm on section 8, Lockridge town- 
ship, and has since devoted his entire 
time and attention to its cultivation and 
improvement. In connection with general 
farming he is also interested in stockraising, 
and in both branches of business is meeting 
with excellent success. 

On the loth of December, 1868, Mr. 
Bowers wedded Miss Helena Hess, a native 
of New York state, whence her parents, 
Riley and Cornelia Hess, removed to Illi- 
nois when she was a child of twelve years. 
Three children grace this union: Fred E., 
Edison E., and Minnie M., now Mrs. John 
Canfield. For many years Mr. Bowers 
affiliated with the Republican party, but is 
now a Populist. He has filled the office of 
justice of the peace and other minor offices 
with credit to himself and to the entire sat- 
isfaction of all concerned. He belongs to 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and he 
and his wife are consistent members of the 
Congregational church. They are honest, 
respectable people, who have walked in the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



715 



paths of virtue and honor throughout lives 
of usefulness, and are deserving of the high 
regard in which they are held by the entire 
community. 



GEORGE A. MERRIAM, for many years 
the popular and efficient clerk of the 
district court of Seward county, is one of 
the most popular men in this part of Ne- 
braska. He is a stanch Republican, but 
the fervor and consistency of political con- 
victions have never seemed to alienate the 
good will of his neighbors, however much 
they might antagonize his party. He has 
carried on extensive enterprises, and has 
reaped a rich reward for his mingled daring 
and caution. 

Mr. Merriam was born in Burlington, 
Vermont, November 12, 1850, and was a 
child in the family of Stedman and Lucretia 
(Packard) Merriam. His father was from 
New York, and his mother from Ver- 
mont. The husband and father was a 
merchant for many years at Millford, 
one of the more important towns 
of this county. George was educated at 
the Upper Iowa University, a well-known 
institution of learning at Fayette, Iowa. 
When he had finished his school days he 
he came to Milford, and for some months 
assisted his father in the store. He felt 
well prepared for the school-room, and he 
spent four years in teaching, one year of 
which was spent at Milford and three years 
in the Brokaw district. In 187S the city of 
Seward became the scene of his labors, and 
here he was engaged in a mercantile enter- 
prise. In 1882 he was deputy county clerk 
under J. W. Dupin, and in 1883 was elect- 
ed district clerk. This position he has held 
by repeated re-election to the present time. 
He has been mayor of Seward, and is at 
this time a member of the school board. 
He was married in 1872 to Miss Sarah Mar- 
tin, who was born in Pennsylvania, and is 



the mother of two daughters and one son. 
There have been no deaths in the family, or in 
his father's family. The names of the grow- 
ing children are Eva E., Jessie L. and Fay 
M. He is associated with several of the 
leading fraternal societies, and is frequently 
met with in the assemblies of the Knights 
of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Ancient Order of the United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. He is a stanch Republican, and 
has served on both the state central and the 
county committees. He own and controls 
the the only abstract records of the county, 
and gives it his personal attention. He has 
been more than ordinarily successful in his 
business and political enterprises. He has 
many strong friends in the county, and 
twice he has been the only Republican of- 
ficial left in the court house. 



PETER S. HULL is one of the first set- 
tlers of New York township, York 
county, and has been prominently identified 
with its agricultural interests for twenty- 
seven years. He has been a champion of 
every movement designed to promote the 
general welfare, a supporter of every en- 
terprise for the public good, and has materi- 
ally aided in the advancement of all social, 
industrial, educational and moral interests. 

A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Hull was 
born in Adams county, April 25, 1838, and 
is a son of William and Mary (Wonder) 
Hull, also natives of that state, where they 
spent their entire lives. The paternal 
grandfather, Peter Hull, was a German by 
birth, and about 1806 or 1808, came to the 
United States in company with five broth- 
ers, spending his remaining years in Penn- 
sylvania. By occupation he was a farmer. 
The father of our subject, who followed 
blacksmithing as a life-work, died in the 
Keystone State about 1878. 

In his family were four sons and two 



710 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



daughters, of wliom Peter S. Hull, of this 
review, was the third son and the third in 
order of birth. He was reared and edu- 
cated in his native state, and with his father 
learned the blacksmith's trade, which he 
followed for some years. He also engaged 
in teaching school for a time in early life. 
In 1863 he donned the blue and went to 
the front, as a member of Company B, 
Twenty-first Pennsylvania \'olunteer Cav- 
alry. During the nine months he was in 
the service of his country, he was stationed 
most of the time in Pennsj'lvania and Mar}-- 
land. 

After his discharge from the army Mr. 
Hull continued to live in his native state 
until 1866, when he removed to Stephenson 
county, Illinois, and subsequently lived in 
Lee county, that state, until coming to 
Nebraska in 1871. Here he took up a 
homestead on section 20, New York town- 
ship, York county, and has since trans- 
formed the raw land into highly cultivated 
and productive fields, which yield a golden 
tribute in return for the care and labor he 
has bestowed upon them. For four years 
he lived in a sod house, and then removed 
to the city of York, where he worked at the 
carpenter's trade until 1887, when he re- 
turned to his farm, on which he has erected 
good and substantial buildings and made 
many other excellent improvements; which 
add greatly to its value and attractive 
appearance. 

Mr. Hull was married in Pennsylvania, 
in 1866, to Miss Hannah M. Kellogg, a 
daughter of Enos S. and Sarah (Thompson) 
Kellogg, also natives of that state, where 
the father died, but the mother's death ac- 
curred in York county, Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hull have a family of eight children, 
all living, namely: Alton; Edward T. , 
Nellie E., now Mrs. James Campbell; Harry 
L. , who is first sergeant in Company A, 
First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, and is 
in Manila, Philipine Islands; Bridie M. 



wife of O. Davis; Warren \V, ; Wray C. ; 
and Gracie B. 

Mr. Hull and his wife are consistent 
members of the Congregational church, of 
York, and he is also identified with the Grand 
Army Post at that place. He is a Populist in 
politics, and has been called upon to serve 
his fellow citizens as road overseer three 
years, and township treasurer one year. 
Financially he has met with a fair degree of 
success since coming to York county, and 
he has gained the confidence and esteem of 
all with who he has come in contact. 



LEONARD M. JOHNSON.— Among the 
earnest men whose depth of character 
and strict adherence to principle excite the 
admiration of his contemporaries, Mr. John- 
son is prominent. For a quarter of a cen- 
tury he has been identified with the agricul- 
tural interests of York county and is the 
owner of a valuable farm on section 28, 
Arborville township, the improvements of 
which stand as monuments to his thrift and 
enterprise. His has been a busy, useful 
and honorable life and he well deserves rep- 
resentation in this volume. 

A native of Ontario county. New York, 
he was born January 12, 1836, and is de- 
scended from good old Revolutionary stock. 
His grandfather, John Johnson, was a na- 
tive of England, and emigrated to America 
about 1776, served as a colonel in the 
American army. The parents of our sub- 
ject, John and Matilda (Read) Johnson, 
were both natives of the Empire state, and 
the father was a tanner and currier by 
trade, a pursuit which he followed for many 
years. In i 849 he removed to Van Buren 
county, Michigan, and died in that county 
in 1894, while his wife passed away in 1896. 

Mr. Johnson, of this review, was the 
second in a family of six sons and one 
daughter. He was educated in the Empire 
state and accompanied his parents on their 






COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



717 



removal to Michigan, where he remained 
until 185S, when he became a resident of 
Edgar county, Illinois. There, he carried 
on farming; until April, 1861, when at the 
first call of his country he offered his serv- 
ices to the government and joined Company 
E, Twelfth Illinois Infantry, in which he 
served for four years and three months, en- 
listing three times during that period, as his 
terms of service expired. He was a brave 
and loyal soldier and participated in a num- 
ber of important battles, including the en- 
gagements at Belmont, Kentucky; Fort 
Higginson, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the first 
and second battles of Corinth, luka, Jones- 
boro, Altoona Pass, and at Shiloh, and again 
at Corinth was slightly wounded. 

After the war Mr. Johnson returned to 
Illinois, where he carried on farming until 
1873, when he emigrated to York county 
and secured a homestead on section 28, 
Arborville township. He built there a sod 
house, which was his home for twelve years 
when it was replaced by a more modern 
residence. Other improvements have been 
added from time to time, and year by year 
additional acres have been placed under 
the plow until the whole tract has become 
a highly cultivated field, returning a golden 
tribute to the owner. 

In 1865 Mr. Johnson wedded Miss An- 
gie Fightmaster, a native of Illinois, and 
they have five children, nameh': John N., 
Minnie L., Phebe A., Leonard H. and 
Emma A., all yet under the parental roof. 
The parents are consistent members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. John- 
son belongs to the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. In politics he is a Republican and 
for a number of years has served as school 
officer, being treasurer for nine years. Suc- 
cess has crowned his well directed and 
enterprising efforts and to-da\' he is worth- 
ily accounted one of the substantial and 
highly respected citizens and pioneers of 
York county. 



N 



ICHOLAS ISIILLER has been for a 
quarter of a century or more a familiar 
figure in the streets of David City, and the 
various centers of life and activity in Butler 
county. He came into Nebraska in the 
spring of 1872, and locating where we now 
find him has applied himself with all the 
sturdy strength of his Teutonic character to 
the making of a home and the winning of a 
competence. He has gone about his busi- 
ness quietly, and sticking to it faithfully, it 
has made him comfortably wealthy. He 
has won the confidence of his neighbors, 
and is known as an upright and honorable 
man. He began life with nothing to help 
him but his own arm and heart and brain, 
and now as the evening shadows begin to 
lengthen he sits under the shadow of his 
own vine and fig tree, and there are none to 
molest him. 

Mr. Miller was born in Prussia, March 
17, 1843, and is a son of Anton and Ann 
Miller, who were the descendants of a long 
line of Prussian ancestors. He came to 
America at the age of thirteen, and was the 
first of the family to emigrate. It required 
courage for a lad of that tender age to leave 
the scenes of home, and seek his fortunes 
in a strange land. But courage is a quality 
that has never been lacking in Nic Miller. 
He came to this country by way of Quebec, 
and passed through Dunkirk, New York, and 
Chicago for St. Paul. But at that moment 
the far northwest was suffering from a grass- 
hopper visitation, and young Miller came 
back to Freeport, Illinois, where he secured 
work among the neighboring farmers. The 
Civil war found him in DeKalb county, and 
he ver}' promptly enlisted in Company E, 
Thirteenth Illinois \'olunteer Infantry. He 
was but a lad of seventeen, but he served 
throughout the war. and bore himself in all 
its strange e.xperiences with the steadiness 
and courage of his German ancestry. He 
participated in manj' battles, saw defeats 
and victories, was taken prisoner by the 



718 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Confederates, and emerged from its deadly 
scenes sound in body and limb. The Thir- 
teenth was organized at Dixon, Illinois, and 
was despatched to St. Louis. It was sent 
to Rolla, and Springfield, Missouri, and broke 
over the border into Arkansas, where it 
fought at Pea Ridge, Batesville, and Helena. 
It had a hand in the first fighting at Vicks- 
burg, and'bore itself right valiantly at Chick- 
asaw Bayou. It was engaged around Vicks- 
burg until the fall of that rebel stronghold 
gave command of the river, and then it 
moved on into Mississippi and Alabama. 
Upon its banners are written Lookout Mount- 
ain and Missionary[ Ridge, along with such 
other noted names- as'Deer Creek, Jackson, 
Brandon, and 'Ringgold, Georgia. Mr. Mil- 
ler was taken prisoner at Madison Station 
May 17, 1864, and was confined in Castle 
Morgan, at Cahawba,an Alabama prison pen. 
for ten months, .but"was paroled from re- 
straint when the evident approach of the 
end made it unwise and foolish to longer 
retain Union prisoners. He was mustered 
out of the United States service June 8, 
1865, and came back to Illinois to engage 
in farming in Stephenson county. At this 
time he was twenty-two 3ears of age, and 
though bronzed with the southern sun, was 
a strong and hearty man. He had saved 
his money to a very considerable extent, 
and began life for himself under very favor- 
able conditions. 

Mr. Miller was married in 1866 to Miss 
Gertrude Weisen, who also claimed Prussia 
as her home land. She was a daughter of 
John and Anna Weisen, and was the mother 
of si.x children. The first four of these 
claim Illinois as their native state, and the 
last two belong to Butler count}'. Their 
names are Mary, John, Clara, Agnes, Anton 
William and Nicholas. She died in Jan- 
uary, 1885, and her remains rest in the 
cemetery at David City. Her children are 
widely scattered. Mary is the wife of A. 
H. Lang, whose home is in Kossuth county. 



Iowa, and Clara is Mrs. Thomas Bowen. of 
Chicago. Agnes is the wife of Bert Hall, 
and the boys are engaged in farming. Mr. 
Miller was married a second time to Miss 
Anna Catherine Eiting, a resident of Butler 
county and a daughter of Bernard and 
Patronella Eiting. She is a devoted wife 
and helpmeet and is much respected by her 
many friends. 

When Mr. Miller entered Butler county 
county he brought but little money with 
him, enough, however, to secure the posses- 
sion of a quarter section, on which he lived 
until January, 1893. kt that time he re- 
moved to David City, leaving a farm that 
had increased to four hundred acres, and 
was in a high state of fertility. In political 
affiliations he is a stanch Democrat, and 
strongly supports the party. In religion he 
is a member of the Catholic church, of 
David City, and has alwaj-s taken a lively 
interest in its prosperity. He was on its 
building committee, and was treasurer of 
its first organization. He has subscribed 
liberally to its funds, and raised much money 
for its construction. He is a man of affairs, 
and is honored by his community in many 
ways. He has twice been elected to the 
county board, and is regarded as one of the 
leading citizens of the count}-. 



JOHN McGOWEN is one of the self- 
made men of Seward county, who came 
to this state in limited circumstances, but 
have succeeded through their own industry, 
perseverance and good management in se- 
curing a good home and comfortable com- 
petence for themselves and families. His 
early home was on the other side of the At- 
lantic, for he is a native of the Emerald 
Isle, born in County Clare, April 13, 1820. 
His parents, Thomas and Bridget (O'Day) 
McGowen, were also natives of the same 
county, were farming people and spent their 
entire lives in the parish of Killmikle. Their 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ri9 



family consisted of eight children, four sons 
and four daughters, of whom two sons are 
now deceased, and our subject is the only 
one living in this country. 

In the public schools of Ireland John 
McGowen acquired a limited education, but 
his training in farm work was not so meager 
and he soon became a thorough and skill- 
ful agriculturist. In 1848 he sailed for 
America, and on reaching this country 
located in New York state, where he spent 
five years. The following twelve years he 
lived in Muskingum county, Ohio, and from 
there removed to McLean county, Illinois, 
where he followed farming until coming to 
Nebraska in 1874. He then purchased the 
farm in Seward county, upon which he still 
lives, and after erecting a small house upon 
his place he commenced to break and im- 
prove his land. Soon acre after acre were 
placed under the plow and to-day he has a 
fine farm of two hundred acres under a high 
state of cultivation. His family arrived 
here in 1875. 

In 1846 Mr. McGowen was united in 
marriage with Miss Susan Coughlan, and 
they became the parents of the following 
children, namely: Thomas, Susan, Maiy, 
John (deceased) and Anna, twins, George, 
Ellen and James. The wife and mother 
was called to her final rest in 1888, and two 
years later Mr. McGowen wedded Mary 
(Considine; Mungovan, who was born in 
Ireland and came to the United States in 
January, 1850. They are communicants of 
the Catholic church at Ulysses and are held 
in high regard by all who know them. Po- 
litically Mr. McGowen is a stalwart Demo- 
crat, and he has most creditably filled some 
minor offices of honor and trust. 



GEORGE U. WARNER.— Among the 
well-to-do and successful farmers of 
Polk county, who have accumulated a 
competency through their own e.xertions 



and economy, and who are carrying on the 
business of farming and stock raising in a 
manner which draws forth praise from 
everyone, is the subject of this biographi- 
cal notice, who resides on section 33, town- 
ship 13, range 2. He was born June 9, 
1849, in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, of 
of which state his parents, William and 
Hannah (Miles) Warner, were also natives. 
The paternal grandfather, Isaac N. Warner, 
was of German descent. The father of our 
subject was a member of a Pennsylvania 
regiment during the Civil war, and in 1S63 
removed to Illinois, locating in Carroll 
count}-, where he made his home until com- 
ing to Polk county, Nebraska, in 1874. 
After one year spent in Falls City, he settled 
on a homestead on section 28, township 13, 
range 2, where he is still living at the ripe 
old age of eighty years, honored and re- 
spected by all who know him. His esti- 
mable wife died in 1894. Their children 
were Jacob; Martin; George U.; C. G. ; a 
resident of California; W. R. ; and C. H. 

The first fifteen years of his life George 
U. Warner spent in his native state and 
there acquired a good practical education in 
the public schools. He accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Carroll county, 
Illinois, and remained with them until he 
attained his majority, being reared upon a 
farm. Coming to Polk count}', Nebraska, 
he took up a homestead on section 34, town- 
ship 13, range 2, and after erecting a dwell- 
ing turned his attention to the cultivation 
and improvement of his land, raising a 
small crop of wheat and oats in 1874. In 
the summer of 1892 he erected his present 
elegant residence, which is one of the best 
country homes for miles around. All of 
the improvements upon the place are in 
keeping with his residence and stand as 
monuments to his thrift and industry. He 
owns three hundred and twenty acres of 
rich and valuable land, two hundred and 
forty of which are devoted to the raising of 



720 



COMPEXDIIM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



grain, while the remainder is used for pas- 
turage. 

In November, 1872, Mr. Warner was 
joined in wedlock with Miss Rosabel Shra- 
der, who was born in Union county, Penn- 
sylvania, April 29, 1854, a daughter of Sol- 
omon and Catharine (Katherman) Shrader, 
also natives of the Keystone state, and 
farming people. About 1850 her parents 
removed to Carroll county, Illinois, and in 
the spring of 1874 emigrated to Butler 
county, Nebraska, where they still reside. 
They reared a family of eight children: 
George; Mrs. Warner; Mrs. Ann McCray; 
William; E. H. ; Fred, deceased; Kate; and 
Alberta. The children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Warner are as follows: Bertha L., 
Frank W., Eva B., Hattie M., Curtis Ray, 
Glenn S., Hazel V. and Lee M. The par- 
ents are worthy members of the Lutheran 
church, of Bethel, York county, in which 
Mr. Warner is now ser\ing as deacon, and 
he is also serving as a member of the school 
board of his district. Socially he is identi- 
fied with the Modern Woodmen Camp at 
Stromsburg, and politically he formerly af- 
filiated with the Republican party, but he is 
now a Populist. His sterling integrity, in- 
fie.xible honesty, and general high principles, 
have won him the respect of the entire 
community, and he is to-day one of the 
most esteemed and valued citizens of his 
section of the county. 



P 



T. BUCKLEY, of Stromsburg, has 
been prominently identified with the 
history of Polk county since early pioneer 
da\s, when the land was wild, improvements 
few, and many of the now flourishing towns 
and villages of this part of the state had not 
yet sprung into existence. He has been an 
important factor in the development of the 
agricultural resources of the count}-, and in 
the promotion of its commercial activity, 
and it is to such enterprising and progressive 



citizens as Mr. Buckley that the county 
ows its present prosperity- and advanced po- 
sition. Widely and favorably known, his 
life record cannot fail to prove of interest to 
many of our readers. 

Born on the 21st of July, 1847, Mr. 
Buckley is a native of Yestricland, Sweden, 
which was also the birth place of his par- 
ents, John and Martha (Headstrom) Buck- 
le}-, who came to America in 1855, locating 
on a farm in Kno.x county, Illinois. The 
father was then in quite limited circum- 
stances and for a time w-orked on a gravel 
train on the Chicago, Burlington & Ouincy 
railroad. In 1868 he turned his attention 
to agricultural pursuits in Illinois, and about 
1876 came to Nebraska, making his home 
in Stromsburg until his death. The mother 
still resides in that cit\. They were the 
parents of five sons who reached mature 
years: Peter T. , John, Andrew, Frank and 
Lewis, who has now passed away. The 
parents were members of the Baptist 
church. 

The subject of this sketch attended the 
schools of his native land in early boyhood, 
and when nine 3ears of age accompanied 
his parents on their emigration, crossing 
the Atlantic in a sailing vessel. They were 
nine weeks and a half on the water, and 
fourteen weeks had elapsed before they 
reached Kno.x county, Illinois, where P. T. 
Buckley was reared to manhood. He did 
not attend school again until after he had 
attained the age of fifteen years, and then 
for only two winter terms, being four and 
one-half miles from a school. His services 
were needed in support of the family and 
his wages went to his father until he reached 
his majority, when his father gave him a 
team and a wagon and he began farming on 
rented land in Knox county. There, he 
remained for two years, and in 1871 came to 
Nebraska with his brother, Andrew. 

Mr. Buckley secured a homestead on the 
east half of the northwest quarter of sec- 




p. T. BUCKLEY, 




MRS. TILLIE C. BUCKLEY. 



COMrENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



riQ 



tion 6, township 13, range 2, Polk county, 
and he and his brother kept bachelor's 
hall, their nearest neighbor being three 
miles distant. They built a shanty 14x18 
feet, cheaply constructed, and in the sum- 
mer Mr. Buckley went down to the creek 
and made some mortar with which he 
plastered their cabin. He worked hard 
through the week, and on Sundays enjoyed 
excellent fishing in the Blue. Antelope fur- 
nished the table with meat and in the first 
fall after fiis arrival he joined a hunting 
part}' of nineteen white people that went 
out for buffaloes, which were very numer- 
ous on the prairies. Borrowing an excellent 
rifle from a Norwegian — brought from the 
old country — he brought down the first 
buffalo on which he fired. He then loaned 
the rifle to his partner, who put in the ball 
but forgot to put in the powder and in con- 
sequence the ball could not be extracted 
from the rifle until they returned home. 
The hunting, however, was carried on in a 
systematic manner, each man having some 
special work to perform, and Mr. Buckley 
succeeded in getting enough meat to keep 
him through the winter. During his first 
season, 1871, he planted twenty acres of 
sod corn, and in 1872 raised wheat, oats 
and corn. He remained on the homestead 
until 1874, and during the last year was all 
alone. 

In the spring of 1875 Mr. Buckley went 
to Camp Robinson, Nebraska, where he 
was employed for .two years by the sutler. 
The Indians at that time threatened upris- 
ings, but he continued at his post of duty 
until 1877, when he returned to Polk county 
and formed a partnership with Fred Peter- 
son and A. G. Jones in the carpentering 
business. The}- also established a furniture 
store at Stromsburg, but after a time Mr. 
Buckley sold out and embarked in the grain 
and live stock business, which he carried on 
for about ten years. About 1885 he be- 
came interested in banking and is now at 



the head of the Stromsburg bank, his part- 
ners in the enterprise being John Buckley 
and Charles A. Morrill. In connection with 
his brother he also conducts a hardware 
store, and is still the owner of his old 
homestead. 

In the fall of 1880 Mr. Buckley was 
united in marriage to Miss Tillie C. Ross, a 
native of Nebraska City, Nebraska. They 
have two children, Newton Earl and Beulah 
B., the former a student in the high school 
of Omaha. The family is one of promi- 
nence in the community, and Mr. Buckley 
is a valued member of several civic socie- 
ties. He belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen ; has been Master of 
Stromsburg Lodge, No. 126, A. F. & A. M. 
and is a member of the Royal Arch Chap- 
ter, at York, Nebraska; Joppa Command- 
ery. No. 17, K. T. , of York; the Omaha 
Consistory, and, since November, 1889, has 
been identified with Sesostris Temple of the 
Mystic Shrine, of Lincoln, Nebraska. In 
politics he and his brothers have always 
been Republicans and he has taken an act- 
ive interest in the success of his party. His 
wife was appointed postmistress of Stroms- 
burg by President McKinley. Honorable in 
business, Mr. Buckley has won a success 
which results from straightforward dealing, 
unabating energy and close application, and 
has gained the confidence and respect of all 
by his upright life and genuine worth. In 
connection with this sketch portraits of Mr. 
and Mrs. Buckley are presented. 



WILLIAM F. MORRISON is one 
whose life record plainly demon- 
strates the opportunities which are open to 
young men of perseverance, energy, deter- 
mination and ambition, for these qualities 
have brought to him substantial success, 
enabling him to overcome many obstacles 
and difficulties and work his way steadily 
upward to a position of affluence and of 



726 



COMPBNBIL'M OF BIOGRAPHT. 



prominence in the community in which he 
now makes his home. He is the owner of 
a fine farm on section 24, Bradshaw town- 
ship, where for more than a quarter of a 
century he has made his home. 

Born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, 
April 23, 1835, he is a son of \\'ilHam and 
Jane (Cunningham) Morrison, also natives 
of the Keystone state, and a grandson of 
Joshua and Mary Morrison. The father 
was a tanner by trade and also followed 
farming. His entire life was passed in the 
state of his nativity. In his family were 
si.x sons and five daughters. Our sub- 
ject was reared under the parental roof, 
acquired his education in the public 
schools, and under his father's direc- 
tion learned the tanner's trade, which 
he followed for some years. In 1862 
he removed to Lee county, Illinois, where 
he engaged in farming, and in 1870 
he came to York county, Nebraska. Here 
he pre-empted one hundred and si.xty acres 
of wild land on section 24 Bradshaw town- 
ship, and at once began to break and im- 
prove the same. He built a sod house, in 
which he lived for twelve years, and in 
1883 erected a good frame residence, 
which was afterward destroyed by a cyclone, 
the inmates narrowly escaping death. The 
present residence was erected in 1S90 and is 
a comfortable dwelling of modern style. 
Other good buildings add to the value and 
attractive appearance of the place and well 
tilled fields yield abundant harvests. 
Grasshoppers and dry seasons have brought 
discouraging times, but, never disheartened, 
Mr. Morrison has worked on and is to-day 
the owner of a finely improved farm, whose 
neat and thrifty appearance well indicates 
his careful supervision and progressive 
spirit. 

In Pennsylvania, in April, 1S57, Mr. 
Morrison married Miss Virginia L. Lichten- 
berger, a daughter of Josiah and Eliza 
Lichtenberger, who came to York county in 



1873, and secured a homestead on section 
24, Bradshaw township, there residing until 
the mother's death in 1875. The father 
passed away in 1883. To our subject and 
his wife have been born ten children, eight 
of whom are living, as follows: Edwin W., 
Charles O., Samuel A., Josiah E., Fred W. , 
Alfred E., Lee H.and George A. The deceased 
are Harry L. and Anna B. The parents be- 
long to the Christian church and Mr. Morrison 
is a member of the Masonic fraternity. In 
politics he is a zealous and active Republican 
who has served as supervisor for six j'ears, 
and for four years as township assessor, dis- 
charging his duties with marked promptness 
and fidelity. 



JOSEPH JACKSON, one of the promi- 
nent agriculturists and highly respected 
citizens of Arborville township, York county, 
was born in Frederick county, Maryland, 
January 28, 1820, and is a son of Joseph 
and Rebecca Jackson, natives of Germany, 
who came to this country at an earl}' day. 
In his native state our subject was reared 
and educated in much the usual manner of 
boys of that day, and there he continued to 
make his home until thirty-five years of age. 
In 1856 he emigrated to Logan county, 
Illinois, where he worked at the shoe- 
maker's trade, which he had previously 
learned and followed in Maryland, that 
occupation occupying the greater part of 
his attention for thirty-five years. In 
In coming to York county, Nebraska, in 
1 88 1, however, he purchased a farm and 
has since successfully engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, owning at the present time a 
valuable farm of four hundred acres in 
Arborville township, which is under excel- 
lent cultivation and improved with good 
and substantial buildings. 

On the 27th of February, 1847, Mr. 
Jackson was united in marriage with Miss 
Jane Debilbiss a native of Frederick county, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



-ill 



Maryland, and a daughter of John and 
Maria Debilbiss, also natives of that state. 
The father's birth occurred January 19, 1800. 
Mr. and Jackson have a family of nine chil- 
dren, namely: William H., Joseph A.. John 
W., George L., Sylvia N., Minerva C, 
EliD., Oliver C, Robert P., deceased, and 
Jennie E. 

For many years Mr. Jackson was an 
earnest supporter of the Democracy, but at 
present is independent in politics, casting 
his vote for the men and measures that he 
believes will best advance the public welfare 
regardless of party ties. He has already 
passed the Psalmist's span of life, of three 
score years and ten, but nature deals kindly 
with the man who abuses not her laws, and 
though his business cares have been exten- 
sive, age rests lightly upon him. All who 
know him esteem him highly for his genuine 
worth. 



CLEMENT E. MERCHANT, an indus- 
trious and thrifty farmer, has been 
prominently identified with the develop- 
ment and prosperity of Arborville township, 
York county, since poineer days, and while 
advancing his own interests has also mate- 
rially promoted the welfare of his community 
by building up one of its best homesteads. 
He was born on the 6th of April, 1850, in 
Pottawattamie county, Iowa, a son of 
Lucius and Hortentia (Patrick) Merchant, 
both natives of Massachusetts. The father 
was born in that state in 1S17, and in 1842 
removed to Hancock county, Illinois. In 
I851 he took up his residence in Harri- 
son county, Iowa, and there his death oc- 
curred in 1895. He was married April 15, 
1844, to Hortentia Patrick, and they became 
the parents of seven children, five sons and 
two daughters, of whom our subject was the 
second in order of birth. 

The boyhood and youth of Clement E. 
Merchant were passed in Iowa, where he 



acquired a fair common-school education, 
and after reaching man's estate he engaged 
in farming in his native county until 1872, 
which year witnessed his arrival in York 
county, Nebraska. In February, 1873, he 
located upon his claim on section 18, Arbor- 
ville township, on which he first built a rude 
frame shanty, but that has long since given 
place to a more pretentious and modern 
dwelling, in which he now lives. He placed 
acre after acre of his land under the plow and 
has added to the original tract until to-day 
he has an e.xcellent and well-improved farm 
of 320 acres. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Merchant led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss Kate Alter, who was born 
in Germany, of which country her parents, 
John and Martha (Geltz) Alter, were also 
natives. About 1852 the family crossed 
the Atlantic and settled in Pennsylvania, 
but in 1869 they removed to Iowa. Mr. 
and Mrs. Merchant have an interesting fam- 
ily of four children: Frank E., Rollin E., 
Alice C. and Agnes I. The family hold 
membership in the Congregational church, 
and occupy a high position in the social cir- 
cles of their community. The Republican 
party always finds in Mr. Merchant a stanch 
supporter of its principles. He is a self- 
made man in the fullest sense of that oft- 
misused term, his prosperity in life being 
due to his industry and integrity, and his 
life is a living illustration of what ability, 
energy, and force of character can accom- 
plish. 



J 



OSEPH HOEPPNER, who is one of 
the representative farmers of Fillmore 
county, residing in section 4, Stanton pre- 
cinct, was born in Germany, January 28, 
1839. He was a son of Peter and Cath- 
erine (Bronsweick) Hoeppner, and was the 
first of five children born to their marriage. 
He received his education in the German 
schools, and served his time in the German 



728 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



army. At the age of twenty-seven he came 
with his parents to America, and they set- 
tled at Peoria, Illinois, where they lived un- 
til their death. He got a position in the 
city, and worked there for two years, but 
having a taste for farming, he farmed on 
rented land for eight years. In 1882, see- 
ing the advantages which were offered in 
the west as an agricultural section, he de- 
termined to go there. He came to Fillmore 
county and purchased one'hundred and sixty 
acres of land, paying two thousand dollars 
for it. While this was slightly cultivated, 
yet it was not very well improved. The 
house was made of logs and its dimensions 
were fourteen by eighteen feet. He lived 
in that house for twelve years, and then re- 
placed it by an elegant frame structure at a 
cost of one thousand eight hundred dollars. 
He has by hard and constant work improved 
the farm, and it is now a model of its class, 
having large and substantial buildings, and 
surrounded by a fine hedge fence which was 
planted by him the first year he bought it. 
While our subject accumulated a great deal 
of his wealth while farming in Illinois, yet 
he has added considerablj' to it since com- 
ing to Nebraska. 

On March 29, 1868, he was married to 
Miss Elizabeth Schonwolf, who was born in 
Frankfort, Germany,, and died June 25, 
1894. To their marriage were born seven 
children, si.x of whom are now living, as 
follows: Maria, who married Jacob Walter; 
Eva, who is in Lincoln; Carrie, who mar- 
ried Bruno Schneever; Amelia, now Mrs. E. 
Eaton; Anna and Clara, the last two 
named now living at home. He was mar- 
ried October 26, 189S, to Mrs. Kate (Ohle- 
miller) Hoeppner, a daughter of Sebastian 
and Margaret (Crane) Ohlemiller, to whom 
were born eight children, Mrs. Hoeppner 
being the fourth child, and was first married 
to Chas. Hoeppner, who died in 1881 and is 
buried in St. Joseph. She was born Jan- 
uary 15, 1855, and was educated in the 



common schools of Peoria, Illinois. To her 
previous marriage were born three children, 
Maggie, Emma and Francis. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Hoeppner are mem- 
bers of the Catholic church. Politicall}-, 
he is a close adherent to the Independent 
party, and has done much to place that 
party in its present position in Fillmore 
county. He takes an active interest in all 
matters that are connected with educational 
lines, and has filled the school offices at 
various times much to his credit. 



JOHN DAHLGREEN is a living illu = tra- 
tion of the success that can be won in 
this country by the sons of far-away Sweden. 
They have gone everywhere in the United 
States, and have risen to very high positions 
or come into the possession of great power 
and influence. But it is to be doubted if 
any of them have exhibited more genuine 
manhood and real worth than the modest 
and unassuming proprietor of the farm on 
section 6, in the township of Morton, where 
Mr. Dahlgreen has delved and dug for so 
many years. 

John Dahlgreen is a native of Sweden, 
where he was born December 15, 1834, and 
was a son of Adam and Lena (Sanderson) 
Dahlgreen. To them Sweden was the cen- 
ter of the world, and in it they "were born, 
lived, married and died. They had three 
sons, of whom John is the oldest. He was 
very fairly educated in the Swedish schools, 
and when he was old enough, he began 
farming. In 1S6S he came to the United 
States, and found a stopping place in Mar- 
shall county, Illinois. He was for several 
years in the employment of the Chicago, 
Burlington & Ouincy Railroad. In 1872 
he entered this county for the purpose of 
securing a home, and he made a home- 
stead entry on section 6, Morton township. 
His first work was to build a sod-house, 
which was his home for eight years. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



729 



It gave way in 1880 to a modest frame 
structure, and in 1892 the present hand- 
some and elei;ant structure arose from the 
ashes of his former home, which had been 
destroyed by tire. It is cjuite generally 
pronounced one of the very best in the 
count}'. He has followed general farming, 
and seeks the steady improvement of stock 
and land. 

Mr. Dahlgreen has been twice married. 
His first marriage was in Sweden to Miss 
Clara Anderson. She presented him with 
three children, Charles, Albert and I^eda, 
and died in 1871. The next }ear he was 
married to Miss Annie Johnson. They have 
a family of six children, three sons and 
three daughters. Thej- are Fred, Harry, 
Mabel, Lelia, Ethel and Floyd, and are all 
alive at the present writing. In politics he 
is a Populist, but he has never sought or 
filled an\' other office than school trustee. 
He has simply devoted himself to his farm 
and his family, and his neighbors have come 
to know and esteem him as an honorable 
and upright man. 



JM. CALDER is the junior member of 
the well-known hardware firm of Calder 
& Calder, who are now conducting a large 
and profitable business in Tamora, Seward 
county, Nebraska. As a business man he 
is enterprising, energetic and always abreast 
of the times, and is also upright and hon- 
orable in all his dealings. 

Mr. Calder was born in Clinton county, 
Iowa, May 26, 1863, and is a son of Lyman 
and Mary J. (Williams) Calder, natives of 
Ohio and Illinois respectively. His pater- 
nal grandfather, James M. Calder, was a 
native of Washington county, Ohio, his 
father having been one of the pioneers of 
that county, where he took up land from 
the government and developed a farm. 
Both died in the Buckeye state. Eyman 
Calder was born in Meigs county, Ohio, 



June 14, 1833, and there was reared and 
educated in much the usual manner of boys 
of his day. In early life he engaged in 
boating on the river for a number of years, 
but in 1856 came west, first locating in 
Scott county, Iowa, where he resided until 
1862. He then made his home in Clinton 
county, the same state, where he followed 
agricultural pursuits until 1879, when he 
came to Seward county, Nebraska, and in 
precinct E bought eighty acres of land, for 
which he paid five dollars and fifty cents 
per acre. To this he added the following 
year one hundred and sixty acres at eleven 
dollars and fifty cents, and in 1882 purchas- 
ed another eighty-acre tract at twenty 
dollars. He continued to reside upon his 
farm and give his attention to agriculture 
until 1893, when he removed to Tamora, 
where he now makes his home and is inter- 
ested in the hardware business with his son. 
In Scott county, Iowa, he was married in 
i860 to Miss Mary J. Williams, a daughter 
of David and Susan (Thompson) Williams. 
Her father was born in Ireland in 1809 and 
came to the United States about 1822. Mr. 
and Mrs. Calder became the parents of two 
children: J. M., of this sketch; and Nettie, 
now the wife of E. S. McWhinney, of 
Alliance, Nebraska. 

J. M. Calder received his education in 
the schools of Iowa and Seward, Nebraska, 
having come to this state with his parents. 
He also followed farming until 1890, when 
he embarked in the hardware and general 
merchandise business in Tamora, under the 
firm style of McWhinney & Calder, but the 
following year his partner sold his interest 
and the firm has since been Calder & Calder. 
By fair and honorable dealing they have 
built up an excellent trade and won an 
enviable reputation in business circles. 
They are still interested in farming to some 
extent. 

On the 7th of July, 1897, was celebrated 
the marriage of J. M. Calder and Miss 



r.so 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Mamie G. Evans, a native of Illinois and a 
daughter of John and Louise Evans. They 
have one son, James M. , born August 26, 
1898. Mr. Calder holds membership in the 
Modern Woodmen of America, and in 
politics is a stalwart Democrat, taking an 
active interest in political affairs and effi- 
ciently serving as chairman of the central 
committee. 



PATRICK LARKIN.— A striking exam- 
ple of what can be accomplished by 
persistent industry and strict attention to 
business is afforded in the life of Patrick 
Larkin, one of the representative farmers 
and stock raisers of Morton township, York 
county, Nebraska. He is widely known as 
one of the pioneers of the county, and his 
name is a synonym for good fellowship. 
He was born in county Limerick, Ireland, 
in March, 1833, and is a son of John and 
Margaret (Nugent) Larkin. They were 
born in the same county as our subject, 
where they spent their entire lives. The 
father was a son of David Larkin, and he 
followed agricultural pursuits in his native 
land. 

Patrick Larkin was the youngest of a 
family of three children and is the only sur- 
vivor, as one brother died in St. Louis, 
Missouri, and his sister died in Ireland. He 
was reared and educated in Ireland, where 
he resided until he was twenty years of age. 
In 1853 he came to Toronto, Canada, and 
made that place his home for eight years, 
engaged in railroading and farming. In 
1 86 1 he came to the United States, settling 
first at Port Huron, Michigan, where he 
resided for two years, and then took up his 
residence in Kalamazoo, of the same state. 
In 1874 he came west and landed at Fair- 
mont, from whence he drove over to York 
county, Nebraska, where he purchased a 
piece of railroad land, upon which he 
erected a sod house. He later built a very 



fine frame residence, which is one of the 
best in the county. He has followed gen- 
eral farming and stock raising, in which 
by careful and economical management he 
succeeded in amassing a comfortable fortune. 
He was married in 1855 to Miss Catha- 
rine McCarthy, who was a native of coun- 
ty Cork, Ireland. They are the parents of 
eight children, seven of whom are now liv- 
ing, four sons and three daughters, viz: John, 
deceased, Michael, Daniel, Margaret, now 
Mrs. White, Richard, Ellen and Mary. 
Mrs. Larkin died in this county in 1893. 
The family are all members of the Catholic 
church. Politically our subject is a stanch 
adherent to the principles of the Democratic 
party. He possesses many estimable traits of 
character, is endowed with activity, persist- 
ency and a capacity for well directed labor, 
which have placed him in the vanguard of 
the prosperous farmers of the vicinity. 



WILLIAM ALEXANDER HAGUE, 
who occupies an influential and 
prominent position among the agricultural 
population of Butler county, has his home- 
stead on section 5. Linwood township. He 
has not only been identified with the farm- 
ing interests of the community, but was also 
for several years one of the leading educa- 
tors of the county. 

Mr. Hague was born in Holmes county, 
Ohio, but at an early age was taken to 
Wayne county, that state, by his parents, 
Aaron and Ruth (Culbertson) Hague. His 
grandfather, William Hague, with his fam- 
ily, had removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio 
at an early day, and the Culbertsons were 
also Ohio people. By occupation the ma- 
ternal grandfather of our subject was a 
blacksmith. When about seven or eight 
years of age, William A. Hague, who was 
the oldest child of the family, was taken by 
his parents to DeKalb county, Indiana, 
where the mother still continued to make 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



731 



her home. The father, who was a native 
of Fayette county, Pennsj'lvania, died when 
our subject was sixteen years of age. 

WilHam A. Hague began his education 
in the common schools of northeastern In- 
diana, an"d later attended the Literary In- 
stitute in Steuben county, that state. After 
his removal to Branch county, Michigan, 
in April, 1857, he became a student in Hills- 
dale College, that state, and after leaving 
school he engaged in farming and teaching 
in that locality until the fall of 1865. In 
that year he married Miss Lida B. Rollins, 
a native of Portland, Maine, and a daughter 
of Sylvanus Rollins. Three children were 
born of this union: William Emerson, now 
a residentof Brainard, Nebraska; Susan R. , 
now Mrs. Theodore C. Figge, of Chadron, 
this state; and Charles, who was adopted 
by F. C. and Sarah Johnson. The wife 
and mother died December 9, 1876, at the 
birth of her younger son. Mr. Hague was 
again married, March 20, 1878, his second 
union being with Mrs. Caddie McFarland, 
;/(■(■ Baldwin, by whom he has one daughter. 
Bertha L. 

The winter after his first marriage, Mr. 
Hague continued to engage in teachiug 
school in Branch county, Michigan, but the 
following spring removed to Oceana county, 
that state, where he made his home from 
1866 until 1872, while he devoted his ener- 
gies to farming, teaching and clerking in a 
store. Through Rev. Amos Dresser, he 
came to Nebraska in April, 1872, with the 
hopes of securing a home for himself and 
family, and while looking up a location he 
engaged in bridge building. In the spring 
of 1873 he was joined by his wife and chil- 
dren, and they settled on section 5, Lin- 
wood township (township 16, range 4). Dur- 
ing his early residence here he was employed 
as principal of the David City schools and 
his name was prominently mentioned as 
candidate for the office of count \' superintend- 
ent of schools in Butler county. He has been 



prominently identified with public affairs, 
and is a recognized leader in the ranks of 
the local Republican organization. Frater- 
nally he belongs to the Masonic Order, and 
religiously he is a charter member of the 
Linwood Congregational church, with 
which he is still connected. His life is ex- 
emplary in all respects and he has ever sup- 
ported those interests calculated to uplift and 
benefit humanity, while his own high moral 
worth is deserving of the highest commenda- 
tion. 



bINCOLN CHESNUT, an energetic, 
enterprising and successful farmer re- 
siding on section 20, Geneva township, 
Fillmore county, was born in Logan coun- 
ty, Illinois, September 10, 1864, and is a 
son of Thomas J. and Margaret H. (Cald- 
well) Chesnut, the former born near Chili- 
cothe, Ohio, the latter in Macoupin count}', 
Illinois. They are still honored residents 
of Logan county. The father is a prosper- 
ous farmer and stock raiser of that county 
and is one of its leading and influential citi- 
zens, taking an active part in political affairs 
as a prominent member of the Republican 
party. 

Upon the home farm the subject of this 
sketch was reared to manhood, acquiring 
a good practical education in the common 
schools of the neighborhood. On attaining 
his majority he began life on his own ac- 
count, and soon afterward, in the spring of 
1886, came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
in company with his brother, Charles A. 
They located upon a farm in Geneva town- 
ship, belonging to their father, and there 
our subject remained for two years. The 
following year he operated rented land, and 
then bought eighty acres, the nucleus of 
his present farm. To the original purchase 
he has added from time to time until he 
now owns two hundred and forty acres of 
excellent land, which he has placed under a 



732 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



high state of cultivation. At the time of 
locating here the only buildings upon the 
place were a small house, 16x24 feet, and 
a corn crib, but he now has a more com- 
modious and modern residence, good barns 
and substantial out-buildings, which add 
greatly to the value and attractive appear- 
ance of the place. 

On the 27th of June, 1889, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Chesnut and 
MissEdwinaArrowsmith, who was born near 
Quincy, Illinois, and is a daughter of 
Thomas and Lucia (Williams Arrowsmith, 
the former a native of New York, the latter 
of Ohio. Both parents are now deceased. 
Two children grace the union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Chesnut — Harry A. and Wallace L. 
The parents hold membership in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church at Geneva and Mr. 
Chesnut belongs to the Camp of Modern 
Woodmen of America at the same place. 
In his political affiliations he is a stanch 
Republican. 



JAMES LOGHRY, a well-known and 
honored citizen of Fillmore county, 
residing near the city of Geneva, has 
rounded the psalmist's span of three score 
years and ten, and although the snows of 
several winters have whitened his hair, he 
has the vigor of a much younger man, and 
in spirit and interests seems yet in his prime. 
Old age is not necessarily the synonym of 
weakness or inactivity, and Mr. Loghry is 
still identiiied with the agricultural and 
industrial interests of the county. 

He was born in Steuben county, New 
York, February i, 1827, a son of John and 
Electa (Foster) Loghry. His paternal 
grandfather was William Loghry, and his 
great-garndfather bore the same name. 
The former, a native of Ireland, came to 
this country when a young man and located 
in the state of New York, where he mar- 
ried a lady of Irish birth, and there they 



continued to make their home throughout 
the remainder of their lives, the grandfather 
dj'ing at the extreme age of one hundred 
and four years. He vyas a farmer by occu- 
pation, as were also his ancestors form any 
generations. The family was respresented 
in the war of 181 2. 

James Loghry, of this review, remained 
on the home farm with his father until 
twenty years of age, and in the meantime 
attended the district schools as he found 
opportunit}-, but on account of the pressing 
work of the farm was unable to attend more 
than a few days each year. Later his father 
found him a place to learn the blacksmith's 
trade, at which he worked as a journeyman 
for two years. At the age of twenty-two 
years he became acquainted with Miss Lucy 
A. Cutler, who was teaching a district 
school in the neighborhood, and their 
friendship ripened into love. They were 
married January 10, 1850. She was born 
in Rutland, Vt., October 6, 1S29, but when 
less than a year old was taken by her father 
to Worcester, Mass., and when she was 
seven the family removed to Orland. Ind., 
where the father died August 30, 1887, 
when in his eighty-fourth year. The Cutler 
family is of English origin and was founded 
in America by John Ciitler, from whom Mrs. 
Loghry traces her ancestry through the fol- 
lowing: Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, 
Simeon, Rev. Samuel, and John H., her 
father. 

After his marriage Mr. Loghry opened 
a blacksmith shop of his own in Branch coun- 
ty, Michigan, where he carried on business 
for three years, but later engaged in the 
operation of forty acres of land in connec- 
tion with work at his trade. Removing to 
the village of Orland, Indiana, he engaged 
in the blacksmith business in partnership 
with a Mr. Carpenter, and then returned to 
farming, which he followed for four years. 
It was in 1865, during his residence in Or- 
land, that he responded to the government's 



COMrENDIUM or JUOGRArin\ 



783 



call for more troops to help in putting down 
the Rebellion, enlisting for one }'ear or dur- 
the war in Conapany K, One Hundred and 
Fifty-seconid Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and 
being inustered in March 16,1865, but ^s the 
war soon afterward closed, he was discharg- 
ed at Charleston, West Virginia, August 30, 
1865, with the rank of corporal. 

Upon the return of peace, Mr. Loghry pro- 
ceeded to his home in Indiana, and five days 
later had secured another shop and resumed 
business. A few months later he traded 
his entire property in the village for eighty 
acres of land, to which the family removed, 
but not succeeding in his farming operations, 
he built a shop upon his farm, and while 
the oats and corn were growing, kept the 
old anvil ringing. Four years later he 
again disposed of his property and started 
westward, landing in Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, March 12, 1871. Selecting a farm, 
he built a sod forge, covered his bellows 
with a canvas, and resumed work in the 
open air, pounding out the drill plowshares 
for the farmers who came from far and 
near to have work done. Here the honest 
blacksmith, with his hammer, sledge and 
strong right arm, has succeeded in making 
for himself and familj' a comfortable home, 
almost within sight of the place where he 
first unloaded his household goods on com- 
ing to this state. Many changes have 
since taken place, however, and the deer, elk, 
bison and nimble antelope have long since 
disappeared as the country became more 
thickly populated. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Loghry were born five 
children, namely. Helen N. is the wife 
of Adarn Huston, who lives three miles 
north of the old homestead, and they have 
seven children: James; Hugh, who married 
Viola Roylls; Ella and A. D., twins; Hat- 
tie; Pearl and Frank. (2) Leroy P. married 
Ida Piatt and they live on a farm two miles 
from the old home. (3) Louisa A. is the 
wife of William H. Garret, who owns and 

42 



operates a farm in Fillmore county, and 
they have seven children: Julia, Dora, 
Harry, Ida, Nellie, Amy and Hazel, who 
are all at home and are attending the dis- 
trict schools. ("4) Jay, a resident of Wy- 
oming, married Anna, McPherson and they 
have one son, Frank. (5) The other child 
of our subject is deceased. 

Mr. Loghry cast his first presidential 
vote for John C. Fremont, and has since 
been an ardent supporter of the Republican 
party. He comes of a very patriotic and 
loyal family, in which four of the si.\ sons 
were among the boys in blue during the 
Civil war and all lived to return to their 
homes. He was reared in the Methodist 
church, but is not connected with an}^ relig- 
ious denomination, while his wife is a mem- 
ber of the Congregational church of Geneva. 
They are widely and favorabl}- known and 
have many friends throughout Fillmore 
county. 



RICHARD B. BRABHAM.— In the busy 
community located in the thriving vil- 
lage of Benedict, York county, we find sev- 
eral energetic and thorough-going business 
men, who ha\e attained success through 
their own tact, good judgment and perse- 
verance. Among the number is the gentle- 
man whose name heads this biographical 
notice, and who is one of the leading grocers 
of the place. He is a native of Ohio, born 
in ^^'ashington county, October 30, 1845, 
and is a son of Enos and Catherine (Hum- 
phreys) Brabham, both nati\es of Virginia. 
The grandfather, John Brabham, was a 
prominent planter of the Old Dominion, and 
from that state removed to Ohio, spending 
his last days in Washington county. The 
parents of our subject, who were well- 
known farming people, also died in that 
state. They reared a family of ten chil- 
dren, four sons and si.\ daughters. 

In his native state Richard B. Brabham 



r34 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



spent his boyhood and youth in much the 
usual manner of farmer boys of his day, 
assisting in the labors of the fields and at- 
tending the country schools when his serv- 
ices were not needed at home. In Sep- 
tember, 1 86 1, he donned the blue and went 
to the defense of his country as a member 
of Company H, Seventy-seventh Ohio Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and among the engage- 
ments in which he participated was the 
famous battle of Shiloh. After two years 
of service, however, he was discharged on 
account of physical disability and returned 
to his home in Washington county, Ohio, 
where he remained until 1867. In that 
year he made a trip to Illinois, and subse- 
quently visited other western and southern 
states, finally deciding to locate in York 
county. Nebraska. In 1871 he took up a 
homestead on section 28, Morton township, 
which he improved and cultivated until 
1887, when he sold the place and moved to 
the village of Benedict. He was appointed 
its first postmaster, and most capably dis- 
charged the duties of that office for six 
years. He also opened a grocery store, and 
soon succeeded in building up a good trade, 
which he still enjoys, his patronage extend- 
ing over a wide range of territory. 

On September 28th, 1872, Mr. Brab- 
ham led to the marriage altar Miss Martha 
Tapp, of Ohio, a daughter of Nathaniel and 
Harriet (Deacon) Tapp. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Brabham have been born two daughters, 
namely: Olie M. and KittieC. Fraternally 
Mr. Brabham affiliates with the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient 
Order of United Workman; and politically 
is identified with the Democratic party, but 
has never been an aspirant for office, pre- 
ferring to give his undivided attention to his 
business interests. In all transactions he 
has proved straightforward and reliable, 
and wins the confidence and respect of those 
with whom he comes in contact, either in 
business or in social life. 



HIRAM RODMAN is one of the well-to- 
do and substantial citizens of precinct K, 
of Seward county, and having commenced 
life with but small means, his financial posi- 
tion is ample evidence of the manner in 
which he has employed his time, and the 
good judgement of which he is the fortunate 
possessor. He has one of the best appoint- 
ed homesteads in the township, and on ac- 
count of his strict integrity and high charac- 
ter, is numbered among its most valued 
citizens. 

A native of Schoharie county. New York, 
Mr. Rodman was born July i, 1827, and is 
a son of Asa and Olive (Culver) Rodman, 
who were born in Connecticut, but spent the 
greater part of their lives in the Empire 
state, where the father followed the occu- 
pation of farming until called to the 
world beyond. They reared a familj- of 
fourteen children-ten sons and four daugh- 
ters. Our subject spent his boyhood and 
youth upon the home farm in New York, 
his education being obtained in the public 
schools of the neighborhood. He followed 
farming in his native state until the spring 
of 1865, when he removed to Jackson coun- 
ty, Iowa, where he made his home until 
coming to Nebraska in 1872. He secured 
a homestead in K township, Seward county, 
adjoining his present farm, and erected 
thereon a sod house, in which the family 
lived for seven years, when it was replaced 
by a good frame residence. When he lo- 
cated here the Indians had not yet left this 
region and he saw many of them. He has 
steadily prospered in his new home, and is 
now the owner of an excellent farm of two 
hundred and forty acres, which he has 
placed under a high state of cultivation and 
improved with good buildings. 

On the 9th of November, 1851, in Dela- 
ware county, N. Y. , Mr. Rodman was 
united in marriage with Miss Ethelinda A. 
Lyon, who was born in that state and is a 
daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Griggs) 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



rss 



Lyon, natives of Massachusetts. They are 
now the parents of three children: Ellen 
M., wife of W. B. Downs; Alonzo T. and 
Smith. The wife and mother is a sincere 
member of the United Brethren church 
and a most estimable lady. In his political 
views Mr. Rodman is a Democrat, and he 
has been honored with a number of town- 
ship offices, and has also served as a mem- 
ber of the central committee of his party 
and in school offices. 



ROBERT W. READ.— Prominentamong 
the representative citizens and respect- 
ed and influential men of Morton township, 
York county, is found the subject of this 
biographical notice, who owns a fine farm 
of 240 acres. It is well improved and 
highly cultivated, and shows conclusively 
that the owner has not mistaken his calling 
in adopting agriculture. 

Mr. Read was born March 4, 1843, in 
Clearfield county, Pa., in which state his 
parents, Josiah and Mary (Wrigley) Read, 
spent their entire lives, engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits. The grandfather, Thomas 
Read, was of Scotch descent, and was also 
a resident of Pennsylvania. In that state 
our subject grew to manhood and attended 
school when his services were not needed at 
home. At an early age he became quite 
familiar with the occupations of lumbering 
and farming, which he continued to follow 
in the east until 1879, which year witnessed 
his arrival in York county. Neb. Of the 
railroad company he purchased his present 
farm, which was then a tract of wild prairie 
land, entirely unimproved. He commenced 
at once to break the land, and soon acre 
after acre had been placed under the plow. 
To general farming and stock raising he 
still devotes his time and attention, and in 
his operations has met with a well-merited 
success. 

Before leaving Pennsylvania, Mr. Read 



was married, in 1871, to Miss Eliza Lytle, 
a sister of Mrs. Robert Lytle, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this work. To them 
have been born seven children, as follows: 
Verne R., Vergie E., Hugh L. , Kate M., 
Mary, Josiah R. and Idilla. In the ex- 
ercise of his elective franchise Mr. Read is 
not bound by party lines, but votes inde- 
pendently. He has been an active and 
efficient member of the school board for 
nineteen years, but aside from this he has 
never accepted office, his entire time being 
given to his farming interests. Socially he 
is a member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. 



HENRY W. NIPPERT, a leading and 
representative farmer of Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, is successfully engaged 
in the prosecution of his chosen calling on 
section 27, Bell Prairie township. He was 
born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, April 15, 185 i, 
and is a son of George and Sarah (Hussin- 
ger) Nippert, natives of Germany, who 
emigrated to the new world when young 
and were married in Ohio, where they 
commenced life in limited circumstances 
upon a farm. Later they removed to Wis- 
consin, and as they had prospered to some 
extent they were able to purchase a farm, 
on which they reared their family of nine 
children, six of whom are still living, 
namely: Michael, Henry W. , Jacob, 
Charles, Elizabeth and Emma. Finally, 
after the children were able to provide for 
themselves, the parents sold their farm in 
Wisconsin and moved to Pottawattamie 
county, Iowa, where in retirement from 
active labor they spent their remaining years 
upon a farm, enjoying a well-earned rest, 
the father died at the age of seventy-seven 
years, the mother at the age of seventy-five, 
and they now sleep side by side in a cem- 
etery in Shelby county, Iowa. By all who 
knew them they were held in high regard, 



736 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and their friends were many. Their chil- 
dren, with the exception of our subject and 
Michael, who is a resident of Wisconsin, all 
make their home in Iowa. 

In the common schools of Wisconsin 
Henry W. Nippert obtained his education; 
when twenty-three years old he moved with 
his parents to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, 
where he was married five years later, Feb- 
ruary 1 8, 1880, to Miss Augustina Grone, 
who was born in Honey Creek, Sauk 
county, Wisconsin, September 22, 1856. 
Her parents, John F. and Wilhelmina (Al- 
bertus) Grone, were also natives of the 
fatherland, and emigrated with their re- 
spective parents to America, the former at 
the age of fourteen, the latter at the age of 
nine. The}' were united in marriage in 
Wisconsin and to them were born fourteen 
children, of whom eight. Tare still living, 
namely: Augustina, Frederick, Paulina, 
Arthur, William, George, Joseph and Ma- 
tilda, all of whom are now living in Ne- 
braska. Several years ago three of the 
children removed to Furnas county, Ne- 
braska, but, preferring this section of the 
state, they returned thither, where they are 
now comfortably situated. Mr. and Mrs. 
Grone are now living retired in Bruning, 
Nebraska, at the ages of seventy-five and 
sixty-four years, respectively, and enjoy good 
health. Here they are surrounded by loving 
children and a host of warm friends. Mr. 
and Mrs. Nippert have an interesting family 
of five children: John, Oscar, Warde, Jo- 
seph and Pearl. 

Our subject and his wife began their do- 
mestic life upon a rented farm forone3'ear, 
when he purchased one hundred and twenty 
acres of raw land for nine dollars per acre, 
and to the improvement and cultivation of 
that place he devoted his time and attention 
until the spring of 1887, when he sold it for 
twentyeight dollars peracre. Hethenbrought 
his family to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
and in Belle Prairie township he purchased 



one hundred and sixty acres at sixteen dol- 
lars and fifty cents. It was only partially 
improved, and the only buildings standing 
thereon were a ver\' small house and a 
smaller straw stable, but the place is now 
under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings, 
which stand as monuments to his thrift and 
industry, for he has worked hard to make 
it one of the best farms of the locality. It 
is all convenient!}' arranged in modern style 
and testifies to the enterprising and pro- 
gressive spirit of the owner, who is recog- 
nized as one of the most thorough and skill- 
ful farmers of the community. Both he and 
his wife are held in high regard by all who 
have the pleasure of their acquaintance. 



CLARENCE H. POST.— Perhaps no 
man in all York county is so well 
known for his intelligence, active public 
spirit and thorough appreciation of the wants 
of his locality as the gentleman whose 
name heads this article. He came to the 
count}' at an early day, and has since been 
identified with all matters pertaining to the 
improvement and upbuilding of the better 
interests of Thayer township, in which he 
makes his home. His active participation 
in the public affairs has not been confined 
to his own township, but he has thoroughly 
acquainted himself and has been associated 
in all matters relating to the affairs of the 
entire county. 

Mr. Post is a son of John T. and Eliza- 
beth A. (Chapin) Post, who were both na- 
tives of New York, and they settled in Illi- 
nois in 1853. The father followed the oc- 
cupation of farming in Illinois until 1883, at 
which time he removed to Stromsburg, Ne- 
braska, where they remained for awhile, and 
then removed to California, where Mr. 
Post now makes his home, his wife having 
died August 14, 1898. John T. Post was a 
son of Daniel Post, a native of New York, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



737 



who later removed to Illinois in 1856, and 
from there he moved to Kansas. He died 
in Spring Hill county, of the above named 
state in, 1885, having been the father of 
three sons. John T. Post is a veteran of 
the late war, he having served three years 
and nine months. He was a member of 
company D. One Hundred and Fourth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry, and held the rank 
of lieutenant. He was wounded in the head 
at the battle of Peach Tree Creek, and 
fought with great gallantry at Missionary 
Ridge " That far-famed battle above the 
clouds;" Chickamauga.and Lookout Mount- 
ain. He also accompanied Sherman on 
his famous march to the sea. He was the 
father of three sons, now living, our subject 
being the only one who resides in York 
county. 

Clarence H. Post was born in La Salle 
county, Illinois, on February 2, 1S57. He 
was reared and received his education in his 
native state, and began farming at an early 
age. He followed agricultural pursuits in 
Illinois until 1880, when he settled in York 
county, Nebraska, where he purchased a 
farm in Thayer township, and has resided 
continuously ever since. He has given 
special attention to stock raising, and has 
had unparalleled success, as he feeds from 
three hundred to five hundred head every 
year. 

Mr. Post was united in marriage to Miss 
Carrie E. Carr, a daughter of Nathan S. 
and Adelia (Hodgaboom) Carr, who were 
natives of New Hampshire and New York, 
respectively. The mother came to Illinois 
when an infant and still resides there, but 
the father, who came to that state in an 
early day, died there in 1891. The mar- 
riage ceremony of our subject was per- 
formed in 1S80, and to this union have 
been born three children, two of whom, 
Edith P. and Margie, are now living, and 
one son, Elmer P., who is dead. 

Mr. Post is a member of the Modern 



Woodmen, and in his political belief he is 
a stanch supporter of the principles of the 
Republican party. Being a man of excel- 
lent business qualifications and a character 
of the highest order, he has frequently been 
called upon to occupy various official posi- 
tions. He has served for several years as 
district and township supervisor, and in 
every instance he has proven his efficiency 
by the able manner in which he adminis- 
tered the affairs of his office. He is now 
the chairman of the Republican county 
central committee, and is rapidly winning 
popularit}' for his rare fidelity and great 
executive ability. He has been very suc- 
cessful in all of his undertakings and enjoys 
the respect and confidence of all to whom 
he is known. 



ERICK JACOBS, one of the well-known 
residents and business men of Staple- 
hurst, was born in northern Germany, May 
15, 1856. His parents, Peter C. and Gar- 
dina (Peters) Jacobs, were both natives of 
Germany, and came to this country in 
1855. They journeyed straight to this 
count}', to spend the balance of their days 
in Staplehurst. The father died in 1893, 
and the mother is still living. They had 
two sons and four daughters. Erick and 
two of his sisters have their home in Seward 
county. 

The subject of this article was reared 
and educated in Germany, atterfding the 
common and navigation schools. He was 
also a student at an English school for three 
years, and was very well prepared for the 
practical duties of life. In 1872 became to 
this country, landing in New York, and 
making his way immediately to Chicago. 
There he worked as a painter for four years, 
but, wearying of the noise and confusion of 
the great cit\', he sought a more peaceful 
scene, and found it in farming. To this 
occupation the rest of his life has been de- 



788 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



voted. In iS8o he came to Seward county 
and purchased a farm and dwelt on it for 
two years. In 1882, in company with 
Peder Nelson, he engaged in the business of 
operating a grain elevator. This yielded 
such profitable returns that he was able, in 
1886, with Mr. Jorgenson as his partner, to 
purchase the Bank of Staplehurst. He took 
the place of cashier until the death of his 
associate. That unfortunate event made 
necessary a re-arrangement of the bank offi- 
cials, and he is now its president. 

In 1880 he entered into marriage rela- 
tions with Miss Maria Fuchs, a native of Il- 
linois, and a sister of Mrs. Nelson, who is 
now deceased. They have two sons and 
two daughters, William C, Anna E., Peter 
D. and Margaret, and have had no deaths in 
their family. He is a German Lutheran, 
and is an Independent in his politics. He 
has been township treasurer, and is a citizen 
who is highly thought of, not only for his 
shrewd business abilities, but greatly liked 
for his personal character. 



JOHN FITZSIMONS. — "Excellence en- 
courages all life in general," says that 
thoughtful observer, George Eliot. This 
saying is true even in'^the case of that care- 
ful discharge of duty which leads to well- 
doing in worldly enterprises, but the life 
which reveals religious ardor and suggests 
the uplifting force of consecrated purpose 
does indeed demonstrate to humanity new 
and lofty possibilities. The life of Mr. 
Fitzsimons is a constant source of inspira- 
tion to those who see his zealous work in 
advancing the cause of religion as a local 
minister of the Methodist church. Since 
the spring of 1 86g he has made his home on 
section 24, Bone Creek township, Butler 
county, and has since been prominently 
identified with the material as well as the 
moral development of this region. 

Mr. Fitzsimons was born on the 14th of 



August, 1825, in county Longford, Ireland, 
and is the oldest child in the family of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Pope) Fitzsimons. 
In his native land he was reared and ed- 
ucated, remaining there until he attained 
his majority. It was in 1847 that he accom- 
panied his parents on their emigration to 
the United States, and took up his residence 
in Muscatine, Iowa, where he was engaged 
in merchandising for several years. Owing 
to failing health he was forced to abandon 
that business and decided to turn his atten- 
tion to agricultural pursuits. Through a 
friend, James McBride, who had come to 
Nebraska, two years before Mr. Fitzsimons 
learned of Butler county, and being favora- 
bly impressed with the account he had re- 
ceived, he removed here in the spring of 
1869. The Indians at that time were quite 
troublesome, but they took kindly to the 
family of our subject. His first home in 
Butler county was a rude dug-out, where he 
lived in true pioneer style, e.xperiencing all 
the hardships incident to life on the frontier. 
On the 3d of May, 1859, Mr. Fitzsi- 
mons was united in marriage with Miss 
Nancy Moss, a native of Dearborn county, 
Indiana, and a daughter of Harvey and 
Elizabeth (Stevens) Moss. The father was 
born in Massachusetts, of German ancestry, 
while the mother was born in Nova Scotia, 
of Scotch-Irish parentage. He was a 
wealthy farmer and also a local preacher, 
who was widely and favorably known in 
Muscatine, Iowa, and vicinity. Mr. and 
Mrs. Fitzsimons have a family of six chil- 
dren: Thomas Emmet; Dr. Albert Pope, 
now assistant surgeon of Third Nebraska 
Volunteer Infantry; Dr. Samuel V., now 
acting hospital steward in regular United 
States service at Jacksonville, Florida; Or- 
lando; Jessie M. and George A. The par- 
ents were members of the first Methodist 
church established in Butler county, it 
being organized by S. V. Van Duser in the 
winter of 1869, and have always taken a 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



739 



leading and active part in all church and 
benevolent work, Mr. Fitzsimons having 
served as a local preacher for several years. 
Their lives have been characterized by 
deeds of kindness, and their sterling worth 
and many excellencies of character have 
been justly appreciated by their many 
friends. 



SAMUEL G. PHEASANT.— Polk county 
has no more popular or honored citizen 
than Mr. Pheasant, the well-known grain 
dealer of Osceola. There are in every com- 
munity men of great force of character and 
exceptional ability who, by reason of their 
capacity for leadership, become recognized 
as foremost citizens and bear a most import- 
ant part in the development and progress of 
that locality with which they are connected. 
Such a man is our subject, who was born in 
Jefferson county, Iowa, July 17, 1846, a son 
of John and Margaret (Garrett) Pheasant, 
the former a native of Hagerstown, Mary- 
land, the latter of Pennsylvania. The pa- 
ternal grandfather, John Pheasant, Sr. , was 
born in this country, of English ancestry. 
The parents of our subject were married in 
Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, but as 
early as 1839 emigrated to Jefferson count}', 
Iowa, being numbered among its first set- 
tlers. By trade the father was a black- 
smith, but after coming west improved a 
farm and devoted his energies principally to 
agricultural pursuits. He died in April, 
1864, and his wife, who was an earnest 
member of the Methodist church, passed 
away in June, 1857. In the family of this 
worthy couple were nine children, of whom 
eight reached man and womanhood, name- 
ly: Harrison, who was a member of the 
Second California cavalry in the Civil war, 
and died in 1873; Alexander, deceased; Mrs. 
Louisa Montgomery, a resident of Jefferson 
county, Iowa; Alwilda, deceased; Charles, 
who was a soldier of Company K, Seventh 



Iowa Volunteer Infantry; Samuel G., of 
this sketch; Mrs. Luella Courtney, of Os- 
ceola, Nebraska, and William. 

On the old homestead in Iowa, Samuel 
G. Phesant grew to manhood amidst pioneer 
scenes, and is indebted to the schools of 
that locality for his educational privileges. 
On leaving home, in the spring of 1S66, he 
went to Colorado, where he worked in a 
mill, engaged in teaming, and followed other 
occupations until the fall of 1868, when he 
returned to Iowa. The spring of 1872 
found him a resident of Polk county, Ne- 
braska, having taken up the southeast quar- 
ter of section 14, township 13, range 2 west, 
all wild prairie land, with no improvements. 
He had come with a party to this section, 
and lived in a little sod-house upon his 
place while he turned his attention to its 
improvement and cultivation. The second 
year his crops were destroyed by the grass- 
hoppers, and in 1874 he removed to the 
town of Osceola, where he has since made 
his home, with the exception of two years 
spent in California. In 1883 he embarked 
in the grain business as a member of the 
firm of Blowers & Pheasant; two years later 
they built a mill, and carried on operations 
together until 1886, when our subject sold 
out and bought grain for others until 18S7. 
The following two years were spent in Cali- 
fornia, returning to Osceola at the end of 
that time and resuming the grain business 
in the fall of 1892. He is an enterprising, 
reliable business man, who has the confi- 
dence and respect of all with whom he comes 
in contact, either in business or social life. 

Mr. Pheasant was married in November, 
1875, to Mrs. Sarah J. (Stewart) Boatright, 
who was born in Highland county, Ohio, 
February 26, 1849. He parents were 
James and Louisa (Carr) Stewart, the 
former of Scotch and the latter of English 
extraction. From Ohio they moved to 
Macon county, Missouri, later to Jasper 
county, Iowa, and in 1871 came to Polk 



740 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



county, Nebraska, settling in Stromsburg 
precinct. The mother is now deceased, but 
the father is still living and now makes his 
home in Osceola, He is an honored veter- 
an of the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Pheasant were born six children: Harrison 
Dale, deceased; Leon Ray; Nellie Gray; 
Grade Ellen; Charles, deceased; and Louisa 
Luella. The wife and mother is a devoted 
member of the Methodiest church, and a 
most estimable lady. 

Mr. Pheasant takes quite an active inter- 
est in civic societies and is an honored 
member of the Masonic fraternit}-, the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Ivnights of the Maccabees, the Home Forum, 
and the Business Men"s Fraternity. The 
Republican party has always found in him a 
stanch supporter of its principles, and he 
has rendered effective service in its interest. 
In 1873 he was elected sheriff of Polk coun- 
ty, and so ably and satisfactorily did he per- 
form the duties of that office, that he was 
four times re-elected, serving in all ten 
years. At one of these elections he receiv- 
ed every vote cast in the county with the 
exception of one, a fact which plainlj' in- 
dicates his popularity, and the confidence 
and trust reposed in him by his fellow citi- 
zens. Subsequent!}- he was the candidate 
of his parti' for county treasurer, but was de- 
feated. He has been a member of the town 
board of Osceola for two terms, and his 
public, as well as his private life, is alike 
above reproach. As a citizen he meets 
every requirement and manifests a com- 
mendable interest in everything that is cal- 
culated to promote the city's welfare in any 
line. 



JOHN J. WALKER was one of the early 
settlers of Union to\\'nship, Butler 
county, the date of his settlement being the 
fall of 1869, and has been one of the con- 
spicuous men in the development and 



growth of the community and the organiza- 
tion and establishment of the business in- 
terests of the town of Garrison. He was 
born in Highland county, Ohio, February 
9, 1845, a son of Alexander Walker, also a 
native of the state of Ohio and a farmer by 
occupation. Our subject's grandfather, 
John Walker, migrated from Rockbridge 
county, Virginia, and located the home- 
stead in Ohio, where our subject was born. 
Alexander Walker was married in Ohio to 
Miss Louisa Johnston, daughter of Abner 
Johnston, a relative of General Joseph E. 
Johnston. 

John J. Walker, the subject of this 
sketch, is the oldest son in his father's fam- 
ily. He was reared in Highland county, 
and from there he answered the call of the 
government for volunteers to aid in its de- 
fense at the time of the Rebellion in 1861. 
He was a mere boy of seventeen years when 
he enlisted in Company F, Sixtieth Ohio 
Infantry, in November, 1861. He served 
under General Fremont in the Shenandoah 
Valley, driving Stonewall Jackson out of 
that valley and following him to Harrison- 
burg and Cross Keys, Virginia, and then re- 
turned to Winchester, Virginia. From 
there the army retreated to Harper's Ferry, 
and there our subject was taken prisoner, 
paroled and sent to Camp Douglas, Chica- 
go, Illinois, and was there discharged at 
the expiration of the term of his enlistment. 
He then returned to his home in Ohio and 
remained until Januarj- i, 1866, and then 
enlisted in the Third Battalion, Eighteenth 
United States Infantr}' and was sent to 
Saint Louis, Missouri, where the regiment 
was organized. In the spring of 1866 the 
regiment, consisting of three battalions of 
nine companies each, was sent to Leaven- 
worth, I'iansas, and from thence marched 
across the plains, the company- to which 
our subject belonged stopping at Fort Sedg- 
wick, now Julesburg. Mr. Walker was a 
corporal and also served as acting conimis- 




JOHN J. WALKER. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



743 



sary sergeant until the spring of 1867, when 
he was placed on detached service as an es- 
cort to the surveying corps of the Union 
Pacific Railroad company. Later in the fall 
of 1867 he was sent to Fort Sanders, where 
he did garrison duty until the following 
spring and then went to Fort Bridges, Wy- 
oming, until January, i860, the expiration 
of his term of enlistment. 

During his service in the United States 
army, Mr. Walker saw much of the western 
country and was favorably enough impresed 
with it that, after his return to his home in 
Ohio, he was easily persuaded to move to and 
settle in the state of Nebraska by his broth- 
er, Thomas A. Walker, who, with several 
of his neighbors, had sold his interest in the 
native state and gone to Nebraska. Thomas 
Walker, having located a few years previ- 
ously, had taken one hundred and sixty 
acres between the Union Pacific and the 
Burlington & Missouri River grants, but 
when our subject arrived, this was all taken 
and he had to go inside of the railroad grant 
and file a homestead claim to the north half 
of the northeast quarter of section 22, 
township 14, range 2. After he had lived 
on this claim for two years, Congress passed 
a law allowing discharged soldiers to add to 
their original claims enough to aggregate 
one hundred and sixty acres. Under this 
law he secured an additional eighty acres, 
the north half of the southeast quarter of 
section 8, township 14, range 2. Ijeing 
unmarried, he lived on his claim in a sod 
house until 1875. Fie then moved to 
Garrison, which had just been located, and 
began to buy grain and later engaged in the 
mercantile business in partnership with Mr. 
C. H. Sargent, under the firm name of 
Sargent & Walker, and they built and con- 
ducted the first store in Garrison. Our sub- 
ject later sold out his interest in the store 
and entered into the lumber business in 
partnership with Charles A. Harvey & 
Company, and was thus engaged until 1890. 



He then severed his connection with this firm 
to accept the office of county treasurer of 
Butler county, which the citizens of that 
county had seen fit to bestow upon him. 
After the -expiration of his term of four 
years, he returned to his farm on section 20, 
Union township, where he now resides. 
Since then he has been engaged in farming 
and grain and stock buying, and is now buy- 
ing grain for the Trans-Mississippi Grain 
Company, at Millerton. 

In 1 88 1, while in partnership with Mr. 
C. H. Sargent in the mercantile business at 
Garrison, our subject was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Mary Schafer, of Phillipsburg, 
New Jersey, whom he met while she was 
visiting her sister, Mrs. Meacham, of Butler 
county, living near Garrison. To this union 
have been born a bright, interesting family 
of five children, upon whom they have seen 
fit to bestow the following names: Louisa, 
Ida, John Matthias, Helena and Olive. Mr. 
Walker is a Royal Arch Mason, his mem- 
bership being with the Chapter. He is also 
a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and of the A. Lincoln post, No. 
10, Grand Army of the Republic. In politics 
he is a Democrat. His many friends will 
be gratified to find a portrait of Mr. Walker 
in connection with this sketch. 



PETER EHLERS.— The gentleman 
whose name stands at the head of this 
sketch is one of the pioneers of Thayer 
township, York county, who, by developing 
a good farm from the wild prairie land, has 
materially aided in its growth. He is meet- 
ing with a well-deserved success in his call- 
ing, and his fine, well-ordered farm, which 
is pleasantly situated on section 23, with its 
carefully cultured fields, its neat buildings, 
and all their surroundings, denote the skill- 
ful management, industry and well-directed 
labors of the owner. 

Mr. Ehlers is a native of Germany, born 



744 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



in the province of Hanover, December i, 
1849, and is a son of Liietje and Margaret 
(Fisfier) Ehlers, who were natives of the 
same province. The family emigrated to 
the United States in 1868 and first settled 
in Wisconsin, where our subject found em- 
ployment in the pine woods for ten years. 
In 1878 he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and bought a quarter section of railroad 
land on section 23, Thayer township, to 
the cultivation and improvement of which 
he at once turned his attention and upon 
which he built the first house on the section. 
The following year he was joined by his 
father and mother. Here the former made 
his home until called to his final rest in 1 886. 
The mother is still living. 

In 1868, in Wisconsin, was celebrated 
the marriage of Peter Ehlers and Emma 
Cornell, also, native of the Fatherland, and 
they have become the parents of ten chil- 
dren, all still living, namely: Margaret, 
Louie, Hannah, Peter, Frederick, William, 
Emma, George, Mary O. and Elfie V. Mr. 
and Mrs. Ehlers and theis family are com- 
municants of the Lutheran church, and are 
widely and favorably known throughout the 
county. His political support is always 
given the Democracy, and in 1891 and in 
1892 he filled the office of supervisor of 
his township, with credit to himself and to 
the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He 
is justly numbered among the self-made 
men of the county, for he has been the 
architect of his own fortunes and has builded 
wisely and well. 



JOSEPH P. MOOR owns and occupies a 
farm of one hundred and si.xty acres on 
section 13, Belle Prairie township, Fillmore 
county, Nebraska. As an honest man and 
a good citizen, pursuing the even tenor of 
his way and giving his strict attention to his 
own concerns, he is contributing in an un- 
obtrusive manner to the development of his 



township, and augmenting its attractions as 
a desirable place of residence for an enter- 
prising and intelligent class of people. He 
has effected all of the improvements which 
we see to-day upon his place, and which in 
their character speak in a forcible manner 
of his industry and perservance. 

Mr. Moor was born in Cedar county, 
Iowa, February 14, 1857, and is a son of 
J. W. Moor, who was born in Ohio, July 5, 
1826, and was educated in that state. In 
early life the latter married Miss Mary Ann 
Humphrey, also a native of Ohio, born in 
Columbiana county, December 25, 1830. 
During pioneer days the}' removed to Cedar 
count}', Iowa, where at the outbreak of the 
Civil war the father enlisted in Company 
C, Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
and after three years of arduous and faith- 
ful service on southern battle fields he was 
honorably discharged. He then returned 
to his family. He was called from this life 
June 13, 1886, at the age of sixty years, 
his remains being interred in the cemetery 
at Buckley, Iroquois county, Illinois. He 
was a true and earnest Christian, a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was 
held in high esteem by all who knew him. 
The wife and mother is also a devout and 
faithful member of that church. Her chil- 
dren-Francis L. died in infancy; William M. 
resides in Colorado, John H., Joseph P., 
Mary L. in Illinois; James W., Marion W., 
George W., Harry F. and America A., all 
of whom are now residents of Nebraska. 
Marion W. and George W. are soldiers in 
the volunteer service of the United States at 
Manila. — Marion W. in Company F, First 
Idaho Infantry, George W. in Company F, 
First Colorado Infantry. 

The early education of Joseph P. Moor 
was acquired in the common schools, but 
that was supplemented by seven months at 
Grand Prairie Seminary, and at the age of 
nineteen years commenced teaching school, 
a profession which he successfully followed 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



r45 



for two years. He then went to Colorado 
and worked in the mining regions for about 
eight years. On the 1 2th of October, 1881, 
he was united in marriage with Miss Rachel 
W. Perry, a native of Logan county, Illi- 
nois, who died in Colorado, December 21, 
1 88 1, after a brief married life of fourteen 
months, and her remains were taken, by 
our subject, back to Pike county, Illinois, 
and interred beside her mother. He re- 
turned to Colorado, and in 1886 was called 
to Illinois by the serious illness of his 
father, who died shortly after his arrival. 

In the spring of 1887, Mr. Moor came 
to Nebraska and rented a farm, which he 
operated for some time, his mother acting 
as his housekeeper. Subsequentl}" he again 
spent a short time in Colorado, but since 
then has made his home uninterruptedly in 
this state. On section 13, Belle Prairie 
township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, he 
purchased his present farm, consisting of 
one hundred and si.xty acres of fine 
prairie land, pleasantly located only 
a short distance from Ohiowa. He has 
placed the land under a high state of culti- 
vation and made many improvements there- 
on, so that it is now one of the best farms 
in the locality. 

Mr. Moor was again married, March 
25, 1891, his second union being with Miss 
Pauline Grone, who was then living in 
Belle Prairie township, whither her parents 
had moved from Iowa. She was born in 
Wisconsin, November 10, 1859, and was 
educated in the common schools of that 
state and Iowa. She learned the trade of 
dressmaking and followed that occupation 
for several years. Her father, John F. 
Grone, was born in Bremen, Germany, Oc- 
tober 14, 1823. Mrs. Moor's father began 
his education in the schools of his native 
city, and after coming to the United States, 
in 1837, he attended the Duquesne street 
school, New York city, where he became 
familiar with the English language. After 



leaving school he learned the tailor's trade 
and followed that occupation while he re- 
mained in New York. From the east he 
removed to Wisconsin at an early day and 
there followed farming. He was a success- 
ful farmer and stock raiser and for twenty- 
five consecutive years held office in his 
township. On the 26th of December, 1849, 
he wedded Miss Wilhelmina Albertus, a 
daughter of Carl H. and Christina (Becker) 
Albertus, also natives of Germany. Mr. 
and Mrs. Grone are now living retired in 
Bruning, Nebraska, and are highly esteemed 
by a large circle of friends and acquaint- 
ances, who appreciate their sterling worth 
and many excellencies of character. Re- 
ligiously they are members of the German 
Evangelical Association. Their children 
are Johanna Carolina, Christina Augustine, 
John F., Paulina A., wife of our subject; 
Mary M., Arthur U., Wilhelm H., George 
W. and Franz J. 

Mr. and Mrs. Moor have three very 
bright, loving children, namely: Wilson 
Frederick, Russell Albertus and Mary Hazel. 
The parents are both faithful members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, with which 
they have been connected for several years. 
Socially, Mr. Moor is a member of the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen, and politi- 
cally is identified with the Republican party. 
He served as supervisor of Belle Prairie 
township in 1894 and 1895, and his duties, 
both public and private, have always been 
most faithfully and conscientiously per- 
formed. He and his wife are both widely 
and favorably known, and are very popular 
and influential in the circle in which they 
move. 



CHARLES P. STEPHENSON, a repre- 
sentative and prominent agriculturist of 
precinct F, Seward county, is a veteran of 
the Civil war and bears an honorable record 
for brave service in the cause of freedom 



746 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and union, and in the paths of peace he has 
also won an enviable reputation through 
the sterling qualities which go to the mak- 
ing of a good citizen. 

Mr. Stephenson is a native of Illinois, 
his birth occurring in Madison county, 
August 2, 1842. His parents, Preston B. 
and Nancy (Ready) Stephenson, were born 
in Kentucky and Virginia respectively. 
They removed to Illinois at an early day, 
and there spent the remaining years of their 
lives. They reared a family of six children, 
four sons and two daughters. The paternal 
grandfather, Robert Stephenson, was a 
native of Kentucky. The father died De- 
cember 24, 1 88 1, and the mother passed 
away July 2Sth, 1883. 

The subject of this sketch, who was the 
only one of the family to come to Nebraska, 
grew to manhood in Illinois, his education 
being obtained in a primitive log school- 
house. At an early age he began to assist 
in the labors of the home farm, and contin- 
ued to engage in agricultural pursuits until 
he attained the age of twenty years. In 
August, 1862, however, he donned the blue 
and offered his services to his country, be- 
coming a member of Company D, One 
Hundred and Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry. He took part in the battles of 
Queen's Hill, Fort Dursia, Pleasant Hill, 
Clouterville, Lousiana, Marksville Plains, 
Yellow Bayou, Lake Chicot, Arkansas, 
Tupelo, Mississippi, Old Town Creek and 
Hurricane Creek, Mississippi, Franklin, Mis- 
souri, Nashville, Tennessee, and the siege 
of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. Though 
in many hotly contested battles he was 
never wounded, and when hostilities ceased 
he was honorably discharged August 5, 1865, 
with the rank of sergeant, which he had won 
by meritorious conduct on field of battle. 

Returning to his Illinois home, Mr. 
Stephenson remained there until the fall of 
1868, when he removed to Logan county, 
the same state. He lived there until 1883, 



which year witnessed his arrival in Seward 
county, Nebraska, where he bought the 
farm on which he has since resided. It 
now consists of four hundred acres under 
a high state of cultivation and improved 
with good buildings, which stand as monu- 
ments to his thrift and enterprise. He has 
never regretted his removal to this state 
and has an abiding faith in its future wel- 
fare. In his political affiliations he is a Re- 
publican, and fraternally he is an honored 
member of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

On the 24th of October, 1867, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Stephenson and 
Miss Susan S. Sisson, who was born in Illi- 
nois, and is a daughter of John W. and 
Martha J. (Eaton) Sisson, the former a na- 
tive of \'irginia, the latter of Kentucky. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson have become the 
parents of four sons, namely: Charles I., 
Oscar H., Thomas B. and Ralph W., all 
living. Mrs. Stephenson's great-grand- 
father, was Henry Eaton, a native of Wales, 
born in 1750; was a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary war and settled in Philadelphia in 
1773, and died in 1782. The grandfather 
of our subject was Robert Stephenson, a 
native of Kentucky, who removed to 
Waynesville, Illinois, and died at that 
place. He was a farmer and stock raiser. 
He married Miss Harrison, a cousin of Will- 
iam Henry Harrison. He raised thirteen 
children and gave the most of them a college 
education, and some of them entered the 
ministry and others practiced medicine and 
law. His maternal grandfather was Charles 
Ready, who was a son of Charles and Mary 
(Robinson) Ready. They were natives of 
Virginia. His wife was Sarah Mason and 
her parents were Gilbert and Sarah (Dale) 
Mason. Gilbert Mason died about 1776, 
aged fifty years. 

Mrs. Stephenson's paternal great-great- 
grandfather was Bryant Sisson, a native of 
England, and died in 1771. His son, Ca- 
leb Sisson, came to the United States and 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHK 



747 



settled in Botetourt county, Virginia. He 
in turn had five sons, thi'ee of whom were 
in the American Revolution. His son Abner 
was the grandfather of Mrs. Stephenson. He 
had two sons; one of these, John \\'., moved 
to Kentucky with his mother in about 1825, 
but died in Illinois, December 27, 18S6. 
Mrs. Stephenson's maternal grandfather 
was Thomas Eaton, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania; he was born in 1780, and died in 
Madison county, Illinois, in 1849. He 
married Sarah King. They had three sons 
and three daughter that grew to man and 
womanhood. 



ANDREW KING, one of the most pros- 
perous and wealthy citizens of Belle 
Prairie township, his home being on section 
14, has through his own exertions attained 
an honorable position and marked prestige 
among the representative agriculturists of 
Fillmore county, and with signal consistency 
it may be said that he is the architect of his 
own fortunes and one whose success amply 
justifies the application of the somewhat 
hackneyed but most expressive title, ' 'a 
self-made man." 

Mr. King was born in Bloomfield, Picka- 
way county, Ohio, in 1838, and is a son of 
Andrew King, Sr. , a native of France, who 
when a young man emigrated to America 
and here married Miss Magdalena Hook. To 
them were born five children, but only three 
are now living: Elizabeth, Augustus and An- 
drew. Our subject received only a limited 
common-school education, as his father 
died when he was young and he was early 
thrown upon his own resources for a liveli- 
hood. He went to Illinois and there en- 
listed in the Union service for ninety days, 
subject to a three years' call, and when 
hostilities ceased he received an honorable 
discharge. 

At the close of the Civil war, Mr. King 
returned to Illinois, and there married Miss 



Amanda E. Gray, who died in the prime of 
life and was laid to rest in the Monticello 
cemetery, in that state. She was a devoted 
wife and affectionate mother, and left a fam- 
ily of five children, besides her husband, to 
mourn her loss. They are as follows: 
James E. married Louisa Davison and lives 
at Decatur, Illinois; Susan A. S. is the wife 
of William Coberlej', of Sturges, Missouri; 
William E. is a successful teacher; Richard 
I. also taught school for some time, but is 
now a skilled dentist and artist, residing in 
Chicago; he married Daisy Means; and Shel- 
don C. , a farmer. 

In Missouri, Mr. King was again mar- 
ried, March 21, 1887, his second union be- 
ing with Miss Mary Josephine Regnold, a 
teacher of instrumental music, who was 
born in New Jersey, October 27, 1850, and 
was educated in Illinois. Her parents, Am- 
brose and Rosina (Cook) Regnold, the for- 
mer a native of France and the latter a na- 
tive of Germany, came to the United States 
and were married in New Jersey, where 
they purchased a small farm. Of the ten 
children born to them eight are still living, 
namely: Charles A.; William H. ; Mary J., 
wife of our subject; Carolina; Mary Anna; 
Joseph A. ; John M. and Ella B. From the 
east the parents removed to Piatt county, 
Illinois, where the father purchased 160 
acres of land and engaged in farming and 
working at the mason's trade. He died at 
at the age of fifty-eight years, but the mo- 
ther is still living on the old homestead in 
that county at the age of seventy-four. Both 
were devoted Christians and were highly 
respected by all who knew them. 

Immediately after his second marriage, 
Mr. King came to Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and on section 14, Belle Prairie 
township, he purchased a quarter section of 
land for $3,800. It was then only partially 
improved, but to its further development 
and cultivation he has since devoted his 
energies with most gratifying results. As 



748 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHl' 



his financial resources have increased, he 
has extended the boundaries of his farm, 
until now he has 400 acres of the finest land 
in Belle Prairie township, ail acquired 
through his own labor, economy and good 
management. He has made many excel- 
lent improvements upon his home farm — 
the first quarter-section purchased — so that 
it is now valued at $8,000. Although am- 
ply able to lay aside all business cares and 
live retired, he is too energetic for so idle 
an existence and still continues to success- 
fully manage his magnificent farm. Politi- 
cally he is a stanch Democrat. He has 
won the admiration and esteem of all who 
know him by the success that he has achieved 
and by his upright, honorable life. 



FLETCHER DEAL, manager of the 
Fillmore County Poor Farm, was born 
December 7, 1855, in Jackson county, 
Ohio. He was reared in that county, and 
received his education in the common 
schools, and acquired such an education as 
the meager advantages of the schools af- 
forded, but as he was of a practical turn, 
he managed to fit himself in a fair way for 
the struggle with the world. He remained 
in Ohio until 1876, when he went to Peoria, 
Illinois, and after a two-years' stay in that 
place came to Fillmore county, in Novem- 
ber, 1878. On his arrival here he at first 
started working by the month on a farm, 
but later rented a farm and started farming 
on his own account. He remained here for 
some time, but finally removed to Illinois, 
but on December 7, 1882, he again returned 
to Fillmore county, and after a stay of a few 
years, in 1885 moved, with his family, to 
Sheridan county, Kansas, and there pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres of land, 
paying $1,000 for it. He soon became dis- 
satisfied with life in Kansas, and came back 
to Fillmore county and was elected as over- 
seer of the poor farm in 1889 and also in 



1890. He held this position until 1892, 
when he was retired. He removed to Gos- 
per county, Nebraska, and there bought a 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres of raw 
land and paid $1,600 for it. 

After living on this farm for three years, 
by request of the board of supervisors of 
Fillmore county, he again came back and 
took charge of the institution, and since 
that time has had the same position. Under 
his successful management, the county 
farm, which consists of one hundred and 
sixty acres of land, has been well stocked 
and placed in a high state of cultivation. 
This institution, while under the supervision 
of Mr. Deal, is under direct control of the 
county board of supervisors. The home 
was started in 1878, and at different times 
has been under the management of the fol- 
lowing people: Cyrus Macey, two years; 
A. D. Stephens, six years; J. C. Coburn, 
eighteen months; Elmer Vincent, eighteen 
months; O. D. Southerland, three years, and 
Fletcher Deal has held the office for eight 
years at different periods. On December 
9, 1890, the main house was entirely de- 
stroyed by fire, but soon after was replaced 
by a more modern building. Our subject 
was the son of James and Nellie Ann (Wat- 
son) Deal, who were married in Ohio. To 
their union were born eight children, of 
which number Fletcher was the third. 
James Deal is still living, and is now resid- 
ing in Peoria, now seventy years old, but 
the mother is dead, having lived to be 
forty-five years of age. On December 12, 
1882., Mr. Deal was united in marriage to 
Miss Liddie L. Shreffler, who was a daugh- 
ter of Edmund J. and Mary E. (Saylor) 
Shreffler, who were native of Pennsylvania, 
but who removed to Illinois, and later in 
1870, removed to Fillmore county, and took 
up a homestead of one hundred and sixty 
acres, three miles west of Geneva, and 
upon which they have continued to live 
since that time. To them were born twelve 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



749 



children, of whom Liddie L. was the sixth, 
and was born October ii, 1864. To 
the marriage of our subject there have 
been born five children: James, who is 
now fifteen years of age; William Anson, 
thirteen years of age; Aaron W. , eight years 
of age; Mary Luella. who died at the age 
of three years; and Minnie Manilla Fayetta, 
six months of age. By his strict adherence 
to duty, by the careful management of the 
office entrusted to his care, Mr. Deal has 
won the respect of all who know him. 



WILLIAM PRICE.— It is quite interest- 
ing to observe, in noting the various 
members of a community, how they are 
gathered together from different countries, 
states and localities, and how well usually 
they combine to form an intelligent and 
prosperous community. The subject of 
this sketch is a native of Wales, born June 
9, 1 86 1, aud is to-day one of the leading 
and prosperous agriculturists of New York 
township, York county. A sketch of his 
father, Benjamin Price, appears elsewhere 
in this volume. 

At the age of seven years William Price 
was brought by his parents to the United 
States, and for three years they made their 
home in Green county, Wisconsin, where 
he pursued his studies in the public schools. 
In the spring of 1872 the family came to 
York county, Nebraska, and the father took 
up a homestead in New York township, 
where our subject was reared to manhood 
amid pioneer scenes. When quite young 
he began herding cattle for his father, which 
occupation he continued to follow for four 
years, and then worked on the home farm 
until he attained the age of twenty-three 
years. The following four years he rented 
the place and continued to operate rented 
land for about ten years. In 1S92 he pur- 
chased an eighty-acre farm in New York 
township, which he sold in the fall of 1897. 



He now lives on section 33, and is success- 
fully engaged in general farming and stock 
raising. 

In York county, in 1885, was celebrated 
the marriage of Mr. Price and Miss Sarah 
J. George, a daughter of Edward and Jane 
George, both natives of Wales, who, on 
coming to America, settled in Wisconsin, 
and in 1881 came to Nebraska. The chil- 
dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Price are as fol- 
lows: Annie O. ; Minnie O., deceased; 
Charles William; Ray B. ; Harold M., and 
Bessie J. The parents and children are all 
consistent members of the Church of God, 
and in his social relations Mr. Price is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica. His political support is always given 
the men and measures of the Republican 
party, but he has never cared for the hon- 
ors or emoluments of public office, prefer- 
ring to give his undivided attention to his 
business interests. He has prospered in his 
business ventures and has also gained the 
good will and friendship of all with whom 
he has had business relations by his honor- 
able dealing and courteous manner. 



WILLIAM WALLACE COX.— The 
subject of this sketch was born in 
Cattaraugus county, New York, November 
12, 1832, and was named for the great Scot- 
tish chief. In 1835 his father and mother, 
Mordeci and Catherine Cox, removed to 
what was then the wilderness of Sangamon 
county, Illinois, and after a couple of 
months the father died, and the widowed 
mother soon moved with her children to 
Green county, Wisconsin, near Monroe, 
where she died in 1838 On her dying bed 
gave young William to the care of James 
Hawthorn, a wealthy and respected neighbor, 
with whom he lived until he was eleven 
years of age, when he went to live with 
some relatives. Mr. Cox is a well educated 
man, having attended Monroe seminary of 



r50 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Wisconsin, and from there became a student 
in Oberlin College of Ohio, and later at 
Knox college of Galesburg, Illinois. From 
1850 to 1855 he was prominently connected 
with the public school system of Illinois, 
occupying a high rank as an educator. He 
came west in 1858, and, after several moves, 
finally settled in Seward county, where he 
took up a homestead. For many years he 
was engaged in business in Seward, and al- 
ways occupied a high position in the minds 
of the people of his city and county. Po- 
litically he has always been an ardent Re- 
publican, but has never aspired to any office, 
but has always taken an active part in any 
matters pertaining to the welfare of his 
county and state. 



RICHARD B. PRICE is associated with 
the early history of Thayer township, 
and has a wide acquaintance throughout 
York county, where he sustains the charac- 
ter of a hard working and upright man. He 
came to this country in 1871 with twenty- 
five cents in his pockets, which represented 
his entire cash capital, and by industry, 
thrift and business sagacity, has gained his 
present enviable standing. 

Mr. Price was born in Radnorshire, 
Wales, February 21, 1842, and was a son 
of Benjamin and Ann Price, mention of 
whom appears in this volume in connection 
with the name of Thomas Price. He re- 
ceived his education in his native land, and 
at an early age undertook his own support. 
He was bred to farming, and in 1866 cross- 
ed the ocean to continue that industrj- in 
this country. He found employment in 
Green county, Wisconsin. After a stay of 
four years in that state, he located on the 
York county farm which he now owns and 
occupies. It is on section 26, and it was a 
homestead entry of eighty acres. His first 
home was a dug-out overlooking the creek. 
This gave way to a log house, and he now 



dwells in an elegant frame mansion. His 
original modest holding of real estate has 
been increased to five hundred and si.xty 
acres of good land, the greater part of 
which is under cultivation. He gives his 
personal attention to all the details of farm- 
ing and stock raising. He yearly markets 
from three to five cars of stock and at least 
one car of hogs. 

Mr. Price was married in Wisconsin to 
Miss Susan Edmunds. She is a daughter of 
John and Ellen Edmunds, who were Welsh 
compatriots with her husband. They em- 
igrated to the United States in 1855, and 
make their home in the state in which their 
daughter was married. The mother died 
there, but the father came to Nebraska, and 
died in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Price are 
the parents of seven children, John R., 
Abraham A., Benjamin T., Elner N., David 
William, Susan M., and Elfie B. They 
are all living, and, with their parents, are 
closely identified with the York' Baptist 
church. He is a stanch Republican, and 
has served as justice of the peace for many 
years. For twenty-five years he was a 
member of the school board, and chairman 
of the town. He is a Mason and Modern 
Woodman, and holds the esteem of his 
neighbors much beyond the common aver- 
age. 



FREDERICK C. JOHNSON and his 
wife, Sarah Johnson, are justly entitled 
to prominent mention in the history of this 
section of the state, for no couple have 
taken a more active part in its development 
and prosperity. It has been said that only 
those lives are worthy of record that have 
been potential factors in the public progress 
in promoting the general welfare, or ad- 
vancing the educational or moral interests 
of the community. During the thirty-six 
years that Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been 
residents of Butler county they have ac- 



CGMPESDILM OF BIOGRA/'J/ 1: 



Fol 



■complishecl much a?ons these Jines, and 
have made an honorable record, which is 
well worthy of perpetuation. Their home 
is now on section 29, Platte township. 

Mr. Johnson was born March 21, 1833, 
in Hartford, Coisnecticut, a son of Cariiii 
and Urana Johnson, and in that state re- 
mained until he attained his majority, when 
he removed to Winnebago county, Illinois. 
There he was married, in 1856, to Miss 
Sarah Hobart, a native of \'erniont, born 
in Essex, Chittenden county. May 30, 1S36, 
and a daughter of Jehiel and Mandana Ho- 
bart, and a granddaughter of David Ho- 
bart. Her father was a native of Canada. 
In 1847 Mrs. Johnson removed with her 
parents to Winnebago county, Illinois, and 
there she made her home until coming to 
Nebraska. 

In the spring of 1859, Mr. Johnson 
started on a trip to Pike's Peak, but on reach- 
ing a point on the old military road opposite 
Linwood, on the Platte river, he decided to 
abandon the journey, for so many people 
were returning with unfavorable reports of 
the milling operation at that place. Being 
favorably impressed with the Platte Valley, 
he remained here and sent for his family, 
who arrived in the fall of i860. They lived 
on the north side of the river until Xovem- 
ber, 1862, when they located in what is now 
Butler county, but before it was organized. 
Thus it will be seen that Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnson were among the \ery first white 
settlers of this region. In 1868 the first 
post-office in the county was established at 
Linwood and he was appointed postmaster 
and his wife deputy. It was she who 
named the post-office Linwood, and it was 
through her efforts that a mail route was 
established between Ashland and this point, 
the service thus rendered being of inestima- 
ble benefit to the early settlers. In 1865 
she taught the first school in Butler county, 
in her own home near the present village 

of Linwood. and in the fall of 18G7, when 
43 



the school districts Nos. i and 3 were organ- 
i.zed, she became the iirst teacher in dis- 
trict No. I, and Tabitha \'anderkolk, after- 
ward Mrs. James \'. Wood, was given 
charge of the other. 

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have no children 
of their own, but have an adopted son, — 
Charles H. Johnson, now twenty-one years 
of age, who recently enlisted in Company 
C, Second Nebraska V'olunteer Infantr\', for 
service in the war with Spain. He was 
taken to their home during infancy and 

1 knows no other parents. The first church 

[ in Butler county was a Congregational 
«church organized in Savannah precinct in 

j 1869, with thirteen members, among whom 
were Mr. and Mrs. lohnson, who have 
always taken an active and prominent part 
in all church work. They also give their 

] support to every worthy enterprise calculat- 
ed to prove of public benefit, or that will in 
any way advance the general welfare. They 
are widely and favorably known, and it is 
safe to say that no couple in Butler county 
have more friends or are more deserving of 
the high regard in which they are held. In 
politics Mr. Johnson is a Republican, and 
was present at the first election held in the 
county. 



FRANCIS M. DENMAN, a well-known 
citizen of Belle Prairie township. Eill- 
more county, Nebraska, residing on section 
32, eminently deserves classification among 
those purely self-made men who have dis- 
tinguished themselves for their abilitv to 
master the opposing forces of life and to 
wrest from fate a large measure of success 
and an honorable name. He had his na- 
tivity encompassed by those environments 
which have ever fostered the spirit of per- 
sonal independence and self-reliance which 
have furnished the bulwarks of our national 
prosperity. 

Mr. Denman was born on a farm in 



752 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Miami county, Ohio, February 12, 1839, 
and is a son of Abraham and Margaret 
(Stickels) Denman, who were born, reared 
and married in Hamihon county, Ohio. 
They died at the ages of eighty and fifty 
years, respectively, and were laid to rest in 
the cemetery at Fletcher, Miami county, 
Ohio. They were devoted Christians, highly 
esteemed by all who knew them, and had 
many friends. To them were born eight 
children, but only two are now living, 
namely: Hiram, who is living retired in 
Miami county, Ohio; and Francis M., our 
subject. 

During his boyhood, Francis M. Den- 
man received only a limited common-school 
education, and to agricultural pursuits he 
devoted his attention uninterruptedly until 
twenty-two years of age. At Camp Doug- 
las, Chicago, on the fifth of October, 1861, 
he enrolled his name among the boys in 
blue of Company I, of the Fifty-fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Jnfantry, under Captian J. C. 
Crooker and Colonel David Stewart. With 
the army of the Tennessee he took an active 
part in the following engagements: Shiloh, 
siege of Corinth, Chickasaw Bayou, Russell 
House. Arkansas Post, Haines Bluffs, 
Champion Hills, siege of Vicksburg, the re- 
lief of Knoxville, siege of Jackson, the bat- 
tle of Kenesaw Mountain, Missionary 
Ridge, Fort McAllister, Savannah and Clin- 
ton. He participated in the siege of Atlanta, 
where he was wounded in the left leg on July 
22, 1864, the battles of Jonesboro, Colum- 
bia and Bentonville, and was with Sherman 
on his march through Georgia and the Caro- 
linas. On the first of November, 1864, he 
was made fourth sergeant of Company I, 
Fifty-fifth Illinois regiment, and served in 
that capacity until mustered out at Little 
Rock, Arkansas, August 14, 1S65. He was 
present at the grand review in Washing- 
ton, D. C, and while there visited the 
tombs of George and Martha Washington 
at Mount Vernon, Virginia. 



After his discharge from the service, Mr. 
Denman returned to his home in Miami 
county, Ohio, where he resumed farming. 
On the 2d of September, 1867, at Havana, 
Illinois, he led to the marriage altar Miss 
Julia A. McKnight, who was born November 
2, 1846, and was educated in the common 
schools. Her parents, John and Martha 
(Giffin) McKnight, were natives of Ohio, 
where their marriage was celebrated. To 
them were born nine children, of whom 
Sarah and an infant son died in Illinois. 
Those still living are Nancy M., Mary E., 
Julia, Martha, Eliza, Harriet and Josiah. 
The father died in Mason county, Illinois, 
at the age of sixty-five years, but the 
mother is still living on the home farm 
there at the ripe old age of eighty-five. The 
four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Den- 
man are as follows: Albert J., a young 
man of rare ability and sterling qualities, 
graduated from the Fremont Business Col- 
lege at the time T. R. Hamlin was presi- 
dent of that institution, and is now success- 
fully managing the home farm for his par- 
ents. Ella is the wife of Erwin Cook and 
they now reside in Lincoln, Nebraska. 
Mattie is the wife of Samuel Wells, a 
farmer of Thayer county, this state. John 
F. , the youngest of the family, received his 
education at the Bruning high-school, and 
the Lincoln Business College, and is now 
successfully engaged in teaching school in 
Thayer county. 

On the 15th of February, 1866, Mr. 
Denman removed from Ohio to Mason coun- 
ty, Illinois, where he engaged in farming 
for fourteen years. He came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, February 20, 18S0, and 
in Belle Prairie precinct has since improved 
a homestead which stands as a monument 
to his thrift and industry. Although on his 
arrival here he was in rather limited circum- 
stances, he is now the owner of two hun- 
dred and forty acres of the finest farming 
land in the township. As to improvements, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



r53 



it is also equal to any, and is stocked with 
the finest and best breeds of horses, cattle 
and hogs. Besides this property, Mr. Den- 
man owns some valuable town lots in Gene- 
va, the county seat of Fillmore county. 
He is now practically retired, surrounded 
by all the comforts and many of the luxu- 
ries of life, all of which have been acquired 
through his own good management and ex- 
cellent business ability. Politically he is 
independent, voting for the men and meas- 
ures that he believes will best advance the 
interests of the public. He cast his first 
presidential ballot for Stephen A. Douglas 
in i860. In manner he is pleasant and 
genial, and all who know him esteem him 
highly for his genuine worth. Mr. Denman 
has preserved as a war relic, a genuine 
hardtack of i860 fame, and this he now 
has nicely framed. 



JAMES D. THOMPSON.— In the great 
and fertile west are some prosperous 
farmers who bring to their calling rare busi- 
ness skill and excellent judgment, and some 
of the most enterprising of these may be 
found in York county, Nebraska. Among 
them is Mr. Thompson, who to-day is one 
of the leading agriculturists of Stewart 
township, his home being on section 23. 
He was born in Huron county, Ohio, March 
25, 1852, a son of John W. and Rosanna 
(Davis) Thompson, the former a native of 
Stark county, Ohio, the latter of Pennsyl- 
vania. They were married in the Buckeye 
state, and in Huron county the father 
cleared and improved a farm. He died in 
1 86 1, but his wife is still a resident of that 
county. To them were born eleven chil- 
dren, namely: Frederick; Elizabeth; Sarah, 
deceased; David, a resident of Antelope 
county, Nebraska; Aaron, of Chicago Junc- 
tion, Ohio; John, of Michigan, Jane, of 
Wisconsin; Hannah, of Clearwater, Ne- 
braska; Martha and Eliza, both deceased; 



and James D. The parents were both 
earnest members of the Church of God. 

Reared on a farm in his native county, 
James D. Thompson obtained his education 
in the district schools of the neigh- 
borhood. After the death of his father, he 
staid largely with his brothers and sisters, 
and in order to earn a livelihood worked 
as a farm hand. In 1872 he was united in 
marriage with Miss Ida Estella Decker, of 
Huron county. Her parents, Simeon and 
Jane (Devinney) Decker, were early settlers 
of that county, where the father cleared and 
developed a farm. He now makes his home 
in Seneca county, Ohio, but his wife is de- 
ceased. Their children were George, Ida 
Estella, Peter, and Melvin, deceased. Of 
the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Thompson, five are still living: Nettie R. , 
now the wife of George Lanphere, by whom 
he has one child, Leonard; Simeon J.; 
Floyd J.; Clarence; Tillie, and Owen J., 
dead. 

After his marriage Mr. Thompson lived 
in Henry county, Ohio, for six years, and 
then emigrated to Nebraska, taking up his 
residence November 19, 1877, on section 
26, Stewart township, York county, on Lin- 
coln creek. The farm was nearly all wild 
land, on which a sod house, 14JX16, feet had 
been erected, but in the spring of 1878 a 
frame house, 9x 16 feet and six feet high, 
was built, and in the fall another sod house 
was constructed on eighty acres of railroad 
land in Seward county, where the family 
lived for a year and a half. In 1880, Mr. 
Thompson purchased^ his present farm, of 
which thirty acres had been broken, and a 
rough frame house erected thereon. He 
now has two hundred and eighty acres, of 
which two hundred and fifty are under cul- 
tivation and improved, with an excellent 
set of farm buildings, good fences, trees, 
etc., which stand as monuments to his 
thrift and industry. The first winter spent 
in York county he had-but five dollars with 



754 



COMPEXDIC.U OF BlOGRArilV 



which to pay all expenses, but by industr\', 
perseverance and a determination to suc- 
ceed, he has steadily prospered, until to-day 
he is one of the well-to-do and substantial 
citizens of his community. Socially he is a 
member of the A. O. U. W. , Xo. 152, of 
Greshani, and both he and his wife are 
members of the Degree of Honor, while po- 
litically he is identified with the Republican 
party, and has most capably filled the 
offices of treasurer of the school district for 
three years, and has been a member of the 
school board for eighteen years. 



TE. DOAN, whose home is on section 
22, Stewart township York county, is a 
worthy representative of one of the promi- 
nent and highly respected pioneer families of 
the county. They were among the first to 
locate, here and in the development and 
prosperity of this region they have been im- 
portant factors. Our subject's father, 
David Doan, was born in Indiana, Novem- 
24, 1832, and when a young man removed 
to Lee county, Iowa. In that state he mar- 
ried Nancy Hiatt, who was born in Ohio, 
in 183 1, and on coming west located in 
Henry county, Iowa, .\fter their marriage 
they resided in Henry and Lee counties, 
Iowa, until 1858, when they removed to 
Linn county, Kansas, where the father 
broke and improved about si.xty acres of 
wild land. Upon his farm was also some 
timber. After the Civil war broke out he 
was obliged to leave Kansas, and after 
spending some time in Iowa, he came to 
York county, Nebraska, in 1868, locating 
on the east half of the southeast quarter of 
section 26, Stewart township. On coming 
to the county he was accompanied by 
James Stewart, who settled on the west 
half of the southeast quarter of section 22 — 
the farm on which our subject now resides. 
They were the only white settlers in the 
township at that time, but Indians were 



still (juite numerous, and wild animals, such 
as elk, antelope, deer and buffalo, were 
plentiful. After building a log house upon 
his place, Mr. Doan broke twelve acres of 
land and raised some sod corn; in iSGghe 
raised a small crop of wheat, and broke 
more land for sod corn. His nearest neigh- 
bor at that time was two miles and a half 
distant in Seward county; his market was 
Nebraska City, ninety miles away; no rail- 
roads had been constructed, and the base- 
ment of the capitol at Lincoln had just been 
commenced. He continued the improve- 
ment and cultivation of his homestead until 
1893, when he sold the place and removed 
to Nuckolls county, Nebraska, where he 
purchased an improved farm, and still con- 
tinues to make his home. He was a mem- 
ber of the Home Guards in Kansas, and by 
birthright both he and his wife are members 
of the Society of Friends. Their children 
are T. E., Mrs. Margaret J. Moore; Edgar; 
Mrs. Ollie Donovan, and Francis. 

Mr. Doan, whose name introduces this 
review, was born in Henry county, Iowa, 
June 19, 1853, and was fifteen years old 
when brought by his parents to York coun- 
ty. He attended the first district school 
conducted in Stewart township, and was 
early inured to the arduous labors of trans- 
forming wild land into productive and well 
cultivated fields. On attaining his major- 
ity he started out to fight life's battles for 
himself, and after one year spent in Iowa, 
located permanently in York county, .\fter 
his marriage he rented land on section 26, 
Stewart township, and later moved to the 
east half of the northeast quarter of the 
same section, where he made his home 
until 1887. He then purchased his present 
farm, and now has one hundred and si.xty 
acres under a high slate of cultivation, with 
the exception of eighteen acres, and is suc- 
cessfully engaged in general farniing and 
stock raising. 

In April, 1879, was celebrated the mar- 



COMPEiVD/rM OF BIOGRArin: 



r55 



riage of Mr. Doan and Miss Ella May Hen- 
drickson, who was born in Illinois, in 1862. 
Her parents, Henry and Margaret Hen- 
drickson, came to York county, Nebraska, 
about 1871 or 1872, and settled near Waco, 
but later removed to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, where their deaths occurred. Eight 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Doan, but the eldest, Arthur, died at the 
age of twelve years. Those living are 
Nancy Alice, Mabel, Ellen, Elmer, Maude, 
Clarkson and Rhuie. 

Socially, Mr. Doan affiliates with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen at 
Gresham, and the Masonic order at York; 
politically, he is independent, preferring 
not to be bound by party ties. He is now 
efSciently serving as treasurer of school 
district No. 35, and his duties of citizen- 
ship are always most faithfully and con- 
scientiously discharged. 



WILLIAM ARMSTRONG COLLIER, 
one of Nebraska's old settlers, and 
the owner of one of the finest farms in N 
township, Seward county, was born Sep- 
tember 1 6, 1836, in Licking county, Ohio, 
a son of Josephus and Nancy (Sells) Col- 
lier. His maternal grandparents were 
Samuel and Helen Sells. The Colliers are 
of Scotch-Irish descent and the Sells are 
German. 

Our subject lived with his parents until 
he was twenty-two years of age and then 
began the battle of life on his own respon- 
sibilit}'. In August, 1861, he enlisted in 
Company E, Thirtieth Ohio Volunteer 
Infantry, for a term of three years. The 
captain of this company was Elijah War- 
ner, and Colonel Hugh Ewing commanded 
the regiment. For eighteen months his 
regiment guarded the Kanawha Valley, which 
contained the great salt works of the state 
and were of great value to the Union armies. 
He then joined the army of the Potomac, 



which was under the command of General 
Pope, and took part in the second battle of 
Bull Run. From there he went with the 
command to Washington and was stationed 
at Upton Hill for the purpose of defending 
the capital. Here the army was reorgan- 
ized and General McClellan was again 
placed at the head, and soon after the reg- 
iment to which our subject belonged and 
several others were ordered to Frederick 
City, Maryland, which up to this time was 
in the possession of the enemy. From 
there the}' were ordered to South Mountain, 
and after this place was taken, they were 
sent in pursuit of General Lee and encoun- 
tered and defeated his army at Antietam. 
From this point they were sent to guard 
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad for a time, 
and from there they returned to Kanawha 
Valley. The command ne.xt went to Vicks- 
burg, and there our subject was engaged in 
the construction of the cut-off canal that 
was dug with a view to making Vicksburg 
an inland town. After the surrender of 
this city, Sherman was ordered by Grant to 
pursue Johnston's army, and at camp at 
Black River Bridge, during this pursuit, our 
subject was taken with the measles and was 
sent to Young's Point hospital. As this dis- 
ease proved to be of long standing, he was 
sent home on a furlough and did not return 
for sixty days. At the end of his furlough 
he was about to re-enter the ranks, but as 
he had not yet fully recovered, he was de- 
tailed by order of General Grant to assist 
in the camp known as the Soldiers' Home, 
at Cairo, Illinois, and at this place he 
served the remainder of his term of enlist- 
ment. Upon recei\lng his discharge he im- 
mediately returned to his home in Ohio 
and found his wife engaged in teaching 
school. They were married May 15, 1864. 
March 22, 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Collier 
left Columbus, Ohio, for what was then 
known as the "Wild and wool}' West", 
and reached Nebraska City March 28. They 



756 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl". 



located on a ranch about sixteen miles west 
of that cit}', which was then a small village, 
remained there until September of the same 
year and then moved to a farm that was 
located where Milford now stands. While 
there he selected his homestead, dug a 
house in the side of the ravine, and in that 
he sheltered his family until he could cut 
and haul logs to build a log cabin. About 
four years later he traded this land for one 
hundred and sixty acres in sections 7 and 18, 
in N township, which is still his home and 
to which he later added by purchase twenty- 
five acres. When they first located in Ne- 
braska, they had plenty of everything ex- 
cept money, for they had brought with them 
a supply of provisions and clothing, but it 
was not long until this supply was exhaust- 
ed and cold and hunger were added to hard- 
ships to which settlers in a new country are 
subject. Mrs. Collier finally cut up the fine 
cloak which she brought from Ohio to make 
her husband a pair of pants. Their sur- 
roundings now are very different. Their 
farm is one of the best and the improve- 
ments upon it are quite extensive and are 
comfortable and convenient in their arrange- 
ment. It is supplied with a large orchard, 
and an artesian well from which water can 
be conveyed to all parts of the farm, and 
they are surrounded with such home com- 
forts as make life enjoyable. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Collier have been born 
six children, five of whom are now living, 
and their names in the order of their birth are 
as follows: Lilly M., the first girl baby born 
in the town of Milford; Harry W., Charles 
P., Charlotte A. and Myrtle W. The oldest 
two are married and are living near the old 
homestead, and the rest are still living with 
their parents. None of the family are mem- 
bers of any religious denomination but are 
firm supporters of the Christian religion and 
usually attend the Methodist church. Mr. 
Collier has always used his elective fran- 
chises in the support of the candidates of 



the Democratic party until the last election, 
in which he supported the candidate of the 
Republican party. 

Mrs. Collier's maiden name was Char- 
lotte Laune, a native of Ohio. Her parents, 
Rufus and Sarah Laune, came from Long 
Island and Connecticut. 



LOUIS KOSCH.— This gentleman is the 
fortunate owner of one of the fine es- 
tates of Savannah township, Butler county, 
and is well known as an agriculturist who 
is doing an extensive business. His farm 
consists of four hundred and twenty acres 
of choice land, and the buildings upon it 
are above the average in their substantial 
construction and the convenience of their 
arrangements. 

Mr. Kosch was born in Austria, June 24, 
1849, the oldest son of John Kosch. Our 
subject was the first of the family to migrate 
to America. His brother, John, followed 
him the same year, and the next year the 
rest of the family decided to try their for- 
tunes in the New World. Our subject first 
came from Hamburg to the United States 
and stopped in Philadelphia in 1876. In 
the same year he moved to Saint Paul, 
thence to Columbus, Nebraska, where he 
first worked on a farm by the month, and 
before the close of the year 1876, he located 
in Butler county. He first bought a farm 
of eighty acres in section 32, but has added 
to it from time to time as he became able 
until he now has a fine farm of four hundred 
and twenty acres, and the improvements 
upon it compare favorably with the best 
farm buildings in this section. The resi- 
dence was built in 1893 at a cost of two 
thousand dollars. 

Mr. Kosch was married in February, 
1880, to Miss Eloise Janieck, daughter of 
Frank Janieck, of Columbus, Nebraska, and 
their wedded life has been blessed by the 
advent of a family of eight children, upon 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Ihl 



whom they have bestowed the following 
names: Hermann, Anna, William, Louis, 
Rudolph, Henry, Eloise and Lottie. Mr. 
Kosch is a very pleasant neighbor, genial, 
warm-hearted, and has an agreeble family, 
and resides in one of the most hospitable 
homes of the township. He has labored 
hard on his farm to make it one of the best 
stock and grain farms in his part of the 
county, and has provided it with all modern 
equipments and conveniences, and his home 
is a place of social and mental refreshment. 
He and family are members of the Catholic 
church. 

WILLL\M M. PREUIT, whose well 
appointed farm on section 8, Waco 
township, York county, pleases the critical 
eye, belongs to the younger generation of 
Nebraska's capable and energetic farmers. 
He has been a resident of the state for 
nearly thirty years, and knows its history 
almost from the beginning. He has a quar- 
ter section of good land, and upon it he has 
erected a commodious and substantial dwell- 
ing, barn and outhouses, together with such 
other surroundings as make it a fit habita- 
tion. He is up to date in all his methods, 
and farms for profit. 

Mr. Preuit first saw the light in Wash- 
ington county, Indiana, August 8, 1851, 
and is a son of Warren and Mildred A. 
(Hogg) Preuit. His father was a native of 
Indiana, and there died while still a young 
man. His mother was from Virginia, and 
after the death of her first husband married 
Joseph Brinson, by whom she had one 
child, Joseph. The subject of this sketch 
is the only surviving child of his father, who 
died in his infancy, and he was brought up 
under the tender care of his grandfather, 
and at his home in Madison count}', Iowa. 
He had but little opportunity for schooling, 
and from the age of nineteen has entirely 
supported himself. He has a wide range of in- 
formation, but his knowledge has been mostly 



self-acquired. In 1868 he began to shift for 
himself, and the next year he came into Ne- 
braska in company with his stepfather, and 
spent some months in Nuckolls county. He 
was also in Kansas about this time, and was 
in that state some two years. He worked 
part of the time for a farmer and part of 
the time was in the employment of a trans- 
fer company in Kansas City. In 1871 he 
returned to this state and worked in several 
counties, came into York as a tracklayer for 
the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. 
In November, 1878, he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Mary L. Carpenter. She was 
a daughter of George W. and Martha E. 
(Middleton) Carpenter. She was born in 
Michigan, March 17, i860, and came into 
York county in 1S74. After their marriage 
they went on a rented farm, which they 
finally bought, and which constitutes their 
home at the present time. It is the north 
half of the southeast quarter of section 8. 
He has, at the present moment, a quarter 
section under cultivation, and has greatly 
improved his holding in recent years. He 
built the residence in which he lives, the 
farm barn and all other out-buildings. 
Years ago he suffered the destruction of almost 
all improvements by a severe fire. But he 
did not lose heart, and is farther along to- 
day, perhaps, than he would have been had 
not the fire cleared the way for reconstruc- 
tion. He has extensive orchards and fine 
young trees on the place. He follows mixed 
farming, and for the last twenty-one years 
has run a threshing machine in the fall of 
the year, and in that time has owned three 
different machines. 

Mr. and Mrs. Preuit are the parents of 
seven living children, whose names are Will- 
iam H., Amos A., Oral S., Grover C, Flor- 
ence May, Lola Ellen, and Elmer L. 
They ha\e buried one child. They are as- 
sociated with the Christian church, of 
which he is a member. He also belongs to 
the Waco Modern Woodmen and the 



758 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



Thayer Home Forum. He is a Populist, 
and is a worker for his part\-. He has been 
township committeeman for five years and 
cherishes the utmost confidence in the future 
of the free silver cause. He has been clerk 
and assessor of his own township, and 
takes a deep interest in school matters. 



FRED SCHNERINGER is known far 
and wide as one of the leading farmers 
and business men of York county, Nebraska, 
and is easily peer of the most enterprising 
characters of that enlightened and progress- 
ive region. His home is in Bradshaw, and 
he has a large and productive farm near 
that pleasant little railroad village, on which 
he had his home until a recent date. He 
knows both the theory and practice of farm- 
ing, and it will broaden the average view of a 
man to spend a half hour with him in social 
conversation. 

Mr. Schneringer was born on a farm 
near Lockridge, Jefferson county, Iowa, and 
is a son of Frederick and Rachel Schnerin- 
ger. The father came into Iowa in 1835, 
and spent the remainder of his life there, 
dying in 1S73 at the advanced age of eighty- 
two. He was a native of Strasburg, and 
in early life served in the armies of Napoleon. 
Falling into the hands of the English as a 
prisoner of war, he was offered release from 
confinement if he would join an English 
expedition just setting out for the invasion 
of America. He accepted the proposition, 
and came to this country in the English 
army, and valiantly played the part of a 
soldier. But on the establishment of peace 
in 181 5 he refused to accompany the Eng- 
lish forces back across the ocean, and, es- 
caping to the American lines, was warmly 
received, and devoted his remaining years 
to the arts of peace. He lived a long and 
useful life, and died at last at a venerable 
age, bearing the esteem and respect of his 
neighbors to the last. 



Fred Schneringer was the second child 
of his father by his second wife, and upon 
the death of his father began farming for 
himself. He was only nineteen years of 
age at that time, but he had a prompt and 
resolute character, and the following year 
he removed to Nebraska, where he pur- 
chased land ill York county, and began a 
systematic and successful farming. He se- 
cured also an old homestead right, and 
under it secured the northwest quarter of 
the southwest quarter of section 30, town- 
ship II, range 3 west. He is the propri- 
etor at the present writing of a half section 
of as good land as York county can show. 
With the enthusiasm of youth he applied 
himself to the arduous labor of making a 
home out of the i^ower-loaded prairies. He 
put up a house, broke the sod, planted trees, 
and in 1876, feeling it was not good for man 
to live alone, he went back to Iowa, and was 
married to a Miss \^eburg, who at one time 
had been a pupil in his school. Thej'came 
back to Nebraska and applied themselves 
to the work of life with a resistless deter- 
mination that was sure to command success. 
In these years he was recognized as the 
most successful wheat grower in the countr_v. 
He commanded the respect of his commu- 
nity at once, and though very young was 
chosen as a justice of peace in 1878, and 
has since been re-elected several times to 
that important office. In 18S3 the county 
adopted by a vote of the people what was 
known as the township organization, Mr. 
Schneringer was elected supervisor of his 
district, a tract of land eight miles square. 
He was made chairman of the board, though 
the youngest man upon it. He proved him- 
self an active and efficient official, and 
his name is associated with some of the 
most important events of York county. He 
secured its redistricting, and the adoption 
of a uniform area for all townships, making 
them six miles square. He named his home 
township Lockridge, after his birthplace in 




FRED SCHNERINGER. 




CARL B. SCHNERINGER 

Member Co. A, 1st Nebraska Yolunteer Infantry. 

(Bradshaw's first soldier.) 



C0MPEXDlu^^ of biographt. 



7G3 



Iowa. The business interests of the county 
had been poorly managed, and it was pay- 
ing ten per cent, interest on its obHgations. 
This rate was lowered to six per cent, 
through the interposition of Mr. Schner- 
inger. He also proposed the sale of the 
lots in the town of York which belonged to 
the county, and which would prove the be- 
ginning of a fund for the erection of a 
court house. This proposition was adopted, 
and returned such satisfactory results, that 
only a small tax was necessary to secure 
the erection of a building, which was greatly 
needed. In many other ways our subject 
has left the stamp of his personality on the 
history of the county, and has proved him- 
self a public-spirited and helpful citizen of 
the community. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schneringer are the par- 
ents of eight children, of whom six are now 
living: Carl Blaine, Emma Alice, Fred N., 
Blanch M., Claude and Clyde W. Carl 
Blaine, the oldest son, is now in the United 
States army, and is in service at the present 
time in the Philipine Islands. He is only 
eighteen years old, and was the first to en- 
list from the township of Bradshaw. He 
belongs to Company A, First Regiment, Ne- 
braska Volunteer Infantry, and, as might be 
expected, his parents are very proud of their 
"soldier laddie." Portraits of father and 
son are presented in connection with this 
sketch. 

Mr. Schneringer votes and acts with the 
People's Independent party, and. is a strong 
supporter of its principles. He believes, as 
he puts it, in a free country, freedom in 
voting, honesty in politics and in the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver. He is a 
member af the Masonic order, and belongs 
to the York Lodge. He is also a member 
of the Royal Highlanders. His wife does 
not belong to any secret order, but was an 
active and devoted member of the Congre- 
gational church in Bradshaw. When 
that church was destroyed by the cyclone of 



1890 the congregation scattered, and the 
old organization was lost. Many of the 
members united with other organiza- 
tions, but Mrs. Schneringer kept her name 
there, and preferred to be known as a Con- 
gregationalist still. With their children, 
both husband and wife are attendants upon 
religious services and contribute both time 
and money to the support of the gospel. 
In 1892 Mr. Schneringer removed to Brad- 
shaw, and has made his home in that place 
for the past six years. 



OLIVER C. WELLS, one of the vali- 
ant defenders of the Union during the 
dark days of the Civil war, and a representa- 
tive farmer of Fillmore county, residing on 
section 31, Belle Prairie precinct, was born 
in Jefferson county, Indiana, July 22, 1839, 
a son of John B. and Jane (Winchester) 
Wells, who were natives of Maryland, and 
soon after their marriage located in Indiana. 
The father, who was born in 181 3, is now 
living retired in Rock Island, Illinois, but 
the mother, who was born in 18 17, died 
about thirty-five years ago and was laid to 
rest in the Rock Island cemetery. The 
children born to them were Frank S., the 
present postmaster of Bruning, Nebraska. ; 
Calvin R., who was killed by a horse at the 
age of nine years; and Oliver C. Our sub- 
ject had a half brother, Howard Wells, who 
was at the time of his death serving as post- 
master of Rock Island, Illinois, under 
President Harrison's administration. 

Our subject was reared on a farm and 
received a fair country school education. 
Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, he en- 
listed in 1 86 1, at the age of twenty-two 
years, in Company H, Forty-tifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, and served for three 
years and nine months with the army of the 
Tennessee under Generals Grant and Sher- 



man. 



In the fall of 1861, the regiment went 



764 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



into camp at Milan, Illinois, and from there 
went to Camp Douglas. Later they spent 
two weeks at Cairo and then embarked on 
the City of Memphis, going up the Tennes- 
see river to Fort Henry and Fort Donel- 
son. They participated in the three days' 
siege at the latter place, meeting with heavy 
losses, and then embarked on a steamboat 
at Metal Landing and went to Savannah, 
Tennessee. Later they took a boat for 
Shiloh, and during the battle at that place, 
April 6, 1862, our subject served as color 
guard. Here both sides suffered a heavy 
loss, but the Union army was finally rein- 
forced and the Confederates fell back. After 
a few days' rest the regiment was ordered to 
Corinth, where the rebels were finally over- 
powered after their water supply had be- 
come very low, and later evacuated. Our 
subject's company was then ordered to 
Jackson, Tennessee, and were engaged in 
guarding the railroad there, and in that 
vicinity through the summer of 1862; took 
part in Grant's raid down the Mobile and 
Ohio Railroad to and beyond Holly Springs, 
during the latter part of 1862. After that 
place was destroyed they fell back to 
Memphis by way of LaGrange. After a 
few weeks' rest in Memphis they embarked 
on a steamer, February 22, 1863, for Vista 
Planta, on the Mississippi river, and, after 
spending two weeks at that place, proceeded 
to Lake Providence, where they assisted 
Grant in cutting the levee. They next 
went by boat to Milligan, where a two 
months' furlough was granted to secure 
volunteers to run the blockade at 'Vicksburg. 
They then marched down the Louisiana 
side of the river to Hard Times' Landing, 
crossed the river on transports which ran 
the blockade in the night of April 30, and 
then went into camp on the east side. Soon 
afterward they began their march toward 
Vicksburg, and at 10 o'clock. May i, over- 
took the rebels, and a bloody battle was 
fought, resulting in severe losses to both 



sides. The rebels, however, were repulsed, 
and on the 12th of the same month were 
again overtaken at Raymond and at Jack- 
son on the 14th of May. Battles were 
fought on the i6th and 17th of that month, 
and from Black river to Vicksburg, a dis- 
tance of twelve miles, there was continuous 



fighting 



It was General Grant's intention 



to take the fort by assault, but his first at- 
tempt was a failure, though the second was 
a success. Mr. Wells was in this siege for 
forty-seven days, and with his regiment 
was then detailed by Grant to undermine 
Fort Hill, which they successfully accom- 
plished. The city surrendered July 4, 1863, 
and our subject's regiment was selected to 
lead the troops into the place and raise the 
flag on the court house. As provost guard 
they remained there that summer. Mr. 
Wells took part in the battle of Black 
river and the Meridian raid, and after spend- 
ing his thirty days' furlough in Freeport, 
Illinois, went to Cairo and later to Clifton, 
Tennessee, taking with him two thousand 
two hundred head of beef cattle for Sher- 
man's army. On the 22d of July, 1864, he 
was detailed as sergeant to guard the 
armory, and when the regiment moved 
toward the front was detailed as caterer. 
He was soon afterward relieved, however, 
then proceeded to Savannah, and was with 
Sherman on his celebrated march from At- 
lanta to the sea. This march is vividly 
pictured by our subject, as a continuous 
fight through swamps and in pouring rain. 
He was present at the surrender of General 
Lee, and participated in the grand review 
at Washington, District of Columbia, where 
the soldiers marched forty abreast and were 
seven hours in passing down Pennsylvania 
avenue. At Louisville, Kentucky, he was 
honorably discharged, was given his full 
pay at Chicago, and returned to his home 
iu Rock Island, Illinois, with a war record 
of which he may be justly proud, for he was 
a brave soldier, always found at his post of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



765 



duty, valiantly fighting for the old flag and 
the cause it represented. 

In Rock Island, Mr. Wells married 
Miss Maggie Little, who was born in Mer- 
cer county, Illinois,, August 31, 1844. Her 
parents, William and Elizabeth (Ray) Lit- 
tle, were born, reared and married in Ire- 
land, and on coming to America settled in Mer- 
cer county, Illinois, where both died, the 
former at the age of seventy-four, the lat- 
ter at the age of sixty-eight, and their re- 
mains were interred there. They were 
well-to-do and highly respected citizens of 
the community in which they lived. Their 
children were Anna, Lucinda, Francis, 
William, David, Robert, Eveline and Mag- 
gie. Our subject and his wife have four 
children, namely: Ida, now the wife of 
John Oldham, a successful young farmer of 
Fillmore county; Lucy J., wife of Sherman 
Edwards, also a prosperous farmer of the 
same county; William J., who married Rosa 
Mitchell and is engaged in farming in Fill- 
more county; and Ernest E., at home. 

After his marriage, Mr. Wells continued 
to engage in farming on rented land in Illi- 
nois for about seven years, and then spent 
three years in Linn county, Iowa, but on 
the eighteenth of February, 1S79, came to 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, where he has 
since made his home. He purchased one 
hundred and sixty acres of raw land at five 
dollars per acre, and has since devoted his 
energies to its improvement and cultivation. 
Through days of adversity and discourage- 
ment he did not give up, and is now able to 
enjoy with more pleasure the comfortable 
home and competence he has secured by 
years of arduous toil. His children have 
been provided with good educations in the 
schools of this state and have become use- 
ful and respected members of society. Mr. 
Wells cast his first presidential vote for 
Abraham Lincoln in 1 864, and has since 
been unswerving in his support of the men 
and measures of the Republican party. His 



loyalty as a citizen and his devotion to his 
country's interests have ever been among 
his marked characteristics, and the com- 
munity is fortunate that numbers him 
among its citizens. 



M 



ARTIN MADSON.— This well-known 
resident of precinct K, Seward county, 
is a native of Denmark, and in his success- 
ful business career he has shown the char- 
acteristic thrift and enterprise of his race. 
Beginning with no capital except that ac- 
quired by his own industry, he has succeed- 
ed in gaining a handsome property, and is 
to-day one of the most prosperous citizens 
of his community. 

Born in Roland, Denmark, September 
29. 1837. Mr. Madson is a son of Hans and 
Bertha Madson. The father owned a small 
piece of land which the family cultivated, 
but his principal occupation was weaving. 
He died at the age of forty years, when our 
subject was a child of three, leaving his 
widow with four small children to support, 
the eldest only eight years old. She ac- 
complished this by cultivating the few acres 
of land left her by her husband, and also 
by spinning. She died at the old home- 
stead in 1S82, at the ripe old age of eighty- 
one years. 

As soon as he was old enough, Martin 
Madson began caring for his good mother, 
who had so tenderly cared for him in early 
life, and worked at any occupation which he 
could find to do, but principally at farm 
work. Having often heard of the remark- 
able advantages afforded young men in Amer- 
ica, he decided to try his fortune on this 
side of the Atlantic, and one foggy morn- 
ing, at the age of twenty-eight years, he left 
home with all of his earthly possessions in 
the little sachel which he carried in his 
hand. Owing to the great fog which had 
settled over everything, the steamer was 
afraid to leave the port of Nysted, on the 



766 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



East sea, for a few days, but finally weighed 
anchor April i, 1S67, with Mr. Madson on 
board, bound for the new world. After 
touching at German and English ports, the 
passengers were landed at Liverpool, where 
he embarked on the great steamship Minne- 
sota, and after a passage of seventeen days 
landed in New York, April 30. By rail he 
proceeded to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he 
worked as a farm hand until the following 
fall, and then went to the Lake Superior i^e- 
gion, where he worked in the iron mines 
until 1870. Having saved some mone}', he 
started for Nebraska, where he understood 
any man could get a farm by living upon it 
and improving the same. He landed in 
Seward when that city contained only two 
or three houses, but plenty of land around 
on which to build others. Selecting the 
east half of the northeast quarter of section 
32, township 10, range 2 east, Seward 
county, he constructed a dugout in the 
banks of a ravine, in which he lived for two 
years. Having no team of his own, he 
worked for others, that they might break 
the sod upon his new farm. The second 
year, however, he was able to purchase a 
team and wagon, and went to work in ear- 
nest to make a home for himself and another, 
he knew not whom at that time. Aban- 
doning his dugout the third year, he erected 
a sod house 14x24 feet, in which he lived 
with his brother-in-law and sister quite com- 
fortably for two years. His brother-in-law 
then secured a farm of his own, and with 
him our subject boarded for a year. 

Ha\ing had some one to keep his home 
neat and comfortable, he was loath to go 
back to his old mode of life, and cook his 
own meals. Therefore, with some money 
he had saved he bought a draft and sent it 
in a letter to a bright-eyed, laughing girl he 
had known in the old country when a 3'oung 
man, and in\ited her to come to America 
and share his new home, name and proper- 
ty. This was Miss Carrie Peterson, and on 



the 1 2th of November, 1S77, they were 
united in marriage. To them have been 
born four children, of whom three are now 
living: Martin, Bertha and Christina B. , 
the oldest now nineteen, the youngest eleven 
jears of age. They are being provided 
with the best educational ad\'antages the 
schools of the communit\- afford. 

After his marriage Mr. Madson took his 
bride to the farm on which they have since 
resided, it being a well cultivated tract of 
one hundred and sixt\- acres adjoining the 
village of Goehner, and improved with a 
good residence and substantial outbuildings. 
Besides this property he owns some other 
land, in all six hundred and forty acres, all 
of which has been acquired through his own 
labors. He is an ardent Republican in pol- 
tics, having cast his first vote for General 
Grant, his last for Major McKinley, and 
both he and his wife are earnest and faith- 
ful members of the Presbyterian church. 



A 



UAM E\'ERTS, an energetic and pro- 
gressive agriculturist living on section 
6, Waco township, York county, is a native 
of Pennsylvania, his birth occurring in Ful- 
ton county, February 5, 1818. His parents, 
Adam and Catharine (Fonner) Everts, were 
also natives of the Keystone state, while his 
maternal grandfather was of German birth, 
an early settler of Pennsylvania, and a sol- 
dier of the Revolutionary war, fighting un- 
der General Washington. Throughout his 
entire life our subject's father follov^-ed the 
occupation of farming in his native state, 
and there his death occurred when he had 
reached the age of eighty-three years. His 
estimable wife also died in Pennsylvania. 
They reared a family of twelve children, 
namel}': George, Elizabeth, Barba, Cath- 
arine and Anna, all four deceased; Adam; 
Isabel, deceased; Maria; Sarah and Susan, 
both deceased; Polly and Rebecca. Of 
these George and four of his sons were 



COMPENDIUM or UJOGRAPIir. 



767 



faithful defenders of the Union during the 
Ci\'il war. 

Mr. Everts, of this review, was reared 
on the old home farm in Pennsylvania, and 
continued to remain under the parental roof 
until he attained the age of twenty-seven 
years. In August, 1855, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Sophia Cline, who was 
also born in Fulton county, Pennsylvania, 
January 19, 1S27. Her parents, Conrad 
and Elizabeth (Dishong) Cline, spent their 
entire lives in that state, and reared a fam- 
ily of eight children: Abratn; Mary and 
John, both deceased; Eliza; Susan, deceased; 
Mrs. Everts; Peter and Uriah. One son, 
John, was a soldier of the Civil war. Mrs. 
Everts grew to womanhood upon a farm in 
her native township, and there acquired a 
fair literar}' education. By her marriage 
she has become the mother of eight chil- 
dren, who in order of birth are as follows: 
Calvin U., a resident of Missouri; John, at 
home; Mrs. Katie Reed; Joseph C. , of York 
county, Nebraska; Mrs. Mar}' Schloniger; 
George, of York county; Grafton, of Lin- 
coln, Nebraska; and Mrs. Roxy Bushard. 

After his marriage, Mr. Everts contin- 
ued to live in Pennsylvania until 1864, when 
he moved by wagon to Richland county, 
Ohio, where the following five years were 
passed. He then made his home in Peoria, 
Illinois, and the year 1872 witnessed his ar- 
rival in York county, Nebraska. His first 
homestead was on section 4, New York 
township, on which he built a little frame 
house, but after proving up his claim he 
removed to his present fine farm of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres on section 6, Waco 
township. He spent one year in Chase 
county, Nebraska, where he pre-empted 
three hundred and twenty acres of land, 
and on selling that tract returned to York 
county, where he has since resided uninter- 
ruptedly. With the exception of two years, 
when engaged in milling, his entire life has 
been devoted to agricultural pursuits, and 



the neat and thrifty appearance of his farm 
testifies to his skill and ability in his chosen 
calling. The place is adorned with beau- 
tiful shade trees and shrubs, the fields are 
well-tilled, and the buildings are models of 
convenience and comfort.- The year of the 
grasshopper scourge he raised one thousand 
five hundred bushels of wheat, but those in- 
sects destroyed his corn. He has been 
officially connected with the Christian church 
at Waco, of which he and his wife are lead- 
ing members, and has filled the office of 
road overseer to the entire satisfaction of 
all concerned. Politically he is a Populist. 



JOSIAHJEROME JUDEVINE, a "home- 
steader" on section 22, Savannah town- 
ship, Butler county, was born in Charleston 
No. 4, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, 
June 19, 1823. He is the son of Josiah 
Judevine, born in 1787, a manufacturer of 
cloth at Barnett, \'ermont. His grand- 
father, Calvin Jude\ine, came from Eng- 
land before the Re\-olutionary war, and set- 
tled in Sulli\'an county. New Hampshire. 
The Judevines were acti\e in the fight for 
the independence of America. 

Our subject is the youngest of four chil- 
dren, his father having died in his youth; he 
was raised by his mother's sister, Sallie 
Field Simms, at Lemington, Essex count}', 
Vermont. 

His mother, Zerua Field Judevine, was 
born at Brockton, Massachusetts, and died 
there about the year 1870. He was edu- 
cated in a log house ilistrict school. When 
twenty years old he left Essex county and 
went to Kentucky and worked on the Ohio 
river. Returned to Charleston, going from 
thence to Brockton, Massachusetts, where 
he worked for six years at the shoe bench. 
During this time, April 17, 1849, he was 
married in Providence, Rhode Island, to 
Mary Ellen Hamilton, daughter of William 
Hamilton, who was born in Burlington, 



768 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Vermont, of English ancestry and formerly 
an officer in the English army, later served 
in the United States army during the war 
of 1812. Was stationed at Erie, Pennsyl- 
vania, during the operations of Commodore 
Perry. His wife's mother having died when 
Mary was born, she was adopted by Dr. 
Samuel Shaw, and reared by him. 

In November, 1849, our subject came, 
with his wife, to Columbia county, Wiscon- 
sin, took land at West Point, Wisconsin, 
and carried on the occupation of farming for 
a period of fifteen years. Here a son. F. 
C. Judevine, was born, in 1852, the only 
child. 

In 1859, our subject went overland to 
Pike's Peak, and on his return passed 
through Butler county, Nebraska, saw the 
beautiful Platte valley, and this eventually 
led to his locating here. In 1864 he moved 
to Chickasaw county, Iowa, farmed five 
years, and in October, 1869, he settled in 
Butler county, Nebraska. He has always 
held advanced ideas on political and social 
matters, and has the courage to express his 
convictions. He has been a large contribu- 
tor to the newspapers, a prominent man in 
the advancement of the interests of his com- 
munity. His son, F. C. Judevine, was mar- 
ried to Mollie Page, and they are the parents 
of five children: Royal, Frank, Clifford, 
Ethel and Ettie. He is now one of the 
prominent farmers of Butler county, and 
has himself been a factor in the develop- 
ment of the country. 



WILLIAM ZWIEG, who resides on 
section 8, Beaver township, York 
count)', Nebraska, is a native of Prussia, 
where he was born August 22, 1843. He 
was brought to this country when only five 
years of age, and bears himself with true 
American vigor and determination. For 
almost thirty years he has been a resident 
of the state, and has slowly won his way to 



comfort and independence. His farm 
manifests a thorough husbandman, and it 
has proved highly renumerative under his 
practical management. 

William Zwieg is a son of William and 
Mena (Charlie) Zwieg, who were natives of 
Prussia, and came of a long line of German 
ancestry. They belonged to the agricultur- 
al class, and feeling that America offered 
them far better inducements than their own 
fatherland they crossed the Atlantic in 
1848, and established themselves the same 
year on a wild timber farm near Williams- 
town, Dodge count}', Wisconsin. By unre- 
mitting toil it soon became a pleasant home, 
and there they spent the remainder of their 
days. She died in 1855 and he passed 
away July 4, 1876. They had eight chil- 
dren, of whom the subject of this sketch 
was the first born, and the second child, 
Louisa, is dead. The others were Mena, 
Augusta, Harmon, August, Anna and Ber- 
tha. 

On this Wisconsin farm young William 
passed his early days, and grew to a strong 
and sturdy manhood. He was educated 
in both English and German, and was thus 
doubly armed for life's conflicts. He was 
needed at home, but the serious situation of 
the Union cause in the summer of 1864 
inspired him to enlist in the Federal army. 
He was assigned to Company E, First Wis- 
consin Volunteer Cavalry, and joined his 
regiment at Louisville. He saw some severe 
fighting, particularly at Hopkinsville, Ken- 
tucky. The regiment was under the com- 
mand of General Wilson, and was actively 
engaged on patrol and guard duty, with 
severe skirmishing thrown in whenever 
possible. He was mustered out at Nash- 
ville July 19, 1865, and returned home 
without a scratch, though he had passed 
through many dangerous experiences. 

On the conclusion of peace our soldier 
lad was swallowed up in the great home 
tide, and soon resumed peaceful pursuits. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



769 



He remained on the farm assisting his father 
and caring for younger brothers and sisters, 
until he had passed his twenty-fifth birth- 
day, when he decided to set up for himself. 
He was united in marriage in the month of 
September, 1867, to Miss Augusta Schnurs- 
tin, a native of Dodge county, Wisconsin, 
and in the spring of 1869 the newly wedded 
couple came to York county, Nebraska, and 
settled upon the homestead, which under 
their careful management has grown into a 
farm of four hundred acres, thoroughly im- 
proved, well provided with buildings and 
machinery, and presenting satisfaction to 
the farming vision. They brought with them 
some seven hundred dollars, but thought it 
best to begin in a "dug-out" home, until 
the return from the land should warrant it. 
The first year on the place he raised good 
sod corn, twenty-five bushels to the acre, 
and the following year he had a large yield 
of wheat, oats, potatoes and corn. Twenty 
acres of natural timber form a valuable por- 
tion of his real estate. The farm has im- 
proved in value and attractiveness every 
year. He completed a handsome residence 
in 1884 that cost him $1,500, and from time 
to time he has added other improvements 
and conveniences that make this one of the 
most attractive homes in the county. He 
is an advocate of mixed farming, and shows 
with the pride of an enthusiast as fine a herd 
of short-horns as ma}' be found in the 
county. 

Mrs. Zwieg died May 8, 1896, and her 
death was a great blow to her devoted 
husband. She was a member of the Lu- 
theran church, and was the mother of nine 
children, whose names were Ida M., Frank 
W. , Emma, Charles, Willie, Henry, Anna, 
Malinda, and Mary. She was an active and 
energetic housewife, a good wife, and faith- 
ful mother, and was highly respected by 
her friends and neighbors. 

Mr. Zwieg is a member of the Grand 
Army post at Waco, and enjoys the liveliest 



satisfaction in meeting with the companions 
of the tented field of long ago. In politics 
he is a Populist, but attends first of ail to 
his own duties, and is not very active in 
party affairs. He is interested in all mat- 
ters that relate to the good of the schools 
and has served on the school board of the 
district in which he lives for the last twenty- 
five years. 



MI 



F. GARRISON is one of the wealth- 
iest and most prominent citizens of 
Ohiowa, Fillmore county, Nebraska. Mr. 
Garrison makes his home with his daughter, 
Mrs. Mary A. Quinlan, and was born in 
Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, April 24, 
1820, a son of Mathias and Susannah 
(Seeley) Garrison, who moved from New 
Jersey to that county. His parents both 
died in Pennsylvania, the mother when he 
was only eight years old. Their children 
were Elizabeth, Elsie, John, William, 
Nathan, Susannah, Rachel and M. F., the 
subject of this article. A romantic story 
connected with the early history of this 
family is as follows: The great-grandmother 
of Mr. Garrison was Lady Charlotte Doug- 
las, who belonged to a prominent and aristo- 
cratic family of Scotland. On account of 
her high station, great beauty and many 
admirable qualities, she was stolen by a 
captain who had determined to win and 
marry her. Failing in this, however, he 
sold her to an American planter, George 
Fortner, who soon fell in love with and 
married this virtuous and lovely woman. 
To them were born three children, one 
son and two daughters, and Mr. Garri- 
son's grandfather, a farmer of New Jersey, 
married one of the daughters. 

M. F. Garrison received only a limited 
education in the subscription schools of his 
native state, but his business training was 
not meager, as he obtained an e.xcellent 
knowledge of farm work and also of the 



10 



COMPEXDIi'M OF BIOGRAPIir 



mason's and bricklayer's trades. Determin- 
ed to try his fortune in the west, in 1845 
he left Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and 
started for Illinois by team. On his arrival 
in Lee county, which was then a new 
country, he turned his attention to the pur- 
suits with which he was familiar, and there 
purchased eighty acres of land. By his 
economy', industry and good management 
he was soon on the highway to prosperity, 
and became one of the wealthiest and most 
substantial farmers of that county, where 
in 1870 he owned a valuable farm of two 
hundred acres under a high state of cultiva- 
tion and improved in modern style. 

In Dixon, Illinois, Mr. Garrison was mar- 
ried, October i, 1848, to Miss Mary E. 
Girton, who was born in Columbia county, 
Pennsylvania, May 9, 181 7. Her mother, 
Elizabeth (Runion) Girton, died in Penn- 
sylvania. The father and family later 
migrated to Illinois, where he died at the age 
of ninety-two and was buried at Dixon, Il- 
linois. Mr. M. F. Garrison continued his 
farming operations in Illinois very success- 
fully until 1878, when he sold his property 
and went to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he purchased nine hundred and sixty 
acres of the finest prairie land in Franklin j 
township. With the exception of about 
a half section the entire tract was raw land, 
and to its improvement and cultivation he 
devoted his energies with marked success 
and continued his farm operations until 
1890. Soon after the death of his wife, 
however, he moved to his present home in 
Ohiowa, and has since lived retired in the 
enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil. 
He has been called upon to mourn the 
loss of his estimable wife, who died in 
Ohiowa, in 1890, at the age of seventy-three 
years. She was a devoted wife and mother, 
and a sincere Christian, and her death was 
deeply mourned by all who knew her. She 
was laid to rest in the Ohiowa cemetery. 
She left two daughters. Martha J., the 



older, is the wife of E. F. Medler, of 
Ohiowa, and has the following children 
Warren F. , marrie<l to Miss Eva Holland 
Clara M., married to Millard Bigelow 
Arthur W. ; Clyde A; Edgar M. and Elsie, 
all at home and constituting a happy 
family circle. The younger daughter is 
Mrs. M. A. (Juinlan. Mr. Garrison is a 
strong advocate of the principles of the 
Populist party and cheerfully gives his 
support to all measures which he be- 
lieves calculated in any way to advance the 
interests of his adopted town and county. 
His life is a living illustration of what abil- 
ity, energy and force of character can ac- 
complish, and it is to such men that the 
west owes its prosperity, its rapid progress 
and advancement. He has accumulated a 
handsome property, which he has divided 
between his two daughters, and with the 
younger, Mrs. M. A. Ouinlan, he now finds 
a pleasant home. 

Miss Mary A. Garrison was born in Lee 
county, Illinois, in 1859, October 14, and 
was there reared to womanhood. She ac- 
companied her parents on their removal to 
Nebraska in 1878, and on the 1st of Novem- 
ber, 1880, gave her hand in marriage to 
James W. Ouinlan, who was born in Indi- 
ana, March i, 1853. His parents, Lau- 
rence and Mary (Palmer) Ouinlan, were na- 
tives of Ireland and England, respectively', 
and on their emigration to America located 
in Indianapolis, Indiana. They were mar- 
ried in that state and continued to make 
their home there until 1856, when the\' mi- 
grated to Clinton, Iowa. In i866mo\'ed 
to Quinc}-, Illinois, where they spent the re- 
mainder of their da\s in retirement until 
their death, and are laid to rest in Ouincy, 
Illinois, cemetery. Their children were 
Daniel, Mary, Kate and James \\'. 

During his early life, James ^^'. Ouinlan 
assisted in the operation of the home farm, 
and on leaving the parental roof, at the age 
of twenty-two years, he came to Exeter, 



COMPEXDIi'M OF BIOGIiAPJ/i: 



I 



Nebraska, where he first learned the tinner's 
trade, continued at same from 1876 to 1880, 
then gave his attention to the implement 
business with good success until 1890. 
After this date he turned his attention to 
the interests and improvements of his town 
(Ohiowa) and also served as representative 
of his district, the 37th, in the legislature 
in 1893, with credit and honor to himself, 
and universal satisfaction to his constituents. 
He was also a member of M. W. A. After 
1893 he lived a practical life and attended 
to his business matters only, looking after 
his property interests. His death occurred 
December22, 1894, while on a tour through 
the southern states. He was a shrewd, 
capable business man, upright and honora- 
ble in all his dealings, and had the confi- 
dence and esteem of all with whom he came 
in contact, either in business or social life. 
He labored earnestly for the good of his 
country and his fellow men, and was belov- 
ed by all. He erected the first large build- 
ing in the town of Ohiowa and owned about 
one-half of the property there. He was 
called from life in the midst of his useful- 
ness and was laid to rest in the Ohiowa 
cemetery. Mrs. Ouinlan has displayed ex- 
ceptional business ability in the manage- 
ment of her financial affairs since her hus- 
band's death, and has conducted all busi- 
ness in a most creditable manner. She is 
a devoted daughter to her aged father and a 
kind and affectionate mother to her three 
children: Jennie M., Rosalind and Le Roy. 
She is a lady of culture and refinement and 
is a member of Royal Neighbors, Court of 
Honor, Knights and Ladies of Security, and 
presides with gracious dignity over her 
beautiful home, e.xtending a warm-hearted 
hospitality to her many friends. 



WILLIAM EDWARD HARLING, de- 
ceased, was for many years one of 
the leading farmers and most highly re- 



44 



spected citizens of precinct X, Seward coun- 
ty, his home being on section 32, where his 
widow and family still reside. He was a 
native of England, born in East Kent, 
February 3, 1831, and was a son of William 
Edmund and Sarah (Phekings) Harling, 
well-known farming people of that country. 
The only educational advantages he re- 
ceived were three months, attendance at the 
public schools when quite young, and it was 
not long before his knowledge of school 
books was entirely forgotten. Until he at- 
tained his majority he remained at home, 
assisting his father in the labors of the farm, 
but in 1853, with the hope of benefiting 
his financial condition in the new world, he 
crossed the Atlantic, landing in New York 
city, whence he made his way to Iroquois 
county, Illinois. There he purchased forty 
acres of land and commenced making for 
himself a home. 

In 1862 Mr. Harling became acquainted 
with Miss Catherine Rinehart, and their 
friendship ripened into love; they were 
united in marriage on the 28th of January, 
1864. They began housekeeping on the 
little farm in Illinois, which, under his 
labor and good management, had literally 
blossomed as a rose. On St. Patrick's day, 
March 17, 1886, he loaded his effects into 
two cars and started farther west, landing 
in precinct N, Seward county, Nebraska, 
where he purchased the southeast quarter 
of section 32, and again commenced to 
make for himself a new home. To the de- 
velopment and cultivation of his land he 
devoted his energies until failing health 
caused his retirement, and after a lingering 
illness of two years he passed away Febru- 
ary II, 1898. In 1877 he and his wife 
had joined the Methodist Episcopal church 
under the preaching of Rev. Van Pelt, but 
after coming to Nebraska united with the 
Evangelical Association under the preach- 
ing of Rev. J. P. Ash, and were earnest and 
consistent Christian people, commanding 



772 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



the confidence and esteem of all by their 
upright and honorable lives. Politically, 
Mr. Harling was an ardent Republican and 
he and his sons cast their last presidential 
vote for William McKinley. 

Nine children were born to our subject 
and his worthy wife, five sons and four 
daughters, all of whom are still living, (i) 
William F., a farmer, residing on section 5, 
precinct N, Seward county, married Miss 
Clara Clark, daughter of Richard and Me- 
lissa (Collier) Clark, and they now have two 
children, Roy Edmund and Carl Forest. 
(2) Peter Edmund is unmarried and lives at 
Beaver Crossing. (3) Lewis H., who lives 
one mile north of the old homestead, on 
section 28, precinct N, married Miss Myrtle 
Fender, and they have two children: Ethel 
Anita and Harold Grant. (4) Eliza Jane, 
now Mrs. J. A. Carnahan, of Saline county, 
Nebraska. (5) James, who also lives on a 
farm near the old home, married Estella 
Ann Gibson, daughter of John and Dora 
(Head) Gibson, and they have one child: 
Lila. (6) Emma May, married Frank A. 
Murray, a son of Mr. and Mrs. N. Murray, 
and they live on a farm in Saline county, 
Nebraska. (7) Clarence is yet at home and 
assists his mother in carrying on the farm. 
(8) Samantha and (9) Nancy Maria are also 
under the parental roof. The children have 
all been provided with good common-school 
educations and have become useful and 
highly respected members of society, giving 
their support to all church and educational 
interests. Mrs. Harling, who is a most es- 
timable lady, still resides on the old home- 
stead, and also owns, in her own right, the 
southwest quarter of section 28, precinct N. 
She is a worthy member of the Evangelical 
Association at Beaver Crossing. 



HARVEY PICKREL is a noted horse- 
man of York, Nebraska, and he is a 
familiar figure on the Grand Circuit as well 



as the western tracks, as he makes the 
round with fleet-footed horses. He owns 
some of the best stock in the west, and is 
such a genial, large-hearted man himself, 
that if he is not king of the turf, he does 
not ha\-e many rivals for the honor. 

Mr. Pickrel is a son of old Knox count}-, 
Illinois, where he was born on the last day 
of the year 1842. George Pickrel, his fa- 
ther, was born in Jackson county, Ohio, and 
his mother in Covington, Kentucky. Her 
maiden name was Maria Richmond, and 
she had that strength of character and de- 
termined disposition that were needed to 
sustain the female mind amid the trials and 
sorrows of the early days in the west. They 
made their home in Knox county in 1838, 
and continued there until their removal to 
Seward county, Nebraska, in 1871. He 
finished his earthly career in the fall of 
1897, and his widow still resides in Seward. 
They were the parents of thirteen children, 
eleven of whom are now living. During 
the Civil war they were represented in the 
Federal army by two sons. Harvey and C. 
B. Pickrel. The father of this numerous 
and interesting family was engaged in farm- 
ing, and for many years made a business of 
buying and selling grain. He was a man of 
affairs, and was widely known for his up- 
right and candid business methods. 

Harvey Pickrel attained his majority 
under the parental roof, and received un- 
usual educational advantages, for the public 
schools of that section of Illinois are con- 
ceded very superior, and for many years 
they have maintained a high reputation. 
He was raised a farmer, and when the great 
Rebellion came on was ready to take his 
part in the war for the Union. It was not 
until January 16, 1863, that he was able to 
carry out a long-cherished idea and enlist. 
He entered as corporal of Company A, 
Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, and 
participated in many fierce and bloody en- 
gagements. He was at Marietta, Georgia, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and in the campaign around Atlanta. He 
had a share in the celebrated raid on Ma- 
con, Georgia, and from that point was re- 
called to Louisville, Kentucky. These are 
the names of battles in which he fought 
when the regiment faced south again: Co- 
lumbus, Franklin, and Nashville, where old 
"Pap" Thomas so gallantly stayed the 
northern flow of Hood's invading army. 
He was mustered out of the service at 
Pulaski, Tennessee, and paid off at Nash- 
ville. While crossing the mountains be- 
tween Kentucky and Tennessee he received 
severe injuries, which gave him a furlough, 
and sent him home in time to vote for 
Abraham Lincoln. He was discharged 
from the service August ii, 1865, and for 
two years following that date was an invalid 
at home. In 1867 he recovered sufficiently 
to resume the occupation of farming, which 
he had abandoned to take up arms for his 
country. Ill health pursued him north, 
and he could not recover health and strength 
until his arrival in Nebraska. At that time 
he weighed one hundred and five pounds. 
To-day he lacks but two pounds of weighing 
precisely double that. 

Harvey Pickrel made his appearance in 
Nebraska in 1870, and spent nearly two 
years in Seward county. He made a home- 
stead entry, where he now lives, in 1871, 
and from that time on here has been his 
home. When he first located here his near- 
est neighbor was seven miles away. His 
first home was a "dug-out," but it gave way 
in 1873 to a modest frame structure, built 
to welcome the home-coming of his bride. 
Miss Millie Dilley. They were married Feb- 
ruary 6, 1873, from her father's home in 
Knox county, Illinois, where she was born 
and raised. She was a daughter of Wash- 
ington T. and Mary (Biggerstaff) Dilley. 
Her father was a soldier in the Union army, 
belonged to the Eighty-third Illinois Volun- 
teer Infantry, and is now a resident of Cali- 
fornia. 



Mr. and Mrs. Pickrel have made their 
home continuously on this place since their 
first arrival in the state, excepting two years 
spent in the city of York, that a daughter 
by a former marriage might attend the high 
school. His first wife was a daughter of H. 
S. Bradford, and a resident of Knox county. 
They were married in 1866, and she died 
four years later, leaving two children, 
Charles and Annis L. The present Mrs. 
Pickrel and her husband are popular in 
church and society. She belongs to the 
Baptist church, and he is a Mason of high 
degree. He was initiated into the order at 
Maquon, Illinois, and is now a Knight Tem- 
plar. He also belongs to the Modern Wood- 
men at Waco, and is a stanch Republican, 
but has never been an office seeker. As an 
agriculturist and stock raiser he has achieved 
a great success. He has a full section of 
land under cultivation, and in the develop- 
ment of a rapid breed of horseflesh he leads 
all the rest. He began to take an interest 
in horses in 1875, ^"d his present extensive 
plant has grown from very modest begin- 
nings. He counts among his horses at the 
present more than ninety high-grade racing 
animals that promise unusual speed. 

Mr. Pickrel has sold some very fine ani- 
mals, and has done much to improve the 
horse in the west. The head of his stable 
is undoubtedly Count Waldemar, a stand- 
ard-bred horse of the very highest grade, 
and belongs to the bluest blood of the rac- 
ing world. Count Waldemar was sired by 
King Rene, the dam being Evadne. He is 
a trotter, and made a record of 2:26 when 
only five years old. He took first premium 
at the Lincoln State Fair, and has a record 
of always taking first premium wherever 
shown. He is registered in Wallace's 
American Trotting Register, volume X, un- 
der rules I and \T. , with the registration 
number 14396. Another horse he thinks 
much of is George Tuesday, 18748. This 
is a handsome bay animal six years old, and 



74 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



made a record of 2:25 at Aurora, Nebraska. 
A third animal, scarcely less thought of on 
the Pickrel ranch, is Bill Daley, a bright 
bay. This is a son of Iroquois, and has 
done some great things in the days gone by 
on the track. 



LYMAN S. WHEELER.— York county 
has many well-to-do and successful 
farmers who are the architects of their own 
fortunes, and have been prominently identi- 
fied with the growth and upbuilding of this 
section of the state, as well as loyal defend- 
ers of the Union during her hour of trial. 
Among these is the subject of this persona! 
history, who to-day owns and operates an 
excellent farm on section 18, Leroy town- 
ship, having converted the wild prairie land 
into highly cultivated fields. 

Mr. \\'heeler was born in South Royal- 
ston, Massachusetts, April 11, 1837, and is 
a worthy representative of a good old New 
England family, his parents being Josiah 
and Martha (Foristall) Wheeler, natives of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, re- 
spectively. The father, who was a farmer 
by occupation, served with distinction as 
colonel in the war of 18 12. Both he and 
his wife died in Massachusetts. 

Upon a farm in his native state Lyman 
S. Wheeler grew to manhood, acquiring his 
education in the common schools of the 
neighborhood, and remaining under the pa- 
rental roof until he attained his majority, 
when he started out to make his own way 
in the world. For two years he engaged m 
farming and then turned his attention to 
railroad work. In September, 1861, he 
laid aside all personal interests and offered 
his services to the government, enlisting in 
Company I, Twenty-fifth Massachusetts In- 
fantry, and veteranizing at the end of three 
years. He participated in the engagements 
at Roanoke, North Carolina, Newburn, 
White Hall, Kingston, Goldsboro, and dur- 



ing a skirmish, while on detached service in 
North Carolina, he was taken prisoner at 
Chowan river, it being three months before 
he was exchanged and able to rejoin his 
company. A portion of the time he was 
confined in Libby prison. Later, as a mem- 
ber of Hickman's Star Brigade, his command 
was the first to land at Petersburg in 1864, 
and there they remained all through the 
siege until the capture of that stronghold. 
Shortly afterward, at the battle of Jury's 
Bluff, Virginia, May 16, 1864, Mr. Wheeler 
was shot through the shoulder and arm, re- 
ceiving six wounds in all, and was first taken 
to the hospital at Chesapeake, but later was 
sent to David's Island, New York, New 
Haven, Connecticut, Reedville, Massachu- 
setts, and Worcester, Massachusetts, where 
he remained in the hospital until finally 
discharged April 18, 1S64. It was over 
two years before he was able to use his left 
arm. 

On receiving his discharge, Mr. Wheel- 
er returned to his home in the Bay state, 
but shortly afterward went to Bureau coun- 
ty, Illinois, and in July, 1865, located in 
Madison county, Indiana, where he engaged 
in the milling business for four years. He 
then returned to Bureau county Illinois, 
where he remained two years, and in the 
fall of 1872 came to York county, Nebraska, 
taking up a soldier's homestead, of one 
hundred and sixty acres, on the northwest 
quarter of section 18, Leroy township. 
There has not been a night since that time 
that some of the family have not been on 
the farm. The first winter in York county 
was passed in a dug-out, and the following 
spring a more pretentious house was con- 
structed of sod. Starting here without 
capital, it has required years of hard work 
by himself and wife to bring the wild land to 
its present high state of cultivation, but it 
is now well improved with a good resi- 
dence, barns, fruit and shade trees. The 
first orchard which was set out was destroy- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



I <D 



ed by the grasshoppers, who not only ate 
the leaves but also the bark of tee trees. In 



connection with general farming 



Mr. 



Wheeler is interested in the dairy business, 
and has a separator ot his own on the farm. 
On the 1 6th of March, 1864, he wedded 
Miss Mary E. Barnard, who was born in 
Waburn, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, 
ten miles from Boston, November 26, 1834, 
a daughter of Simon S. and Lucy (Simonds) 
Barnard, who spent their entire lives in that 
state and were engaged in farming. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Wheeler were born four children: 
William B., who died in infancy; Charles 
E. ; Lucy S. ; and Frederick H. The par- 
ents are active and prominent members of 
the Congregational church in York, with 
which they have been connected longer than 
any of its present members. Mr. Wheeler 
is also identified with the Odd Fellows 
Lodge and the Grand Army Post of that 
place, and in political sentiment is a stanch 
Republican, but not a politician in the sense 
of office seeking. He is a man of good ti- 
nancial ability and excellent judgment, and 
since becoming a resident of York county 
has won the respect and confidence of the 
community, and occupies a leading position 
among its influential citizens. 



FRANCIS A. BAKER, one of the most 
prosperous and highly esteemed citizens 
of Belle Prairie precinct, Fillmore county, 
has for twenty years successfully carried on 
operations as a general farmer on section 
32. He was born in Iowa county, Wiscon- 
sin, September 12, 1847, and is a worthy 
representative of an honored family, dis- 
tifiguished for its Christian piety and many 
noble acts of charity. His father, Francis 
Baker, was born in Cornwall, England, De- 
cember 24, 181 7, and on his emigration to 
the United States, in the spring of 1837, lo- 
cated in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where he 
wedded Miss Mary Dony, also a native of 



England. In the fall of 1844 they removed 
to Iowa county, Wisconsin, and took up 
their residence eight miles west of Dodge- 
ville, where the father purchased land and 
engaged in farming throughoutthe remainder 
of his life. He met with excellent success 
in his undertakings and amassed a large 
fortune. His chief delight in life seems to 
have been to serve his fellow men, and help- 
fulness might be termed the keynote of his 
character. He was truly benevolent, and 
the poor and needy counted him among their 
friends, for no worthy one sought his aid in 
vain. He was a faithful member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, in which he 
served as class leader for forty years, and 
was always an active worker in his Master's 
vineyard. He was of a modest, retiring 
disposition, and never sought prominence, 
but was always willing and anxious to do 
his part in building up the church or further- 
ing any other good work. At one time he 
gave $.500 as a gift to a religious institution, 
and in every possible way gave his support 
to those enterprises calculated to benefit 
his fellow men. He died at the ripe old 
age of seventy-nine years, eleven months 
and twenty-two days, and thus passed away 
one of the most beloved citizens of his lo- 
cality, whose life stands as an enduring 
monument for all time to come. The 
funeral services were conducted by a Meth- 
odist Episcopal minister, and he was laid to 
rest in the cemetery of Spring Valley, Wis- 
consin. He left a widow and several chil- 
dren to mourn his loss. In the family were 
twelve children: William H., John W. , 
Francis A., Edwin A., Mary E. , Julia A., 
Thomas J., Eva J., Sophia E., Oscar L. , 
Florence I. and Eliza M. All are living 
with the exception of William H. and Mary 
E., who died in the prime of life. The 
former was an exhorter of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and was located in Iowa 
at the time of his death. He left a widow 
and seven children. He also ga\e much of 



776 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his possessions to charitable institutions, 
and died, as many noble men do, rich in 
honor and beloved by all. Like his father, 
he tried todo all the good possible and was 
well prepared to meet his Maker when the 
summons came. 

In his native county, Mr. Baker, of this 
review, passed his boyhood and youth, re- 
ceiving only a limited common-school edu- 
cation. On the 6th of April, 1874, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Jennie Glas- 
son, who was born March 3, 1851, and also 
had very limited school advantages. Her 
parents, John and Harriet (Crothers) Glas- 
son, were born, reared and married in Eng- 
land, and at an early day came to the new 
world. Here the father died, but the 
mother is still living in Wisconsin, at the age 
of seventy-eight years. Of their si.\ chil- 
dren, three also survive: John, Elizabeth 
and Jennie. The children born to our sub- 
ject and his wile are as follows: Cyrus E., 
died in 1880, at the age of si.\ years, and 
was buried in Harmony cemetery, Fillmore 
county; Hattie M. and Frances E. died at 
the ages of three years and one year, re- 
spectively, and were laid to rest in the same 
grave in Harmony cemetery, December 21, 
1880; Charles died in August, 1890, at the 
age of thirteen months, and was also buried 
there ; Ira E. , born December 30, 1 88 1 ; Scott 
G. , born October 27, 1884, and Amy 
Leota, born December 5, 1891, are still 
living, and are exceptionally bright chil- 
dren. 

For five years after his marriage, Mr. 
Baker operated a rented farm in Wisconsin, 
and managed to save four hundred dollars, 
which was his entire capital when be landed 
in Fillmore county, Nebraska, February 16, 
1879. In Belle Prairie precinct he pur- 
chased of a speculator a tract of land of 
one hundred and si.xty acres for eight hun- 
dred dollars, to be paid on the installment 
plan, and the same year bought a home- 
stead of eighty acres for four hundred dol- 



lars cash, but had to borrow one hundred 
and fifty dollars of the money to pay for 
the same. This place is pleasantly located 
only a mile and a half from the thriving lit- 
tle village of Bruning, and is now entirely 
free from debt. In his new home Mr. 
Baker has prospered, and besides his val- 
uable farm he owns two residence lots in 
York, Nebraska, two houses and five lots in 
Bruning, and one of the finest residences in 
Strang. This property has all been acquir- 
ed through his economy, industry, good 
business ability and sound judgment. Po- 
litically he is a stanch Republican and cast 
his first presidential vote for General Grant. 
He never acts except from honest motives 
and in all his relations in business affairs 
and social life, he has maintained a char- 
acter and standing that has impressed all 
with his sincere purpose to do by others as 
he would have others do by him. 



JOHN KRUMBACH is one of the most 
influential and public-spirited agricultu- 
rists of Polk county, his home being on sec- 
tion 5, township 13, range i west. His 
farm is conspicuous for the manner in which 
it has been improved and cultivated, and is 
evidently the homestead of one of the most 
enterprising men of the community. Like 
many of our best citizens, he is a native of 
the Fatherland, born in Prussia, November 
6, 1843, and his parents, Erasmus and 
Helena Krumbach, farming people, spent 
their entire lives in that country. Of their 
fourteen children, eleven are still living, 
three being residents of the new world — 
Charles, Erasmus and John. 

Our subject remained in his native land 
until he attained the age of thirty years, re- 
ceiving a good education in the German 
language, and also a thorough knowledge of 
farming and milling. He followed the lat- 
ter occupation in Prussia for five years, and 
on coming to America had some capital. It 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



777 



was in 1873 that he and his brother, 
Charles, crossed the broad Atlantic and took 
up their residence in Polk county, Nebraska, 
locating on the present farm of our subject, 
which, at that time, was all wild land, and 
there were no other settlers in that section. 
For about six months they lived by them- 
selves in a sod stable, one side of which was 
used for the accommodation of their horses, 
and their kitchen was a hole in the side of 
a bank. 

In Movember, 1873, Mr. Krumbach was 
united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth 
Schumacker, who had just arrived in this 
country, being also a native of Prussia, born 
November 27, 1848. Her father was Anton 
Schumacker, a farmer by occupation, who 
was a member of the Prussian army for 
three years, and was in active service a part 
of the time. He and his wife both died in 
Germany, and three of their seven children 
are also deceased. Those living are Peter, 
Elizabeth, William and Louisa. Mr. and 
Mrs. Krumbach have spent their entire mar- 
ried life upon his farm in Hackberry pre- 
cinct, and four children have come to 
brighten their home, namely: Helena, Eras- 
mus, Christiana C. A. and Elizabeth H. S. 
The three oldest have been provided with 
excellent school privileges, having been stu- 
dents at the convent in Columbus, Ne- 
braska. 

The first home of the family was a small 
frame house, 16x24 feet, but in 1889 this 
was replaced by a more commodious and 
modern residence, erected at a cost of one 
thousand three hundred dollars. It is sur- 
rounded by good barns and out buildings, and 
two hundred and twenty acres of the two 
hundred and sixty acre tract is under excel- 
lent cultivation, the whole place denoting 
the thrift and industry of the owner, who 
thoroughly understands his business and is 
successfully engaged in both farming and 
stock raising. He and his family are devout 
members of the Catholic church, and he 



was a member of the building committee at 
the time the house of worship was erected 
in Shelby. He is one of the leading and 
prominent citizen of his community, is a 
stanch Democrat in politics, and has served 
as treasurer of school district. No. 30. 



GEORGE W. MILLER, who is now 
practically living retired upon his fine 
farm on section 24, Hays township, has re- 
sided in York county since March, 1SS2, 
and has here met with a well-deserved suc- 
cess in his chosen calling, being numbered 
among the well-to-do and prosperous agri- 
culturists of his community. He was born 
in Rensselaer county. New York, Ma}' 23, 
1835, '1 son of Cornelius and Elizabeth 
(Harrington) Miller, also natives of New 
York, the former of German, the latter of 
English descent. The parents of Cornelius 
Miller settled in Rensselaer county at a very 
early day, when the country was one vast 
wilderness, covered with a heavy growth of 
timber. The father of our subject died 
there about 1847, being survived by the • 
mother for many years, her death occurring 
in that state in August, 1897, when she had 
reached the advanced age of ninetj-two 
years. 

Upon a farm in his native county, 
George W. Miller spent his boyhood and 
youth, and when a young man went to Le 
Seur county, Minnesota, where he pre- 
empted one hundred and twenty acres of 
land, which he proved up and afterward 
sold. He then went to La Salle county, 
Illinois, where he was married to Miss 
Frances McGinnis, a native of that state 
and a daughter of John McGinnis, but less 
than two years after their marriage Mrs. 
Miller died. After a trip to New York our 
subject located in Livingston county, Illi- 
nois, where he bought eighty acres of land, 
and there carried on agricultural pursuits 
until coming to York county, Nebraska. 



778 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



He was married in Fairbiir_\', Illinois, Janu- 
ary- 4, 1872, to Miss Margaret J. Wallin, a 
native of Putnam county, Illinois, and a 
daughter of William and Sarah (Teeters) 
Wallin, who were born in Columbiana 
county, Ohio, and were among the pioneer 
settlers of Putnam county, Illinois, having 
located there in 1836. There they made 
their home until called from this life. Mr. 
and Mrs. Miller are the parents of two 
sons, George C. and Albertus R., who are 
now successfully operating the old home 
farm. 

On coming to York county, Nebraska, 
in March, 1882, Mr. Miller purchased one 
hundred and si.xty acres of land on section 
24, Hays township, and successfully en- 
gaged in its cultivation and improvement 
for several years, but is now living retired, 
enjoying a rest which is justly merited, for 
he has been an untiring worker, and his suc- 
cess in life is due entirely to his own efforts. 
In politics he is independent, always voting 
for the man whom he thinks best qualified 
to fill the office. 



NB. HULT, one of Polk county's rep- 
resentative and prominent farmers, re- 
siding on section 20, township 14, range 3, 
was born at Diiderhult, Sweden, December 
17, 1844, and is a son of John P. and Kajsa- 
greta Hult, who were born in the years 181 1 
and 1806, respectively, and were married 
in 1832. The paternal grandfather, Lars 
Olson, was a prominent lawyer and mer- 
chant, and it is said that he never lost a 
case. At one time he was the richest man 
in Kristdala, Sweden, but being very benev- 
olent and generous, as well as somewhat 
extravagant, he left his children penniless 
and poorlj' educated. He died at a hospital 
in Kalmar, and his wife passed away many 
years previous. Their children were: Olaf, 
Agnita, Anna, Stingreta and John Peter. 
Our subject's maternal grandfather, Nels 



Swanson, was a well-to-do farmer of Doder- 
hult, Sweden, and also reared a family of 
five children: Nels, Charles, Malena, Kaj- 
sagreta and Kristina. His wife died at the 
advanced age of ninety-three years. 

Our subject's father began life for him- 
self at the age of fourteen years, and for 
seven years was in the employ of others. 
His wife had been left some property by 
her father, who died several years prior to 
her marriage, but was cheated out of it by 
her guardian. The young couple began 

I their domestic life with no outside aid, their 
capital consisting of willing hands, indus- 
trious habits, and a determination to suc- 
ceed. They rented a farm in Osjiihult, 
Diiderhult, Kalmar, and surrounded by most 
beautiful scenery, consisting of mountains, 

\ valleys, woods and lakes, the}' spent the 
greater part of their lives. The whole 
population of the little hamlet consisted of 
five families, of which the father of our sub- 
ject was appointed supervisor, being held 
responsible for their moral welfare, and the 
duties of that position he faithfully dis- 
charged for twenty-eight years. During 
his last six years in Sweden he rented a 
large farm in Veningehult. In 186G he and 
his wife came to America, and made their 
home with our subject and their son, Olaf, 
in Henry, Marshall county, Illinois, and then 
came with the former to Nebraska, remain- 
ing with them until their deaths. 

On Sunday morning, October 20, 1878, 
a prairie fire came from the south, going 
northwest of Mr. Hull's farm into the Platte 
valley. In the afternoon the wind changed, 
blowing a gale and driving the fire south- 
east at the rate of three miles in two and a 
half minutes. The flames swept fiercely 
over the the east part of his farm, burning 
all his machinery, trees, bushes, etc., but 
fortunately did not consume either the gran- 
ery or house. He and his family were at 
church, and on running home he found his 
aged parents trying to guard the property 




MR. AND MRS. N. P. HULT. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



781 



against the tlanies. He told them to leave, 
and was getting the fire under control when 
the wind changed and drove it back again, 
forcing him to run eastward into the burned 
stretch. Hearing cries from his mother, who 
had become fastened in the fence, he ran 
through the fire and succeeded in conveying 
her to the pasture, and at the same time 
the father reached them. Both were very 
badly burned, and in trying to tear the 
burning clothing from his mother, our sub- 
ject was terribly burned about the face and 
hands, being to this day unable to straight- 
en out his fingers. His right eye-lid was so 
badly burned that the skin from the temple 
had to be used in forming a new one. 
Dr. Mills, of Osceola, did his best to allevi- 
ate the sufferings of all three, but the moth- 
er died twenty-four hours after the fire, and 
the father at the end of thirty days. They 
were devout members of the Lutheran 
church, and had the respect and esteem of 
all who knew them. 

In the family of this worthy couple were 
eight children, who were taught lessons of 
industry, obedience, truthfulnesss and piety, 
also respect for God, law and order. They 
were kept at home until they attained their 
majority, and then were allowed greater 
liberty, mingling more with the young peo- 
ple of neighboring hamlets. The oldest, 
Carl Johan, is dead; he received a two years' 
course of military drill in Sweden, and on 
coming to the United States, in 1862, at 
the age of twenty-three years, he went to 
Marshall county, Illinois, and there enlisted 
as Charles G. Holt, in Company G, One 
H-'ndred and Thirtieth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry. He was a good and efficient soldier, 
took part in all the battles of his regiment, 
and died August 17, 1865, while on his way 
home, being buried at Baton Rouge, Louis- 
iana. He was unmarried. Swen August 
was married in Sweden to Matilda Hoken- 
son and came to America with his parents. 
In 1873 he removed to Polk county, Ne- 



braska, and secured a homestead on the 
west half of the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 20, township 14, range 3. He im- 
proved that place and died thereon October 
15, 1896, leaving a widow and six children: 
Nels Peter Ludwig, Minnie Constantsia, Al- 
bert, Ottilia, Jennie and Alma. Meri 
Skelott (or Marie Charlota) is the wife of 
Peter J. Jones, whose sketch appears else- 
where in this volume. Nels Peter, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, is next in order of birth. 
Olof came to America with his parents and 
was married in Polk county, Nebraska, to 
Hattie Anderson, by whom he has three 
children: Lawrence, Adina and Erma. 
Hii homestead is the east half of the south- 
west quarter of section 20, township 14, 
range 3 ; Matilda, who resides on the same 
section, is the wife of J. A. Johnson and 
has five children: August, Albert, Enoch, 
Adele and Lydia. Emma, the youngest of 
the family, is the wife of Rev. Frederick 
Peterson, of Rush Point, Minnesota, and 
has six children: Frederick, Lydia, Ernest, 
Frideborg, Ida and Olga. 

Nels Peter Halt, whose name introduces 
this article, was reared on a farm in his 
native place, and received a common-school 
education. Emigrating to the new world 
in 1865, he located in Henry, Marshall 
county, Illinois, where he first worked as a 
farm hand and later operated rented land. 
In April, 1872, he came to Polk county, 
Nebraska, located his pre-emption and later 
homesteaded the northeast quarter of 
section 20, township 14, range 3, which 
at that time was all wild land. Upon the 
place he built a one story frame house of 
three rooms, the lumber for which he hauled 
from Columbus. The first year he raised 
the best crop of potatoes his farm has ever 
produced, and also raised some sod corn; 
in 1873 he raised ten acres of wheat and 
twenty-five acres of corn; and the following 
year raised some wheat, but the grasshop- 
pers took the corn. He now has three hun- 



782 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHIC 



dred and twentj- acres, all under excellent 
cultivation, and with the exception of eighty 
acres, he, himself, placed the entire amount 
under the plow. 

On the loth of March, 1874, Mr. Hult 
married Miss Betsey Johnson, who died on 
the twenty-fourth of the following August. 
He was again married September 27, 1879, 
his second union being with Mrs. Ida Char- 
lota Peterson, //(VChindgren, sister of P. O. 
Chindgren, whose sketch appears elsewhere 
in this volume. She was born in Hogstad, 
Sweden, April 11, 1849, and remained 
there until her parents removed to Mjolby, 
Sweden, where she made her home until 
coming to America at the age of twenty 
years. In Mercer county, Illinois, she mar- 
ried Oscar Peterson, by whom she had one 
child, Anna Louisa Victoria. By her mar- 
riage to Mr. Hult she has six children: 
Esther Lydia, Oscar Nathaniel, Peter Ju- 
lius, John Philip, Ida Matilda Frideburg.and 
Melvin Bernhard. The parents are promi- 
nent and active members of the Swedish 
Lutheran church at Swede Home, are 
teachers in the Sunday-school, and Mr. 
Hult has served as deacon from the organi- 
zation of the church and as secretary for 
twenty-three \ears. He has also been a 
delegate from the church to the s3nod, and 
in 1897 was the representative from the 
conference to the general synod at Rock 
Island, Illinois. He was treasurer of the 
conference five years, and has always taken 
a very important and active part in all 
church work. Mrs. Hult is a leading and 
influential member of the Ladies' Society of 
the church, of which she has been president 
two }ears. 

For eight years Mr. Hult has been the 
efficient president of the Scandinavian 
Mutual Insurance Company of Polk county; 
in politics he is a stalwart Republican, and has 
ever taken an active interest in the success 
of his party, often serving as delegate to the 
conventions, but never aspiring to office. 



Since 1884 he has been school treasurer of 
district No. 47, was the first postmaster of 
Swede Home, and Mrs. Hult sent the first 
letter from that office. Polk county has no 
more honored or valued citizens than this 
worthy couple, who have the respect and 
esteem of all with whom they come in con- 
tact. A portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Hult ap- 
pears in connection with this sketch. 



REMINISCENCES 

BY N. P. HULT. TRANSLATED FROM THE 

SWEDISH BY ANNA HULT. 

IN the spring of 1872, a person standing 
on the little hill where the beautiful 
Church of God now stands, and looking 
eastward, could see one caravan of settlers 
after another coming within sight, as though 
coming from another world. The range of 
vision was almost boundless. The sun 
seemed to rise and set in the burned and 
blackened prairie; nothing obstructed the 
view — -not a tree or a bush, no cornfields, no 
houses. The plains looked gloomy, forlorn 
and barren. The only thing to break the 
monotony was the scattered skeletons of 
human beings and animals. The Red Sons 
of the Wilderness had not been very partic- 
ular about burying their dead. More par- 
ticular they were to roam around and beg of 
the settlers, and as they usually were many 
in company and of an awe-inspiring aspect, 
they had good success, and therefore came 
often, so that they became quite a burden 
to the settlers the first years. 

Nature, also, was wild. Rain storms 
came so suddenly that five and six inches of 
water on the level ground was frequently 
seen. The small, temporary shanties, 
which had been built, felt as if rocking on 
the waves of the ocean. The floods of rain 
broke through, filled the beds and covered 
the ground, which served as floor, so that 
the inmates were often compelled to both 
lie and walk in water. The dugouts were 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



783 



not much better. They also let in the 
water, which had to be carried out, leaving 
several inches of soft, sticky clay, which 
made it almost impossible to walk. 

But all these rain-floods, with their 
thunder-clouds and lightning, did not worry, 
but rather encouraged the settlers. Happy, 
they made their long trips to Columbus and 
Seward, thirty and forty miles distant, for 
all their lumber and other necessities of life 
for both man and beast — brought their 
green firewood from the Platte river, and 
hauled the most of their water a distance of 
three or four miles. 

During this time wells were dug, and 
additional buildings for man and beast erect- 
ed, mostly of sod. At the same time, they 
did not forget to break the land and plant 
corn on the sod, this corn becoming after- 
ward the only thing for the most of them to 
depend on for the coming year, because now 
the reserve of money was gone, with few 
e.xceptions, and credit was not to be had. 

In the spring of 1873, a little wheat was 
sown, but as there was little money and no 
credit, it was not much — just enough for one 
harvester for many miles around. But that 
harvester was kept going day and night. In 
the spring of 1874, more land was culti- 
vated and sown with wheat, and several 
harvesting machines were bought, which 
also were kept busy day and night. That 
year the grasshoppers took all the corn, and 
before they left they laid such a large 
amount of eggs in the ground as to cause 
dark forebodings for the future. The spring 
of 1875 started in very favorably. Grain 
and grass were growing fine, but at the 
same time the young grasshoppers began 
hatching out of the ground in such vast 
numbers that in some places they could be 
scooped up with scoop-shovels. But before 
they had done any harm one of our heaviest 
rain storms came and swept them away so 
completely that they were never seen or 
heard of again. The grasshoppers roamed 



through the settlement here at times for 
several years, but did not do much damage, 
and at last they disappeared altogether, so 
that now they seem to be a thing of the 
past. The hailstorms were more persistent 
and greatly dreaded. Every year reports 
came that portions of the country here and 
there were entirely cleaned out by hail, till 
the year 18S2, when a portion of the coun- 
try four miles west, another five miles north- 
east, and another part one mile northwest 
from here, were swept completely clean, 
and the rest of the country around here 
more or less damaged. Some of the hail- 
stones were the shape and size of common 
tea cups. 

But those that did the most damage 
were the size of chicken eggs. These fell 
so thick that they chopped up the earth 
and growing grain in one mass, which was 
afterward imbedded in ice. After such a 
hailstorm everything looked desolate. The 
roofs of the buildings were more or less 
damaged, the windows broken, and the 
floors flooded with water, hailstones and 
broken pieces of glass. All smaller animals, 
domestic and wild, were killed, and in 
many instances also the larger ones. The 
trees were broken, bruised and stripped of 
their foliage. Think if such a hailstorm 
would come now over this beautiful country. 
The snowstorms were also very trouble- 
some. The common duration of such a 
storm was three days, during which time 
the air was so full of snow and prairie soot 
that you could not see your own hand held 
at arm's length. Woe to the one who 
thoughtlessly left the house! He could be 
very near it and still not be able to find it. 
Around the dug-outs the snow piled up at 
the beginning of the storm so that it was 
very difficult to get out, and in many cases 
their inmates, from lack of anything to burn 
or eat, had to stay in bed till the storm was 
over, and the neighbors came and dug them 
out. The snowstorms came so suddenly 



784 



COAIPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



that any one out on a journey might with- 
out warning be overtaken by one. How 
necessary it was to be watchful, may be 
seen by the following: A man was down 
on one of the islands in the Platte river, 
gathering wood for fuel, when he noticed a 
dark threatening cloud coming up in the 
west. Hurriedly he started for home with 
only a few sticks of wood on his wagon. 
Coming out on the Platte bottom he could 
see along the river upwards of fifty wagons, 
all hurrying home. But as the snowstorm 
turned out to be of a somewhat mild sort, 
all got safely home. The terrible prairie 
fires, now, also belong to the past. Their 
reigning power closed with the great calam- 
ity which I spoke of in my personal history. 
I will therefore onl}' speak of it a little in 
general. 

It happened on Sunday morning, October 
20, 1878, that a man by the name of Nord- 
berg fired a gun four miles west of here, by 
which the dry grass caught fire. The fire 
kept on before a slow south wind all of the 
forenoon and part of the afternoon, at which 
time we had services at church, also a fu- 
neral. But having arrived at the church 
we saw that the fire had come up opposite 
the settlement in the northwest, and there 
were also signs of a storm from the same 
direction. Instantly several young men 
were dispatched to section 9 to start a fire 
and burn off the prairie along a narrow fire- 
guard from A. Tolin's to William Peterson's 
corner. The distance was half a mile, and 
was the only point where the fire readily 
could get into the settlement. 

But when they were about half through 
with their work, the storm and the fire came 
from the northwest with such a rush that, 
to save themselves, they were compelled for 
a moment to take refuge on the strip they 
had burned off, only to be the ne.xt moment 
hurr\ing to their respective homes. 

It was said by a man, who stood and 
watched, that it took exactly two and a half 



minutes from the time the fire leaped up 
the Platte bluffs until the Swede Home 
church was enveloped in the flames, a dis- 
tance of several miles. The people there 
scattered, and the coffin was for the time 
carried out to a newly-plowed field. The 
church steps caught fire, but the fire was put 
out by Mrs. A. Tolin, who had not yet left 
the church. In this fire three were burned 
to death, several others severely burned, 
and several others lost their harvested 
crops, farm implements, etc. Since 
then we have had good success in all our 
undertakings, so that now Swede Home con- 
stitutes one of the best settlements in the 
state in regard to beauty as well as industry 
and prosperity. And have we therefore 
great cause to be thankful to God, who has 
extended his blessings to us during the past 
twenty-six years, yea, during our whole life- 
time. He is worthy of praise, glory and 
power forever. N. p. H. 



AUGUST WALDMAN.--This name will 
be recognized throughout the greater 
part of Seward county as that of an enter- 
prising citizen and member of the agricult- 
ural district of H precinct. Mr. Waldman 
was born in Saxony, Germany, September 
28, 1847, a son of August and Concordia 
(Laukner) Waldman. The parents were 
also natives of Germany and lived and died 
in that country. They reared a family of 
seven children, of whom our subject is the 
youngest and the only one who migrated to 
America. 

Mr. Waldman was educated in the com- 
mon schools in the vicinity of his birthplace, 
between the ages of six and fourteen years, 
and supplemented this course with a term 
of six months in college. At the age of 
fourteen he was also confirmed in the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church. He then turned 
his attention to cabinet making, and while 
learning his trade, he earned his living by 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



785 



soliciting for a newspaper. At the age of 
nineteen years he entered the German army 
and served two years. August i, 1868, he 
boarded the steamer at Bremen, en route 
for America, and arrived at Baltimore on 
the 2 1st of the same month. From there 
he went to Virginia, but after a stay of only 
two months he returned to Baltimore and 
worked for a time at his trade. He next 
took a trip through Pennsylvania, visiting 
all of the principal cities of that state, and 
from thence to St. Louis, Missouri, where 
he remained until the spring of 1870. He 
then moved to H precinct, Seward county, 
Nebraska, filed a homestead claim to eighty 
acres of land and built upon it a sod house 
and moved into bachelor quarters. For a 
time after locating here, he was engaged in 
carpenter work in connection with the task 
of putting his farm under cultivation and 
placing upon it such improvements as go to 
make up a first-class estate and attractive 
home. Settling here in the early history of 
this part of the state, Mr. Waldman has 
seen the country in all the stages of devel- 
opment and has been identified with its 
growth and prosperity. At the time he 
filed his homestead, Lincoln, which was his 
nearest market, was a mere village, and the 
farm houses for many miles in that part of 
the state consisted of only a few scattering 
sod houses and dug-outs. He was one of 
the victims of the ravages of the grasshop- 
pers, and eager to check their depredations, 
he invented a machine to kill the pests, but 
it proved quite unsuccessful. The drouth 
also added to the hardships of his pioneer 
experience, but in spite of it all he has 
managed to make a comfortable living and 
to incidentally lay aside something for old 
age. He has now passed his fifty-first mile- 
stone in the voyage of life, but is well pre- 
served for his age, and is still able to do six 
day's work in the week. 

In 1872, Mr. Waldman was married, at 
the age of twenty-four years, to Miss Annie 



EIi;^a Otto, a daughter of Earnest and Sarah 
(Moring) Otto. Mr. Otto was a native of 
Germany. Upon reaching the American 
side of the Atlantic, he first located in Lan- 
caster, Illinois, where Mrs. \\'aldman was 
born December 4, 1856. Her father is 
still living in Holt county, Nebraska, at the 
age of seventy-four years. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Waldman have been born nine chil- 
dren, seven of whom are still living, whose 
names are as follows: Charles, Annie, 
Clara, Arthur, Gertie, Eldorado and Ida. 
Mrs. Waldman died in January, 1898, at 
the age of forty-two years, leaving her hus- 
band and seven children to mourn the loss 
of a devoted christian wife and mother. 



WE. WARTHEN.— Among the brave 
men who devoted the opening years 
of their manhood to the defense of our coun- 
try from the interna! foes who sought her 
dismemberment, was Mr. Warthen, now a 
prominent and honored resident of Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, his home being on 
section 8, Bryant precinct, and he is still 
ready at any time when the country needs 
his services to again take up arms and fight 
for the old flag. 

Mr. Warthen was born in Morgan coun- 
ty, Indiana, October 2, 1844, and is a son 
of the late John A. Warthen, a native of 
West Tennessee, who died in 1883, at the 
age of sixty-three years, being laid to rest 
in Carleton cemetery, Thayer county, Ne- 
braska. In his death the community real- 
ized that it had lost a true and tried citizen, 
an upright, honorable man, and a devoted 
Christian. His wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Eliza J. Minton, is a native of Vir- 
ginia, and is now living with our subject at 
the age of seventy-five years. Her ances- 
tors had made their home in the Old Domin- 
ion for many generations, and were of 
Scotch and German extraction. Our sub- 
is one of a family of thirteen children; of 



786 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



whom ten reached years of maturity. Both 
the paternal and maternal grandfathers of 
our subject were soldiers in the war of 
1812. 

In i860, W. E. Warthen moved to 
Clarke county, Iowa, where, at the outbreak 
of the Rebellion, he enlisted in Company F, 
Eighteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and 
later became a member of Company H, 
Ninth Iowa Cavalrj". As a gallant and fear- 
less soldier, he participated in many hard- 
fought battles, and was always found at his 
post of duty. On receiving an honorable 
discharge, he returned to Iowa, and in 
Osceola, that state, was married in April, 
1866, to Miss Sarah C. Lingle, who is also a 
native of Morgan county, Indiana, born 
February 19, 1847, and is a daughter of 
Jacob and Mary M. Lingle. She is the 
oldest in their family of six children, and 
her brothers and sisters are still residents 
of Osceola, Clarke county, Iowa, where the 
mother also resides. The father died about 
ten jears ago. To Mr. and Mrs. Warthen 
have been born nine children, as follows: 
Oliver N., Mary E., Lawrence E., Rhoda 
L. , Ralph L., Francis E., Marshall D., 
Cora M. and Ernest E. 

Mr. Warthen is one of the many brave 
soldiers during the Civil war who have taken 
up their residence in Nebraska. In 1872 
he came to Fillmore count}-, and took a 
homestead and also a timber claim. In 
common with the other early settlers he and 
his faithful wife endured all the hardships 
and privations incident to pioneer life. At 
first Pleasant Hill and Swan Creek were 
their nearest milling points and for corn 
they paid fifty cents per bushel. Fuel was 
obtained from the Little Blue; there was 
then but one store in Carleton, and our 
subject was in Edgar when the first store- 
building was erected at that place. But as 
the years have passed the country has be- 
come more thickly settled, all the comforts 
of civilization have been introduced, and in 



their adopted county Mr. and Mrs. Warthen 
have prospered, being now the owners of a 
most desirable and well improved farm of 
two hundred and forty acres in Bryant pre- 
cinct. The family is one of prominence in 
their community and their friends are many 
throughout the county. In early life Mr. 
Warthen's father was a'Democrat, but when 
the question of the free-school system came 
before the people and that party opposed it, 
while the Republicans favored it, he joined 
the latter organization and continued to 
fight under its banner. Our subject also 
espoused the principles of the Republican 
party, and has ever taken quite an active 
and prominent part in local politics, being 
tendered the nomination to several offices 
of honor and trust. 



T EWIS C. MOUL, on honored pioneer 
iS^ and highl}' respected citizen of York 
county, Nebraska, arrived here in the fall of 
1 87 1, and has since made his home on sec- 
tion 28, Hays township, while he has taken 
an active and prominent part in the devel- 
opment and improvement of this section of 
the state. He was born in Schenectady 
county. New York, October 28, 1831, and 
is a son of David and Catharine (Wager) 
Moul, also natives of the Empire state. 
The father, who was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, emigrated with his family to the terri- 
tory of Wisconsin, in 1844, and there se- 
cured a claim of government land in Dodge 
county, being among the earliest settlers. 
He and his wife spent their remaining days 
there. 

The subject of this sketch was a lad of 
thirteen years when he accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Wisconsin, and 
in that state he grew to manhood, and was 
married in June, 1855, the lady of his choice 
being Miss Mary Purdie, a native of St. 
Lawrence county. New York, and a daugh- 
ter of John and Marian (Shaw) Purdie, who 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



787 



were born in Scotland. Six children bless 
this union, namely: Willis, Walter, Clar- 
ence, Nellie, Jennie and John. 

After his marriage, Mr. Moul bought 
land and engaged in farming in Wisconsin 
for several years, but in the fall of 1871, 
accompanied by his brother, he came bj' 
team to York county, Nebraska, and filed a 
homestead claim to eighty acres of land on 
section 28, in what is now Hays township. 
At the time the few settlers in this region 
were widely scattered, and most of the land 
was still in its primitive condition, being 
undisturbed by the plow. Mr. Moul hauled 
the logs for his cabin from Blue river, and 
erected a little house fourteen by sixteen 
feet, in which the family lived for several 
years, and which is still standing upon the 
place — a landmark of pioneer days. To his 
original claim he has added, by purchase, 
eighty acres of railroad land, making in all 
a tine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, 
which he has placed under a high state of 
cultivation, and improved with good and 
substantial buildings. During the first years 
of his residence here he raised good crops 
of wheat, but for several years the grass- 
hoppers took most of his corn. He readily 
recalls the terrible Easter blizzard, which 
occurred in 1872, lasting three days, and 
was one of the worst storms in the history 
of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Moul are char- 
ter members of the Fairview Methodist 
Episcopal church, assisted in the organiza- 
tion of the same, and have always taken an 
active and prominent part in its work, being 
numbered among the most valued and 
highly-esteemed citizens of Hays township. 



JOHN THOMAS McKNIGHT.— Prom- 
inent among the business men of Brain- 
ard is Mr. McKnight, who for over a quar- 
ter of a century, has been closely identified 
with the histor\ of Butler county, while his 
name is inseparably connected with the fi- 



nancial records of the town. The banking 
interests are well represented by him, for 
he is to-day president of the bank of Brain- 
ard, the leading moneyed institution of the 
place. He is a man of keen discrimination 
and sound judgment, and his executive 
ability and excellent management have 
brought to the concern with which he is 
connected a high degree of success. The 
safe conservative policy which he inaugu- 
rated commends itself to the judgment of 
all, and has secured for the bank a liberal 
patronage. 

Mr. McKnight was born April 5, 1839, 
in the town of Wayne, Lafayette county, 
Wisconsin, and on the paternal side is of 
Scotch descent, the family being founded in 
this country before the Revolutionary war 
by three brothers, one of whom settled in 
Michigan, the second in Pennsylvania and 
the third in Virginia. From the last he is 
descended, and in Washington county, Vir- 
ginia, both his father. Miles McKnight, and 
grandfather, Anthony McKnight, were born. 
They were farmers by occupation. When 
eighteen years of age Miles McKnight went 
to Tennessee, and in Smith county, that 
state, was married, about 1827, to Miss Jo- 
hannah Dillehay. In 1836 the family emi- 
grated to Wisconsin, and in Lafa3'ette 
county made their home for many years. 

The subject of this sketch was the third 
son in the family, and was reared on the 
home farm in LaFayette county, Wisconsin, 
until eighteen years of age, obtaining his 
early education in the public schools. After 
engaging in milling for two years, he entered 
Hillsdale College, at Hillsdale, Michigan, at 
the age of twenty, and remained a student 
in that institution until the outbreak of the 
Civil war, when he laid aside his text-books 
to enter the service of his countr}'. 

Responding to the president's call for 
aid, Mr. McKnight enlisted in August, 1861, 
in the Fifth Wisconsin Light Artillery, and 
afterward, on the 13th of September, 1862, 



COMPEXDIL'M OF BIOGRAPHY 



re-enlisted, this time becoming a member of 
Company B, Thirty-first Wisconsin Volun- 
teer Infantry, for three years. He entered 
the service as a private, but in February, 
1863, was promoted to lieutenant, and when 
General Harrison took charge of the forces 
around Chattanooga our subject was ap- 
pointed quartermaster of the Twentieth 
Army Corps and attached to the General's 
staff. On entering the service he was with 
the Army of the Mississippi at Island No. 
10, and later was with the Army of the Cum- 
berland, participating in the battles of Chick- 
amauga. Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, 
Murfreesboro, the Atlanta campaign, and 
many other important engagements. His 
promotion was for meritorious conduct on 
field of battle, and he made a brave and 
efficient officer, being very popular with the 
men under him, who clamored for his pro- 
motion. At the close of the war he re- 
ceived the commission of brevet major, and 
at Dalton, Georgia, was honorably dis- 
charged in February, 1865. He became 
personally acquainted with General Harri- 
son. 

Returning to his old home in Wisconsin, 
Mr. McKnight engaged in teaching school 
and also spent another year in Hillsdale 
College. During the war he was married. 
May 18, 1862, to Miss Mary E. Pinney, a 
daughter of A. G. Pinney, of New Jersey, 
and a sister of Mrs. J. F. Russell, of Butler 
county, Nebraska. They have three chil- 
dren: Albert H., who was born in Wis- 
consin, and is now in the hardware business 
in Dwight, Butler county; Eugene A., who 
is in the hardware business in Lincoln, and 
Estella M., wife of Charles H. Harriger, of 
Butler county. 

It was on the loth of October, 1870, 
that Mr. McKnight became a resident of 
Butler county, and for eight years he suc- 
cessfully engaged in farming on section 12, 
Oak Creek township. He then came to 
Brainard, where he was interested in the 



real estate and collection business for some 
time, and in 1885 opened the Exchange 
Bank, the first financial institute in the 
town. A year later he admitted A. K. 
Smith to a partnership in the business, and 
the name was changed to the Bank of 
Brainard, of which Mr. McKnight is now 
president, Henry Schulz vice-president and 
Mr. Smith cashier. At different times Mr. 
McKnight has also been interested in mer- 
cantile operations, but this has been inci- 
dental to the main issue, which is in finan- 
cial operations. Although never admitted 
to the bar, he is well qualified to engage in 
the practice of law, and is a safe counsellor 
especially on the subject of business trans- 
actions. He has been most active in the 
development of the town of Brainard, has 
built a large number of its buildings, and is 
recognized as one of the most useful and 
valued citizens. In the early days of the 
county he was a member of the board of 
county commissioners, but has never cared 
for official honors, preferring to give his un- 
divided attention to his extensive business 
interests. He is a Master Mason, was one 
of the organizers of the lodge at Brainard, 
and served as its first master. He is the 
present commander of Cruft Post, G. A. R., 
and is one of the most prominent members 
of that body. As a financier he ranks 
among the ablest in Butler county, and as 
as citizen he manifests the same loyalty in 
da\s of peace as in days of war, when he 
followed the old flag to victory on man}' a 
southern battle field. 



JOHN WESTERHOFF is the fortunate 
owner of a fine farm of three hundred 
and twenty acres in precinct H, in Seward 
county, Nebraska, and is well and widely 
known as an old settler and a valued and in- 
fluential citizen of the community in which 
he lives. 

Mr. Westerhoff was born in Germany, 



COMPEX/)IVM OP inOGBAP/ir 



n^ 



januar}' 26, 1S33, and was educated in th« 
common schools of that country, beginning 
his mental training at the age of six years, 
and spent about eight years in school. At 
the age of fourteen years, he was confirmed 
in the Reformed church, in Germany. Dur- 
ing the same year he became an apprentice 
to a tinsmith and followed this line of 
work until he attained the age of twenty 
years. At this age, he entered the German 
army and served two years and six months, 
after which he returned to his profession 
and was thus engaged until twenty-six years 
of age. In 1858, he migrated to America, 
crossing the Atlantic in a steamer to New 
York, and from thence moved to Warsaw, 
Illinois, where he engaged in farming for 
about eleven years. 

In 1862, our subject enlisted in the 
Second Missouri Cavalry, under Rosecrans, 
and served in that capacity for three years 
and two months, participatiog in the battles 
of Gregsville, Chereokee Bay, Merriam, 
Marmaduke and others, but without receiv- 
ing a wound, and was mustered out at St. 
Louis, Missouri, March 4, 1865. He then 
went to Hancock, Cook county, Illinois, 
and was there engaged in farming until i 869. 
Two years previous to this, however, 
realizing the truthfulness of the scriptural 
passage, ' 'It in not good for man to be 
alone," he took a helpmate, and the happy 
couple made their home in Illinois for three 
years. Then, with his wife and two chil- 
dren, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, and 
for a short time made their home in a small 
frame house, 12x14 feet, for which they 
paid a monthly rent of twelve dollars. Mr. 
Websterhoff then took a homestead in pre- 
cinct H, Seward county, and for twenty- 
nine years has made that his home. His 
first domicile, on the new farm, was a "dug- 
out," so well known to the old settlers of 
the west. Four years later, however, he 
was able to build a frame house, which was 

only the beginning of quite a lengthy line of 
45 



improvements which he has since added tO' 
his home, and can now justly boast of a' 
farm that ranks among the finest of that 
section. During the first few years that he 
spent in Seward county, Mr. Westerhoff 
was obliged to go sevent}--five miles to mar- 
ket, Nebraska City then being the nearest 
town, and it required from six to ten days 
to make the trip with the ox team. 

Elizabeth Klingenmuller, the estimable 
lady who presides over the household affairs 
of our subject, was born in Hanover, Ger- 
many, March 10. 1848. At the age of six 
years she came to America with her parents^ 
and settled in Illinois, and at the age of 
eighteen, she was united in marriage to Mr. 
WesterholT, the subj -ct of our sketch. To 
this congenial union have been born nine 
children, all of whom are living, and whose 
names in the order of their birth are as fol- 
lows: Fred W. , Mary C. E., John W.. 
Wilhelmiaa, Mary, Carl C. , Emma H., 

! Louis H., and Robert F. The children are 
all living in Nebraska, except one daughter, 

! who is making her home in Oklahoma. 

Our subject's father, John: W. Wester- 
hoff, was also a nati\e of Germany and 
lived in that country until 1863, when he 
migrated with his family to America, and 
spent the remaining years of his life in the 
state of Illinois, where he died at the age of 
seventy-two years, and was buried in that 
state. Mrs. Westerhoff's parents were 
farmers by occupation, and also spent the 
latter part of their lives in the state of Illi- 
nois, and are there buried. 



ANDREW J. DAY is one of the honored 
pioneers of York county who located 
here in the fall of 1870, his first home being 
about a mile north of the present site of the 
city of York, and since that time he has 
been engaged as an industrious tiller of the 
soil. He formed an intimate acquaintance 
with the hardships and trials of pioneer life. 



r90 



COMPENDIirM OF BIOGRAPni'. 



and as the result of his industry and resolu- 
tion, he is now the owner of a comfortable 
homestead, comprising one hundred and 
twenty acres on section 21, Leroy township. 
He is numbered among the liberal-minded 
and public-spirited citizens, who, while 
carving out their own fortunes, having con- 
tributed, as they ha\e found opportunity, 
to the well being of the people around 
them. 

Mr. Day was born near Wilkesbarre, 
Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, December 
10, 1839, a son of Layton J. and Susan 
Day, also nati\es of Pennsylvania. The 
mother died when he was about eight years 
old, and soon afterward he was bound out 
to a farmer near Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
He was deprived of educational advantages, 
but his training in the line of work was not 
limited — in fact, he was variously employed 
during early life, doing anything at which 
he could earn a livelihood. He was among 
the first to respond to his country's call for 
aid, enlisting in April, 1861, at Danville, 
Montour county, Pennsylvania, in the three 
months' ser\ice, and was assigned to Com- 
pany F, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, under command of General Patter- 
son. With his regiment he went to Will- 
iamsport, Hagerstown, Maryland, and then 
into Virginia, and at Falling ^^'ater, near 
Martinsburg, that state, he participated in 
a skirmish, in which his company lost one 
man. Having forded the Potomac river, he 
took cold, and was unable to accompany 
his regiment to Harper's Ferry, but was 
sent back to Martinsburg, and later was 
taken to the hospital. On his recovery he 
rejoined his command, and on the e.x'pira- 
tion of his term of enlistment was honorably 
discharged at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 

About a month later, on the 12th of 
August, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, 
First Regiment Volunteer Light Artillery, 
being mustered in at Washington, District 
of Columbia, and by steamboat went to 



Hampton Roads, near Fortress Monroe, 
whence they marched toward Richmond. 
When within nine miles of that city they 
took part in the battle of Fair Oaks, and a 
few days later was driven back by Jackson 
to cover of the gunboats. Shortly after 
they marched to Yorktown and took a 
steamboat to Petersburg, being under Grant 
at the siege of that place and Richmond. 
After the fall of the latter city, Mr. Day as- 
sisted in dismounting the guns and cleaning 
the arsenal, and then went to Philadelphia, 
where he was finally discharged as a veteran 
volunteer July 20, 1865. 

After the war Mr. Day leased a boat 
and engaged in business for himself on the 
Pennsylvania canal, but the boat soon sank, 
causing him considerable loss. He was 
then variously employed at different places 
in his native state until the fall of 1867, 
when he decided to try his fortune in the 
west and accordingly went to Iowa, locat- 
ing near Mt. Pleasant, where he worked 
one summer on a farm for Robert Waugh. 
On the 23d of September, 1868, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Frances A. 
Detrick, who was born near Wilkesbarre, 
Pennsylvania, April 19, 1840, a daughter of 
Jacob and Hannah M. (Hannis) Detrick, 
also natives of the Keystone state. Five 
children bless this union: Orlando H., a 
cattle man of Texas; Edward A., who re- 
cently enlisted for service in the war against 
Spain, and is now at Manila; and Asa W., 
Grizzie E. and A. Jay, all at home. 

In the fall of 1870, Mr. Day, accom- 
panied by his wife and child, of one year, 
started overland for Nebraska, and finally 
located in York county in November of that 
year, passing the first winter in a sod shanty 
north of what is now the city of York. 
The following spring he filed a soldier's 
homestead claim to the northeast quarter 
of section 18, Leroy township, proved up 
the same and afterward sold it. In the 
spring of 1883 he purchased his present 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



791 



farm on section 21, and to its cultivation 
and improvement has since devoted his en- 
ergies with most gratifying results. Before 
he was able to buy a team, he broke many 
acres of land with cattle, and he and his 
wife underwent all the hardships and diffi- 
culties incident to life on the frontier, living 
in rude sod shanties, and having their crops 
destroyed by drought and grasshoppers. 
Prosperity has at length crowned their ef- 
forts, and they now have a coinfortable 
home and good farm under excellent culti- 
vation. 

Although not active in politics, Mr. Day 
always supports the Republican party by 
his ballot. He is an honored member of 
the Grand Army Post at York, and both he 
and his wife are connected with the Method- 
ist Episcopal church at that place, and also 
with the Relief Corps. Wherever known 
they are held in high regard and have a 
host of friends in their adopted county. 



JOHN KEEFE, whose home is on section 
32, McFadden township, has long re- 
sided in York county, and can recount from 
personal experience many stories of its pri- 
vations and pleasures. He came to this 
county in the spring of 1871, and filed a 
soldier's homestead claim to the southwest 
quarter of section 32, township 9, range 2. 
At that time settlers were few and far re- 
moved, and only an occasional dug-out 
could be seen in the distance. He con- 
structed one at first, and broke only about 
fifteen acres, raising a fairly good crop of 
sod corn. He still lives here and has a fine 
farm, with all the usual improvements. 

Mr. Keefe was born in Erie, New York, 
in 1845, and is a son of Bartholomew and 
Mary (Kinne) Keefe, natives of Ireland, 
where they were reared and married. They 
lived in New York, Massachusetts, Wiscon- 
sin and Illinois, and in this last state the 
widow Keefe is still living, and where she 



brought up her son John. He enlisted in 
Company I, Ninth Illinois Volunteer Cav- 
alry, January 8, 1864, and served through- 
out the closing months of the Civil war. 
His regiment was in fifty-three battles, and 
he himself participated in thirty-two. Some 
of the principal engagements in which he 
took part were Pontiac, Missouri, Tupello, 
Missouri, Spring Hill, Nashville and Hur- 
ricane Creek, He was discharged at Selma, 
Alabama, and mustered out at Springfield, 
Illinois, in 1865, when he returned to his 
home in Boone county, but soon after went 
to Wisconsin, where he worked in the pine- 
ries for two years. He worked on an Iowa 
railroad for a few months, and came to 
this county in 1871. He was married in 
McHenry county, Illinois, to Miss Katie 
Duggon, who died in 1876, after becoming 
the mother of one child, William B. In 
1880 he was married to Miss Maggie Ryan, 
a native of Walworth county, Wisconsin, 
and they are the parents of two children, 
Julia E. and James E. Mr. Keefe is a 
member of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic and he and his wife are members of the 
Fairmont Catholic church. In politics he 
is a Republican, and is a man of good char- 
acter and the best reputation among his 
friends and neighbors. 



EZRA P. POOL is pleasantly situated on 
section 27, I precinct, Seward county, 
where he owns one of the many fine farms 
for which this locality is so justly celebrat- 
ed. He was born in Eaton county, Michi- 
gan, in 1850, a son of Avery and Sophia 
Pool. The father died when our subject 
was quite young, and the mother, who was 
also a native of Michigan, died at the age 
of fifty-two years. 

Mr. Pool was educated in the public 
schools and was reared in the faith of the 
United Brethren church, to which the fami- 
ly belonged. On attaining his majority he 



792 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



learned the blacksmith's trade, which he 
followed for two years in Michigan, four 
years in Illinois, and two 3'ears in Nebraska. 
On the 14th of November, 1873, he was 
married in Lee county, Illinois, the lady of 
his choice being Miss Sophia Binne. Her 
father, Christian Binne, was a native of 
Hanover, Germany, and on coming to the 
new world located in Bedford county, Penn- 
sylvania. He was married in Philadelphia 
to Miss Mary Kanouse, who died many 
years ago, leaving three daughters, of whom 
Mrs. Pool is the second in order of birth. 
One is now living in Lancaster county, Ne- 
braska, and the other in Oklahoma. The 
father came to this state in the same fall as 
his son-in-law, Mr. Pool, and now, in his de- 
clining years, having attained the ripe old 
age of eighty-one, he finds a pleasant home 
with our subject. To Mr. and Mrs. Pool 
were born seven children: Elisha, who 
married Elmeda Snick, and lives on a farm 
in I precinct, Seward county; Charles, who 
has attended the Milford high school as did 
also his older brother; Guy, Elwilda and 
Aurilla, twins, all at home; and two who 
died in infancy. 

For two years after his marriage Mr. I 
Pool made his home in Michigan and then j 
returned to Lee county, Illinois, where he 
spent the same length of time, but the fall 
of 1876 witnessed his arrival in Seward 
county, Nebraska, where he has since made 
his home. This region at that time was but 
sparsely settled; Lincoln was a small town 
looking very rough and neglected; and Mil- 
ford, which now has a population of only 
eight hundred, was larger and more pros- 
perous than the village of Seward, which 
now numbers three thousand five hundred 
souls. As the country became more thickly 
settled the comforts of civilization were in- ' 
troduced, and the state to-day ranks among ! 
the best west of the Mississippi. Mr. Pool 
bought one hundred and si.xty acres of land 
at six dollars per acre, and ten years later 



an eighty-acre tract at thirty dollars per 
acre, making in all two hundred and forty 
acres in I precinct. It is now under a high 
state of cultivation and improved with good 
and substantial buildings. As he arrived 
here after the grasshoppers had left, he 
prospered from the start, as the eighties were 
exceptionally good years for raising abun- 
dant crops. His first home here was a small 
frame house, which was improved and en- 
larged as his financial resources increased 
and he now has a very pleasant home. He 
has been honored with several offices in his 
township, and for the past twelve years has 
continuously and most efficiently served as 
a member of the school board. .He cast 
his first ballot for U. S. Grant, and at na- 
tional elections still supports the Republican 
party, but on local matters endeavors to 
vote for the best interests of the people, re- 
gardless of party affiliations. 



WT. SMITH, D; D. S., is a leading 
dentist and prominent citizen of Ge- 
neva, Nebraska, and for ability, professional 
knowledge and skill stands very high in the 
profession. He was born in DeKalb coun- 
ty, Missouri, December 14, 1868, a son of 
A. C. and S. E. (Ashby) Smith, in whose 
family were seven children, our subject be- 
ing the second in order of birth. The father 
died in Missouri at the age of sixty \ears and 
was laid to rest in the cemetery at Berlin, 
that state. He was one of the influential 
and popular citizens of his community, was 
highly respected by all who knew him for 
his many noble traits of character and ster- 
ling qualities, and was often called into pub- 
lic life. He served as sheriff and tax col- 
lector of DeKalb county, Missouri, and most 
ably represented his district in the state leg- 
islature. In his death the community real- 
ized that it had lost one of its most valued 
and useful citizens, and his family a devoted 
husband and loving father. The mother is 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



793 



still living in Missouri, at the age of fifty-five 
years. 

It has been said that it is useless to give 
a person a college training without first 
giving him a common-school education. 
This being true the doctor's education was 
started right, for he was for some time a 
student in the public schools near his boy- 
hood home, at then attended the high school 
at Berlin, Missouri. His early life was 
passed on the home farm near Marysville, 
Missouri, and he remained with his father 
until attaining his majorit}'. He started 
out in life for himself as a clerk in a store 
in Bloomington, Nebraska, but his aims 
were toward a professional life. At the age 
■of twenty-one, he entered the Dental Col- 
lege at Kansas City, Missouri, from which 
he was graduated in 1S92, and three years 
later took a post-graduate course at Kaskell 
College, Chicago, Illinois, graduating from 
that institution in 1894. He came at once 
to Geneva, and since 1895 has occupied 
his pleasant suite of rooms in the Fraternity 
Block. They are fitted up with all modern 
appliances for the accomplishment of suc- 
cessful dentistr}', and he to-day enjoys an ex- 
cellent practice. He has attained his pres- 
ent honorable position by his own unaided 
exertions, earning the means for pursuing 
his studies in college by his own labors. He 
is talented and skillful to a marked degree, 
and as a young man of correct habits and 
of an upright moral character, an honor- 
able career lies before him in his chosen 



FRANK S. MORRIS. M. D., came to 
York county, in 1887, and at once lo- 
cated at McCool Junction, and began the 
practice of medicine and surgery. The vil- 
lage had been laid out in February of that 
year, and the Doctor arrived in March, and 
was immediately and is still the only prac- 
titioner of any prominence in the Junction. 



He has had a good practice ever since his 
location, and is recognized as one of the 
foremost medical men in the county. In 
1892 he purchased the drug store, which 
had been managed by Sedgwick & Bagnell, 
and has since operated it to his own profit 
and the satisfaction of the community. 

Dr. Morris was born in Geauga county, 
Ohio, June 20, 1865. He was a child of S. 
L. and Anette( Warner) Morris. His father 
was a native of Virginia and his mother of 
Ohio. The senior Morris was an Ohio 
farmer and operated an extensive dairy. 
He and his wife now reside in DeWitt, Ne- 
braska. The Doctor spent his early life in 
Ohio, and had the usual common-school 
education. His parents moved to DeWitt 
in 1879, and he followed in 1S84. In the 
meantime he had done considerable travel- 
ing in the states. He attended the DeWitt 
school for a time, and later, while clerking 
in a drug store, began the study of phar- 
macy. This year he also began the study 
of medicine under the supervision of a De- 
Witt doctor, C. E. Elder, and had previous- 
ly devoted considerable time to the reading. 
He took a preparatory course at Butler 
University, Irvington, Indiana, and in the 
fall of 1885 entered the Medical College of 
Indiana, and was graduated in 1887. He 
came at once to the scene of his present 
labors, and has been eminently successful. 
He is an up-to-date physician and alive to 
the best methods of treatment. To in- 
crease his efficiency he took a post-graduate 
course at the post-graduate school in Chi- 
cago and a second term at the Chicago 
Polyclinic. He is a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, the Nebraska State 
Medical society, and the International As- 
sociation of Railway Surgeons. He is in 
the service of St. Joseph and Grand Island 
railroad. Socially, the Doctor is a man of 
many pleasant traits and characteristics. 
He is a member of the Masonic order, blue 
lodge and chapter, at York, the Ancient 



794 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Order of United Workmen, and the Modern 
Wookmen of America, and is medical ex- 
aminer for the last two associations. He 
is a Repubhcan, and during the administra- 
tion of Cleveland he was appointed to the 
pension board. He has held various local 
offices in the village and township. 

The Doctor was married to Miss Minnie 
McClure, in i8S8. She was a native of 
Hendricks county, Indiana, and he has been 
a widower since 1894, his wife having died 
June 8, of that year. 



NELS ANDERSON.— Among the lead- 
ing and representative agriculturists 
of Fillmore county, stalwart and sturdy 
tillers of the soil, there is none who stands 
a more prominent figure than the gentle- 
man whose name introduces this sketch. He 
resides on section 22, Bryant precinct, 
where he owns and operates a fine farm of 
two hundred and sixty acres, which has 
been acquired through his own well directed 
efforts, as he began life for himself empty- 
handed. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Sweden, 
February 22, 1844, and is the oldest in a 
family of eight children, of whom six are 
still living, their parents being Peter and 
Annie (Trollson) Anderson. The father was 
born in Sweden in 18 19, and died in Illinois, 
in 1863, but the mother is still living at the 
age of seventy-six year§ and makes her home 
with her youngest daughter in Moline, 
Illinois. She recently made our subject a 
visit. 

In 1S53, at the age of nine years, Nels 
Anderson accompanied his parents on their 
emigration to America, aud grew to man- 
hood in Moline, Illinois, assisting his par- 
ents until after the attempt of the south to 
secede from the Union. He resolved to 
strike a blow in defense of his adopted 
country, and in 1862, at the age of eight- 
een years, enlisted in Company F, Eighty- 



ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving 
under Captain Williams and later under 
Captain Copp. He was captured by the 
rebels at the battle of Chickamauga on the 
19th of September 1863, and for the long 
period of one year and four days was con- 
fined in Libby prison and at Danville, 
Virginia, where he suffered untold agonies 
from privations, being nearly starved to 
death. He was released on the 24th of 
September, 1864. He returned to his home 
in Illinois, and at the close of the war was 
honorably discharged. 

In 1870, Mr. Anderson was united in 
marriage with Miss Harriet Smith, who 
was born in Illinois, January 23, 1853, a 
daughter of Nathaniel Smith, who during 
his long and eventful career was connected 
with many deeds of heroism. He was born 
in England, August 26, 18 14. He was marri- 
ed in Manchester, England, in 1840, to Har- 
riet Barnett, who was born August 15, 
1 8 16. In 1842 they came to America, 
landing in New York. They then went to 
Pennsylvania, and after one year returned 
to New York and took ship for New Or- 
leans. They were shipwrecked in the Gulf 
of Mexico and landed on the island of 
Nasau, one of the West Indies, and later 
went to Baltimore, Maryland, where they 
lived until 1846. They then went to Rock 
Island county, Illinois, where he engaged 
in the coal business. There his wife died 
in 1879, his eldest daughter in 1880, and 
his second daughter in 1886, the remains of 
all being interred in the cemetery at Water- 
town, Illinois. Mrs. Anderson is the only 
daughter now living, but there are three 
sons: Nathaniel T., Thomas and William, 
all of whom are married and are influential 
men in the communities where they reside. 
The father spent his declining years with 
his daughter in Nebraska and died here 
January 25, 1893. Thus passed away one 
whose life had been well spent and who 
was honored and respected by all who knew 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



795 



him. He was laid to rest in the Shickley 
cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have 
been born ten children, of whom Arthur 
N., the fifth, in order of birth, died at the 
age of fifteen years and seven months, and 
was buried in Shickley cemetery. The 
others are as follows: Nellie M., Adelia H., 
N. Franklin, H. Flora, Alfred T. , Emma L. , 
Annie E., Lillian C. and Leonard B. , all at 
home. 

Coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
in 1872, Mr. Anderson took a homestead in 
Bryant precinct, and the following year the 
family located thereon, bringing with them 
all their earthly possessions in one wagon. 
Their first home here was a dugout, which 
was later replaced by a sod house, then a 
rude frame structure was built, but they 
now have a fine two-story residence, which 
is supplied with all the comforts and many 
of the luxuries of life. They encountered 
many trials and difficulties during their 
early residence here, among which were the 
grasshoppers, droughts and blizzards, but 
at length prosperity seemed to smile upon 
their efforts, and they now have a valuable 
farm of two hundred and sixty acres, under 
a high state of cultivation and well im- 
proved. Politically Mr. Anderson is identi- 
fied with the Republican party, and he gives 
an earnest support to all measures which 
he believes in any way calculated to prove 
of benefit to the community in which he 
lives or to the general public. He has 
manifested the same loyalty in days of 
peace as in days of war, and all who know 
him have for him the highest regard. 



ALBERT J. T. KAEMPFER, the well- 
known editor and publisher of the Ris- 
ing City Independent, of Rising City, has 
been a resident of IButler county since Oc- 
tober, 1 88 1. He was born in the city of 
Greifswald, Prussia, February 18, 1856, 
and in 1867, accompanied the family on 



their emigration to America. The subject 
of this sketch secured work on a farm in 
Michigan, near Mount Clemens, and at- 
tended school in that city, and was thus 
employed for several years. At Mount 
Clemens, he was married in 1880, the lady 
of his choice being Miss Albertine 
L. Sass, a daughter of Charles Sass 
who was also a native of the old country, 
but emigrated to the United States. Their 
voyage was attended with much hardship 
and danger. While en route the ship was 
wrecked in the English Channel, and from 
the effects of the hardships and exposure, 
the father and one brother died before 
reaching this country. The rest of the 
family continued on their way, and finally, 
after thirteen weeks, landed on the shores 
of the new world. They proceeded at once 
to Mount Clemens, Michigan, where they 
took up their residence. The following 
year Mr. Kaempfer, with his wife and child, 
started westward, reaching Rising City, Ne- 
braska, with less than a dollar in his pocket. 
Here he secured whatever work offered, and 
for the first few years he had a hard strug- 
gle to get along. Being energetic, indus- 
trious and careful, he never failed to get 
employment, though others were not so 
fortunate. Having learned typesetting in 
Rising City, he finally turned his attention 
to newspaper work, at first purchasing only 
a half interest in the Independent, but be- 
came sole proprietor five months later, by 
buying out his partner. He has uniformly 
conducted the enterprise with consummate 
skill and ability, and now has one of the 
best papers in this section of the state. 
Although Mr. Kaempfer is a stanch Repub- 
lican, he has made the paper non-partisan. 
Its circulation is large and its advertising 
list good. He takes an active interest in 
civic societies, and is a charter member of 
the Knights of Pythias; the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen; and the Modern Wood- 
men of America; while he also belongs to 



796 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Degree of Honor, and Royal Neighbors of 
America. He is a prominent and honored 
member of these fraternities, and has served 
as secretary in most of them. 

Mr. Kaempfer was educated in Germany 
before coming to America, and now reads, 
writes and speaks both languages fluently. 



KARL KREH. — Germany has furnished 
toYork county many of its best and most 
progressive citizens, and none stand higher 
in the esteem of their fellow men than the 
gentleman whose name introduces this 
article. He was born in the Fatherland, 
October 12, 1836. He worked as a farm 
laborer until he was married, at the age of 
twenty-six years, to Miss Mina Smaltz, who 
.at that time was twenty-four. Subsequently 
'he was employed as a shepherd, but not 
liking the occupation, he concluded to come 
to America, so when he and his wife had 
saved enough to pay their passage, they 
embarked on a sailing vessel, March i, 
1S65, and finally landed in Iowa, May 10, 
of that year. There he hired out to a 
farmer, but after working about two months 
he received a sunstroke while plowing corn, 
and was unable to perform any labor in the 
sunshine until October, 1866. When he 
had sufficiently recovered, he worked at 
anything which he could find to do for two 
years, and then was sent into the timber to 
herd sheep. At the end of five years' resi- 
dence in Iowa, he had managed to save 
one hundred dollars and also owned a good 
team and wagon. Loading his wagon with 
household effects, he started for York 
count}', Nebraska, a distance of four hun- 
dred miles, and on his arrival filed a claim 
of eighty acres. After living upon that 
place for five years, he received his title to 
the land and sold it, buying the southwest 
quarter of section 2, township 9, range 4 
■west, upon which he has since made his 



home. Not a tree had been planted upon 
the place nor a furrow turned by the plow, 
but with characteristic energy he soon trans- 
formed the wild land into rich and produc- 
tive fields, which now yield a golden tribute 
in return for the care and labor he has be- 
stowed upon them. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kreh have become the 
parents of three children: Amelia, now the 
wife of Herman Smith, who lives upon a 
part of the home farm; Paulina, wife of 
Ferdinand Keiser, whose farm is in the 
same neighborhood; and August, who is 
single and lives with his parents on the 
home farm. They have all been well edu- 
cated and the family all hold membership 
in the Lutheran church. Politically Mr. 
Kreh has always been a pronounced Re- 
publican, casting his first presidential vote 
for General Grant, his last for William Mc- 
Kinley. 



CORNELIUS CASEY, deceased, was for 
several years a leading farmer and 
highly respected citizen of precinct C, Sew- 
ard county, and materially aided in its 
early development and prosperity. He was 
a native of Ireland, born in county Cork, 
about 1830, but during his infancy was 
brought to America by his parents, who set- 
tled in Boston, Massachusetts, and there 
died. Our subject was indebted to the 
public schools of that city for his educational 
privileges. 

When a young man, Mr. Casey left Bos- 
ton and removed to Glenwood, Iowa, where 
he opened a bakery, being a baker by trade, 
but later bought land and turned his atten- 
tion to agricultural pursuits. It was in 
1862 that he first came to Nebraska, and 
settled near Nebraska City, where he took 
up a homestead and lived for five years. He 
then moved to Jasper county, Missouri, 
where he made his home until 1870, when 
he went to California, spending one year in 




MR. AND MH3. CORNELIUS CASEY, 
(from photo taken in 1860.) 



COM^BNDIU^T OF BIOGRAPHY. 



799 



traveling through the west. Returning to 
Nebraska in 1871, he located in Lincoln, 
where he purchased a bakery and carried on 
business along that line for two years. On 
selling out in 1872, he came to Seward 
county and bought a homestead in precinct 
C, on which he erected a house. To the 
development and cultivation of his land he 
then gave his entire attention and success- 
fully operated the same until his untimely 
death, which occurred in 1880, being killed 
by a train near Ulysses, owing to deafness. 
He had lost his hearing from an attack of 
cholera when a young man. 

In 1865 Mr. Casey was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Elizabeth Dobson, a native 
of county Leitrim, Ireland, who came to 
America with her parents in 1862, when 
twelve years of age and was reared in Ne- 
braska. To this union seven children were 
born, all still living, namel}-: Park J., 
William H., Mollie F., Frederick C, Rob- 
ert E., Alice E. and Anna E. 

In religious faith Mr. Casey was a Cath- 
olic and in political sentiment he was a 
Democrat. He started out in life for him- 
self without means, but by industry, perse- 
verance and economy succeeded in his un- 
dertakings, and at the time of his death had 
a good farm, well improved. He was a 
kind and indulgent husband and father, and 
at all times and under all circumstances 
proved true to every trust reposed in him, 
thus winning the confidence and high regard 
of those he came in contact with. On an- 
other page of this volume is presented a 
portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Casey. 



JOHN WESLEY FOSTER, a valued 
<J and highly esteemed agriculturist of 
York county, resides on section 8, Hender- 
son township, where he has a tine farm un- 
der excellent culture and well improved. 
The buildings upon his place are of a neat 
and substantial character, and betoken thrift 



and prosperity. He has met with a merited 
success in his farming operations, and is 
now quite well-to-do. 

Born in Randolph county, Indiana, June 
26, 1848, Mr. Foster is a son of James Rob- 
ert and Rebecca (Farrens) Foster, and 
grandson of John and Polly (Adams) Fos- 
ter, the latter belonging to the same family 
as President John Adams. The Fosters 
were from Cork, Ireland, while the Adams 
family is of Scotch and English descent. 
Our subject's maternal grandfather, Samuel 
Farrens, was a native of Germany, and in 
this country married Cynthia McCally, who 
was born in Tennessee. George Foster, 
the great-grandfather on the paternal side, 
was a soldier of the Revolutionary war from 
the beginning to the end of that struggle, 
while the grandfather, John Foster, aided 
in the defense of the country in the war of 
1812, and an uncle of our subject, Joseph 
Adams Foster, served for three years in the 
Civil war, as a member of the Fifteenth 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry. It will thus be 
seen that the family has always been a pa- 
triotic and loyal one, true to the interests 
of their country at all times and under all 
circumstances. 

James R. Foster, our subject's father, 
completed his education by graduating from 
Girard College in 1845, and for some time 
he successfully engaged in teaching in Indi- 
ana, in which state he married Miss Rebecca 
L. Farrens. On moving west he first lo- 
cated in Page county, Iowa, but later settled 
in Taylor county, that state, where he en- 
gaged in farming for twenty-one years. He 
then made his way still farther west, landing 
in York county, Nebraska, in September, 
1874, and here he homesteaded the south- 
west quarter of section 32, Brown township, 
where he followed farming until 1886, since 
which time he and his wife have made their 
home in Whatcom county, Washington. 
They have now reached the ages of seventy - 
eight and seventy-six years, respectively, 



800 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and are honored and respected by all who 
know them. 

John W. Foster, of this review, is their 
eldest child, and was twent}-six years of 
age when he came to Nebraska, preceding 
the family a few months. He filed a claim 
to the east half of the northwest quarter of 
section 8, Henderson township, York coun- 
ty, where he now resides, and constructed 
a commodious dug-out on the side of the 
ravine, in which he lived alone for over 
four years. He then married Miss Julia 
Anna Green, a daughter of Gilbert and 
Charlotte Green, who trace their ancestry 
back to General Green, of Revolutionary 
fame. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have a family 
of four children: Minnie B., James Gil- 
bert, Julia lona and John Wesley. Miss 
Minnie is a graduate of the public schools 
of Henderson, Nebraska,, and has just re- 
turned home after spending one term at the 
Fremont Normal and Business College, a 
school of good repute in Dodge county, Ne- 
braska. She has taught two terms in the 
public schools of Henderson to the perfect 
satisfaction of the school officers and pa- 
trons in that village. The other children 
are attending the village schools, and the 
family is a source of comfort and pride to 
their parents. 

For the reception of his bride, Mr. Fos- 
ter erected a good sod house, in which they 
lived for thirteen years, when it was replaced 
by a comfortable frame residence. With 
their oldest daughter they hold membership 
in the Methodist Episcopal church of Stock- 
ham, and socially Mr. Foster is a charter 
member of York Lodge, No. 56, F. & A. 
M. He cast his first presidential vote for 
Horatio Seymour and Blair, and has al- 
ways been identified with the Democratic 
party, but believing the course adopted by 
the Republican party in erecting an English 
standard for Americans to worship to be un- 
American, he pledges himself to vote with 
any party which agrees to return silver to 



its old place in the finances of the govern- 
ment. He has been a member of the 
school board for several years, was post- 
master of Henderson under President Cleve- 
land, was assessor at one time, and notary 
public for five years. 



M' 



RS. MARIA ARTLYSIA BOBLIT 
TRACY is very highly regarded in the 
county of York. She is one of those Ne- 
braska women who have come through 
great tribulations, and enjoys peace and 
rest at last, with the prospect of faith be- 
yond. She has raised a numerous family, 
has parted from her husband, who was first 
to hear the angel's call, and has great riches 
laid up on high. 

Mrs. Tracy was born in Athens county, 
Ohio, October 27, 1842, and was four years 
old when her parents, Noah and Mary Bob- 
lit, moved to Ross county, in that state, 
where the remaining years of their life were 
spent. Her father died at the age of sev- 
enty-seven, outliving her mother by three 
years. It was there that the subject of this 
sketch first met John Edward Tracy. He 
was the seventh child of Joshua and Rachel 
Tracy, and traced his ancestry in a direct 
line to the Mayflower colony. They were 
married from her father house, in 1857, and 
immediately moved on a rented farm close 
by and labored there for the next three 
years. Mr. Tracy, who had been a teacher, 
collected money which he had invested, and 
bought the farm. He held it for a year, 
and then sold out at good advantage, and 
moved to Illinois, where he rented a 
farm in McLean county. This was 
in February, 1865, and for the next 
seven years he continued the cultivation of 
the black Illinois loam. By that time he 
had accumulated a considerable sum of 
money, which he thought would render him 
quite independent in a new country. He 
accordingly sold out a second time and came 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



801 



into Nebraska, where he bought a farm in 
Richardson county. He tried to hold it 
against the grasshoppers, but after a war of 
three years he lost two crops, and could see 
no signs of improvement. A fair offer was 
made for his land. He accepted it, and lo- 
cated in York county. Here, under the home- 
stead and timber claim acts, he secured one 
hundred and sixty acres of land. This was 
the last move for them. Here their chil- 
dren grew up to maturity. Here they se- 
cured the opening of a district school, and 
here they welcomed the advent of the pio- 
neer Congregational preacher and the inev- 
itable Methodist circuit rider. Here, for 
twenty-one years, Mr. and Mrs. Tracy 
walked side by side, never shunning the du- 
ties and responsibilities of life, trusting God 
and doing their duty, as he gave them 
strength and opportunity. One evening Mr. 
Tracy came home from the village appar- 
ently as well as ever, sat by the fireside 
reading the family papers until the hour of 
retiring, and then went off to bed. In half 
an hour he was dead. This was on April 
28, 1896. It was a great sorrow, and yet 
it had the consolation of freedom from pro- 
longed suffering. The physician attributed 
the sudden death to congestion of the lungs. 
Mr. and Mrs. Tracy were a peculiarly 
congenial couple, and their married life was 
of the happiest character. Wherever she 
could she would help him on the farm, and 
he would always assist her about her house- 
work. They had seven children: MaryM., 
Rachel R. , Olivia A., Amanda E., Isaiah 
W., John W. , and Charles. James Talbott, 
having become acquainted with the oldest 
daughter Mary, while she was in Richard- 
son county, followed her to their new family 
home in York county, and was married to 
her from her father's home. They are now 
living on a farm in Johnson county, Iowa. 
Rachel married Lew Weeks, has her home 
in the city of York. Olivia is Mrs. Plum- 
mer, and is a resident of North Platte. 



Amanda married Granville Woolman, and 
is in Julesburg, Colorado. Isaiah wedded 
Miss Maria Rails, and lives in the old home 
with their mother. John W. was married 
to Miss Mary Russler, and has a home on 
the same section with his mother. Charles 
became the husband of Miss Lizzie Shep- 
herd, and rents a farm si.\ miles to the east. 
Thus Mrs. Tracy, in her old age, is most 
happily situated. She has a farm of two 
hundred and forty acres, highly improved, 
and well provided with farm buildings, 
which she received from her husband. Her 
sons and daughters are close at hand, and 
her grandchildren gather about her knees to 
love her, and care for her with tender min- 
istries. 



WELLINGTON FLANSBURG.— 
Among the pleasant rural homes in 
Butler county is that of Mr. Flansburg, the 
culture and artistic taste of its occupants 
being reflected in its appointments, while a 
gracious hospitality adds a charm to its ma- 
terial comforts. This beautiful farm is 
pleasantly located on section 9, Read town- 
ship, and to its cultivation and improvement 
the owner has devoted his time and atten- 
tion since locating thereon in the spring of 
1880. 

In Albany county. New York, Mr. Flans- 
burg was born July 15, 1849, and on both 
the paternal and maternal sides is descended 
from prominent Holland families, whichwere 
founded in the Empire state at an early day 
in the history of this country. His grand- 
father, Garrett Flansburg, and his father, 
Peter Flansburg, were both natives of New 
York. The latter, who was a farmer by 
occupation, was born in 1823, and on attain- 
ing to man's estate was married in Albany 
county. New York, November 9, 1846, to 
Miss Jane Ann Van Wormer, also of Hol- 
land descent, who could trace her ancestry 
back for more than two hundred years in 



802 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



this countrj'. Among her paternal ances- 
tors the names of Frederick and Cornelius 
alternate. 

Wellington Flansburg is the second son 
in a family of seven children, the others be- 
ing James E., Mary, Catherine, Hester, Lu- 
cretia, Mabel Edna, and Francis J., now 
dead. Of these only Mrs. I. N. Lock, of 
Clay county, Nebraska, resides in this state. 
When five years old our subject accompanied 
his parents on their removal to Cedar coun- 
ty, Iowa, and upon the home farm there he 
spent his boyhood and youth in much the 
usual manner of farmer lads in a frontier 
settlement. On starting out in life for him- 
self he continued to engage in agricultural 
pursuits in that state until 1880, when he 
came to Butler county, Nebraska, with D. 
L. Sylvester, his capital at that time being 
rather limited. His first purchase consisted 
of eighty acres on section 9, Read township, 
and he at once commenced its improvement, 
as it was then vacant prairie. Through his 
untiring efforts he has transformed the land 
into one of the most desirable farms of the 
county; the fields are under a high state of 
cultivation; and the comfortable residence 
plainly indicates the taste and refinement of 
the occupants in both its interior and exte- 
rior appointments. The well-kept lawn, 
shaded by beautiful evergreens, has the rep- 
utation for miles around of being the pret- 
tiest in this section of the county. 

On coming to Nebraska, Mr. Flansburg 
was still single, but in the spring of 1882 he 
was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Sisty, 
a daughter of J. H. Sisty, an honored pio- 
neer of Butler county, of whom mention is 
made elsewhere in this work. Three sons 
have been born to them, as follows: War- 
ren James, now fifteen years of age; Frank 
Wellington, fourteen years; and Ralph 
Henry, eight years. 

The Republican party finds in Mr. Flans- 
burg a stanch supporter of its principles, and 
he has ever taken an active interest in local 



political affairs, giving his aid to all meas- 
ures which he believes calculated to advance 
the moral, intellectual or material wel- 
fare of his adopted countr}-. For some 
years he has most acceptably served as 
a member of the township board. With 
the English Lutheran church he holds mem- 
bership, and socialh is connected with the 
Order of Ben Hur. 



ELLSWORTH N. EVANS, a representa- 
tive and prominent citizen of York 
county, Nebraska, is a native of Maine, 
born March 17, 1826, and belongs to an old 
and highly respected family of New Eng- 
land. His grandfather, Robert Evans, was 
a native of New Hampshire, but spent the 
greater part of his life in the Pine Tree 
state, where he died at the age of seventy 
years, his wife at the age of seventy-five. 

Ira Evans, our subject's father, made his 
home in Harmony, Maine, and, as a me- 
chanic, worked in both iron and wood. He 
married Miss Hannah Merrill, a daughter of 
John Merrill, a farmer by occupation, who 
carried on operations along that line in 
Maine. Ira Evans died at the age of forty- 
nine years, honored and respected by all 
who knew him. In 1857, the mother, with 
her two sons, emigrated to Wisconsin; 
and located in Manitowoc county, where 
she died, in 1877, at the ripe old age of 
seventy-two years. Our subject took her 
body back to Maine and laid it beside his 
father in a cemetery there. 

During his boyhood and youth, Ells- 
worth N. Evans worked with his father at 
his trade, and during his younger years was 
employed as a millwright and machinist in 
the east, but later in life became a dealer 
in lumber and grain. After his father's 
death, with his mother and older brother, 
he left Maine, in 1857, and removed to 
Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, where he 
made his home for several years. He was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



803^ 



married, December i i, 1850, to Eliza Dorr, 
and to them were born three children, 
namelj': Frederick E. and Francis V., twins 
— the latter died at nine months — and Otto 
E. Since 1879 the family have made their 
home in York county, Nebraska, have been 
prominently identified with its interests, and 
are numbered among its most highly es- 
teemed and valued citizens. 

Mrs. Evans' parents, Nathaniel and Mary 
(Smith) Dorr, were both natives of Pem- 
broke, England, and came to America about 
1795, and located at Harmony, Maine, aft- 
er their marriage. The father followed 
farming, and died in 1866; the mother in 
1838. They had ten children — five sons 
and five daughters. One sister, besides 
Mrs. Evans, resides in York — Mrs. Hannah 
Newell. 

Mr. Evans was engaged in milling while 
in Wisconsin, at Cato, Manitowoc county, 
in both grain and lumber, and followed this 
business continuously at that point until his 
removal to York county, Nebraska, in 1879. 

The first year after his arrival in York 
county he engaged in the grain and lumber 
trade at York and Bradshaw, and followed 
that for nearly three years. Since that time 
he has lived retired. He and his wife are 
members of the Presbyterian church. In 
politics he is a stanch Republican, but has 
never sought political honors. Mr. Evans 
has been successful since coming to Ne- 
braska, and is more than pleased with his 
adopted home. 



FREDERICK RICH.— The soldier who 
risks his life on the field of battle for a 
principle in which he believes has always 
received the highest praise of men; next to 
him stands the pioneer who braves the dan- 
gers and hardships of the frontier and opens 
up new and uninhabited districts to civiliza- 
tion. In quiet endurance of difficulties, he 
works on day after day at the arduous task 



of making the wild land bring forth the har- 
vests that shall provide him and his family 
with a living. In the early development 
and improvement of York county Mr. Rich 
has borne no inconsiderable part and as the 
result of his labors is now the owner of a 
good farm of two hundred and eighty acres. 

Born in Germany, April 6, 1856, he is a 
son of Gotlieb and Henrietta Rich. When 
he was si.\ years old his father died and his 
mother afterward married Gotlieb Schmattz, 
who brought the family to the new world in 
1866. They landed at New York city, 
thence went to Wisconsin and on to Benton 
county, Iowa, where the step-father secured 
work as a farm hand. As the family was 
poor and Frederick was then eleven years 
of age, he was bound out to service, and 
worked for some time in Iowa, receiving 
from si.\ to ten dollars per month. He 
was thus employed in Iowa for eleven years. 

In 1S77 he came to Nebraska, bringing 
with him a team and wagon and three hun- 
dred dollars in money, every cent of which 
had been earned by the hardest toil and 
saved through the closest economy. Here 
he purchased the northwest quarter of sec- 
tion II, Henderson township, York county, 
and later bought the north half of the south- 
west quarter of the same section. He built 
a sod house and stable and then com- 
menced the work of plowing, planting and 
improving his land. He planted some sod 
corn, which gave him a good living for the 
first year, and with great industry he has 
prosecuted his further labors. In the year 
of his arrival he went on a visit to a friend 
on Lincoln creek, in York county, and 
formed the acquaintance of Amelia .\. Kaed- 
ing, daughter of Ferdinand and Mary Kaed- 
ing, natives ofGermany, who came to York 
county in 1869 and died in 1886. On the 
1 6th of December, 1877, Mr. Rich and Miss 
Kaeding were married, and he took his bride 
to the home which he had prepared. Their 
union has been blessed with nine children: 



S04 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Matilda E., Ludwig G., Mary H., Amelia 
S., Emily L., F. August, Amanda A., 
Henry W. and John Otto. As they attain 
a proper age they are placed in school, for 
the parents are firm believers in liberal edu- 
cation which will fit them for life's respon- 
sible duties. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Rich are members 
of the Lutheran church, and the former has 
been a stalwart Republican since casting his 
first presidential ballot for General Gar- 
field. His life is a busy and useful one. 
Not afraid of work he labors earnestly and 
perseveringly to secure a competence and is 
ably assisted by his wife, who is indeed a 
faithful helpmeet to him. He has already 
acquired a handsome competence, and his 
name may yet be an inde.x to his financial 
condition. 



DIETRICH ZIMMERMANN, one of 
Seward county's wealthiest farmers 
and most extensive land owners, is one of 
the men in whose coming to this country all 
who honor honest industry and good citizen- 
ship can rejoice. His career has been 
marked throughout with persistent and 
faithful efforts, and he has been rewarded 
by the acquisition of a good property and a 
high reputation. His home farm is situ- 
ated in precinct H, Seward county, near 
the town of Germantown. 

Mr. Ziuimermann was born in Hanover, 
Germany, October 12, 1841, and was edu- 
cated in the common schools of that coun- 
try between the ages of seven and fourteen. 
Before reaching the age of fifteen years, he 
started for America, with a family of his 
acquaintance. After a voyage of seven 
weeks and three days in a sailing vessel — 
for steamers were hardly known on the 
ocean then — they landed in New Orleans, 
Louisiana. From thence our subject took 
passage in a steam boat to St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, arriving in that city about October 



30, and from there he went in another 
steamer to Alton, Illinois. From there he 
went to Bunker Hill, Illinois, and from 
Bunker Hill he traveled by means of team 
and wagon to Staunton, Illinois, landing 
there just at the time James Buchanan was 
elected president of the United States. By 
this time. Master Dietrich had passed his 
fifteenth mile-stone. At Staunton, he hired 
out to a farmer at sixty-five dollars per 
year, and soon after applied himself to the 
study of the English language. After har- 
vest, of that season, he left his first employer, 
partly for the sake of getting among English- 
speaking people and partly on account of 
the higher salary that the English people 
paid their laborers, his first employer, how- 
ever, telling him to return if any thing should 
happen and he should always find a good 
home. With the assistance of an interpre- 
ter, he made a contract with an English- 
man to work on his farm for ten dollars per 
month, and was in the employ of this man 
until the following spring. 

After thus working as a farm laborer for 
something over a year, Mr. Zimmermann be- 
gan farming on his own account. Two 
years later, his father's family joined him, 
and they lived together until our subject ar- 
rived at the age of twenty-six years, at 
which time he met and married Miss 
Catherine Stillahn. Having previously pur- 
chased a farm of one hundred and fifty-two 
acres in Madison county, Illinois, near New 
Douglas, he moved with his wife to this 
place and here they lived for four years. 
On the account of failing health, Mr. Zim- 
mermann decided to move to a more favor- 
able climate, and accordingly in 1871 he 
sold his farm and located land in Nebraska. 
Upon returning to his home, however, he 
received another attack of billious remittent 
fever and was unable to move until the 
spring of 1872. He then moved to his new 
home in Seward county, Nebraska, and lo- 
cated in precinct G, where hehad purchased 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



805 



a homestead right to an eighty-acre farm 
for seven hundred dollars, and made this 
his home for seven years. He next moved 
to his present home, which consisted of one 
hundred and sixty acres, and which he 
bought for a cash consideration of one 
thousand and twenty-five dollars. Upon 
applying for a deed to this property, the 
real estate agent informed him that he was 
too early; that deeds were not given in this 
section of Nebraska, but finally consented to 
make a contract for a deed. In the follow- 
ing November, after purchasing the farm in 
June, 1872; a deed to this property was ob- 
tained, and it being the first instrument of 
the kind in the locality, every one was 
anxious to read it and to be convinced of 
its \'alidity. 

Mr. Zimmermann then set about to de- 
velop the raw, unbroken stretch of prairie 
which comprised his new farm, into a more 
attractive and profitable piece of property 
and a cozy and comfortable home for him- 
self, his wife and his little ones, and soon 
had the entire tract under cultivation, and 
was furnished with a fine residence, barns, 
granaries and windmills, hedges, groves, 
orchards and fruit trees of many varieties. 
Our subject came to Nebraska with a capi- 
tal of four thousand five hundred dollars 
and he has met with eminent success in 
every line in which his faculties have been 
directed. Besides the farm on which he 
makes his home, which, according to the 
county records, is the most valuable in the 
county, our subject has other farms in Sew- 
ard county, making an aggregate of seven 
hundred acres, and also has two hundred 
acres in Jefferson county, one hundred and 
fifty-four acres in Kearney county, Nebraska, 
two hundred and forty acres in Buffalo 
count)', Nebraska, ten acres in the town 
site of Seward and also six other lots in 
the same town, all of which are clear of 
incumbrance. The farms are all well 
stocked and finely impro\ed. Not only 



has Mr. Zimmermann been very pros- 
perous financially, but he has been careful 
to incidentally gather treasures of still 
greater value, and he has gained a reputa- 
tion which is worthy the emulation of the 
rising generation. He is a member of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church, which he 
joined in 1856, at the age of fourteen 
years, and has ever since been true to that 
denomination and consistent with his pro- 
fession. Later he served as a trustee of 
the society in which he held his member- 
ship, and is now its elder. He is also presi- 
dent of the Seward Agricultural Society. 

In 1880 there was a new public school 
district organized in his neighborhood and 
he was the first treasurer of that school dis- 
trict, whichpositionhehasheldeversince, till 
now, 1899. Politically he has always been a 
Republican and cast his first presidential vote 
for U. S. Grant, when he was elected the 
first time. He took out his minor natural- 
ization papers the day after President Abra- 
ham Lincoln was killed. Mr. Zimmermann 
has recently purchased town property, 
where he now lives and expects to spend 
the remainder of his life enjoying the fruits 
of his labor. October 29, 1867, our sub- 
ject was united in marriage to Miss Cath- 
erine Stillahn, and to this congenial union 
have been born nine children, whose names 
in the order of their birth are as follows: 
Annie D., born July 28, 1868; Sophia M. 
K., born September 23, 1870; Mary M., 
born November 22, 1872; DorathaS., born 
February 10, 1877; Albert H. D., died at 
the age of fifteen months; Lena D. W., 
born March 15, 1881; Minnie M., born 
April I, 1885; Metta M. L., born June 16, 
1889; and Wilhelm D. H., born June 13, 
1894. Our subject's parents, Wilhelm and 
Doratha (Meier) Zimmermann, were both 
natives of Hanover, Germany, and were 
educated in that place. The father followed 
the occupation of a farmer during the greater 
part of his life, although, prior to his mar- 



806 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



riage, he spent twelve years in a sufjar fac- 
tory in Amsterdam. In the fall of 1858, 
he migrated to America, and died in Illi- 
nois, in 1880, at the age of eighty-one 
years and eight months. His companion 
passed away four years previous to his 
death. They are both buried in Staunton, 
Illinois, cemetery, side by side. Mrs. Zim- 
mermann's parents were also born in Ger- 
many, and migrated to this country in 
1856, and settled first at Bethalto, and 
later in Madison county. The mother died 
in 1858, but the father is still living, and is 
making his home in Bunker Hill, Macoupin 
county, Illinois. 



CHARLES SANDBERG, a leading and 
representative agriculturist of Fillmore 
county, is now the owner of one of the fin- 
est farms in Momence precinct. Like 
many of our most progressive and energetic 
citizens, he is a native of Sweden, born 
February 21, 1845, ^^^ is a son of Carl and 
Elias Sandberg, in whose family were only 
two children, the other being Emma, who 
died in Sweden at the age of eighteen years. 
The father died during the infancy of our 
subject, and the mother, who was always 
in poor health, passed away when he was 
seventeen. His boyhood and youth were 
passed in his native land and in its public 
schools he was educated. At the age of 
fifteen he was confirmed in the Swedish 
Lutheran church. For twelve yea s he 
worked for a farmer in Sweden, receiving 
nine dollars per month, and with the hope 
of benefiting his financial condition he emi- 
grated to America when twenty-seven years 
of age. 

Mr. Sandberg first located in Illinois, 
where he worked as a farm hand for three 
years, and then commenced life for himself 
upon a rented farm. At the age of twenty- 
eight, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Edith Peterson, the oldest child of Peter 



and Hannah (Hanstrom) Bergstrom, who 
are still living. Eight children were born 
of this union, namely: Carl, who married 
Mollie Spurling and lives in Momence pre- 
cinct, Fillmore county; Emma, wife of 
August Pearson, a farmer of the same pre- 
cinct; and Anna, Ella, Oscar, Minnie, 
Grant and Lena, all at home. 

Mr. Sandberg continued to make his 
home in Illinois until the spring of 1885, 
when he was advised by his physician to 
come to Nebraska, and the climate of this 
state soon restored him to health. He had 
already met with success and on coming to 
Fillmore county purchased one hundred and 
sixty acres of land in Momence precinct for 
two thousand and six hundred dollars, and 
later bought an adjoining tract of eighty 
acres for one thousand and six hundred dol- 
lars, making a valuable farm of two hundred 
and forty acres. The place was partially 
improved, one hundred and ten acres had 
been broken, a one-story house, 16x22- 
feet,had been erected, and there was also an 
old straw stable, but no fence had been built. 
To the further improvement and cultivation 
of the place he has since devoted his ener- 
gies, and his efforts have been crowned with 
success, which is certainly well deserved as- 
he began life in the new world empty-hand- 
ed and his prosperity is all due to his own 
industr\', economy, good business ability 
and sound judgment. 

While still a resident of his native land, 
j Mr. Sandburg served for two years in the 
i Swedish army. He and his family now be- 
I long to the Swedish Lutheran church of 
Stockholm, Nebraska, and occupy an envi- 
able position in the social circles of the 
community in which they live. They have 
made a number of visits to their old home 
in Illinois, but are perfectly satisfied to make 
Fillmore count\ their future abiding place. 
In connection with general farming Mr. 
Sandberg is quite e.^tensively interested in^ 
i raising fine stock of, aJl kinds. He is not 



COMPENDIUM OF BiOGRAPHT. 



*)? 



only oaue of the prosperous men of his pre- 
cinct, but is also one of its most influential 
and pTominent citizens, and has been calied 
upon to fill a number of local offices, serv- 
ing as justice of the peace for two terms 
and as school director for thirteen years. 
He has also been a delegate to the congres- 
sional and senatorial conventions o( the In- 
dependent party, and no trust reposed in 
him has ever been been misplaced. 



LAWRENCE M. SHAW. M. D-— One of 
the most exacting of all the higher lines 
of occupation to which a man may lend his 
energies is that of the physician. A most 
scrupulous preliminary training is demanded, 
and a nicety of judgment but little under- 
stood by the laity. Our subject is well 
fitted for the profession which he has chosen 
as his life-work, and his skill and ability 
have won for him a lucrative practice in 
and around Osceola, where he makes his 
home. 

The Doctor's grandfather, Levi Shaw, 
was born in Newark, N. J., in 1802, and in 
earl}' life went to Pennsylvania, where he 
married Martha Metzler, who was born in 
Westmoreland county, that state, in 18 12. 
From there they removed to Coshocton 
county, Ohio, subsequently made their home 
in Fort Wayne. Indiana, and finally located 
in Sangamon county. Illinois, among the 
pioneers of that region. Here Mr. Shaw 
met Abraham Lincoln and a warm friend- 
ship sprang up between the two gentlemen. 
He served as orderly sergeant in Lincoln's 
company during the Black Hawk war. and 
in later years had the pleasure of entertain- 
ing both the Martyr President and Stephen 
A. Douglas several times at his home in 
Rock Island county, Illinois, during their 
memorable debates when candidates for the 
United States senate. Mr. Shaw spent his 
last days in Mercer county, Illinois, dying 
at Berlin, in 1864. He amassed a hand- 

46 



some property, and also gained the confi-- 
dence and respect of all who knew him. 
He was twice married, his first wife being 
Jane Metzler. a sister of the Doctor's grand- 
mother, and by that union he had one son — 
Almond, who was captain of Company C, 
One Himdred and Second Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, in the Civil war, and now resides 
near Springfield, Missouri. By his second, 
marriage he had the following children : Mrs. 
Samantha Bowling; Mrs. Cedilla Bryan; Vel- 
zer; Lanson, the father of our subject; Amy, 
deceased wife of George W. Gregg, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Free- 
man; Clinton; Milan and Mina, twins; Sir- 
emba. a practicing physician of Chicago; 
and Eliza, who died at the age of thirteen 
years. The mother of these children is 
still living, and now makes her home with 
a son in Iowa. 

Lanson Shaw was born September 22,. 
1840, and on reaching manhood was mar- 
ried in Mercer county, Illinois. Ma}' 2,. 
1867, to Miss Mary E. Valentine, whose 
birth occurred October 25. 1848. Her 
father, David M. Valentine, was a native of 
Ohio, born in 1822, and married Orleana 
Baughman, who was born in Pennsylvania 
in 1829. From their early home in Logan 
county. Ohio, they removed to Mercer 
county, Illinois, and in 1868 took up their 
residence in Poweshiek county, Iowa, where 
they still reside. Mr. \'alentine was one of 
the defenders of the Union in the Civil war. 
Their children were Mary Elizabeth, the 
mother of our subject; Susan, who died in 
1877; William; one that died when young; 
Edwin and Burton. In 1867 Lanson Shaw 
and wife also removed to Poweshiek coun- 
ty, Iowa, but seven years later they re- 
turned to Mercer county, Illinois, and in 
1879 came to Osceola, Nebraska, where 
they have since made their home, being 
numbered among the honored and highly 
esteemed citizens of that place. They are 
the parents of two sons, Lawrence M. and 



808 



COMPENDIUM OF BTOGRAPHT. 



Clarence L. , and are members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. By trade the 
ifather is a mechanic. Three times he en- 
deavored to join the Union arm}' during the 
Civil war, but was always refused on ac- 
count of physical disability. 

Dr. Shaw was born in Poweshiek coun- 
ty, Iowa, February 4, 1868, and came with 
his parents to Osceola, Nebraska, in 1879. 
Here he attended school until fifteen years 
of age, but during the last two years en- 
gaged in farming through the summer sea- 
son, while in the winter he pursued his 
studies. From fifteen until seventeen years 
of age he taught school and worked at the 
carpenter's trade, and then attended the 
^Nebraska Wesleyan college at York for one 
j'ear. The following three years he was a 
student in the medical department of the 
State University of Iowa, and graduated 
from that institution with the class of 1889. 
On the 6th of March, that year, he opened 
.an office in Osceola, where he has since suc- 
'Cessfully engaged in practice. In 1893 he 
took a post-graduate course at Chicago, and 
is now one of the best qualified physicians 
of the regular school practicing in Polk 
county. 

The Doctor was married, January 15, 
1S90, to Miss Etta Moffett, who was born 
August 24, 1867, in Rush count)', Indiana, 
where she was reared and obtained a good 
common-school education. Coming to Ne- 
braska, in 1884, she took a course in music 
at the Nebraska Wesleyan college, at York, 
and afterward located in Osceola. Her par- 
ents, Robert and Viola (Bilby) Moffett, are 
both deceased: the father dying in 1883, 
the mother in 1882. Their children were 
Stephen, Edgar, Mrs. Dora Fliesbach, 
Robert, Viola, Mrs. Etta Shaw, and Robert, 
deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Shaw have three 
children: Marion Ansley, born April 2, 
1893; Leah Brittonmart, born December 
5, 1894, and Lawrence Ian, born February 
19, 1898. 



The Doctor and his wife are leading 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church 
of Osceola, in which he is now serving as 
trustee. Socially he is an honored member 
of the Masonic lodge, in which he has been 
junior and senior warden; the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows; the Modern Wood- 
men of America, of which he is medical e.x- 
aminer; and he is also medical examiner for 
the Order of Ben Hur and the Royal High- 
landers, all of Osceola. For nine years he 
has most efficiently and satisfactorily served 
as county physician; has been physician on 
the board of insanity in Polk county; United 
States pension e.xaminer; and examining 
physician for the following insurance com- 
panies — Connecticut Mutual, Equitable of 
New York, the Northwestern of Vermont, 
the Union Central of Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
the Pennsylvania Mutual of Philadelphia. 
He has been the honored president of the 
York county District Medical Society, and 
is also a prominent member of the State 
Medical Society. 



JONATHAN FURMAN LEAMING, who 
<} may be found at work the season 
through on his well-kept farm near Brad- 
shavv, Nebraska, brought thrift and energy, 
industry and character as his contribution to 
the advancement of York county. He has 
done his work well in the past years, and is 
entitled to honorable mention in any work 
that pretends to sketch the lives of the mak- 
ers of this rich and prosperous Nebraska 
county. 

The Leaming family were among the 
early settlers of this country and have long 
been a prominent name in it. Christopher 
Leaming came to this country in 1674, and 
settled at a town called Sag, in Long Island. 
Here, in the same year, he married Esther 
Barnett, and in 1691 he moved to Cape 
May, New Jersey, and engaged in whaling, 
and being a cooper by trade, in the winter 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



809 



made casks for the oil. His eldest son, 
Jonathan, is ancestor to the Learnings in 
Lower township and Cape May City, New 
Jersey. J. S. Learning, who married Helen 
Learning, is a descendant of this Thomas, 
and is the sixth generation in line. 

Christopher's son, Jeremiah, and daugh- 
ters, Elizabeth and Jane, settled in New 
England; Hannah settled in Philadelphia, 
and Christopher (2) was lost at sea in a pri- 
vateer. Aaron (i) married Lydia Shaw and 
left a large family. His son, Aaron (2), 
married Mary Furman. All four of his chil- 
dren left large families. His son, Jonathan 
(ij, married Marguerite Stites, and had one 
daughter, Priscilla. Afterwards he married 
Judith Hand. By her he had Jonathan 
Leaming(2), born 1770, and who was the 
great-grandfather of Jonathan Furman 
Learning the subject of our sketch. He 
married Elizabeth Yates, of Philadelphia, 
and by her he had William, grandfather of 
our subject, and Priscilla, who never mar- 
ried. William married Catharine Wood, of 
Philadelphia, and by her had Eliza, and 
William, who was the father of Jonathan 
Furman Learning, the subject of this sketch. 
Afterwards he married Sarah S. Somers, 
and by her had Jonathan F. and Julia. The 
Leaming family originally spelled their name 
T^eamynge. The first Christopher and all 
his children changed the spelling to Leam- 
ing, excepting Thomas, who spelled his 
Leainynge. The second Aaron Leaming 
was for thirty years a member of the legis- 
lature and, in connection with Jacob Spicer, 
compiled the laws of New Jersey. He was 
by far the wealthiest and most prominent 
man in the county. Religiously, the early 
Leamings were of the Friends or Quaker 
persuasion, not much for war, but during 
the Revolution were most active in providing 
the army with military stores, and the sec- 
ond Aaron served on the committee of safe- 
ty, whose duty it was to arrest and imprison 
all who opposed the war by aiding the enemy. 



Tories, they were called. The family came 
from England. In social and public life, 
they have always stood with the best and 
highest, and their descendants have no cause 
to blush for them. The families have rep- 
resentatives all over the land, largely in 
New England, Philadelphia, Illinois, and 
Cape May, under the name of Leaming, 
Bradley, Stone, Fisher, Hand, etc., into 
which they have married. 

Jonathan F. Leaming, whose name heads 
this article, was born in Cape May county. 
New Jersey, April 16, 1846, and is a son of 
William Stanton Leaming, whose death oc- 
curred there in August, 1898. 

William S. Leaming was a teacher of 
mathematics, was a navigator when a young 
man, and afterwards became a teacher of 
mathematics. He was a sea captain and a 
man of much ability and power in his 
prime. He owned a farm for many years 
near Dyer's Creek, which was his home for 
nearly twenty-five years. He moved in his old 
age to Cape May island. New Jersey, where 
he and his wife still live at the advanced 
ages of eighty-five and seventy-seven years. 
They have reared nine children to maturit}', 
and who are all living in various states of the 
Union. Their names are, John D., Jon- 
athan F., Edward, William S., Cassie D., 
Pennington, Benjamin, Emma and Eliz- 
abeth. 

Jonathan F. Leaming left his father's 
home when he has about twenty years old, 
and repaired to Cedar Falls, Iowa, but only 
reached Waterloo, where he found work, and 
for five 3'ears his home was in that beautiful 
little city. In 1871 he bought a team and 
drove to this county, and filed a homestead 
claim on the west half of the northwest 
quarter of section 10, township 10, range 4 
west. He built a sod house and went to 
work making the prairie a tillable farm. 
He lived alone for three years, and was 
then married to Miss Sarah M. Russell, who 
was a daughter of Alferd and Martha M. 



810 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



(Greenlee) Russell who came from Greene 
county, east Tennessee, to Iowa. She was 
born in Belle Plaine, Benton county, Iowa, 
and was the youngest of two children, her 
brother, Francis Marion, being two years 
older. Both her parents died before she 
was two years of age, leaving the two chil- 
dren alone in the world. She lived in Belle 
Plaine until she was thirteen }ears of age, 
when she moved with her foster parents to 
Taylor county, Iowa, and later to York 
county, Nebraska, and where her marriage 
with our subject occurred on February 24, 
1874, and for five years the young couple 
still dwelt in the sod house. In these years 
they had prospered so they felt free to aban- 
don the old "Nebraska brick" house, 
though it was the birthplace of both their 
sons, and move into a frame building. In 
1885 they sold their homestead and bought 
two hundred and forty acres of land on 
Beaver Creek, six miles north, and here 
they have remained, busy in works of mi- 
provement and ornamentation. Their sec- 
ond home in this township is well kept and 
farmed, and ranks with any far or near. 
They have two children, both sons, Francis 
Furman and William Alfred, twenty-two 
and nineteen years old. They are both at 
home and are busy on the farm. The hus- 
band and father was a Republican until that 
party flung the gold standard to the breeze. 
He is in favor of the free coinage of silver 
and the restoral of the finances of the 
United States to the former conditions that 
prevailed under the fathers of the Constitu- 
tion. He is a member of the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, and his wife is in the 
Degree of Honor. They are profoundly 
enlisted in the cause of morals and religion, 
but are not members of any religious de- 
nomination. Mr. Learning says, when he 
crossed the Great Muddy, he did not have 
fifty cents in his pocket, and his present 
condition presents a wonderful contrast to 
his state that day. 



CHARLES JOSEPH RUSLER, an en- 
terprising agriculturist of York county, 
is the owner of a fine farm in Henderson 
township, and his management of the estate 
is marked by the scientific knowledge and 
skill which characterizes the modern farmer. 
He was born in Baden, Germany, August 
10, 1S49, a^ son of Joseph and Anna Rusler, 
also natives of Badenr In 1852 the father 
started for America on a sailing vessel and 
was six months in reaching the new world, 
as the boat collided with an another vessel, 
which stove a hole in her hull, making it 
necessary for them to put into the nearest 
port. After making repairs, they again 
started on their way three days later, but 
were overtaken by a storm, which broke the 
masts, destroyed the captain's cabin and 
kitchen, and indeed every object the waves 
in their mad career could destroy. The 
ship settled so much that one-half of it 
was under water, but as the crew were well 
trained, the captain soon had them at work 
at the pumps, and in three days' time the 
whole deck was above water, and they put 
into England. After fourteen days hard 
work they were again ready to proceed, 
and when going aboard the second time, 
the Oueen, who happened to be in the city 
and heard of the destitution of the passen- 
gers, who had lost all their clothing in the 
storm, gave to each with her own hands 
such garments as were needed. She gave 
to Mr. Rusler, our subject's father, a vest, 
which he wore on the journey and after- 
ward kept as long as he lived. While the 
storm was raging the captain's wife was 
thrown overboard, but was saved by the 
bravery of a common sailor. Having no 
money when he landed in New York, Mr. 
Rusler worked in that city for thirty-five 
cents per day for some time, and then pro- 
ceeded to Chicago, where he also worked 
for a short time. He then started for Or- 
egon, Illinois, but his money gave out when 
he reached Belvidere, and he walked the 



CO^^PENDIUM OF lUOGRAnir. 



811 



railroad track to Rockford and thence to 
Oregon, where he hired out to a farmer for 
eleven dollars per month. A year later his 
wages were increased to fourteen dollars, 
and he worked in that way for four years. 
With the money he saved he sent for his 
wife and three small children, who were 
nearly three months in crossing the ocean 
in a sailing vessel. For fifteen years the 
father then operated rented land and at the 
end of that time was able to purchase a 
farm of his own. 

Charles J. Rusler remained with his 
father and worked for him until after he 
attained his majority, and then began life 
for himself as an agriculturist. On the I2th 
of December, 1873, he married Miss Diena 
Calkins, a daughter of Cornelius and Maria 
(Chambers) Calkins, who were married in 
Indiana, though the mother was a Kentuc- 
kian by birth. 

In the spring of 1874 Mr. Rusler, with 
his bride, came to York county, Nebraska, 
and located on the northwest quarter of 
ection i, township 9, range 4 west, where 
they still reside. At that time not a tree 
stood upon the place, nor had a furrow been 
turned by the plow, but they began life 
here in earnest, and Mrs. Rusler proved a 
true helpmeet to her husband, aiding him 
in every possible way. He only had twenty- 
five dollars on his arrival here, and this he 
expended for a plow, and the first year 
broke sixty acres of his land, besides build- 
ing a sod house and planting some trees, 
including fruit trees. The next year he 
broke seventy acres and in this way soon 
had his land all under a high state of culti- 
vation. He has added to the original tract 
until he now has four hundred and eighty 
acres of as fine farming land as is to be 
found anywhere in York county. His barns 
and cribs are filled to overflowing, and 
upon his place he has (1898) one hundred 
and sixty-seven acres of small grains, and 
one hundred and forty-eight acres of corn. 



awaiting the stacker and threshing machine. 
He also has a fine bank account, all of 
which property has been accumulated by 
the industry, perseverance and enterprise of 
himself and good wife. 

Mr. Rusler cast his first presidential vote 
for General Grant, but thinking the govern- 
ment favored corporations too much he left 
the Republican party and now votes with 
the Democracy. In early life he joined the 
Catholic church, but as the nearest church 
of that denomination is twelve miles dis- 
tant, he does not attend services regularly. 
He is a man of influence in his community 
and his advice and co-operation are fre- 
quently sought by his neighbors. 



HON. THOMAS ALEXANDER HEA- 
LEY. — The history of a county, as 
well as that of a nation, is chiefly the 
chronicles of the lives and deeds of those 
who have conferred honor and dignity 
upon society. Among Seward county's 
most honored and distinguished citizens is 
T. A. Healey, a well-known lawyer and 
real estate dealer of Milford, who has taken 
an important and influential part in public 
affairs for several years. 

A native of Montreal, Canada, he was 
born July 7, 1842, and is a son of John 
and Jane (Bishop) Healey, who were born 
in Ireland, but were married in Canada, 
where they continued to make their home 
until our subject was four years old, re- 
moving at that time to Kenosha county, 
Wisconsin. Locating on a farm near the 
city of Kenosha, our subject was there 
reared to manhood, his early education 
being quite primitive, as he only attended 
the common schools for about a year. 

In November, 1861, at the age of nine- 
teen years, Thomas A. Healey enlisted in 
the First Wisconsin Cavalry, and early in 
1862, while assisting in repelling a charge 
of rebel cavalry at L'Anguille, Arkansas, he 



812 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



was severely wounded in the hip and arm 
and left lying on the field, where he was 
later recovered by his regiment, being sent 
to Overton hospital in Memphis, from 
which he was discharged and sent home late 
in the year 1862. After his return to Wis- 
consin he remained on his farm with his 
mother until the fall of 1866, when he was 
nominated and elected sheriff of Kenosha 
county, on the Republican ticket, receiving 
the largest majority of any candidate on the 
ticket. He served with credit and distinc- 
tion for two years, completing his term 
January i, 1869. In the meantime, in 
1 868, he had come to Seward county, Ne- 
braska, to look up a location, and when his 
term as sheriff expired he made arrange- 
ments to remove to this state. He left 
Kenosha, Wisconsin, early in April, 1869, 
with a team, and made the trip overland to 
Seward county. On his arrival he home- 
steaded on sections 10, 9 and 2, N precinct, 
nine miles west of Milford. 

Mr. Healey had been married in Wis- 
consin, April 26, 1865, to Miss Kate M. 
Bundy, a daughter of Horatio N. Bundy, 
who afterward emigrated to Nebraska and 
located in Seward county. On coming to 
this locality our subject was accompanied 
by his brother, Edward Healey, and his 
brother-in-law, George Garland, who also 
located here. In the spring of 1870 he was 
appointed deputy county clerk under 
Thomas Graham, and in 1876, on the Re- 
publican ticket, was elected to the state 
legislature by a large majority. For many 
years he has successfully engaged in the 
practice of law in Milford, and is also largely 
interested in the real estate and msurance 
business. Since locating here he has been 
in close touch with the growth and develop- 
ment of this section, and is recognized as 
one of Seward county's most useful and 
valued citizens.. 

The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Healey 
is Leslie, who is now associated with his 



father in the law, real estate and insurance 
business. He was born in Kenosha county, 
Wisconsin, June 26, 1867, but was not 
quite two years old when brought hy his 
parents to Nebraska, hence is essentially a 
Nebraska production. He has been liber- 
ally educated in the public schools, and 
early became familiar with the business in 
which he is now engaged. He is one of 
the rising and popular young lawyers of 
Seward county and a young man of sterling 
qualities. In 1892, he was married in Chi- 
cago to Miss Myrtle N. Campbell, a daugh- 
ter of J. W. Campbell, of Humboldt, Ne- 
braska. 

Mr. Healey was first appointed post- 
master at Milford in 1873, by President 
Grant, served until 1876, then resigned and 
was elected to the legislature. He was 
again appointed as postmaster, by President 
McKinley, August i, 1898. 



1 V 1 Uc 



ICHAEL L. SHAMBAUGH. as his 

lame indicates, is of German extrac- 
tion, his ancestors having come from that 
country, and settled in Pennsylvania at an 
early day. He has never been afraid of 
hard work, and has been saving and judi- 
cious in all his financial transactions, and is 
now enjoying the fruits of thrift and econ- 
omy. He has a pleasant home near Brad- 
shaw, Nebraska, and is classed among the 
reliable and substantial farmers of York 
county. 

Michael L. Shambaugh was born in 
Harrison county, Ohio, March 23, 1S53, 
and is a son of George Shambaugh, who 
was a native of Pennsylvania. His grand- 
father, George Shambaugh, was a native of 
Germany, and when a small boy was 
brought to Pennsylvania by his parents. He 
was taken to Ohio when only a lad, and with 
his father made Harrison county his home 
until the day of his death. The father of 
the subject of this article died when he had 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



81B 



passed his eighty-third birthday. His 
mother, Matilda Hazelette, a daughter of 
John and Mary Hazelette, accompanied her 
parents from Pennsylvania into Harrison 
county, Ohio, where he lived and died. 

Mr. Shambaugh left Ohio when he was 
twenty-two years old, and made his way to 
Christian county, Illinois, where he rented 
a farm of one hundred and twenty acres on 
what was known as the Buckeye Prairie. 
He met at this time Miss Almira Young, 
and after an acquaintance of eight months, 
was married to her December 31, 1876. 
After paying for the marriage license and 
giving the preacher five dollars, he had 
twenty cents left with which to begin house- 
keeping. He was in debt three hundred 
and fifty dollars. It was not a propitious 
outlook, but it offered no discouragement 
to a young couple who knew how to work, 
and found a world in each other. They 
lived on a farm about seven years, and then 
moved to York ccunty, and made their 
first appearance in this country August 16, 
1883. They moved into their own house, 
which they quickly erected on the southeast 
quarter of section 3, township 11, range 4 
west, and have made it a happy and pros- 
perous place. In the following spring 
they purchased an additional eighty acres, 
which increased his real estate holdings to 
two hundred and forty acres of valuable 
land. They began with a debt of three 
hundred and fifty dollars on their Nebraska 
ranch, which was long since paid off, and 
now they have a farm that is well equipped 
with all appliances for modern agriculture. 
They have one hundred and twenty apple 
trees, with plums, grapes and small fruits 
in abundance. On two sides his orchard is 
protected from the winter storms by a fine 
cedar hedge. 

They have two sons, who are twenty 
and fourteen years old, who are working by 
their father's side, and have no thought be- 
yond the farm. Jesse, the elder son, is a 



student in York college, and contemplates a 
full course at the university. Mr. Sham- 
baugh is a Democrat, and holds the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver as being a 
vital principle of political economy. Mr. 
Shambaugh is a member of the Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen, and his wife has 
taken the degree of honor associated with 
that order. She is also a member of the 
women's branch of the Maccabees. They 
are both members of the United Brethren 
church at Harmony, He is a leading man 
of his community, and almost from the mo- 
ment of his entrance into this township has 
filled some of its offices. 



FRANK W. SLOAN stands in the front 
rank among the younger attorneys of 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, and is making 
his home and base of operations in the town 
of Geneva. He was born near Monticello. 
Jones county, Iowa, August 16, 1873, a son 
of James W. and Elizabeth (Magee) Sloan, 
a more extended mention of whom will be 
found in connection with the sketch of Hon. 
Charles H. Sloan, on another page of this 
volume. 

Our subject was reared on a farm in his 
native county until about nine years of age, 
when the family moved to Taylor county, 
Iowa, where the remaining years of his boy- 
hood were spent. He received his prelim- 
inary education in the district schools of 
Jones and Taylor counties. In the spring 
of 1890, he attended the agricultural school 
at Ames, Iowa. After attending two terms 
he returned to his home, and for a fewj'ears 
was engaged in farming during the summers 
and teaching during the winters. In the 
spring of 1892, he moved to Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and for two years was en- 
gaged in teaching school. In the mean- 
time, he began to study law with his 
brother, Hon. Charles H. Sloan, and was 
admitted to the bar in June, 1895, since 



814 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



which time he has been associated with his 
brother in the practice of law. Shortly 
after being admitted as a practitioner, he 
was appointed deputy prosecuting attorney, 
and is still performing the duties of that of- 
fice. In August, 1898, he was nominated 
on the Republican ticket for county attor- 
ney, and elected to the same by a majority 
of four hundred and three in a fusion coun- 
ty, which had given a Populist majority of 
over three hundred and fift)-. He is also 
president of the Farmers' State Bank of 
Milligan, Nebraska. Socially, he affiliates 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
and also the Modern Woodmen of America. 



M'^ 



ICHAEL AXTHOX RUSLEK, an en- 
erprising and well-to-do farmer, re- 
siding on section 35, Brown township, York 
county, was born in Germany, October 25, 
1846, and was nearly eight years old when 
brought by his parents, Joseph and Mary 
Rusler, to America. Uiitil twenty-three 
years of age he remained with his father, 
assisting in the work of the farm, and after 
leaving the parental roof engaged in farming 
and teaming on his own account for four 
years. 

On the 4th of October, 1873, Mr. Rusler 
"\vas united in marriage with Miss Augusta 
Erxleben, a daughter of Frederick Er.xleben 
and to them have been born ten children, of 
whom eight are still living. In ocder of 
birth they are as follows: Mar}' S., who 
completed her education in the high school 
of York, Nebraska, and is now the wife of 
Weslej' J. Tracy, whose home is four miles 
north of where her parents live; Frank E. ; 
Charles A. ; Joseph M. ; Bertha M. ; William 
W. ; Pearl E. and Liel O. The two oldest 
were born in Ogle county, Illinois, but the 
others are all natives of Nebraska. Bright, 
intelligent children, they have acquired good 
educations in the public and district schools 
near their home. 



For three years after his marriage, Mr. 
Rusler followed agricultural pursuits in Ogle 
county, Illinois, and then determined to 
seek a home farther west, arriving in York 
county, Nebraska, March i, 1877. After 
operating rented land for one year, he pur- 
chased a farm of one hundred and si.xtj' 
acres of the railroad company, in July, 
1877. Upon his place he erected a sod- 
house and at once commenced the improve- 
ment and cultivation of his land, breaking 
eighty acres of prairie the first year and 
thirty-five the second. The whole countr\' 
was then wild and unimproved, provisions 
were scarce, and cornstocks served as fuel. 
It requires great labor to open up a new 
farm, and as there were no forests in this 
section of the state, one of the first duties 
of the earl}' settters was to plant trees and 
also set out fruits of all kinds. The first 
public duty to be performed was the erec- 
tion of school-houses, which in this state 
were generally built of sod and were used 
for all public gatherings — church and polit- 
ical meetings, etc. In the work of improve- 
ment, Mr. Rusler always bore his part, and 
it was not long before most of the good 
land, both government and railroad, was 
taken up, and things began to take the shape 
and order of older communities. Our sub- 
ject has prospered in his new home and is 
now the owner of an e.xcellent farm of two 
hundred and forty acres, all under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved with 
good buildings. 

Mr. Rusler is a Catholic in religious 
faith; and though his wife is not a member 
of any church, she belongs to the Ladies Aid 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and takes an active part in its work. Their 
children attend the Sunday-schools and 
churches of the community, and socially two 
of the sons are members of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, an organization of 
great strength in this section. Mr. Rusler 
has generally voted with the Republican 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



815 



party, but not liking the political course of 
the party and, as he says, believing that 
silver should be restored to the place it oc- 
cupied in the days of " Honest Abe," he 
now votes the opposition ticket. 



H 



ENRY S. SHELDON is an enlightened 
and progressive farmer of York county, 
Nebraska, who believes in modern ideas, 
and is not afraid of advanced notions. He 
has the courage of his convictions, and is 
well known as a frank and fearless exponent 
of morals and religion. 

Mr. Sheldon was born November 7, 
1848, in DeKalb county, Illinois. His 
father was Silas Sheldon, probably a native 
of Massachusetts, born January 4, 1810, and 
was a tiller of the soil. He was married 
April 20, 1835, in the state of New York, to 
Miss Abigail Smith, born September 24, 
1812, and a daughter of John and Abigail 
Smith, who were natives of Massachusetts. 
Upon their marriage they made their home 
in Michigan, where they spent several years. 
They moved to Delvalb county, Illinois, 
where the family remained, while the hus- 
band and father went to Ohio for medical 
treatment. The e.xperiment was unsuc- 
cessful in staying the progress of the dis- 
ease, and he died there October 24, 1850. 
Mrs. Sheldon died at Evanston, Illinois, 
October 22, 1876. She left a family of six 
children, five of whom are still living and at 
the head of families themselves. The rec- 
ord of the Smith family is traced back to 
1605. 

Henr}- S. Sheldon was the youngest 
child of his parents, and when a young man 
struck out from the Illinois home and made 
his way to what was then believed to be the 
El Dorado of agriculture — the new state of 
Nebraska. He selected one hundred and 
sixty acres of land in York county, and then 
returned to Illinois, and was there married 
to Miss Louisa Meeker, daughter of John 



and Sarah Meeker. The wedding occurred 
May 1 8, 1873, and has proved a happy 
union. Her mother was dead at this time, 
and she had carried the cares of the house- 
hold on her shoulders for some time. The 
young couple reached their new home Au- 
gust 2, 1873, and here they have resided 
until the present day. In about twelve 
years Mrs. Sheldon's father followed them, 
and made his home in the same county. 
Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon have two children- 
John Merton and Louis H. — who have 
grown to manhood. Mrs. Sheldon's mother 
was a daughter of James Hamilton and 
Delia Bemont, and was married at Oxford, 
Chenango county. New York, where she 
lived till her death. Her paternal grand- 
father was named James Hamilton, who 
lives in Scottish legends and tales as 
the Earl of Douglas. He was a 
Revolutionary soldier, and m company 
with his father-in-law, Stevens, and two 
of his brothers-in-law, rendered much 
service to the patriotic cause. One of these, 
Joshua Stevens, was entrusted with a con- 
siderable sum of gold to carry to Washing- 
ton's headquarters, which he accomplished, 
after being hotly pursued by a squad of 
British troops. Fearing capture in the 
woods beyond his residence he threw his 
money-sacks across the gate of the residence 
of his sister, Sarah Stevens. She hid the gold 
in an iron ashbox, covering it with a layer 
of hot ashes fresh from the fire. The troop, 
after searching the house for the money, 
sat down to a dinner which she prepared for 
them. Brother and sister survived the per- 
ils of war, and died, each of them, at the 
age of over ninety. He was present at the 
laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill 
monument. 

Mr. Sheldon is a member of the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, but his wife is a 
member of no secret order. He was at one 
time a Republican, but being disappointed 
at the erection of the English gold standard 



816 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



by his party in 1S96, he voted to restore 
silver to its proper rank in the circulating 
medium of the country. Father and moth- 
er, with their two sons, are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church of Bradshaw, 
and she is a faithful and earnest worker in 
Women's Christian Temperance Union. 



THOMAS JACOBSON is a prosperous 
and honored citizen of Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, residing on section 27, Bryant 
township, and for twenty years has been 
prominently identified with the agricultural 
interests of the county. He is a man 
whose sound common sense and vigorous, 
able management of his affairs, have been 
important factors in his success, and with 
his undoubted integrity of character have 
given him an honorable position among his 
fellow men. 

Mr. Jacobson was born in Sweden in 
1850, a son of Jacob and Barbara Jacob- 
son, who spent their entire lives in that 
country and are now deceased. There were 
only two children in the family, and the 
sister of our subject is still a resident of 
Sweden. In his native land our subject 
was reared and educated and also confirmed 
in the Swedish Lutheran church, and there 
engaged in farming until he attained his 
majority. In 1871 he crossed the Atlantic, 
and on landing in New York proceeded at 
once to Florida, where he spent two 
months, and then went to South Carolina, 
the object of his journey south being in 
search of employment and a healthy cli- 
mate. On reaching Charleston, South 
Carolina, he was without money, but soon 
found work and remained there several 
months. Later he went to Chicago, Illi- 
nois, where he commenced working on a 
railroad, and during his residence there he 
deposited one hundred dollars in a bank, 
which failed two months afterwards. Going 
to Michigan, he was employed in the lum- 



ber woods and at railroading, and after three 
years stay in Michigan went to California. 
He traveled over the west from that state 
to Nebraska in search of a healthy location, 
and in 1879 decided to locate in Fillmore 
county, where he landed with something 
over seven hundred dollars, having left 
California with eight hundred dollars in his 
possession. On section 27, Bryant pre- 
cinct, he purchased one hundred and twenty 
acres of raw prairie land for six dollars per 
acre, and at once turned his attention to the 
impro\ement and cultivation of his land. 
He built a small frame house and sod stable, 
but the latter was soon replaced by a barn 
built of lumber. He now has one of the 
finest quarter sections of land in the pre- 
cinct, and all of the improvements upon the 
place are modern and of a substantial char- 
acter. His farm is also well stocked with 
a good grade of horses, cattle, hogs, etc. 

On coming to this state, Mr. Jacobson 
was still single, but on May 28, 1881, he 
was united in marriage with Miss Hannah 
Bergquist, who was born in Sweden, in 
1 86 1, a daughter of O. G. and Elna Berg- 
quist. The mother died in that country 
when Mrs. Jacobson was only a year and a 
half old, and the father subsequently mar- 
ried again. In 1869 the family emigrated 
to America and located in Bryant precinct, 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, where they are 
still living. Our subject and his wife have 
an interesting family of three children, 
namely; Anna O., Arthur E. and Lillie A., 
all at home. 

Religiously both Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson 
are members of Stockholm Swedish Luth- 
eran church in Bryant precinct. He is not 
identified with any political organization but 
votes for the men and measures that he be- 
lieves will best advance the welfare of the 
people. He may be properly classed among 
the self-made men of the county, who, by 
the exercise of their own industry and per- 
severance, have not only gained for them- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



817 



selves a home and competence, but have 
materially assisted in the progress and de- 
velopment of the country around them. 



WILLIAM THOMAS SHIELDS.— The 
state of Nebraska owes its high stand- 
ing among the sovereign commonwealths 
that make up the United States to the high 
character and dauntless spirit of the settlers 
who made their homes within her borders 
in the early days. To their inspiration and 
work is due her wonderful progress in agri- 
culture, manufacturing and the arts. They 
transformed the wilderness into fertile farms, 
and laid the foundations for towns and cities. 
Among the brave and hardy pioneers of 
Butler county the Shields family is worthy 
of prominent mention. It is still repre- 
sented here by William T. Shields, a promi- 
nent farmer, residing on the old homestead 
on section 27, Ulysses township, where the 
family located on coming to the county 
in 1863. 

He was born March 4, 1844, near Mar- 
tinville, in Morgan county, Indiana, and is 
of Scotch-Irish descent. The family was 
represented in the Revolutionary war by 
his great-grandfather, who took part in the 
siege of Yorktown. Joseph Shields, our 
subject's father, was born on the Big Miami 
river, in Ohio, June 21, 1805, a son of 
Thomas Shields, and on reaching manhood 
married Miss Matilda Kirkpatrick, a native 
of Kentucky, and a daughter of William 
Kirkpatrick, whose family resided in that 
state for generations. The marriage was 
celebrated in Morgan county, Indiana, and 
the children born to them were as follows: 
Hannah, John W., Annie, Jane, Rebecca, 
Elizabeth, Frank M., William Thomas and 
Nancy. Of these, Annie, Frank M. and 
our subject came with the parents to Butler 
county, Nebraska, and John arrived two 
years later. 

Mr. Shields, of this review, was si.x 



years old when with the family he removed 
from his native county to Mahaska county, 
Iowa, where they lived for eight years, and 
then want to Jackson county, Missouri. 
Two years later they returned to Iowa, but 
remained only a short time. They ne.xt re- 
sided in Harrison county, Missouri, and on 
leaving that place they came to Butler 
county, Nebraska, in 1863, becoming the 
first settlers of this region. They located 
on the Big Blue, on account of the natural 
growth of timber in that section, but at 
that time there were no other settlers in the 
southern part of the county. The old log 
house which our subject and his father 
built upon the claim is still standing, a land- 
mark of pioneer days. For the first few 
years they lived by hunting and trapping, 
but after a time, when joined by other set- 
tlers, they turned their attention to agricult- 
ural pursuits. The father of our subject, 
who died in Butler county, April 27, 1869, 
was very active in the early development of 
this region and wielded considerable influ- 
ence in pioneer days among the people of 
the community. 

Amidst the primitive scenes of frontier 
life, William T. Shields grew to manhood, 
early becoming familiar with the arduous 
task of transforming wild land into highly 
cultivated fields. On the first of March, 
1868, in Butler county, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Mary A. Skillman, who 
was born in Somerset county. New Jersey, 
of German ancestry, and they have become 
the parents of the following children: Jem- 
ima J., now the wife of Benjamin Spelts, of 
Ulysses, Butler county, Sarah A., wife of 
Alfred Hall; Matilda N., now Mrs. A. Hag- 
aman; Josephine P., wife of George Wolf; 
Joseph R. ; and John Wesley. 

It is difficult to understand the changes 
that have taken place in Butler county 
since Mr. Shields located here, the country 
at that time being an unbroken prairie as 
far as the eye could reach, and it required 



■818 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



great courage to overcome the trials and 
disadvantages of those early days. When 
the family first reached the Big Blue valley, 
they found evidences of earlier settlers;. one 
or two cabins were still standing, and they 
learned that the families who had built them 
were forced b\' starvation to abandon their 
claims and return to civilization. Only by 
trapping and hunting were they enabled to 
subsist through the first few years of their 
settlement in Nebraska. These trying 
times are now ancient history as may be 
seen by the advanced state of cultivation in 
this beautiful valley and the many pleasant 
homes which have taken the place of the 
settler's cabin and the dugout of the pio- 
neers. Our subject still resides on the old 
homestead which he was instrumental in 
converting into one of the most desirable 
farms in the county. 



HENRY LAUER, who is the fortunate 
owner of a well cultivated farm in sec- 
tion 22, precinct D; Seward county, is a 
man who commands respect wherever he is 
known. He is an old soldier and can look 
back over a long and honorable career in de- 
fending the old flag against the assaults of 
armed Indians, who were sweeping the ex- 
posed northwest with fire and wild destruc- 
tion. He served his country well on the battle 
field, and to-day he is an honorable and 
faithful citizen, supporting all measures that 
look to the general good, and ably second- 
ing every project that would build up his 
own community. 

Mr. Lauer is a native of the city of New 
York, where he was born September 8, 
1845. His father, Conrad Lauer, was a 
native of Hesse Cassel, Germany, and his 
mother, Sarah (Balance) Lauer, was of Eng- 
lish origin. They moved into Nebraska in 
the summer of 1856, and located on a farm 
in Otoe county, through which flowed 
Squaw creek. It was five miles from Ne- 



braska City, which was then in its earliest 
beginnings. It had a store, a small bank, 
a printing-office and a block house, and gave 
little promise of its future development. 
They lived in a log house, and were accus- 
tomed to grind corn in a coffee mill for the 
usual food. They did send occasionally to 
Council Bluffs for a iittle flour, but their 
circumstances demanded the utmost econo- 
my. Conrad Lauer got his place in very 
fair shape, and died in 1857. His widow 
survived him many years and passed away 
in Lincoln, in 1S86. Henry came into Otoe 
county with his parents, and found that he 
had entered upon a life of unremitting toil. 
What little schooling he had he received 
while in the east, aud there was little time 
for stud}' in the exigencies of pioneering. 
While still a very young boy he drove six 
yoke of oxen on a breaking team. He re- 
mained at home until he enlisted, in 1864, 
in Company A, Independent Regiment of 
Indian Scouts, United States Volunteers. 
under the immediate command of Captain 
Christian Stufts. The regiment was mus- 
tered in at Omaha, and did valiant service 
against the hostile Indians of the northwest. 
He was with General Sully, and the com- 
mand marched from Omaha into the heart 
of the sa\age wilderness. A desperate bat- 
tle was fought at Rainy Butte, Montana, 
where Mr. Lauer had his horse shot under 
him. It was his own property, which made 
the loss a more serious matter. He es- 
caped injur}- himself, though his comrades 
had to pull the dead animal off from him so 
that he might stand up. It was a close 
call, and before he had gone forty rods the 
Indians reached the dead horse, and cutting 
off its tail held it up and shook it at him. 
The command reached Fort Union, where 
it remained for a few days, and then 
marched on to Fort Berthold. From there 
it went to Fort Rice, and threw up a stock- 
ade around the post. It went to the Yank- 
ton agency next, and was mustered out at 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



810 



Sioux City, Iowa, after nine months' labor- 
ious marching and fighting. He had a just- 
ifiable pride in this record, for it not only 
quelled an Indian rising of vast extent, and 
protected man)' helpless homes, but it pre- 
vented the withdrawal of any soldiers from 
the battle line of the south. 

The rugged Indian fighter entered now 
into a scarcely less dangerous employment 
and became a teamster under the manage- 
ment of Willis & Claggett, of St. Joseph, 
Missouri. He drove a six-mule freighting 
wagon and made a trip to Julesburg and re- 
turned to his starting point, Nebraska City. 
He made a second trip with Dick White to 
Fort Laramie, and safely returned, though 
nearly all the way lay through a country 
full of hostile Indians. 

By this time he concluded a less excit- 
ing life would do for him, and he bought an 
outfit and engaged in teaming in Nebraska 
City. He remained in that place until 
1872, when he located his present home- 
stead, August 28, on section 22. He had 
a sod house, and lived alone until the twen- 
ty-fourth day of the following April, when 
he was married to Miss Lureene Sperry. 
She is a daughter of Alfred W. and Sophro- 
nia A. (Palmer) Sperry, and was born in 
Grant county, Wisconsin, April 24, 1856. 
She came to this state with her parents in 
1870, and is a woman of much native force 
of character. She had her education to a 
very large extent in the Wisconsin schools, 
though she takes an interest in passing 
events, and reads and studies much. They 
lived in a sod house for five years, and put 
up a frame, fourteen by twenty feet, which 
was their home for eleven years, when there 
was added to it a story and a half structure, 
sixteen by twenty feet. When they entered 
upon the land it was all wild, and an Indian 
trail led through the door yard. He owns 
to-day a quarter section, highly improved, 
and showing in every part the effects of in- 
tense farming. They have lived and la- 



bored on this farm for twenty-six years, 
and beginning with nothing but the raw 
prairie, a yoke of cattle, and a doj;en hens, 
are now comfortably if not elegantly sit- 
uated. They are the parents of nine chil- 
dren, all of whom are living: Annie Lamb, 
J. Daniel, Fred H., Sadie Burrier, Charles 
H., Lureene Pearl, Mary Sabra, Ami Sperry 
and Nellie Louisa. Mr. Lauer has been a 
Democrat for many years, but though often 
solicited, will not accept office. He is an 
honorable man, a good citizen, and a useful 
member of the community. 



PETER LINGENFELTER, a prosper- 
ous farmer of Bradshaw township, has 
been a resident of York county for about 
fifteen years, and in that time has woh and 
holds the esteem of his neighborhood by 
the exhibition of those qualities that are 
peculiarly American. He is honest, indus- 
trious, and alert to every business opportu- 
nity, and is withal kind-hearted, open- 
handed, both as a friend and a neighbor. 

Mr. Lingenfelter was born October 17, 
1847, in Guernsey county, Ohio. His 
father, John Lingenfelter, was only two 
years old when he was brought to Guernsey 
county, from his native state, Maryland, 
and when he had reached the age of twenty- 
three he was married to Miss Cline, of the 
same state. They lived in this county until 
1850, when they transferred their home to 
Pike county. There he purchased forty 
acres and added subsequent purchases until 
he had in his own name a good farm of two 
hundred and forty acres. They had a fam- 
ily of six children, of whom all but one 
were boys. One of the sons died aged two 
and one-half years, and another died in in- 
infancy. The four who are living are mar- 
ried. Peter is the second child of the fam- 
ily, and was taken by his parents from 
Ohio into Illinois, where the family found a 
home for two years in Mason county. In 



820 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1S78 he moved to Kansas, after a brief 
residence in Cowley county, came to York 
county, Nebraska, and established himself 
where he now resides. 

Peter Lingenfelter left his father's home 
in the spring of 1870, to Logan county, and 
spent seven years there. He made the 
move to Kansas with his father and re- 
mained in that state four and a half years. 
He came to this county in 1883 and bought 
eighty acres of land in section 6, township 
II, north range 4 west. He sold this and 
purchased another eighty in the same sec- 
tion, the east half of the southeast quarter, 
on which he has been living for nearly thir- 
teen years He has a beautiful piece of land 
and has brought it up to a high pitch of 
fertility. He has an orchard of about one hun- 
dred and fifty trees of apples, plums and cher- 
ries, which is just coming into bearing. He was 
married to Mrs. Minger January 18, 1886. 
She was a widow, and has made him a faith- 
ful wife. They have three children, who 
are Viola, Cora and George. They are 
bright and are attending the district school. 
Mr. Lingenfelter was elected road super- 
visor in 1 89 1, but has never sought any 
public station. His life finds its most per- 
fect expression in and around his own home. 



ALFRED M. READ, one of the old set- 
tlers of Morton township, York county, 
Nebraska, v/as born in Clearfield county, 
Pennsylvania, April ig, 1850. He is a son 
of Joseph R. and Mary W. (Wrigley) Read, 
further notice of whom appearsin the sketch 
of R. W. Read, on another page of this vol- 
ume. 

Our subject was reared and educated in 
Pennsylvania, and made his home there un- 
til 1877, and was engaged in farming, work- 
ing in the woods and teaching school. In 
1877 he moved west to Iowa, and in the fall 
of the same year moved to Washington 
county, Nebraska. The following year, he 



came to York county, bought eighty acres 
of railroad land, erected a frame house, and 
at once began to break and improve his new 
farm. 

In 1884 Mr. Read was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Alice Lytle, a sister of Mrs. 
Robert Lytle. To this union have been 
born four children: Lois M., Robert V., 
Emma L. , and Augustus, all of whom are 
living. The family are all members of the 
Methodist church, and our subject is also 
connected with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. In politics he is independent of 
parties, and has never sought or held public 
office. He has, however, taken an active 
interest in educational matters and has 
served as director of the school district. 
As a farmer he has been quite successful, 
has gained a position among the substantial 
and influential men of the community and 
enjoys the respect and esteem of all. 



SAMUEL A. HENDERSON, a promi- 
nent agriculturist of Seward county, 
started out in life with nothing but his own 
indomitable energy, and his accumulation of 
this world's goods is attributed to his own 
good judgment, enterprise and industry. 
His word in business transactions is con- 
sidered as good as his bond, and he is justly 
recognized as one of the energetic and rep- 
resentative citizens of the county. 

Mr. Henderson was born in Harrison 
county, Ohio, February 5, 1837, and is a 
son of William and Nancy (Russell) Hender- 
son, both natives of Westmoreland county, 
Pennsylvania, whence they removed to Ohio 
about 1829, and in 1847 became residents 
of Fulton county, Illinois. There the fa- 
ther, who was a farmer by occupation, died 
in January, 1874, and the mother passed 
away in 1880. In their family were three 
sons, James, Washington and Samuel A., 
the eldest of whom is now deceased, while 
the daughters were Sarah J. ; Juliann, de- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



821 



ceased; Betsey; Mrs. Emily Slonecker; 
Tilda, wife of R. D. Marshall, and Mrs. 
Elmira Snowden. At one time three of 
the daughters lived in Seward county. 

In Fulton county, Illinois, Samuel A. 
Henderson grew to manhood, and in its 
public schools pursued his education. When 
his school days were over he took up the 
occupation of farming to which he had been 
reared, and in that county carried on opera- 
tions until his emigration to Nebraska in 
t88o. In F township, Seward county he 
bought a farm which he still owns, and now 
has three hundred and twenty acres all un- 
der a high state of cultivation and well im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings. 

Mr. Henderson was married in Fulton 
county, Illinois, in 1858, to Miss Hannah 
Engle, a daughter of John and Juliana (Mer- 
cer) Engle, both natives of Pennsylvania. 
The father, who engaged in school-teaching 
and carpenter work, removed to Fulton 
county, in 1856, and there his death oc- 
curred in March, 1875. Of the eleven chil- 
dren born to our subject and his wife, nine 
are still living, namely: Edith, wife of 
George Gribble; Alice E., wife of George 
B. Wycoff; Marian, wife of A. N. Moore; 
Edgar A. ; William R. ; Elsie, wife of Will- 
iam Kinkade; Anna, wife of P. L. Webster; 
Harvey and Luetta. 

Mr. Henderson uses his right of fran- 
chise in support of the men and measures 
of the Democracy, but he has never cared 
for political preferment. As a citizen of 
the community in which he has long lived, 
he is highly respected, enjoys the confidence 
of his neighbors, and is regarded as a man 
of e.xcellent business judgment. 



CW. COX, now a prominent and high- 
ly esteemed citizen of Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, carrying on operations as an 
agriculturist upon section 2, Hamilton pre- 
cinct, was one of the valiant defenders of 



our country during the dark days of the 
Civil war, and in times of peace has also 
proved a patriotic and loyal citizen. This 
gallant soldier was born in Madison county, 
Illinois, in 1839, a son of Anthony and 
Lucy (Jones) Cox. He lost his mother 
when he was only three years old, and his 
father died while he was in the army. He 
was reared in Illinois and was educated in 
the common schools of that state. 

In response to the President's call for 
troops, Mr. Cox enlisted, at the age of 
twenty-two years, in Company F, One Hun- 
and dred Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and was in active service for three 
years and three months. He was a private 
soldier and was in the following battles: Fort 
De Russey, Louisiana, March 14, 1864; 
Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864; 
Tupelo, Mississippi, July 14, 1864; Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, December 15 and 16, 
1864; Fort Blakely and Mobile, Alabama, 
April 7, 1865; besides thirty-three skir- 
mishes. He was under command of Gen- 
eral Sherman at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 
February, 1864; was in the Red River cam- 
paign under Major General A. J. Smith, of 
the Sixteenth Army Corps, in April and 
May, 1864; was on duty in Arkansas and 
Tennessee in June, 1864; the Tupelo cam- 
paign in August, 1864; was in the Price 
campaign in Missouri in September, Octo- 
ber and November, 1864, and January, 
1865; the Mobile campaign in March and 
part of April, 1865; and the engagement at 
Montgomery, Alabama, April 24, 1865, re- 
maining there until the close of the war. 
The regiment, which was one of the best 
and most courageous in the service, marched 
two thousand three hundred and seven 
miles, traveled by rail seven hundred and 
seventy-eight miles, by water six thousand 
one hundred and ninety-one miles, making 
a total of nine thousand two hundred and 
seventy-six miles. They captured two 
stands of colors, four hundred and forty-two 



822 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHi: 



prisoners and eight pieces of artillery, and 
at the close of the war were mustered out at 
Camp Butler, Springfield, Illinois, August 
6, 1865. 

Mr. Cox returned to his home in Illinois 
with a war record of which he may be justly 
proud, and in that state he engaged in 
farming for a time. There he was united 
in marriage with Miss Julia Gibbons, who 
was born in Ireland, in 1846, and when a 
child of six years came to the new world 
with her parents, Anthony and Hannah 
Gibbons. The family located in Illinois, 
where the parents both died, and where the 
sister of Mrs. Cox still lives, there being 
only two children in the family. Five chil- 
dren have been born to our subject and his 
wife, namely: Jessie F. , Emma T. , Will- 
iam A., Charles W. and Julia M., all at 
home. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cox 
came at once to Fillmore county, Nebras- 
ka, where he purchased a tree claim of one 
hundred and sixty acres, paying for the 
same five hundred dollars, and to the culti- 
vation and improvement of the place he at 
once turned his attention after erecting a 
small box house which is still standing. On 
locating here he had fifty dollars in money, 
a span of mules and one horse, but he pros- 
pered in his new home and is now the owner 
of a comfortable home and competence. 
Though the family experienced many hard- 
ships from drouth, grasshoppers, hailstorms, 
etc., they were not discouraged, and at 
length prosperity smiled upon their efforts. 
At first their nearest markets were at Fair- 
mont and Carleton. In his labors to build 
up a homestead, Mr. Cox has always kept 
in view the good of the community, and 
has given his support to all enterprises j 
which he believed calculated to advance \ 
the moral, social or material welfare of his 1 
township and county. That the climate of | 
this state has agreed with the family is j 
shown by the fact that he has paid out I 



only about twenty-five dollars for doctor 
bills during his entire residence here. So- 
cially, he is a member of the Ancient Order 
of United \\'orkmen and the Grand Army 
of the Republic. He now receives a small 
pension from the government. 



WILTON A. WHITE, deceased, was 
for several years one of the most 
public-spirited and enterprising citizens of 
McFadden township, York county, taking 
an active and prominent part in promoting 
the welfare of the community. He was 
born in Constable, Franklin county. New 
York. April 22. 1855. and was a son of 
Levi B. and Elmina P. (Langton) White, 
natives of Vermont, who removed to New 
York about 1850. When our subject was 
about nine years old he accompanied his 
parents on their removal from Franklin to 
Washington county, New York, where he 
grew to manhood, receiving a good common- 
school education. He passed the greater 
part of his youth in his father's sawmill and 
wagon shop, and soon mastered the wagon- 
maker's trade. 

In 1880 Mr. White went to Montgomery 
county, Missouri, where he remained for two 
years, giving his attention to agricultural 
pursuits. Returning to Washington coun- 
ty, he was married October 18, 1882, to 
Miss Mina S. Wray, who was born in Fort 
Ann, that county, a daughter of Francis D. 
and Elsina M. (Rasey) \\'ray, the former a 
native of Washington county, and the latter 
of Oneida county. New York. Her father 
was one of the successful farmers of his na- 
tive county, where he spent his entire life, 
his death occurring in 1881. His wife still 
survives him and finds a pleasant home with 
her daughter in York county, Nebraska. 
Mr. and Mrs. White became the parents of 
five children, namely: L. B., Leslie F. , 
Langdon E., Ray C. and Wilton A. 

After his marriage Mr. White worked in 




MR. AND MRS. WILTON A. WHITE. 



COMPBJVn/ir.U of BIOGRAPlir. 



825 



a sawmill in New York until the spring o( 
1884, when he came to York county, 
Nebraska, and located aw a farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres on section 7, Mc- 
Fadden township, which he had purchased 
the fall previous. He became one of the 
prosperous farmers of the community, and 
to his original purchase added a tract of 
eighty acres, making a fine farm of two 
hundred and forty acres. Although it was 
only partially improved when he located 
thereon, he soon had the entire amount un- 
der a high state of cultivation and supplied 
with a good set of farm buildings. While 
giving close attention to his business inter- 
ests, he never neglected his duties oif citi- 
zenship, and took quite an active and in- 
fluential part in the affairs of his township. 
His ballot was always cast in support of the 
men and measures of the Republican party, 
and being elected justice of the peace he 
most faithfully and satisfactorily discharged 
the duties of that position. He died March 
19, 1896, honored and respected by all who 
knew him. His home life was most ex- 
emplary, for he was a kind and affectionate 
husband and father. On another page is 
presented a portrait of Mr. and Mrs. White. 



SAMUEL G. M.ATHEWS, one of the 
most honored and highly esteemed citi- 
zens of precinct F, Seward county, possess- 
es a history of unusual interest. He is a na- 
tive of Maryland, his birth occurring in Anne 
Arundel county, June 23, 1827. His 
father, James B. Mathews, was born in 
New York city, November 25, 1791, and 
was a son of John and Anna (McConkey) 
Mathews. The grandfather was a native 
of Dublin, Ireland, and on coming to this 
country engaged in business as a fruit mer- 
chant in New York City, where he died of 
yellow fever in 1795. His widow then re- 
turned to Philadelphia, where they had pre- 
viously resided, and there James Mathews, 
47 



the only son in a family of twelve children, 
was reared and educated. Later in life he 
removed from that city to North Carolina, 
where he engaged in general merchandising, 
and subsequently followed the same busi- 
ness, in connection with milling, at Ro.\- 
bury, Maryland, where his death occurred 
in 1889. In the latter state he was married, 
in 1820, to Miss Kittie Griffith, a daughter 
of Colonel Samuel Griffith, a distinguished 
officer in the colonial army during the 
Revolutionary war. They became the par- 
ents of fourteen children, eight sons and 
si.\ daughters. The mother was called to 
her final rest in 1884. 

Samuel G. Mathews passed his boyhood 
and youth in the state of his nativity, and 
the education there acquired was supple- 
mented by a course at the Benjamin Hollo- 
well school at Alexandria, Virginia, which 
was a noted institution of learning at that 
time. When his school-days were over he 
entered the employ of his uncle, Israel 
Griffith, a wholesale drygoods merchant of 
Baltimore, where he remained for six years. 
He then engaged in general merchandising 
on his own account near that city for four 
years, after which he returned to Baltimore, 
where he successfully engaged in the com- 
mission pusiness until the Civil war. Coming 
west in 1868 he first located at Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, where he was engaged in busi- 
ness for one year, and then came to this 
state, where he met Judge Norval, and in 
company with him made the journey on foot 
from Nebraska City to Seward. In August, 
1 869, he entered a homestead claim where he 
now lives, and erected a small sod house, 
in which he lived for thirteen years, while he 
broke prairie and placed the land under ex- 
cellent cultivation. Being the only settler 
of the locality he was often visited by the 
Indians, who stole much from him and he 
experienced many hardships and trials in- 
cident to pioneer life in the west. 

At Frederick, Maryland, Sep ember i 



826 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1847, Mr. Mathews was united in marriage 
with Miss Catherine E. Cromwell, a native 
of that state and a daughter of Philemon 
and Mary (Fisher) Cromwell. In politics 
our subject is independent, and has never 
sought official honors though he has been 
called upon to serve as assessor of his town- 
ship for twelve years. Almost empty-hand- 
ed he came to Nebraska, but prosperity at 
length crowned his efforts, and he now has 
a comfortable home and competence, and 
has also succeeded in winning the friendship 
and high regard of the entire community. 



NATHANIEL J. WALDEN an agricul- 
turist, who is making his home on sec- 
tion 5, Franklin township, Butler count}', 
J^ebraska, was born in Henderson county, 
Kentucky, January 25, 1825. His father, 
Martin Walden, was an early settler in Hen- 
derson county, Kentucky, where he was an 
overseer. He afterward moved to southern 
Indiana, and died in Warrick county, of 
that state, at the age of about seventy-five 
years. His father, Nathan Walden, was a 
native of either Virginia or South Carolina, 
and was a farmer by occupation, devoting 
the most of his time to the raising of to- 
bacco. The family is of Scotch origin. 
Our subject's mother, Phebe Husbands, was 
born in Pennsjlvania, and reared in Hen- 
derson county, Kentucky. Her father, 
John Husbands, was a native of Germany. 
Nathaniel J. Walden, the subject of this 
sketch, is the second child, and the oldest 
son in the order of birth, of a famil\' of 
eight children. He was reared in his native 
county, and attended the common school 
in the log school house in his district. He 
made his home with his parents until his 
marriage to Miss Jane Hedges, in Indiana. 
She subsequently died, and our subject re- 
turned to Kentucky, where he was married, 
January 7, 1857, to Miss Amelia Walden, 
also a native of Henderson county, Ken- 



tucky. She is a daughter of William and 
Huldah fFrily) Walden. Our subject then 
moved to Warrick county, Indiana, where 
he made his home for nine years. He next 
returned to Kentucky for five years, and 
then moved to Fremont count)-, Iowa. 
Here he remained until 1883, when he came 
to Butler county, Nebraska, and located on 
the farm he is now making his home. The 
farm comprises one hundred and twenty 
acres, all choice land, well improved, and 
furnished with a comfortable and commodi- 
ous home and such surroundings as make 
lifeenjoj'able. In politics, he formerly affil- 
iated with the Whig party, but since the 
organization of the Republican party he has 
been a stanch and faithful Republican. He 
takes quite an' active interest in matters per- 
taining to economy, and especially those 
pertaining to education, and has held some 
of the district school offices. 

Mr. and Mrs. Walden are the parents of 
a family of five sons, whose names, in the 
order of their birth, are as follows: Union, 
a farmer of Franklin township, Butler coun- 
ty; Milton, of Fremont county, Iowa; 
Francis, of Franklin township, Butler 
county; Richard, of David City, Nebraska, 
and Harmon, at home. 



GEORGE H. HOLDEMAN, ex-super- 
intendent of schools for York county, 
was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, 
December 12, 1868, a son of Thomas and 
Sarah (Hetrick) Holdeman, both natives of 
Pennsylvania. The father was a shoemaker 
and farmer by occupation, and died in Penn- 
sylvania, but the mother is still living and 
is making her home in York, Nebraska. 

Our subject received his early training 
in the common schools of Pennsylvania, 
and when ten years of age, he moved with 
his mother to Putnam county, Illinois, and 
there attended the schools of that county. 
In 1887 the family moved to York county, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH2\ 



827 



Nebraska, and after teaching one term of 
school he took a course at the Fremont 
normal school, from which he graduated in 
1 89 1 . He then engaged in teaching in York 
county continuous!}' until his election to the 
office of county superintendent in 1893. 
He was twice re-elected to that office and 
had supervision of one hundred and thirty 
schools in the county. Mr. Holdeman is a 
member of both the state and county teach- 
ers' associations, and in politics he is iden- 
tified with the Republican party. He is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, the 
Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Royal Highlanders. He is a man of strong 
character, broad ideas, and is well and 
favorably known throughout York and ad- 
joining counties. 

^fr. Holdeman was a member of the 
national guard for over a year and at the 
time of the outbreak of hostilities with 
Spain was serving as captain of Company A, 
at York. The company was mustered into 
the United States service in May, 1898, be- 
coming attached to the First Regiment, Ne- 
braska Volunteer Infantry. Captain Holde- 
man is now (1898) en route with recruits to 
join his company in the Philipines. The 
duties of the office of county superintendent 
of schools are being ably performed by his 
sister. Miss Mary Holdeman, who was ap- 
pointed to the office in July, 1898, and who 
was nominated, as a candidate for election, 
August 6, following, by the Republican 
party. 



LIEUT. HENRY C. HUGHES, a well- 
known farmer residing on section 30, 
township 15, range 3 west, Platte precinct, 
is one of the honored early settlers of Polk 
county. Not alone is there particular in- 
terest attaching to his career as one of the 
pioneers of this region, but in reviewing his 
life we find he was a distinguished soldier 
of the war of the Rebellion, and that his 



lineage can be traced back to the colonial 
history of the nation and to the period that 
marked the inception of the grandest re- 
public the world has ever known. 

The founder of the family in the United 
States was Hugh Hughes, a native of Dub- 
lin, Ireland, who was educated for the 
priesthood and on coming to America located 
in Virginia. He raised a company of one hun- 
dred and ten men at Richmond for the Revolu- 
tionary war, and entered the service as cap- 
tain of the same, which belonged to one of 
George Washington's regiments. He served 
with distinction all through that struggle 
and was promoted to the rank of major. 
At one time, while summoning re-inforce- 
ments for Washington's army, he was 
obliged to swim three miles, breaking the 
ice with his hands until they became too 
sore, and then using his elbows. Of the 
three men who ventured to perform that 
feat, he was the only one to survive. He 
had eight sons all of whom reared large 
families. One of these, Thomas Hughes, 
a native of Washington, Pennsylvania, was 
the grandfather of our subject. 

Mr. Hughes, of this sketch, was born 
September 9, 1840, in Boone county, Ken- 
tucky, of which place his parents, Ethan 
Allen and Nancy (Chrisler) Hughes, were 
also natives. The latter was a daughter of 
Lewis Chrisler, a native of Virginia, from 
which state he emigrated to Kentucky, but 
spent his last days in Indiana. The parents 
of our subject never left Kentucky, where 
the father died May 8, 1892, aged eighty 
years, and the mother passed away August 
II, 1895. She was a consistent and faith- 
ful member of the Christian church. In 
early life the father followed the cabinet- 
maker's trade, later engaged in house car- 
pentering, and afterward gave his attention 
exclusively to the operation of his large 
farm. In the family were the following 
children, who reached years of maturity: 
Thomas, now a resident of Shelby county. 



828 



COMPEXnil'M OF BIOGRAPIir 



Missouri; Henry C. ; George G., who was a 
member of the Boone County Home Guards 
during the Civil war, and is still a resident 
of Kentucky; Amelia C, of Boone county, 
Kentucky; Nancy Sanford, deceased; James 
W., of Pittsburg, Kansas; and C. C, of 
Kentucky. 

In the county of his nativity, Henry C. 
Hughes passed his boyhood and youth, ac- 
quiring his education in the schools of Bur- 
lington, Kentucky. Prompted by a spirit of 
patriotism, he enlisted September lo, 1861, 
in Company A, Twenty-third Kentucky Vol- 
unteer Infantry, as a private, and was first 
engaged in provost guard duty at Lexing- 
ton. After scouting all over that region he 
went with his conmiand to Mill Spring, but 
arrived too late for the battle. Taking 
boats, they went to Fort Donelson, where 
Mr. Hughes participated in the fight unat- 
tached to any brigade. He had been left at 
the hospital at Zollicoffer barracks by order 
of the surgeon, but he followed the army 
and took an active part in the engagement. 
After the surrender of Fort Donelson he re- 
turned to the hospital, .where he lay uncon- 
scious for six weeks while suffering from 
typhoid fever. He was then discharged 
and returned home, but in August, 1862, 
re-enlisted as second lieutenant of Company 
C, Seventh Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry, 
and took part in the battle of Richmond, 
Kentucky, where his horse was shot dead 
under him. Falling over her he was in- 
jured and still carries a lump on his right 
hip as large as a goose egg. Mounting the 
horse of an Indiana lieutenant-colonel, he 
made a detour around the enemy, who had 
in the meantime passed him, and rejoined 
his command. From Richmond he went 
to Boonesboro, to Lexington and on to 
Louisville, where he was given command of 
Gen. W. T. Nelson's escort. After the 
death of that general the escort was trans- 
ferred to General Gilbert, commander of 
the Fourth Army Corps at Perryville, in 



which battle Mr. Hughes participated. 
Being again taken ill he was sent to the 
hospital at Louisville, where he resigned 
his commission as lieutenant, but was after- 
ward with his command as much as his 
health would permit. He was promised a 
lieutenant-colonelcy in the One Hundredth 
United States colored troops, but had to 
refuse it on account of sickness. After his 
return to his home in Burlington, Ken- 
tucky, he was employed in special service 
by the United States government. 

It was in 1871 that Lieutenant Hughes 
came to Polk county, Nebraska, and locat- 
ed on sectoin 34, township 15, range 2, 
Osceola precinct. He boarded for the first 
six months and then occupied the little sod 
shanty he had erected on his homestead. 
From his home he could see in every direc- 
tion for miles around, and but one house 
came within line of his vision, so sparsely 
was the count>- settled at that time. He 
subsequently went back to Kentucky, but in 
1872 returned to his first homestead, where 
he lived until his removal to Osceola, Octo- 
ber 18, 1894. The sod house which he built 
in 1873 was used as a residence by the fam- 
ily for four years, and was then replaced by 
a frame dwelling, 16x24 feet, to which an 
addition, 22 x 24 feet, was afterward made. 
The same year a frame barn, 41 x 22 feet, 
was also erected. Mr. Hughes broke one 
hundred and fift\- acres of wild prairie land, 
set out two rows of willows, and is now the 
owner of three hundred and twenty acres in 
this state, all under a high state of cult va- 
tion. He owns the Joseph Miller home- 
stead, which he has occupied since April 2, 
1895. 

In 1867 Mr. Hughes wedded Miss Mary 
Jane Butts, who was born in Boone county, 
Kentucky, in 1845, a daughter of Samuel 
and Polly (Cooper) Butts, also natives of 
that state and representatives of old Virginia 
families. In the Butts family were five 
children: William T., who was a first lieu- 



COMPENDUrM OF BIOGRAniT 



829 



tenant in the Fifty-second Kentucky Vol- 
unteer Infantry during the war, and was 
killed while on provost duty at Lexington; 
Perry A., deceased, who was a member of 
Company A, Twenty-third Kentucky regi- 
ment, and at the battle of Resaca, while in 
the act of firing his rifle, was struck by a 
musket ball, which passed through his right 
wrist and took off his left arm below the 
elbow; Mary J.; Edward J., a resident of 
Missouri; and Lizzie, deceased. Mrs. 
Hughes died August 15, 1869, leaving one 
child — E. Lizzie. Our subject was again 
married, February 25, 1877, his second 
union being with Miss Lucy L. , daughter of 
John G. Mickey, of Polk county. She is a 
devoted member of the Methodist church, 
and Mr. Hughes is identified with the Grand 
Army post at Osceola. At all times he 
votes the straight Republican ticket, and 
being one of the influential and popular 
citizens of his community, he has been 
proffered county offices, but has steadily re- 
fused, preferring to give his undivided at- 
tention to his business interests. 



JOSEPH BROCHTRUP, who owns and 
occupies a good farm on section 23, 
Center township, and has distinguished him- 
self as one of the most active and enterpris- 
ing agriculturists of Butler county, came 
from Wisconsin to Nebraska, in 1878. Since 
that time he has given close attention to the 
improvement of his land, upon which he 
has erected good buildings, and the soil of 
which he has brought to a high state of cul- 
tivation. 

Mr. Brochtnip was born in Washington 
county, Wisconsin, September 20, 1854, a 
son of Barnard and Annie Brochtrup, who 
were natives of Germany, and early settlers 
of the Badger state. Our subject is the 
oldest son in their family of ten children, 
nine sons and one daughter. Those in Ne- 
braska are Joseph, Charles, Theodore, 



Frank, and Annie, now the wife of Henry 
Eiting, of Butler county, Nebraska. The 
rest live in Wisconsin. 

Upon the home farm in Wisconsin Jo- 
seph Brochtrup spent his boyhood and youth 
in much the usual manner of farmer lads, 
and on reaching man's estate he was united 
in marriage with Miss Frances Eiting, the 
second daughter of Barnard and Nellie 
(Greisbers) Eiting. Her father was born in 
Germany in 1822, and on coming to the 
new world located in Brown county, Wis- 
consin, where he married Nellie Greisbers, 
the ceremony being performed at Holland- 
town, that state, in 1850. To them were 
born the following children: William, 
Hannah, Francis, Mary, Kate, John, Lizzie, 
Hattie, Henry, Deanie, Barnard and Frank. 
In 1878 Mr. Eiting brought his family to 
Butler county, Nebraska, and was accom- 
panied by our subject, his wife and infant 
son, Barnard. After coming to this state 
Mr. Brochtrup's family was increased by 
the birth of two other children, both born 
in Butler county — John and Josie. The 
wife and mother died here in 1884, and 
subsequentlj' our subject married her sister, 
Lizzie Eiting, by whom he has two chil- 
dren: Frances and Nellie. The family 
stand deservedly high in the estimation of 
their fellow-citizens and have many friends 
throughout this section of Butler county. 



CHRISTIAN SCHAAL, one of the ener- 
getic and progressive agriculturists of 
Seward count}-, resides upon a farm of two 
hundred and forty acres of well-improved 
land, which he owns in precinct C. He set- 
tled upon this place in 1880, and has made 
it his residence ever since, devoting his at- 
tention to its improvement and cultivation 
with most excellent results. He is honored 
and respected by the entire community, who 
look upon him as one of their most wide- 
awake farmers and model citizens. 



830 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Mr. Schaal was born in southern Ger- 
many, December 23, 1851, and is a son of 
Christian and Christiana (Ketelleberger) 
Schaal, who, as farming people, spent their 
entire lives in that country, and of their 
family of six sons our subject is the only 
one who crossed the Atlantic and took up 
his residence in the United States. In the 
schools of his native land he received a good 
practical education, which has well fitted 
him for the responsible duties of life. After 
leaving school he served for three years in 
the German army. Coining to the new 
world in 1880, he proceeded at once to Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska, and bought the farm 
on which he now resides, and which he has 
brought to its present high state of cultiva- 
tion by persistent industry and good man- 
agement. 

In 18S0 Mr. Schaal was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Lydia Steinestel, also a na- 
tive of the Fatherland, and to them have 
been born the following children: Charles, 
Ernest, Frederick, Mattie and Albert, all of 
whom are living. The family hold mem- 
bership in Zion German Lutheran church, 
and are highly respected by all who know 
them. In his political affiliations Mr. Schaal 
is a Populist, and he has been called upon 
to fill the office of supervisor for two years, 
and has been a member of the school board 
for nine years. 



REV. DAVID BROADWELL, one of 
the pioneers of York county, resides 
upon his pleasantly situated farm in section 
23, Baker township. 

The subject of this biography was born 
September 2, 1822, in Orange county, In- 
diana. His parents, Henry and Elizabeth 
(Poison) Broadwell, were natives of North 
Carolina and Virginia respectively. Henry 
Broadwell was one of the earliest pioneers 
of Orange county, Indiana, having settled 
there about the year 181 2, before Indiana 



became a state. He served in the war of 
1 8 12, and also in Tecumseh's Indian wars. 
His father moved from North Carolina to 
Kentucky in the early days of the latter 
state, and died there. Henry Broadwell 
married Elizabeth Poison in Washington 
county, Indiana, and after several years' 
residence in Orange county, removed to 
Warrick county, and later to Gibson county 
of the same state, where he died. 

David Broadwell, the subject of this 
sketch, was about five j'ears of age when 
his parents went to Warrick county, Indi- 
ana, and there he was reared on a farm. 
At the time the family settled there no pub- 
lic schools had been organized, and David's 
i education was procured in subscription 
schools, which he attended about three 
months in the year. Until he was twenty- 
one years old he assisted his father on the 
farm, but after that he started out for him- 
self, and cleared two farms of his own in 
Warrick and Gibson counties respectiveh% 
and his experience in the wooded regions of 
Indiana has enabled him to make a fair 
comparison of clearing and developing 
lands in the east, with the same work on 
the prairies of Nebraska. 

March 28, 1850, David Broadwell was 
married to Catherine W^elty. Mrs. Broad- 
well is a native of W' arrick county, Indiana, 
where she was born May 25, 1829. Her 
parents were John and Frances fEby) Welty, 
natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers 
in Warrick county, Indiana, where they 
died. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Broadwell made their home in Warrick 
county on a farm consisting of one hundred 
and twelve acres, only twelve of which 
where under cultivation. They began 
housekeeping in a log house, 18x20 feet, 
built of unhewn logs. However, it was one 
of the best community boasted. Mr. 
Broadwell taught school and raised tobacco, 
in which latter labor his wife did her share. 
By hard labor and intelligent economy 



COMPEJVDJi'M or BIOGRAPHY 



881 



they got a start in life, and have from the 
first owned their own home and lived in it. 
About eight j'ears after their marriage they 
sold the farm and moved to Gibson county, 
Indiana, where they purchased another 
tract of land, cleared and improved it, and 
it was in such schools as this they learned 
the true value of a dollar. 

In the fall of 1872 Mr. Broadwfell made 
a trip to Nebraska, and purchased one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of railroad lands in 
York county, in section 23, township 10, 
range 3 (now Baker township), upon which 
tract he now lives. The next spring he re- 
turned to Indiana, sold the farm there, and 
took his family to Nebraska. For a couple 
of weeks they lived in the village of York, 
while he was erecting for themselves a 
frame house on the land. This house was 
16x26, and theirs was one of the first 
frame residences built in the neighborhood. 
There was no lumber yard at York, and 
lumber was not only very expensive, but 
hard to get at any price. Most of the resi- 
dences in those days were built of sod. He 
has transformed his wild prairie land into a 
farm of great value, improved and enhanced 
by all the conveniences incident to farm life. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Broadwell seven chil- 
dren have been been born, named as follows: 
Sirena, wife of J. D. White, of York; An- 
geline, wife of James Shipp, of Baker town- 
ship; Sarah, deceased, who was the wife of 
John Butler, of Kansas; Fannie, deceased, 
who was the wife of Henry Baker, of Wy- 
oming; John, at home; Lizzie, wife of 
James Ingrey, of York; David F., of Baker 
township. 

Although so much of his life has been 
devoted to agricultural pursuits and duties, 
\et Mr. Broadwell has found time to per- 
form much work for the church, in which 
he has been engaged for the past fifty years. 
He is an ordained minister of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and has done valuable 
work in the local pulpits, though he has 



never served as pastor. At present, owing 
to age and ill-health, he does no preach- 
ing, but is frequently called upon to con- 
duct funeral services and to perform mar- 
riage ceremonies. In political views he has 
been a Republican since the organization of 
the party. He has been called to serve in 
man}' local offices, such as supervisor, school 
director, etc. To an unusual degree he re- 
tains the respect and esteem of his fellow 
citizens. 



JOHN ZIMMERMANN.— It is astonish- 
ing to witness the success of men who 
have emigrated to America without capital 
and from a position of comparative obscur- 
ity worked their way upward until they ha\e 
become wealthy and prominent citizens of 
the community in which they locate. The 
readiness with which they adapt them- 
selves to circumstances and take advantage 
of opportunities offered brings to them suc- 
cess and wins them a place among the lead- 
ing men of their locality. Such a man is 
Mr. Zimmermann, who is now one of the 
most prosperous farmers of Fillmore county, 
owning a valuable place of six hundred 
and forty acres in Moinence precinct. 

Mr. Zimmermann was born in Bind- 
suchsen Kreis, Biidingen, Hessen Darm- 
stadt, Germany, December 7, 1829, a son 
of John C. and Margaret (Schwab) Zim- 
mermann, who died when our subject was 
quite young, the former at the age of sixty- 
five and the latter at the age of sixty-six 
years. He is the youngest in their fam- 
ily of eleven children, of whom only three 
are now living, the others being Margaret 
and Mary. 

Being left an orphan at an early age, Mr. 
Zimmermann was forced to earn his own liv- 
ing when (juite young, and at the age of 
fourteen commenced learning the shoemak- 
er's trade, which he followed for eighteen 
years. He was educated in the public 



832 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



schools ot his native land, and was con- 
firmed in the Reformed church. At the age 
of twenty-nine, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Anna Mary Eifirt, who was born 
in Germany, May 13, 1834, a daughter of 
Conrad and Margaret (Couck) Eifirt, who 
spent their entire lives in the Fatherland. 
She was one of a famil}' of eleven children, 
all of whom remained in Germany with the 
exception of one sister and one brother, the 
latter being John Eifirt, now living in Clay 
county, Nebraska. 

Borrowing money to pay his passage, 
Mr. Zimmermann came alone to America, 
leaving his native land March 27, i860, 
on the sailing vessel Francisco, which was 
thirty-one days in crossing the Atlantic. He 
landed in New York May 6, and the lOth 
of that month found him in Mendota, Illi- 
nois, where he secured work on a farm at 
si.xteen dollars per month. He operated 
rented land in i86r, and made enough money 
to send for his wife and two children, who 
joined him in Illinois, where they continued 
to reside upon rented farms for thirteen 
}-ears. In 1872 he came to Exeter, Ne- 
braska, where he purchased a few lots, but 
soon returned to lUinos, and did not locate 
permanently in this state until the following 
year. On the arrival of the family in Fair- 
mont, they lived for two weeks in the car, 
in which their goods had been shipped and 
then came to Momence precinct, where Mr. 
Zimmermann located his homestead claim 
of one hundred and sixty acres, for which 
he paid two hundred dollars. For thirteen 
years the family lived in a sod house, while 
he broke and improved his land, in the 
meantime doing his trading at Fairmont, 
the nearest railroad station. His crops 
were almost totally destroyed by the 
grasshoppers in 1874, leaving the family 
in almost a starving condition, and at 
different times hailstorms have ruined his 
crops, but taking all things into consid- 
eration he has prospered in his new home 



and is now the owner of a valuable prop- 
erty. In 1883 he erected upon his place a 
large stock barn, and two years later built a 
good two-story residence, 30 x 24 feet. His 
place is also improved with good fences, 
sheds, corncribs, etc. , and is to-day one of 
the most desirable farms in Momence 
precinct. 

Mrs. Zimmermann died July 19, 1892, 
at the age of fifty-nine years, two months 
and six days, and was laid to rest in a 
cemetery on the corner of the home farm. 
The children born to our subject by this 
wife were as follows: Elizabeth, a resident 
of Illinois; John, a native of Illinois, who 
married Emma Laura Krusher and lives in 
Fillmore county, Nebraska; Henry, who 
married Racy Ohrbauer and lives in the 
same county; Emma, wife of Carl Becher, 
of Clay county, Nebraska; Samuel, who 
married Caroline Koenig and lives in Saline 
county, Nebraska; Mary, wife of James El- 
wood, of Clay county; Simon Philip, a resi- 
dent of this state; Sarah Eliza, at home; 
Clara Caroline, wife of John Klink, of Fill- 
more county; Conrad, who died in Fillmore 
county; and Emma and an infant unnamed, 
who died in Illinois. 



TSAIAH HASBROUCK.— The natural ad- 
1 vantages of this section attracted at an 
early day a superior class of settlers, 
thrifty, industrious, progressive and law- 
abiding, whose influence has given perma- 
nent direction to the development of the 
localit}'. Among the worthy pioneers of 
York county Mr. Hasbrouck holds a promi- 
nent place, and has succeeded in building 
up a fine homestead. 

He was born in Ulster county. New 
York, May 8, 1823, and is a son of Josiah 
and Anna \'iela Hasbrouck, both natives of 
Paultz, that county. The paternal grand- 
father, Isaiah Hasbrouck, was a French- 
man by birth, and was one of the volunteer 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl'. 



833 



soldiers who came in the same ship with the 
Marquis of La Fayette to aid the colonies 
in their struggle for independence. The 
legends of the family say he held the rank 
of captain. On the west bank of the Hud- 
son river he purchased a tract of land one 
hundred and forty-foursquare miles in e.xtent, 
by giving a fat o.x to the chief of the Pough- 
keepsie tribe of Indians. Upon his land he 
built a stone house, in which he lived after 
his marriage until his death. The village 
in which this home is situated has for many 
years been known as Paultz. Some of the 
descendants of Captain Hasbrouck still own 
and occupy the old stone house. 

When the subject of this sketch was 
three years old his parents removed to 
Sullivan county, New York, and in the town 
of Fallsburg the father made his home until 
called to his final rest at the extreme old age 
of ninty-nine years. Isaiah Hasbrouck, of 
this review, also continued to reside in that 
town until after his marriage, which was 
celebrated in Newburg, New York, in 1850, 
Miss Mary C. Yeomans, a daughter of Will- 
iam and Ruth (Barber) Yeomans, becoming 
his wife. For five years they lived in the 
town of Forestburg, Sullivan county, New 
York, and for the following six years made 
their home in Fallsburg, the same county. 
In the fall of 1861 they removed to Albion, 
Noble county, Indiana, but a few months 
later proceeded westward and took up their 
residence in Del\alb county, Illinois, where 
they remained until coming to York county, 
Nebraska, on the 6th of August, 1869. 
They have since lived upon their present 
farm, where Mr. Hasbrouck now has three 
hundred and twenty acres of land under a 
high state of cultivation and well improved, 
being worth ten thousand dollars. In their 
family are two children: Mrs. Henry Rhoads 
and William S. Hasbrouck, who have been 
married several years, and have children 
grown. They live in the same neighbor- 
hood as their parents. 



Since voting for Abraham Lincoln, Mr. 
Hasbrouck has been an ardent Republican, 
and gives his support to all measures which 
he believes calculated to advance the gen- 
eral welfare. Both he and his wife are 
leading members of the Christian church, of 
Bradshaw, where they earnestly work for 
the good of humanity. Their lives have 
ever been in harmony with their professions, 
and their genuine worth and many excel- 
lencies of character have won for them the 
esteem and confidence of the entire com- 
munity. 

JAMES F. BUNTING.— No state in the 
Union can boast of a more heroic band 
of pioneers than Nebraska. In their intel- 
ligence, capability and genius they were 
far above the pioneers of the eastern states, 
and by their earnest labors they have es- 
tablished a commonwealth, which within a 
comparatively few years has won a place 
among the foremost states of the Union. 
Mr. Bunting is a representative of the early 
settlers who have been active factors in 
opening up Butler county to civilization 
and has manifested a public-spirited loyalty 
in support of all enterprises for the general 
good. After many years have passed away 
he will be honored by future generations as 
one of the founders of the county and the 
promoters of its progress. He now resides 
on section 27, Franklin township, where he 
owns and operates a valuable farm. 

A native of Richmond, Wayne county, 
Indiana, Mr. Bunting was born May 14, 
1844, and is the fourth in a family of nine 
children. When six years of age he accom- 
panied his parents on their removal to 
Mercer county, Illinois, where he was reared, 
his attention being given to farm work, to 
the duties of the school-room and to the 
pleasures of youth. In 1872 he came to 
Butler county, Nebraska, and was one of 
the first to settle on the tableland in what 
is now Franklin township. At that time 



834 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



there were only about ten families in the en- 
tire township, and the work of development 
and improvement seemed scarcely begun. 
With characteristic energy Mr. Bunting be- 
gan the cultivation of his land, upon which 
he resided for about five years, when he re- 
moved to David City, and engaged in busi- 
ness as a painter, glazier and paper hanger, 
devoting his energies to that pui'suit until 
1893. Since that time, with the exception 
of a year and a half spent in Missouri, he 
has resided continuously upon the farm 
which is now his home, and the many ex- 
cellent improvements thereon are monu- 
ments to his thrift and industry. 

Mr. Bunting was married December 25, 
1872, to Sylvia C. Brown, who was born in 
Bradford county, Pennsylvania, January 11, 
1846, a daughter of Rev. Samuel L. and 
Cynthia C. (Billings) Brown, who were na- 
tives of the Iveystone state. The father 
was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and when she was four years of age 
he removed with his family to I^ock county, 
Wisconsin. He afterward engaged in 
preaching for seven years in Minnesota, for 
one year in Iowa, and in 1871 came to But- 
ler county, Nebraska. His death occurred 
in 1895, but his widow is still living, and 
makes her home in David City. Mrs. Bunt- 
ing is therefore one of the earlist settlers of 
the count}'. She is a lady of culture and re- 
finement, and for sixteen terms engaged in 
teaching school, being employed for three 
terms in this county. The marriage of Mr. 
and Mrs. Bunting has been blessed with five 
living children, namely: Lulu, Ada, Herbert, 
Alfarata and Ruth, and they also lost one 
son, Ray, who died at the age of three years. 

Mr. Bunting has taken some part in po- 
litical affairs and has served as township 
assessor, collector of delinquent taxes, cen- 
sus enumerator and road master. The fam- 
ily are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and are highly esteemed people, 
whose circle of friends is extensive. 



HON. J. HENRY BICK.— Rising above 
the head of the mass are many men 
of sterling worth and value, who by sheer 
perseverance and pluck have conquered for- 
tune, and by their own unaided efforts have 
arisen from the ranks of the commonplace 
to eminence and positions of respect and 
trust. It was to his perseverance and in- 
domitable energy that Mr. Bick owed his 
success in life, and he not only prospered in 
business affairs but attained to a high posi- 
tion in political circles. For twenty }'ears 
he was one of the most wide-awake and 
popular citizens of Seward county, and by 
his death, which occurred February i, 1890, 
the community realized that it had lost one 
of its most valued and useful citizens. 

Mr. Bick was born in Waldeck, Ger- 
many, in 1842, a son of Frederick Bick, 
and was one of seven sons, three of whom 
are now residents of Seward county. On 
coming to the United States in 1852 our 
subject located in Wisconsin, and when the 
Civil war broke out he offered his services 
to his adopted country to assist in putting 
down the Rebellion, enlisting for three years 
in Company K, Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer 
Infantry. When his term had expired he 
re-enlisted in Company B, of the same regi- 
ment, and was in the service for three years 
and nine months, being honorably discharged 
when hostilities ceased. 

Returning to his home in Wisconsin, 
Mr. Bick was there married, in 1867, to Miss- 
Amelia Schumecker, a native of Berlin, 
Germany, who came to the United States 
in 1854, and they became the parents of 
five children, namely: Albert, Henry, Vina, 
Louis and Emma. The mother was called 
to her final rest October 4, 1897. 

Coming to Seward county, Nebraska, in 
1870, Mr. Bick homesteaded a tract of 
land adjoining the farm where his family 
now live, and built thereon a sod house, in 
which they lived while he improved the 
land. He prospered in his undertakings, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



835 



and at the time of his death owned three 
hundred and sixty acres of vahiable land. 
He became a recognized leader in local pol- 
itics, though he was independent, and was 
called upon to fill many of the township 
offices. In 1880 he was elected to the 
lower house of the state legislature, and so 
ably did he represent his district that he was 
re-elected in 1886. Religiously he held 
membership in the German Evangelical 
church, and as an officer in the same he 
took an active part in its work. His fam- 
ily is quite prominent in the best social cir- 
cles of the communit}'. 



JOHN T. MAPPS, one of the pioneer 
farmers of Lockridge township, York 
county, Nebraska, was born in Will county, 
Illinois, November jo, 1S53, a son of Will- 
iam Mapps, a sketch of whom will appear 
on another page of this volume. 

Our subject was educated in Will coun- 
ty, Illinois, and as soon as he was able to 
do manual labor he began working on a 
farm. He followed this vocation in Illinois 
until 1882, when he moved to York county, 
Nebraska. He bought eighty acres of land 
in Lockridge township, of that county, im- 
proved it and has since made that his home. 
In 1892 Mr. Mapps added to his already 
neat and quite extensive line of improve- 
ments one of the finest farm residences in 
York county. 

Mr. Mapps was married in i888 to Miss 
Hattie Frey, a native of the state of Illi- 
nois, and a daughter of Jacob H. and Mar- 
garet (Hartung) Frey, natives of Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio, respectively. Mr. Frey 
moved to Illinois in 1854 and settled in Will 
county, and made that his home until 1897, 
and since that time he has resided with our 
subject in York county, Nebraska. Mrs. 
Mapp's mother died in Illinois in 1893. 

The subject of our sketch is a stanch 
Populist in political views, but has never 



sought public office. Socially he is identi- 
fied with the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men. He has an elegant home, a fine farm, 
and enjoys the confidence and respect of all 
who know him. Mr. and Mrs. Mapps have 
no children. 



DD. POTTER., M. D., holds high 
rank in the medical profession, and is 
regarded as one of the ablest physicians 
and surgeons of Seward county. He re- 
sides in Seward, but the field of labors ex- 
tends over a wide section of the adjoining 
country. He is an earnest student of his 
profession, and is scientific in all his meth- 
ods. He cares little for tradition, has no 
school, and only asks what will heal the 
sick. 

Dr. Potter was born in Cortland county. 
New York, February 14, 1855. His par- 
ents, John V. and Adelle (Brooks) Potter, 
where natives of the same state, and were 
devoted to rural pursuits. They are now 
living at Salem, South Dakota. They were 
the parents of four sons and three daugh- 
ters. Two of the sons are physicians. 
The grand father of the Doctor was Paris 
Potter. He was born in New York, and 
in that state he lived and died. He was a 
brother of Dr. Vernon Potter, a pioneer 
surgeon of central New York, and who was 
widely known through that section of New 
York, and adjoining states. He lived and 
died at Rome, New York. Dr. D. D. 
Potter attended the public school, an acad- 
emy at Cincinnatus, and the state normal 
at Cortland. He taught school and read 
medicine for some years following the ter- 
mination of his student days. In 1878 he 
went to Minnesota and taught school in 
Noble county with much success. In i88i 
he entered the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, and was grad- 
uated from that institution in 1883. He 
located at Seward, and has continued the 



836 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



practice of his profession with much success 
to the present moment. In 1890 he took 
a post-graduate course of lectures in New 
York, and the next year accepted the chair 
of Physical Diagnosis and Disease of the 
Respiratory and Circulatory Systems in the 
Medical Department of Cotner University 
at Lincoln, and held it for four years. He de- 
livered the address to the first graduating 
class from that department. He was ad- 
mitted to the State Medical society in 1888, 
and in 1896 assisted in the organization of 
the Seward County Medical Society, of 
which he was the first president. 

Dr. Potter was married, in 1876, to Miss 
Ella Kidney. She was born in Cleveland, 
and died in Minnesota in 1880. Four years 
later he led Miss Ida McPheely to the altar 
of matrimony. She was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, and is a lady of social qualities. Her 
father was a foreman in the Fort Pitt 
Foundry during the late war. She is the 
mother of two sons. Brooks R. and Her- 
bert M. They are members of the Con- 
gregational church, and are quick to identify 
themselves with every uplifting and broad- 
ening movement that reaches the commun- 
ity. He takes a lively interest in fraternal 
affairs, and is a member of th Masonic order 
and the Knights of Pythias. He votes the 
Republican ticket in the main, and for four 
years has been a member of the school 
board. He is earnest in his professional 
ambitions, and keeps abreast of his voca- 
tion. He is reaping the reward of his de- 
votion, and enjoys a large practice. 



EDWARD A. TOMLIN, an energetic 
and prosperous farmer residing on sec- 
tion 21, Stanton precinct, Fillmore county, 
was born in Mason county, Illinois, January 
6, 1859, and is a son of Hathorn and Sarah 
A. (Preston) Tomlin, who are now living re- 
tired in Mason City, Illinois, the former at 
the age of seventy, the latter at the age of 



sixt}' years. Our subject's ancestors came 
from New Jersey, and his grandfather Tom- 
lin was a seaman while living in the east 
and became quite wealthy. He spent his 
last days in Illinois, where he died at the 
age of seventy and his wife at the age of 
sixty-five years, the remains of both being 
interred in the Mason City cemetery. Our 
subject is one of a family of twelve children, 
but only two besides himself are now living, 
the others being Emma, wife of Louis Wat- 
kins, a farmer of Mason county, Illinois, 
and Bell, wife of Felix Summers, a farmer 
of the same state. 

In the county of his nativity Edward A. 
Tomlin grew to manhood, and in its com- 
mon schools he obtained his elementary 
education, which was supplemented by a 
course in the high school of Mason City. 
Being thus well qualified to engage in teach- 
ing, he embarked in that profession, and 
successfully taught school both in Illinois 
and Kansas. On the 25th of December, 
1884, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Maggie Cruse, of Mason county, Illinois, 
who was born there in May, 1865, and was 
educated in the common schools of that 
state. Her parents were David and Han- 
nah (Tomlin) Cruse, natives of Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey, respectively. They 
are now living in Adams county, Nebraska, 
and are faithful and earnest members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. To them were 
born eleven children, six sons and five 
daughters, all still living, namely: Walker 
C. and Matthew M., who are both married 
and living in Adams county, Nebraska; 
Elizabeth E., a resident of Logan county, 
Illinois; Maggie M., wife of our subject; 
Roxanna B., who is married and lives in 
Adams county, Nebraska; Sidney D., who 
is married and lives in Pennsylvania; John 
S., a resident of Hall county, Nebraska; 
Ora E., who is married and lives in Mason 
count}', Illinois; and George I., Charles R. 
and Josephine, all at home. Mr. and Mrs. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



837 



Tomlin have a family of four daughters: 
Sarah Gertrude, aged thirteen years; Jessie 
May, aged eleven; Ora Alta, aged five; and 
Golda, aged one. 

From Illinois Mr. and Mrs. Tomlin re- 
moved to Kansas, where he bought a lease 
to a quarter section of school land, and on 
selling that place came to Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, in March, 1890. After renting 
for a year he bought one hundred and si.xty 
acres near Shickley, for which he paid four 
thousand dollars, but eighteen months later 
he sold that place for five thousand dollars 
and purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
in Stanton precinct for three thousand seven 
hundred dollars. A few acres had been 
placed under the plow, but no other im- 
provements had been made up on the place, 
which he had since transformed into one of 
the best farms of the locality, it being un- 
der a high state of cultivation and equipped 
with good and substantial buildings. While 
living on his first Nebraska farm, in Mo- 
mence precinct, he raised one thousand 
seven hundred dollars worth of wheat, be- 
sides three thousand bushels of corn and a 
large quanity of oats, all inside of two years. 
A part of the farm was also pasture and 
meadow lands. In his new home he has 
prospered and has never yet had occasion 
to regret his coming to this state. He is a 
shrewd business man and enterprising farm- 
er, and the success that has come to him is 
certainly well deserved. In his political 
affiliations he is a Prohibitionist, and in re- 
ligious faith is a United Brethren. 



LA. RUTAN is one of the enterprising, 
energetic and industrious citizens of 
Seward county, engaged in general farming 
in township C. His birth occurred in Plain- 
field, Will county, Illinois, June 5, 1859, 
his parents being Daniel D. and Keziah 
(Zabriskie) Rutan, both natives of New 
Jersey. The father followed farming the 



greater part of his life and resided at 
different times in New York, Michigan and 
Illinois, coming to Seward county, Nebras- 
ka, in 1884. Here he continued to make 
his home until his death, which occurred in 
1 889, and his widow is now a resident of 
Staplehurst. Of their children only two 
are now living, the daughter being now the 
wife of C. W. Dey, of Seward count}'. One 
son, Howard, died in infancy in Illinois. 

L. A. Rutan, of this review, was reared 
and educated in Livingston county, Illinois, 
and after attaining to man's estate, engaged 
in farming there until his removal to Ne- 
braska in 1884. He has since made his 
home in Seward county, and has success- 
fully engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

On the 5th of September, 1883, Mr. 
Rutan led to the marriage altar Miss Hattie 
Canham, a native of Illinois and a daughter 
of Henry and Mary (Daniels) Canham. 
To them have been born eight children, 
who are still living, namely: Lavina, 
Charles, Ollie, Myrtle, Herbert, Lilly, 
Mildred and Hattie. The parents hold 
membership in the Presbyterian church and 
are widely and favorably known throughout 
their adopted county. Socially, Mr. Rutan 
affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of 
America and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and politically is identified with 
the Republican party. 



FATHER ROCHE, whose portrait is 
presented with this sketch, was born in 
Canada in 1865, and educated in Ottawa 
University and St. Mary's Seminary, Balti- 
more. He was ordained in 1892, and has 
labored in Nebraska since his ordination. 
Since coming to David City he has written 
several books on religious subjects that have 
already made a name for him in the literary 
world. 

St. Mary's church has a bright future 
before it. Its history is the history of the 



838 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



county — of humble beginnings and gradual 
but sure growth, in which it has more than 
kept pace with the advancement and pros- 
perity of the county. The pioneer Catho- 
lics who played so important a part in the 
foundation and progress of the church can- 
not be omitted from a work of this charac- 
ter. Prominent among them were Nicholas 
Miller, Mr. Fenlon, Hon. M. C. Delaney, 
Nic Hastert, Richard Kinsella, Thomas 
Boston, Thomas Dowling and Dominick 
McGuire. The families of almost all the 
aforesaid are still members of St. Mary's 
parish. Prominent amongst the present 
members are Frank Ege, John Litty, Hon. 
I. I. Graham, John I\nott, John Steiner, 
Frank Litty, Thomas Fox, P. Garhan, P. 
Doran, John Reisdorf, Peter Reisdorf, Will- 
iam Van Den Berg, Joseph Axmaker, Mich. 
Holland, August Miller, Peter Fenlon, Dan 
Holland and Adolph Nitche. 

At the present time Father Roche is en- 
gaged in the erection of a school, which will 
be opened for the children of St. Mary's 
Parish September i, 1899. It has been the 
aim of the Catholic church in every part of 
the United States to provide religious in- 
struction for the children from their earliest 
years. To this end she has endeavored, 
wherever it is possible, to erect schools of 
her own, holding firmly to the belief that 
separate schools are no greater an anamoly 
than separate churches. 



WA. TAYLOR, cashier of the Bank of 
Benedict. — This bank was founded in 
1890, by Ex-Judge G. W. Post, B. B. 
Crownover and others, with a capital stock 
of ten thousand dollars. The officers at 
that time were. Judge Post, president; 
and Mr. Crownover, cashier; and Lee Mar- 
tin, vice-president. The Judge is still the 
president of the institution, but the cashier 
is W. A. Taylor, who is also the acting 
manager of the affairs of the bank. 



Mr. Taylor was born in Washington 
county, Iowa, in 1S69, and is a brother of 
A. B. Taylor, whose sketch will appear on 
another page of this volume. Our subject 
was four years of age when he moved with 
his parents to Saline count}^ Nebraska, 
where he was reared and educated. He 
attended the public schools of the comunity 
in which he lived, and subsequently attended 
the Lincoln Business college, and graduated 
from the shorthand department of that in- 
stitution in 1887. His early life was spent 
on a farm in Saline county, and he also re- 
sided for a time in Chase county. He then 
studied law and was admitted to the bar, 
but has never practiced that profession. In 
1890, he was made cashier of the Bank of 
Henderson, Nebraska, and was thus em- 
ployed until 1S94. In that year he pur- 
chased an interest in the Bank of Benedict, 
moved to that city and took charge of that 
institution. 

In 1 S90 Mr. Ta3'lor was united in 
marriage to Miss Alice E. Barton, a resident 
of Salme county, Nebraska, and their 
wedded life has been blessed to them by 
the presence of a little daughter, upon 
whom they have seen fit to bestow the name 
of Eunice. Mr. Taylor is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 
politics he is a Republican. He has held 
the office of village treasurer for four suc- 
cessive terms. He is a man of good ex- 
ecutive ability, both in the management of 
his own affairs and the more intricate affairs 
of the banking institution with which he is 
connected. 



NILS ANDERSON, one of the most dis- 
tinguished and honored citizens of 
Fillmore county, finds an appropriate place 
in the history of those men of business and 
enterprise in the state of Nebraska, whose 
force of character, whose fortitude amid 
discouragements, whose good sense in the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHy 



839 



management of complicated affairs and 
marked success in establishing large busi- 
ness enterprises and bringing to completion 
great schemes of trade and profit, have con- 
tributed in an eminent degree to the de- 
velopment of the vast resources of this noble 
commonwealth. His career has not been 
helped by accident or luck, or wealth, or 
powerful friends. He is in the broadest 
sense a self-made man, being both the 
architect and builder of his own fortune. 
At present he makes his home on section 6, 
Brj'ant precinct, and is the owner of large 
tracts of land in Fillmore county. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Sweden, De- 
cember 19, 1840, and was provided with ex- 
cellent educational advantages, being a 
student in a college at Christianstad. 
Throughout life he has made farming his 
occupation, and continued to follow that 
pursuit for some years in his native land. 
There, he was married, in 1863, to Miss 
Annie Nelson, who died a year later, and 
in 1 866 he led to the marriage altar Nellie 
Nelson. Three years later thej' sailed for 
the new world, and first located in Moline, 
Illinois, where they made their home until 
coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, in 
1872. His wife died in this county, Sep- 
tember 13, 1888, leaving one son, August, 
who is now thirty-one years of age. He is 
a graduate of Rush Medical college, of Chi- 
cago, has also taken a post-graduate course 
at the Medical College of Lincoln, Nebras- 
ka, and is now a successful physician, en- 
joying an e.xtensive practice at Belvidere, 
Thayer county, Nebraska. Their adopted 
daughter. Miss Gertie Anderson, a niece of 
Mrs. Anderson, joined the family circle be- 
fore Mrs. Anderson's death. She is now 
twenty-four years of age. 

On reaching Fillmore county, Mr. An- 
derson's property consisted of one yoke of 
cattle and twenty-five dollars in money. In 
Bryant precinct he secured a homestead of 
one hundred and si.xty acres, but being a 



man of good business ability, enterprising, 
industrious and persevering, he has pros- 
pered in his new home, and is now the 
owner of two thousand and eight}' acres of 
the finest farming land in Fillmore, Nuck- 
olls and Clay counties. His home place is 
under e.xcellent cultivation, and is improved 
with commodious and substantial builnings. 
In connection with general farming he is 
also extensive!}' engaged in stock raising, 
and now has one hundred and fifty-nine 
head of cattle, besides twenty head of fine 
bred horses, hogs, etc. He was also at one 
time stockholder and cashier of the Peoples 
Bank of Davenport, Thayer county, Ne- 
braska. 

Twice Mr. Anderson and his family vis- 
ited Sweden, first in 1885 and again in 1895, 
and he was honored with a letter of intro- 
duction from H. A. Herbert, secretary of 
the United States navy to Rear Admiral W. 
A. Kirkland, commanding United States 
fleet, European squadron at, the opening of 
the canal between the North and the Baltic 
seas at the ceremonies at Kiel, Germany, in 
June, 1895. In 1881 he was elected to the 
state legislature to represent Clay and Fill- 
more counties, and in 1S98 was re-elected 
on the Populist ticket, to represent the thir- 
ty-seventh district, which is Fillmore coun- 
ty. He was also appointed by Governor 
Holcomb, of Nebraska, as a member of the 
Trans-Mississippi Gulf and Interstate Trans- 
portation committee, which met at Omaha, 
June 22, 1898, and has served as a school 
director and justice of the peace for ten 
years. At the age of fourteen he was con- 
firmed in the Swedish Lutheran church, 
and organized the first Swede Lutheran 
church in Fillmore county. He is a Mason 
in high standing, being a Knight Templar 
and a Shriner. He is always courteous, 
kindly and affable, and those who know him 
personally have for him warm regard. His 
life is exemplary in many respects, and he 
has ever supported those interests which 



840 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



are calculated to uplift and benefit human- 
ity, and his own hif:;h moral worth is de- 
serving of the highest commendation. 



ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH 
OF DAVID CITY— ITS HISTORY.— 
The history of the Catholic church of 
David City had its beginning in pioneers 
who came from other states and settled on 
the unbroken prairies lying immediately to 
the south of the Platte river. About the 
year 1869 a colony from Lu.xemburg settled 
in the place now known as the Valley. 
They formed the nucleus of a thriving set- 
tlement, and as they were all Catholics 
they strove to keep alive the faith they had 
brought with them from far-off Lu.xemburg. 
Father Kelly, still living in Omaha, was 
the first priest to say mass in Butler county 
in June, 1871. It was said at the home of 
Thomas Dowling, in the place now occupied 
by Nic Heldjeth, of Center township. He 
returned a few times in the following years 
to minister to the spiritual needs of the 
scattered Catholics. Another priest from 
West Point said mass for the first time in 
the Mysenburg home in 1873. The history 
of the church in David City properly dates 
from the year 1S77 when the fathers of the 
Franciscan Monastery at Columbus assumed 
charge of the place and took immediate 
steps for the erection of a church. The 
following entries are to be found in the 
records of St. Mary's church: "In the year 
1877, on the nineteenth day of September, 
Rev. Ambrose Jansen, O. S. F., of the 
Monastery of Columbus, Nebraska, said 
mass in the court house, David City. After 
services that day the Catholics of David 
City and vicinity unanimously took the res- 
olution of building a church. Messrs. 
Thomas Dowling, Dr. T. J. Murphy and 
Nicholas Miller were appointed trustees. 
Right Reverend Bishop O'Connor gladly 
gave his consent, and the people, under 



the direction of their newly appointed pas- 
tor. Rev. John Gaffron, O. S. F. , imme- 
diately began the work. Mr. Magnus Litty 
and his wife, Anna, of Richardson county, 
Nebraska, gave by way of a donation a 
block of land for the building ground. The 
building, 28A x 45 feet, was so far advanced 
by the third Sunday of January, 187S, that 
on that day the first mass could be cele- 
brated, although it was not yet plastered, 
partly because the weather was too cold, 
and partly because the means to finish the 
building were lacking." The other Fran- 
ciscan fathers, who successively had charge 
of the David City mission were Rev. Cyp- 
rian Banscherd, Rev. Cyril Augustinsky, 
Rev. Seraphim Lampe and Rev. Boniface. 
The last of the Franciscans was suc- 
ceeded by Fr. Rheindorff, who, according to 
the records, took charge of the church Janu- 
ary 6, 1883, and remained until about May 
I of the same year. The last entry in the 
church books made by Fr. Rheindorff is 
for pew rent received by him April i 5, 18S3. 
Rev. John Miller, now pastor of Petersburg 
in the Omaha diocese, succeeded him Sep- 
tember 4 of the same year. He remained 
until May i, 1886. On May 16 of the same 
year. Rev. H. Bex, now of Falls City in this 
diocese, assumed charge and remained in 
charge of St. Mary's church up to Septem- 
ber I, 1894. During his incumbency many 
improvements were made. The church 
was enlarged to double its former size, a 
new parochial residence was erected, and 
the congregation was established on a firm 
and enduring basis. Fr. Bex left the 
church in excellent financial condition. Both 
he and Fr. Miller much endeared them- 
selves to the people of St. Mary's. Fr. 
English, now of St. Peter's church in Oma- 
ha, succeeded Fr. Bex and remained from 
September i, 1894, to January i, 1895. 
On his leaving, the parish had no perman- 
ent pastor until May i of the same year, when 
Rev. J. T. Roche was transferred from the 







HEY. FATHER J. T. ROCHE. 



CO.\JPB\D/i'M 02^ BiOGRAl'I/r 



843 



rectorship of the cathedral at Lincoln to that 
of David City, where he remains the present 
incumbent. During his incumbency Ne- 
braska has passed through the darkest days 
of its history, but notwithstanding these 
facts raany improvements have been made, 
thanks to the ;;eal and good will of the people 
form St. Mary's congregation. St. Mary's 
still grows and prospers, and being situated 
at the county seat, in the midst of a thriving 
populatioim, it bids fair to become one of 
the leading churches in Nebraska. 



ROBERT J. OVERSTREET, one of the 
well-to-do farmers of Arborville town- 
ship, York county, was born in Galesburg, 
Knox county, Illinois, January 15, 1843. 

The parents of our subject were Milton 
and Catherine (^^artin') Overstreet. Milton 
Overstreet was bom near Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, January- 16, 18 19, and lived there 
until 1 84 1, when he moved to (ialesburg, 
Illinois, where he still lives. He was 
married in Kentucky, in 1838, to Catherine 
Martin, who was born in Connecticut. She 
is still living. They are the parents of a 
family of six sons and three daughters. 
Three of the sons now live in Nebraska, 
and two in Illinois. Our subject's grand- 
fathers were Robert Overstreet, of Irish 
lineage, and Joel Martin, a native of Con- 
necticut, who went to Kentucky, and later 
to Illinois, where he died in 1875. 

Robert J. Overstreet was reared in Illi- 
nois, and has always followed the calling of 
a farmer. He owned a farm in Illinois, but 
in 1884 he removed to Nebraska, and pur- 
chased a farm in Arborville township, York 
count}', where he now lives. He owns a 
quarter section of fertile land, under a high 
state of culti\-ation. 

Mr. Overstreet was married in Illinois, 
January 24, 1866, to Charlotte Treat Bull, 
a daughter of William H. Bull, who was a 
native of Connecticut, and who moved to 

48 



Knox county, Illinois, in 1858, where he 
died the following year. Mrs. Overstreet "s 
mother bore the maiden name of Phcebe 
Stowe, a relative of Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
She still lives in Knox county, Illinois. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Overstreet three children have 
been born: William M., a farmer in York 
county; Luther M., a graduate of the United 
States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Mary- 
land, and now ensign on board the battle- 
ship Oregon; and Lillian A., now at home. 
The family are members of the Congrega- 
tional church of Arborville. Mr. Overstreet 
holds membership in the A. O. U. W. In 
political views he is a Republican, thougb 
he has never sought political preferment. 
He has been successful in his chosen pur- 
suit, has a good home, and the respect of 
all who know him. 



LA. GUSHEE. — The splendid farm 
owned by this gentleman on section 32, 
township 15, range 2, Osceola precinct, 
Polk county, is a standing monument to his 
industry, perseverance and good manage- 
ment. He comes under the category of 
self-made men, having been thrown upon 
his own resources early in life, and succeed- 
ed only by the exercise of his steady, plod- 
ding labors, both mental and physical. He 
was born in Appleton, Maine, February 18, 
1836, a son of Almond and Elvira (Drake) 
Gushee. The father was born in the same 
town in 1805, when the place was known as 
Hoke, and was a son of Almond Gushee, 
Sr. , a native of Mass.achusetts, and grand- 
son of Abram Gushee, of French descent. 
The mother of our subject was born in. 
Union, Maine, in 1807, a daughter of Jesse 
Drake, and after the death of her first hus- 
band, which occured in Appleton, in 1847, 
she married Henry Meserby, now deceased, 
who was a soldier of the war of 1S12, and 
by whom she had one child — Mrs. Martha 
Keller. There were live children born of 



844 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



the first union, namely: Mrs. Vestine Pease, 
now deceased; L. A., of this sketch; Albert 
and Cordana, deceased; and Frank, a phy- 
sician, also deceased, who was a soldier in 
the Fifth Massachusetts regiment during the 
Civil war, later was made captain of artillery, 
and was wounded in the head at Baton 
Rogue, by the bursting of a shell. 

Reared in Appleton, Maine, L. A. 
Gushee began his education in the schools 
of that place, and later took a commercial 
course at Boston, Massachusetts. For ten 
years during his youth he was employed in 
a shoe factory at Natick, Massachusetts, 
andinjune, 1861, enlisted as corporal in 
Company H, Thirteenth Massachusetts Vol- 
unteer Infantry. From Fort Independence, 
in Boston Harbor, the troops went to 
Hagerstown, Maryland, and from there 
went on a forced march to Harper's Ferry, 
being two days without food. They were 
assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and 
for a time were engaged in guarding the 
Chesapeake & Ohio canal. Mr. Gushee took 
an active part in many skirmishes and was 
under the command of General Banks 
when he drove the rebels from Winchester, 
Virginia. After a great many marches and 
counter-marches he was placed in Mc- 
Dowell's corps in front of Washington, on 
the Rappahannock river. Being taken 
ill, he was taken to the hospital at Alexandria 
and on his recovery was detailed as clerk, but 
was soon afterward again taken sick and 
honorably discharged on a surgeon's certifi- 
cate in December, 1862. Returning to his 
home in Maine, he afterward tried to re-en- 
list, but was rejected. 

From Natick, Massachusetts, Mr. Gushee 
went to West Virginia, in 1867, and after 
teaching school in that state was similarly 
employed in Ohio for about six years. 
Coming to Polk county, Nebraska, he 
homesteaded his present farm in 1873, and 
erected thereon a little board shanty, 14x12 
feet. The first year he raised a small crop 



of sod corn, but the next year the grasshop- 
pers destroyed everything. He had no 
other neighbors, and on his return home at 
night from market was guided only by the 
buffalo bones which he had stuck up to 
mark the path. In connection with his 
farming operations, he engaged in school- 
teaching for some time, and prospering in 
his undertakings he is now the owner of a 
good farm of two hundred acres, sixty of 
which are under excellent cultivation and 
well improved. 

In 1867 Mr. Gushee was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary L. Phillips, a native 
of Marietta, Ohio, and a daughter of Joseph 
M. Phillips, and to them was born one child, 
Helen E., now the wife of Dr. Harvey 
Gregg. They are widely and favorably 
known and have a host of warm friends. 
Politically Mr. Gushee is now independent, 
and is an advocate of the free coinage of 
silver, but previous to the Republican con- 
vention held at St. Louis in 1896, had 
always supported that party. He has 
acceptably served as assessor of Osceola 
precinct, and was also elected justice of the 
peace, but refused to qualify. 



HON. RODERICK E. DUNPHY, was 
born in Lafayette count}', Wisconsin, 
in 1848. He learned the blacksmith trade in 
his native country, and lived there until 
1872, when he went to Rockford, Illinois. 
In 1873 he returned to his old home, and 
married Miss Elizabeth A. Gregory. He 
remained there until 1879, when he came 
to Seward and opened a wagon and carriage 
shop, and has conducted a successful busi- 
ness ever since. He served for four years 
on the city council, and in 1882 was elect- 
ed to the state senate from his county. In 
1886, his wife died, leaving him the care of 
their two children. Miss Gabriel B., and 
Homer G. He has always occupied a 
high position in his community, and has 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



845 



always been ready to assist in any public 
enterprise that would tend to develope in 
any way his city and county. He is now 
serving on the school board. 



WARREN J. POST, a leading and in- 
fluential citizen of Momence precinct, 
Fillmore county, and a representative of one 
of its prominent pioneer families, is success- 
fully engaged in agricultural pursuits on 
section 20. He was born in Vermont, 
March 14, 1853, but was educated in the 
schools of Illinois, in which state the family 
then made their home. His parents, An- 
drew J. and Mary Louisa (Barnes) Post, 
were also natives of the Green Mountain 
state, and to them were born four children, 
two sons and two daughters, namely: Sa- 
villa Hannah, who married Ira Goodsell, 
and died in Illinois at the age of thirty-four 
years, leaving five children, three sons and 
two daughters: Etta, wife of E. C. Jackman 
and a resident of Kansas, and Harvey J. and 
Warren J., who are both living in Momence 
precinct, Fillmore county. 

After their marriage the parents of our 
subject remained in Vermont for several 
years, the father being engaged in agricult- 
ural pursnits, and then removed to Illinois, 
where he continued his farming operations 
until the migration of the family to Ne- 
braska in 1874. He took up a homestead 
of eighty acres in Momence precinct, Fill- 
more county, and the son also took up a 
similar amount. For about nine years the 
family lived in a sod house and underwent 
all the hardships and privations incident to 
to life on the frontier. They had their 
crops destroyed by the grasshoppers and also 
by drought and hail, which caused hard 
times, but by careful management, strict 
economy and untiring labors, they over- 
came all obstacles in the path to prosperity 
and success at length crowned their efforts. 
The father died in 1881, at the age of fifty- 



one years, and was buried in Momence 
cemetery. The mother survived him a 
number of years, dying in 1897, at the age 
of seventy, and she was laid to rest by the 
side of her husband. Both were faithful 
and earnest members of the Congregational 
church, and enjoyed the respect and esteem 
of all who knew them. 

Warren J. Post and his brother now 
live on the old homestead, and with them 
reside their niece, Savilla Etta Post, now 
fifteen years of age, who brightens their 
home by her presence. In common with 
the early settlers they had much to contend 
with in pioneer days, their nearest market 
being Sutton, a distance of thirteen miles, 
for Geneva was just starting and Shickley 
had not yet been thought of. They are 
enterprising, wide-awake and progressive 
business men, to whom due success has 
not been denied, for they are now the own- 
ers of three hundred and twenty acres of 
valuable and highly cultivated land. In 
religious faith they are Congregationalists, 
and in politics are Populists, but at local 
elections support the man whom they be- 
lieve best qualified for office, regardless of 
party ties. In all the relations of life they 
have been found true to every trust reposed 
in them and their circle of friends seems 
only limited by their circle of acquaintances. 



REMINISCENCES OF NEBRASKA PIO- 
NEER DAYS 
By Warren J. Post. 

My parents were born in Vermont. Af- 
ter they were married they moved to Green 
county, Illinois, 1S56. They went on a 
farm that was nearly all timber. They 
cleared the ground in order to raise a crop. 
The second year the Army worm destroyed 
all the small grain. They had a hard time 
those years. They staid four years there. 
Then they moved to Woodford county, Illi- 
nois, and bought a farm that was all prairie. 
The estate of my grand-father was not 
settled until the war broke out. Then the 
administrator enlisted and was killed, his 



846 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



bond was worthless, and everything was 
then lost. There were six children in my 
grand-father's family. Each one was to 
have two thousand two hundred dollars So 
that put father in such bad circumstances 
that he lost the farm that he had bought. 
Then he rented a place until rent got so 
high they could not make a living at it. So 
in September, 1873, ^^^ emigrated to Ne- 
braska. It took us five long weeks. We 
landed in Beatrice; it was then a small town, 
but lively all the same. When we came on 
our land, father and I had four dollars and 
sixty cents between us. Then we traded one 
team for oxen, then we began breaking 
prairie. We put in ten acres of wheat and 
twenty-five acres of corn; the grasshoppers 
ate the corn up and I heard at the time that 
some of the neighbors lost their plow shears 
and grindstones. Let that be as it may, we 
had ours covered up, so if they ate theirs 
up, we were in luck. We got our fuel to 
burn from the South Blue river. We had 
twenty miles to haul it. It was green cotton- 
wood; it made a good fire after you had 
burnt all the water out. But then there 
was no cotton-wood left. But what was 
the stuff then was a good sod-house. I 
believe if we had a sod-house for this winter 
(1899) it would have been more comfortable. 

In the autumn of 1874, L. D. Phillips, 
P. L. Lancaster and myself went buffalo 
hunting. As neither we nor any of the 
neighbors had any meat of any kind and 
no money to buy any. we started from home 
with two wagons and eight large barrels for 
the meat. We went by the way of Hast- 
ings; it only contained about twenty houses 
at that time, and from there to Kearney; it 
contained about one hundred houses and it 
was a pretty tough place then. There 
were Mexicans and cow-boys. They ran 
the town almost as they pleased. We 
stayed there two da\s and bought our sup- 
plies. There was a man killed while we 
were there. Next we went to North Platte 
City. It was a ver}' lively town — too 
much so for us tenderfeet from the east. 
We got two antelope while crossing the 
Platte valley. We went south to the Re- 
publican river. In crossing the river we 
got mired down in quicksand. We had to 
unload and carry overything out. The 
water was three and one-half feet deep. 



While a Nebraska gentle breeze was blow- 
ing from the north, then it was to build a 
fire and dry our clothes. Next we started 
across to the Red Willow. Then our eyes 
began to get larger, for we could see herds 
of buffalo in all directions. We camped on 
Red Willow at noon. We were very anx- 
ious for some buffalo meat, so after dinner 
we started to see what we could do with 
them. They looked like sod houses moving 
to us, so we agreed to kill only animals 
one and two years old, so we would have 
nice tender meat. We got two that after- 
noon. While we were going to camp we 
got one wolf and one wild cat. To make a 
long stor}' short, we got our barrels filled 
with nice tender meat. I killed my first 
buffalo with my first shot. I have some 
very nice buffalo horns now, and think a 
great deal of them as old relics. We were 
with the buffaloes two weeks. 

Just one mile from our camp there was 
an Indian buried in a tree. It was wrapped 
in a blanket, such as beads and wristlets 
were also with it. It was laid on poles and 
they were laid across the limbs of the tree. 
All the rivers and small streams were full 
of beaver and otter. There were many elk, 
deer, antelope and wolves. We saw herds 
of buffalo that were three miles long and 
from one-half to two miles wide. We 
thought at the time there were thirty thou- 
sand head in some herds. This may seem 
large, but it is all true. We killed forty 
buffaloes, four elk, several deer and ante- 
lope. We saw where the Indians had 
killed from twenty-five to one hundred buf- 
falo in one place that did not cover fifteen 
acres of ground. We got arrows that laid 
where the remains were left. Remember, 
we spent all our money at Kearney to buy 
our supplies. So when we started back we 
didn't have any flour or tobacco when we 
reached Kearney. We had to hunt ante- 
lope and sell them to get money to buy pro- 
visions. It was straight meat three times a 
day for one week. We thought it pretty 
tough at that time. I believe I could get 
along now for a day or two on some good 
tender buffalo meat. As I stated before, 
we started hunting antelope and selling to 
Kearney people. Next we concluded to 
ship our barrels of meat home from Kearney 
to Edgar. Father and the neighbors went 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



847 



and got it. Then they were very much 
pleased. Each barrel weighed over four 
hundred pounds. We stayed at Kearney 
for two weeks and sold forty dollars worth 
of antelope and deer. While we were hunt- 
ing in the sand hills we saw where there 
had been a buggy burned, and by it was a 
man's skull and some other bones. I sup- 
pose it was the work of the Indians. 

We came home when winter had com- 
menced. I remember that winter was a 
very hard one. My brother, Harvey J. 
Post, and myself killed eighty jack-rabbits 
that winter. We shipped them to Omaha. 
We got as high as fifty cents apiece for 
them. That kept us till spring. Then I 
went to Illinois and worked till it was time 
for me to be back on my homestead. Be- 
fore I forget a little incident I will tell you 
what happened when we were hunting. Mr. 
Phillips, our partner in hunting, was a great 
hand to tell us stories of what happened 
while he was in the army. We have list- 
ened to him for hours at a time. What I 
am about to tell, he will remember well. 
Each time he would tell us a story he would 
wind up with " Right about face." I sup- 
pose that was in the drill he had to perform 
for Uncle Sam. We had been out from 
early morn till about four o'clock p. m. We 
had been hunting on foot. We made our 
shoes out of buffalo rawhide. They were 
very nice to wear because they were very 
soft and pliable. But when they got dry, 
they were very slippery, so much so you 
had to be very careful or you would sit down 
very sudden. We had a very steep hill to 
go down and our slippery shoes were not 
very comfortable. The hill was about sixty 
yards to the level. There were several 
bunches of cactus, a kind of a flower plant. 
But had some very sharp thorns. We 
started down the hill, Mr. Phillips in the 
lead as usual. All at once his slippery shoes 
flew up and down the hill he went straight 
for a large bunch of those prairie roses, 
stickers and all. He inclined one shoe for 
the north pole and one for the south pole. 
When he struck those prairie roses he turned 
a complete somersault and alighted on his 
feet squarel)'. And I hallooed to him, 
" Right about face." 

I will never forget once, when Mr. Phil- 
lips and myself, had been hunting, and was 



crossing a large cafion that led from the di- 
vide to the Red Willow. The canon was 
about forty rods across from bluff to bluff. 
At some time there had been a very large 
rain, tor in the center of the canon it had 
washed out several places that would run 
from one foot to four feet deep. We were 
crossing this when we saw several buffalo 
coming down the the canon. So we got 
in one of the places and sat down, and wait- 
ed for the buffalo to come. We probably 
waited twenty minutes, when Mr. Phillips 
says, " I guess it is going to rain, did 30U 
not hear it thunder." And I raised up to 
look, and see how near the game was. I 
no sooner looked over the bank than I 
said, " look at the buffaloes." The canon 
was full of them. If we had let them come 
any nearer it would probably have been bad 
for us. Mr. Phillips and I were coming 
into camp. There was a buffalo run out 
from under a bank. I shot at him, he went 
a few yards and laid down. Mr. Phillips 
says " by smut," I will have a chance to 
show Lancaster that I can kill a buffalo by 
shooting them in the head, Mr. Phillips 
was hunting with a small muzzle-loading 
rifle, so now I will tell my story. We 
walked down within thirty feet of the buffalo; 
Mr. Phillips says " now I'll fix him," so he 
fired at his head. Mr. Buffalo shook his 
head. So Mr. Phillips loaded his gun 
again, putting two charges of powder 
in this time, and fired again. This time 
the buffalo shook his head a little more than 
common. The old gun was loaded again 
with three charges of powder, and it spoke 
again. Mr. Phillips and the old gun dis- 
solved partnership, but the buffalo was his. 
As I have no more time to write, I will have 
to stop on my Wild West stories. 



I AMES FROM. — The subject of this 
k-J sketch is one of the leading farmers of 
Olive township, Butler county. He located 
on the southwest quarter of section 30, of 
that township, in April, 1871, and has since 
made that his home, and in the prosecution 
of his farm work he has been very indus- 
trious, progressive in his ideas, and ready to 
take advantage of every turn of the tide to 
improve his circumstances. 



848 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



In tracing the life of our subject we find 
that he is a native of Center county, Penn- 
sylvania, and was born in 1S40, a son of 
Daniel From, also a Pennsylvanian by birth 
and a farmer by occupation. Mr. From 
was reared on a farmland attended the pub- 
lic schools during the winters, but each sum- 
mer he entered a private educational insti- 
tution. At the age of fifteen years he 
moved with his parents to Stephenson 
county, Illinois, and made that his home 
until the breaking out of the Civil war. He 
then enlisted in company B, Forty-sixth 
Illinois Infantry, being enrolled at Camp 
Butler, September 10, 1861, and was in the 
service continuously from that date until 
the close of the war, and his experience 
was one of unusual activity. He reached 
Fort Donelson with the regiment of which 
he was a member a day and a half before 
its surrender, participated in its capture and 
his regiment was the first to occupy the cap- 
tured fortress. After an overland march to 
Fort Henry he was included in the fleet 
which was reorganized to go to Pittsburg 
Landing, or Shiloh. During the battle at 
this place our subject escaped the jaws of 
death with the loss of a portion of his 
clothing by the explosion of a shell. From 
there he went to the siege of Corinth, Mis- 
sissippi, and after its evacuation, to Mem- 
phis, Tennessee, where he went into camp 
in July. After breaking camp in the fol- 
lowing September the regiment moved to 
Bolivar, Tennessee, and here Mr. From was 
overcome with heat and sickness and was 
sent to convalescent camp at LaGrange, 
Tennessee. He was next engaged in and 
around Vicksburg, and from there went to 
Camp Cowan, where he re-enlisted and then 
went home on his veteran furlough. Re- 
turning to service in March, 1864, he was 
sent to New Orleans, and from thence to 
Mobile and Spanish Fort. He next partici- 
pated in the charge on Blakely, and then 
returned to Mobile, which had surrendered, 



and was there detailed to guard the govern- 
ment stores in Mississippi. 

At the close of the war, Mr. From was 
mustered out of service at Baton Rouge 
and went to Cairo by the river, and from 
thence by rail to Camp Butler, where he 
received his discharge February 2, 1866. 
From war to peace was but a little step for 
Mr. From and he resumed the more tran- 
quil vocation of a farmer as readily as he 
had turned from farming to war. He next 
moved to Marshall county, Iowa, and shortly 
after, April 21, 1867, he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Emeline Pifer, daughter of 
John Pifer, of Marshall county Iowa, and 
to this union were born nine children, of 
whom we have the following record: Mary 
E., now the wife of J. G. Lichliter, of 
Butler county, Nebraska; William H., who 
died in Iowa; Francis and John H., who 
were both born in Marshall county, Iowa; 
and Edward, James W., Myrtie May, 
Uriah and Harvey, born in Butler county, 
Nebraska. Mr. From is a member of A. 
Lincoln post. No. 10, Grand Army of the 
Republic. Mr. From is a potent factor in 
the prosperity enjoyed by Butler county 
and has been of great assistance in devel- 
oping and extending its agriculture. He 
has an extensive farm, well stocked and 
equipped with fine buildings, and his sur- 
roundings testify clearly of the success he 
has made in life. 



GEORGE WATTS, one of Seward coun- 
ty's wealthy farmers and prominent 
citizens, is making his home on a fine tract 
of two hundred and forty acres of land in 
precinct N, Seward county, his residence 
being situated in section 4, near the village 
of Goehner. Mr. Watts is an old settler of 
this locality, and as a result of his thrifty 
and economical habits and his shrewd busi- 
ness management, he has acquired consid- 
erable means and is possessed of several 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



849 



tracts of farm land in adjoining counties, 
and also of property in the town of Goehner. 

The subject of our sketch is a native of 
Somersetshire, England, his natal day being 
May 28, 1 84 1. He is a son of William and 
Sallie Watts, and the names of his maternal 
grandparents were Joseph and Mary. Mr. 
Watts came to America in company with 
his mother when he was thirteen years of 
age. His father had migrated to the new 
world three years previous, settled in Wis- 
consin, and had worked the most of the 
time at day labor. W'hen his wife and 
George arrived, they moved to Spring Grove, 
Illinois, where they made their home until 
George attained the age of twenty-six years. 
Mr. Watts engaged in farming near Spring 
Grove for five years and then went to 
Minnesota, where he remained one year. 
After this he returned to Wisconsin, and 
was there engaged in farming and hauling 
cranberries for about five years, and during 
the winters of that period he worked in the 
lumber regions. Upon his return to Wis- 
consin he met Miss Jennet A. Zalzell, and 
was united to her in marriage in Juneau 
county on the iith day of October, 1867. 

Upon leaving Wisconsin, our subject 
moved with his wife and two children, to 
Seward county, Nebraska, the year before 
the grasshoppers made their ravages in that 
state. Here he settled on the east half of 
the northeast quarter of section 4, in pre- 
cinct N, for which he had previously traded 
Wisconsin property, giving the deed to his 
wife as a present. He at once built a sod 
house, fourteen by eighteen feet, with an 
addition ten by fourteen feet. This struct- 
ure he furnished with a shingle roof and a 
board floor, which gave him the name of 
"The aristocrat" among the early settlers. 
He then went to work in earnest for him- 
self, having heretofore worked only for 
others. During the first year he broke 
eighty acres and planted it in corn, wheat, 
oats and cottonwood cuttings, the latter 



with the view to cultivating shade trees. A 
few years later, he was able to add to the 
original farm by purchasing an adjoining 
eighty acres, and still later he purchased 
the third eighty from the railroad company. 
Mr. Watts then turned his attention to im- 
proving his farm and set out trees, not only 
for shade, but from year to year put out 
fruit trees, including apples, peaches, pears, 
plums, cherries and grapes, which have now 
been bearing for several years, enough for 
his own family and for many of his neigh- 
bors. Besides his home place of two hun- 
dred and forty acres, our subject has one 
hundred and sixty acres of farm land in 
Valley county, and also one hundred and 
sixty acres in Cheyenne county, one hun- 
dred and sixty acres in Frontier county, and 
also has a two-story brick business building 
in the village of Goehner, and he and his 
wife have other houses and property in this 
village. As evidence of the diligence and 
skillful management exercised by Mr. and 
Mrs. Watts, we will add right here that 
with the exception of four hundred dollars, 
which Mr. Watts received from his father's 
estate, and the sum of one hundred and two 
dollars, which Mrs. Watts received from 
her father's estate, their entire possessions 
have come through the ordinary channels 
of agricultural profits. They have twice 
suffered loss by fire, amounting, in all, to 
not less than one thousand dollars. 

The family consists of the following 
named children, viz: John, Nettie, Will- 
iam L. , Georgianna, Richard A., Albert J., 
Frank D. and Agnes E. 



ANDREW J. SWANSON is one of the 
most prosperous and successful of Polk 
county, his home being on section 26, town- 
ship 14, range 3. As a young man of 
twenty-two years he came to America, and 
with no capital started out in a strange 
land to overcome the difficulties ;ind 



850 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



obstacles in the path to prosperity. His 
youthful dreams of success have been more 
than realized, and in their happy fulfillment 
he sees the fitting reward of his earnest 
toil. 

Mr. Swanson's early home was on the 
other side of the Atlantic, his birth occurr- 
ing August 26, 1845, in Smoland. Sweden. 
There his father, Swan Swanson, a well-to- 
do farmer, spent his entire life, dying about 
1 891. Our subject grew to manhood in 
his native land, and received a good prac- 
tical education, which has well fitted him 
for life's responsible duties. In 1868 he 
emigrated to America and settled in Ivno.x 
county, Illinois, where he worked for 
farmers until coming to Nebraska in 1871. 
After purchasing one hundred and si.xty 
acres of railroad land in Polk county, he 
returned to Illinois and did not locate upon 
his homestead until the following year, 
having built theron a little frame house 12 
X 18 feet. 

In August, 1872, Mr. Swanson married 
Miss Anna M. Olson, a native of Galesburg, 
Illinois, and a daughter of Peter Olson, now 
a resident of Saunders county, Nebraska. 
They began their domestic life in the little 
house he had erected and carried on house- 
keeping in true pioneer style, while he broke 
ten acres the first year, planted it in corn 
and also raised some sod corn. They were 
living here during the great snow storm in 
April, 1873, and also passed through the 
grasshopper plague the following year, those 
insects destroying his entire crop of corn. 
Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Mr. Swan- 
son has prospered and is now the owner of 
eight hundred acres of the best farming land 
to be found in the county, all of which he 
has placed under cultivation with the ex- 
ception of twenty acres. He rents the 
greater portion of his land, but operates a 
tract of three hundred and twenty acres, 
upon which is a fine orchard of about sixty 
bearing trees set out by him, besides many 



shade and ornamental trees. He has an ex- 
cellent brick residence, built in 1885, at a 
cost of three thousand dollars, and upon 
his home farm are other improvements, 
which have cost a similar amount. 

Mr. Swanson has been called upon to 
mourn the loss of his estimable wife, who 
died very suddenly April 29, 1896, and was 
laid to rest in the Swede Home cemetery. 
She was a true helpmeet to him in their 
early pioneer life, and to her encourage- 
ment and aid he attributes much of his suc- 
cess. Of the twelve children born to them 
only six are now living: Hilda C, Anna M., 
Emma J., John Albert, Carl August and 
Allen Bernard, who have received good ed- 
ucations in both English and Swedish. The 
daughters now keep house for their father. 

Mr. Swanson is a consistent member of 
the Lutheran church at Swede Home, of 
which his wife was also a member, and he 
has been officially connected with the same, 
and has assisted in building two churches 
in Polk county. He holds the highest policy 
in the Scandinavian Mutual Insurance Com- 
pany, and has been a member of its board 
of directors. Lately he has given his polit- 
ical support to the People's party, and his 
influence is never withheld from any enter- 
prise which he believes will prove of public 
benefit or will in any way promote the gen- 
eral welfare. Although an adopted son of 
America, his loyalty is above question, and 
his labors in the interests of his county 
have been most effective and beneficial. 



L 



H. ROGERS.— A gentleman of the 
highest character and strictest integrity, 
combined with a wide knowledge of men 
and the world, is always sure to cause a man 
to become well known. The above attri- 
butes are possessed by the subject of this 
sketch, who is illustrating them by his life 
of usefulness in Lockridge township, York 
county. He was born in Cumberland couli- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



851 



ty, Maine, January 15, 1841, and is a son of 
David and Susan (Harmon) Rogers, who 
were both natives of Maine. They removed 
to Illinois in 1853, and settled in LaSalle 
county, where Mr. Rogers died at the age 
of seventy-five. He was a sailor by trade, 
but the greater part of his life was spent in 
following agricultural pursuits. 

L. H. Rogers was the youngest child in 
a family of si.x children and received his 
education in the public schools of LaSalle 
county. He assisted his father on the home 
farm until he attained the age of twenty, 
when he started out to farm for himself in 
LaSalle county. He remained there until 
1885, when he came to York county, Ne- 
braska, and purchased a farm in section 5, 
of Lockridge township, which he now owns 
and operates. His estate is given over to 
general farming and stock raising, which 
Mr. Rogers carries on according to the 
most modern and improved methods of 
agriculture. 

In 1865 he was united in marriage to 
Miss Sophia B. Knight, who is a native 
of Maine. To this congenial union si.x chil- 
dren have been born, upon whom they have 
bestowed the following names: Hattie R. , 
Arthur B., Curtis A., CyrenusD., Willis S. 
and Blanche V. , and all of whom are now 
living. In the local political affairs Mr. 
Rogers has been quite prominent, and was 
elected to the office of township treasurer 
by his fellow Republicans, but dfd not ac- 
cept the same. He has been a member of 
the Masonic fraternity for a number of 
years. He has been very successful in his 
career, and is a firm believer in and pre- 
dicts a brilliant future for the state of Ne- 
braska. He is one of the most widely-known 
and highly respected of the citizens of the 
county. 

JONATHAN F. MARTIN belongs to that 
large class of intelligent and enterpris- 
ing farmers whose homes are places of so- 



cial and mental comfort and refreshment, 
and whose work as developers of the coun- 
try is a credit alike to themselves and the 
community. His estate is located on sec- 
tion II, Olive township, Butler county. 
The farm is adorned by a commodious and 
substantial dwelling, barn and out-buildings, 
together with such other surroundings which 
make it a fit habitation. Modern machinery 
is used in its cultivation, and the latest im- 
provements are to be seen in the method of 
its operation. 

Mr. Martin went west with his parents 
and settled in Butler county, November 6, 
1 87 1. He was born in Pecatonica, Illi- 
nois, November 2, 1856, a son of Hugh 
Martin, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, who settled in Illinois in an early day, 
and engaged in farming there until moving 
to Butler county, Nebraska, in 1871, and 
located on section 18, township 15, range 2. 
His wife bore the maiden name of Miss Ann 
Jane Smith, and was a native of Pennsylva- 
nia, where she was married. To this union 
were born six children, five of whom grew 
to maturity, as follows: Robert T. ; Will- 
iam, who died in infancy; Jonathan F., the 
subject of this sketch; Sarah Ann Gear, who 
is living in Wisconson; Arabelle; and George 
W., living in Butler county, Nebraska. 

Jonathan F. Martin, the subject of this 
sketch, was reared on a farm, and Decem- 
ber 29, 1881, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Eliza M. Zeilinger, daughter of John 
Zeilinger, of Butler county, Nebraska. Of 
the three children born to this union, two 
are now living, namely: Clarence Leroy, 
born in June, 1883, and Paul Phillips Henry, 
born September 5, 1892. Our subject is a 
man who commands respect wherever he is 
known, is pleasant, warmhearted, and has a 
good capacity for well-directed labor, which 
have placed him in the forefront among the 
farmers of his vicinity. He is keenly active to 
the interests of the coinmunit}', and does all 
in his power to push all schemes forward 



852 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



that will in any way enhance its growth or 
elevate its status. He takes special interest 
in the cause of education and is at present 
serving on the board of school directors. 
Politically he is a Republican. 



EARNEST KRUHM.— This name will 
be recognized by the citizens of Goehner 
and vicinity as that of one of its leading 
business men who is doing an extensive 
hardware business. He started in life with 
no capital outside of his physical and mental 
abilities, and is to day one of the solid men 
of Seward county. 

Mr. Kruhm was born in central Germany, 
October 2, 1863, a son of William and Eliz- 
abeth (Beck) Kruhm, the former born Jan- 
uary 13, 1S31, and the latter born January 
21, 1830. His paternal grandfather, Cas- 
par Kruhm, was a public surveyor, and no 
settlement of land could be made in his 
jurisdiction without his testimony. In ad- 
dition to his duties as surveyor, he was a 
millwright and taught this trade to his son 
William, and he in turn taught his oldest 
son, Gustav, brother of our subject; so, for 
several generations, mill-building has been 
an occupation of the family. The family 
also owned a small tract of land, and 
among these varied occupations they have 
been well-to-do. As a family they have 
been very thrifty and industrious, and almost 
without exception they have been faithful 
and consistent members of the Lutheran 
church. The parents of our subject are 
yet living in the old country, and before 
coming to this country, Mr. Ivruhm had the 
unusual pleasure of attending his grand- 
father's golden wedding in 1880, and the 
silver wedding of his parents in the follow- 
ing year. 

Mr. Kruhm entered the employ of a 
hardware firm in Nordhausen, Germany, in 
1878, and from there he went to the city of 
Eisleben, where Martin Luther was born 



and died, and the building in which our sub- 
ject was a clerk, joined the historical build- 
ing in which Luther died, and he was also 
present at the unveiling of a monument to 
the memory of this great reformer. Mr. 
Kruhm crossed the Atlantic in 1886 in the 
"Sorrento," landing at New York city, and 
from there he soon made his way to Lincoln, 
Nebraska. From thence he went to Waco, 
in York county, and spent about ten days 
with an old friend, and from there he went to 
Bennett, where he was emploj'ed as a farm 
laborer. From Bennett he returned to Lin- 
coln, and about three month, later he came 
to Goehner, Seward county, and became a 
clerk for a lumber and hardware firm. In 
the course of a few months this firm sold 
out to Walker & Co., and this company la- 
ter sold to S. K. Martin Lumber Company, 
but our subject still remained business man- 
ager and conducted the whole business for 
the firm for nearly four years. He then 
bought out the hardware stock and went 
into business for himself and has now been 
thus engaged for over five years, making 
an aggregate of eleven years in this line of 
work since settling in Goehner. To his 
stock of hardware, he has since added a line 
of furniture, harnesses, paints and oils, all 
of which he carries in his own name and is- 
free from all incumbrance. Mr. Kruhm is 
still in the prime of life and has attained 
an assured position among the substantial 
men of his calling in this county, as he is 
possessed of an indomitable will, untiring 
perseverance, and an energetic character. 
He speaks and writes two languages with 
accuracy, and is somewhat acquainted with 
French. 



LEVI H. MAPPS.— The agricultural 
element that has been so largely in- 
strumental in the upbuilding of York coun- 
ty is finely represented in this gentleman,, 
who was one of its earliest settlers, and who 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



853; 



has a valuable farm in Lockridge township, 
of which he is a leading farmer and one of 
the most prominent citizens. 

Our subject was born in Will county, 
Illinois, June i6, 1852, a son of Robert H. 
and Susana (Shoffner) Mapps. The parents 
were natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, re- 
spectively, and moved to Illinois in 1845 
and settled in Will county, and made that 
their home during the remaining years of 
their lives. By occupation the father was 
a cooper and auctioneer. Our subject's 
grandfather, William Mapps, was a native 
of New Jersey, and moved west to Illinois 
in about 1846 and died in that state. 

Our subject is the second in the order of 
birth of a family of six children, four sons 
and two daughters. His father died in 
1886, but his mother is still living and is 
making her home in Will county, Illinois. 
Our subject was educated in the public 
schools of Will county, Illinois, and as soon 
as he became old enough he began working 
on a farm. He followed this occupation in 
Illinois until 1880, and then moved to York 
county, Nebraska, arriving February 20. 
He bought a farm in section 14, Lockridge 
township, and still owns this tract, and, 
although it was then bleak, unbroken 
prairie, it is now one of the finest farms of 
the county. 

March 3, 1878, our subject was united 
in marriage to Miss Magdalene Zimmer, a 
native of Germany, who came to America 
with her parents when but six months of 
age. Her parents first located in Indiana, 
but died soon after arriving in this country. 
Mr. and Mrs. Mapps are the parents of a 
family of three children, Susan A., Robert 
H. and Ethel I. all of whom are living. 
In politics Mr. Mapps is a Populist and has 
taken considerable interest in the local 
affairs of that organization. He has served 
the citizens of his adopted district and town- 
ship in the capacity of school director and 
township assessor. 



Socially he affiliates with the Modern 
Woodmen of America and the Royal High- 
landers. Mr. Mapps is ambitious and en- 
terprising, and although he started in Ne- 
braska with a cash capital of but twenty- 
five dollars and faced the difficulties and 
privations of settlement in a new and very 
sparcely settled territory, he has met with 
marked success and is now possessed of a 
comfortable fortune. 



JOHN WESLEY ARRASMITH, a pros- 
perous and influential citizen residing in 
precinct N, Seward county, was the first 
white child born in Henry county, Illinois, 
his birth occurring November 23, 1835, and 
the greater part of his life has been passed 
amidst scenes of frontier life. His parents 
were Alvin and Emily (Stowers) Arrasmith,, 
and his paternal grandparents Wesley and 
Elizabeth (Reed) Arrasmith. They were all 
originally from England, and were devout 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
The father died June 9, 1863, at the age of 
fifty-seven years. Our subject was his only- 
son, but in the family were seven daugh- 
ters, six of whom are still living, namely: 
Sarah H. , Mary J., Nancy G., Martha R., 
Margaret A. and Julia A. All are married 
and have homes of their own. 

The subject of this review received his 
education in the common schools of Henry 
county, Illinois, and early obtained a thor- 
ough practical knowledge of farm work 
upon the old homestead, which was pre- 
sented to him by his father prior to his mar- 
riage. It was on the 25th of June, 1862, 
that he led to the marriage altar Miss 
Rosilla Maria Derby. She is one of a fam- 
ily of six children, the others being Hattie, 
Charles W., J. Fletcher, H. Willie and Jos- 
eph H., all of whom are married and have 
homes of their own. The oldest brother, 
Charles Wesley Derby, has served two 
terms as sheriff of Butler county, Nebraska, 



854 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and is quite popular as a public official and 
citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Arrasmith began 
housekeeping in a new residence which he 
had erected on the old farm, and there con- 
tinued to make their home until March, 
1883, when he sold the place, consisting of 
three hundred acres, at sixty dollars per 
acre, and started for Nebraska. At Bell- 
wood he purchased land at seven dollars 
per acre and there engaged in agricultural 
pursuits for nine years. His next home 
was in Beaver Crossing, where he lived un- 
til October, 1893, when he sold his prop- 
erty in town and moved to his present farm 
in precinct N, Seward county, where he has 
four hundred acres of valuable and well im- 
proved land, which he has placed under a 
high state of cultivation, making it one of 
the most productive, as well as one of the 
most attractive farms in the locality. 

Ten children have been born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Arrasmith, of whom nine are still liv- 
ing, as follows: (i) Alvin Joseph married 
Clara Herder, daughter of Peter Herder, 
and they have five children, Benjamin, who 
is now fourteen years old, but being born on 
the 29th of February, he only has a birth- 
day every four years; Fred Alvin; AltaMay; 
Edward Parsons and Lillie. {2) Ida May 
is the wife of George McMullen, and they 
have six children: George William, Arthur, 
Otis, Lydia Jane, Paul A. and an infant. 
(3) Minnie Melvina is the wife of Arthur 
French, son of Henry and Mary French, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, and they have three 
children: Mary Willard, John Wesley and 
Olive Arrasmith. (4) Hattie Opal is the 
wife of Edmond Johnson, of Girard, Mich- 
igan, and they have two children: Earl G. 
and Clark Willard. (5) Lillie Parthenia is 
the wife of Hugh McMullen, and they have 
three children: John Harvey, Paul Ver- 
ninum and Grace Belle. (6) Fred Arthur 
married Mamie Seavey, daughter of Josiah 
and Abbie Seavey. Her father died from 
disease contracted in the army during the 



Rebellion. To Fred and Mamie Arrasmith 
have been born two children: Howard Ar- 
thur and Ruth Seavey. (7) Fannie Amelia 
is the wife of David Stall and they have 
three children: Florence May, Bessie Opal 
and Fern Amelia. (8) Bessie Pearl and (9) 
John Wesley are still at home. The chil- 
dren are not only the joy and pride of their 
parents but also of their grandparents as 
well, and often make the home of the latter 
ring with their merriment. 

Since casting his first presidential vote 
for Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Arrasmith has 
been a pronounced Republican in politics, 
a firm believer in a high protective tariff 
and the gold standard, and he supported 
\^'illiam McKinley at the last election. 
Mrs. Arrasmith is a faithful member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church of Beaver Cross- 
ing, and though not a member of any de- 
nomination her husband is also a believer 
in the Christian religion. They are widely 
and favorably known and have made many 
warm friends since coming to Seward coun- 
ty, in whose future prosperity they take a 
deep interest. 



MICHAEL W. MAHONEY is engaged 
in the banking business at Bruno, Ne- 
braska, and is widely known both for his 
enterprising spirit and his sound judgment. 
His integrity is beyond question, and busi- 
ness methods have invariably proved wise 
and timely. His broad and progressive na- 
ture has led him to take a lively interest in 
all plans and schemes that had in view the 
public welfare, in every sense of the word 
he is one of the leading men of Butler 
county. 

Mr. Mahoney is of Irish nativity, and 
was ushered into the world in the famous 
county Cork, Ireland, in i860, and is there- 
fore still a young man, and in the very 
prime of his manly power. His parents, 
James and Margaret (Flynn) Mahone}', 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



855 



were boni and married in that county. 
Thej' had their home in the old town of 
Mitchelltown, where there the famous John 
Mitchell originated, and there they remained 
until 1866, when they followed a great tide 
of emigration, and came to America. 
Janies Mahoney brought his wife and little 
ones to Adams county, Illinois, but soon re- 
moved to Hancock county, in the same state, 
where he served the Wabash railroad for 
many years as yard master at Hamilton. 
He threw up his work with the railroad 
company in 1 870, appeared in Butler county, 
bringing with him his wife and five children, 
Michael W., Thomas F., Nellie, W. J., and 
Maggie, and located them on a homestead 
entry of eighty acres in Section 12, Skull 
Creek township. In addition to this he 
bought a half section of land, for which he 
paid two dollars and seventy cents an acre 
in cash. He was thus well situated to care 
for a growing famil}-. He gave his children 
good advantages in schooling and they are 
well and prosperous to-day. 

Mr. Mahoney profited by the opportu- 
ities for education that the times provided, 
and was a well informed man by the time 
he had attained his majority. He helped 
his father put the paternal homestead in or- 
der, and then engaged in farming for him- 
self. He was married in 1882 to Miss Car- 
rie Coufal, a daughter of Ferdinand Coufal, 
a Bohemian who came to Butler county in 
1S72, and made a homestead entry in one 
of its most delightful valleys. She was a 
child when her parents came to this coun- 
try, and has grown up in Butler county into 
a charming and graceful womanhood. She 
is the mother of eight children, Nellie, Mag- 
gie, James, Frank, George, Leonard, Grace 
and Michael, Jr. The young banker is a 
leader in the councils of the Republican 
party in this quarter of the state, and his 
influence is felt as a positive force far be- 
yond the limits of the county, He is at the 
head of the Bruno State Bank, and has ex- 



tensive real estate interests in both this and 
adjoining counties. He is a master of the 
difficult speech of the Bohemians, and is re- 
garded as an unquestioned authority among 
them. He is a Catholic, and his father 
was one of the early promoters of the faith 
in this county. His career has been inter- 
esting and successful, and might well form 
an object lesson to the discontented and 
discouraged, who rail against the times and 
claim that the doors of opportunity only open 
to the touch of a golden key. He began 
life with no great advantages, but by courage 
and enterprise, wit and persistence, he has 
already accumulated a very substantial for- 
tune, which bids fair to assume large pro- 
portions before his death. 



JOSEPH SWEARINGEN.— The world 
instinctively pays deference to the man 
whose success has been worthily achieved, 
who has acquired a high reputation in his 
chosen calling, and whose social prominence 
is not less the result of an upright life than 
of recognized natural gifts. It is a pleasing 
indulgence to write the biography of a man 
of this character, such as Mr. Swearingen is 
known to be. 

This eminent and honored citize-i of 
Seward county, was born in Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, September 20, 1840, and 
traces his ancestry back to Gerret von 
Swearingen, who was born in Beemsterdam, 
Holland, in 1636, and was a younger son in 
a family belonging to the nobility. He re- 
ceived a liberal education, and when a 
young man performed responsible duties in 
the maritime service of the Dutch West 
India Company, which, in 1656, fitted out 
the ship Prince Maurice with emigrants and 
supplies, appointing him its supercargo. 
This vessel sailed from the port of Amster- 
dam, December 21, 1656, and was stranded 
off Fire Island, near the southern coast of 
Long Island, but they succeeded in saving 



856 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



part of the cargo during the following five 
days. After the wreck Gerret von Swear- 
ingen asked to be relieved from the com- 
pany's service, as he intended to locate here, 
and as there was nothing for him to do his 
request was granted. He was married in 
New York, about 1659, to Barbarah de 
Barrette, a native of Valenciennes, France. 
He was sheriff, commissary and a member 
of the council, and was interested in the 
cultivation of some low lands, and also in a 
duck poud and in trade. In 1660, he went 
to Holland, taking his wife with him, and 
there remained a year in behalf of the 
colony. Returning to New York the fol- 
lowing year, he resumed his former duties. 
It is said that after the surrender of the colony 
to the English he publicly broke his sword 
across his knee, and throwing the pieces 
to right and left, renounced all allegiance to 
the Dutch authorities. Shortly after the 
surrender, in April, 1669, he, with his wife 
and two children, removed to Maryland, 
and on their petition to Lord Baltimore, 
were naturalized by act of the general as- 
sembly held at St. Mary's, that province. 
This important act will be understood when 
it is stated that the ownership of land was 
restricted to British subjects. He conducted 
an inn at St. Mary's and owned land in St. 
Mary's and Talbott counties, Maryland. In 
1668 he was appointed alderman of the city; 
in 1674 built the city's stocks and whipping 
post, and was appointed sheriff, first in 1686 
and again in 1687. His first wife died in 
1670, and he afterward married Mary 
Smith, of St. Mary's, the ante-nuptial mar- 
riage settlement being executed October 5, 
1676. His death occurred in 1698, and 
hers some years later. She was a member 
of the Church of England. 

The parents of our subject were Jackson 
and Nancy Ann (Laughlin) Swearingen. 
The father was born in Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, in 1815, was a farmer by oc- 
cupation, and immediately after the Civil 



war removed to Hookstown, that county, 
where he died February 10, 1887. His 
wife died at the same place in 1897, and 
both were buried in Mill Creek cemetery, 
near the oldest church in that section of the 
country. In their family were six children, 
as follows: Basil, who married Anna Boyd 
and died in Hookstown at the age of fifty. 
Anna died in infancy. Joseph, our subject, 
is the next of the family. Samuel married 
Mary Cloud, who died about eight years 
ago, but he is still living in Hookstown. 
Sarah married James E. Brandon and died 
leaving two children, Samuel and Maude, 
who live near New Cumberland, Virginia. 
Elizabeth is the wife of A. J. Scott and 
lives in Texas. Their only child, Viva, is 
now being educated for a trained nurse. 

Joseph Swearingen attended the com- 
mon schools of Pennsylvania for about three 
months during the year until sixteen years 
of age, but he has greatly supplemented his 
early education by extensive reading and 
observation in later years. At the age of 
seventeen he commenced learing the black- 
smith's trade, which he followed in connec- 
tion with other occupation until about 
twelve years ago. He was first married at 
the age of twenty to Miss Mary Laughlin, 
of Beaver county, Pennsylvania. Two 
years later he left his young wife and went 
to the front in response to his country's call 
for aid, enlisting August 14, 1862, in Com- 
pany H, One Hundred and Fortieth Penn- 
sylvania Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. 
Samuel Campbell. After two years and 
nine months of arduous and faithful service 
on southern battle fields, he was honorably 
discharged as hostilities had ceased. The 
principal engagements in which he partici- 
pated were the battles of Chancellorsville, 
in May, 1863, and Gettysburg in the follow- 
ing July. On his return home he contin- 
ued to work at his trade in his native coun- 
ty for some years, and there his wife died 
in 1869, leaving three children, (i) Maril- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



857 



da is now the wife of Lee R. Atwood, a 
farmer of Milford, Seward county, Nebras- 
ka, and they have two children: Carl, aged 
sixteen years; and Chester, aged five. (2) 
Joetta is the wife of George Lyon, of Pitts- 
burg, Pennsylvania, and they have three 
sons. (3) Jackson married Lyulian McDon- 
ald and has three sons. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Swearingen came to Ne- 
braska and the following year took a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixtj' acres in Clay 
county, being entitled to a soldier's claim. 
Returning to Pennsylvania, in 1873, he 
married Miss Agnes Kirk, and on again com- 
ing to this state located permanently in 
Milford, Seward county, where in connec- 
tion with farming he worked at his trade 
until 1885, since which time he has devoted 
most of his attention to agricultural pursuits. 
He now owns a fine farm of one hundred 
and twenty-eight acres two miles north of 
Milford in the valley of the Blue, which 
contains the richest and most productive 
soil in the state. 

Mr. Swearingen's second wife died in 
Milford in 1879, and was buried in Blue 
Mount cemetery. See left one child, Paul 
Vane, who is now twenty-three years of age 
and is at home. In 1885 our subject mar- 
ried Miss L. M. Terrell, of Milford, and to 
them has been born a son, Thomas Laugh- 
lin, who is nine years old and is attending 
the public schools of Milford. 

Mr. Swearingen cast his first vote, while 
in the service of his country, for Abraham 
Lincoln, and has since been a stanch suppor- 
ter of the Republican party and a recognized 
leader in its ranks in his community. In 
1872 he was elected to the state legislature 
from the twenty-sixth district, and most 
ably represented Seward county in that au- 
gust assembly for one term of two years. 
He has held many minor offices since com- 
ing to this state, has been a member of 
the county board of supervisors two terms, 
and has been re-elected for a third term. 



Socially he is a member of the Odd Fellows 
Society, the Masonic fraternity and the 
Grand Army of the Republic. He is widely 
and favorably known, and few men in the 
county have more or warmer friends. 



GEORGE BINGHAM, who is properly 
ranked as one of the self-made men of 
York county, began his career at the foot of 
the ladder of life, without other resources 
than his own indomitable will and steady, 
plodding industry. From a humble position 
he has risen to that of one of the represent- 
ative men of a more than ordinarily intelli- 
gent community. The greater part of his 
life has been spent in the agricultural dis- 
tricts, and when but a boy he became thor- 
oughly familiar with the various employ- 
ments of the farm. To-day he is therefore 
one of the most successful farmers of Arbor- 
ville township. 

Born in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, 
October 12, 1854, Mr. Bingham is a son of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Griffin) Bingham, 
both natives of England. The father was 
born in 18 19, and came to the United 
States in 1844, locating at once in Wiscon- 
sin, where he followed farming throughout 
the remainder of his life. He died in 1884, 
and the mother of our subject in 1865. 
Four sons and three daughters constituted 
their family, and of these, one daughter and 
our subject are now residents of York coun- 
ty, Nebraska. 

Reared in his native state, George Bing- 
ham received his literary education in the 
public schools. For several years he was 
employed as a laborer in Wisconsin, and 
with the hopes of benefiting his financial 
condition he emigrated to Nebraska in No- 
vember, 1878, traveling all the way to York 
county by team. He purchased one hun- 
dred and twenty acres of railroad land on 
section 2 1 , Arborville township, which at 
that time was all raw prairie land, and at 



858 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY, 



once commenced to break and improve his 
land. The Httle sod house which he first 
erected he used for ten years, and then 
built a good frame residence. To general 
farming and stock raising he still devotes 
his attention with most excellent results. 

Mr. Bingham was married, in Nebraska, 
in 1882, to Miss Sybil A. Smith, a daughter 
of Ephraim and Elizabeth (Baker) Smith, 
who were natives of Massachusetts and 
New York, respectively, and were early set- 
tlers of York county. Our subject and his 
wife have one child, Elizabeth. He is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
and is Populist in political sentiment. For 
three years he has served as town clerk and 
assessor for two years, discharging the du- 
ties of both positions in a most capable and 
satisfactory manner. 



JW. SHERBONDY.— There are few men 
more worthy of representation in a work 
of this kind than the subject of this bio- 
graphy, who is passing the later years of his 
life in retirement from active labor upon 
his fine farm in section 34, Bryant township, 
Fillmore county, Nebraska. His has been a 
long and busy career, rich with experience, 
and in which he has established himself inthe 
esteem and confidence of all who know 
him. 

Mr. Sherbondy was born in Westmore- 
land county, Pennsylvania, November 11, 
1832, and is a son of George and Elizabeth 
(Smith) Sherbondy, also natives of the Key- 
stone state. The father died there at the 
age of fifty-five years and was laid to rest 
in the Greensburg cemetery, Westmoreland 
county, Pennsylvania. The mother later 
removed to Freeport, Illinois, where she 
passed away at the age of fifty-si.x, 
and rests in the cemetery at Freeport, 
Stephenson county, Illinois. To them were 
born nine children, eight daughters and one 
son, but four of whom are now living. 



namely: J. W. , the subject of this article; 
Elizabeth, Susanna, and Elmira; the three 
latter all are residents of Freeport, Illinois. 
The daughters that are dead are: Mary D. 
Greenwalt, who died in St. Louis, Missouri, 
and is buried there; Anna J. Austin, died in 
Kansas City, Missouri, and is buried there; 
Hetty T. Stuart, died in Charlottetown, 
Prince Edwards Island, British America; 
Charlotte Armstrong, died in Indianap- 
olis, Indiana, and was buried there; 
Louisa R. Shellenberger, died at Mount 
Carmel, Illinois, and was buried in the 
cemetery at Freeport, Illinois. The 
paternal great-grandfather of our subject 
was a soldier of the Revolutionary war in 
1775. He was a Frenchman and his wife 
was an English woman. They located in 
Pennsylvania, in which state our subject's 
grandparents were both born. 

Reared on the home farm, Mr. Sher- 
bondy acquired his literary education in the 
public schools of the neighborhood, and 
during his youth he was confirmed in the 
Lutheran church. He remained under the 
parental roof until his marriage, which was 
celebrated November 10, 1856, Miss Cath- 
erine Shirey becoming his wife. She is also 
a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- 
vania, born November 10, 1835, and a 
daughter of Joseph and Eliza (Blank) Shirey, 
in whose family were three children, One 
of her brothers, George L. Shirey is living 
in Greensburgh, Westmoreland county, 
Pennsylvania, but the other died in Penn- 
sylvania. The mother died at the early 
age of twenty-eight years, when Mrs. Sher- 
bondy was only eight years old, and was laid 
to rest in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. 
Subsequenty the father married again and 
by his second union had seven children, 
Anna, Aaron, Rebecca, Joseph, Mary, Frank 
and Howard, all of whom are still living in 
Pennsylvania. He was a native of that 
state and there died in 1884, at the age of 
seventy-six years, and was buried in the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



859 



Youngstovvn cemetery. The remains of 
his second wife were also interred there. 
She died at the age of seventy-eight years. 
Mrs. Sherbondy's paternal great- grandfath- 
er came from Germany, and was killed when 
her father was but ten years old, leaving 
his wife with seven children to battle against 
the world. She lived to be eighty-seven 
years old. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sherbondy are the parents 
of five children, four sons and one daugh- 
ter, as follows: George W., who is still 
single and resides at Port Orchard, Kitsap 
county, in the state of Washington; Anna 
E. , now the wife of J. A. Gorman, a resi- 
dent of Oak, Nuckolls county, Nebraska; 
J. Wallace, who married Laura Kline and 
lives in Orangeviile, in Stephenson county, 
Illinois; Richard A., who married Lizzie 
Kline and lives at Carlisle, in Bryant pre- 
cinct, Fillmore count}', Nebraska; and Bert 
D., who married Daisy Kitch and lives in 
the same precinct. 

Mr. Sherbondy began life for himself 
amid the rough and rugged hills of his na- 
tive state, but soon after his marriage he 
migrated to Stephenson county, Illinois, 
and there made his home for thirty-three 
years, during which time he purchased a 
farm. On selling his property there, he re- 
moved to Kansas, where the following year 
was passed, and then came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, where in 1891 he bought 
one hundred and si.\ty acres on section 34, 
Bryant precinct, paying for the same four 
thousand six hundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars. Two years later he purchased one 
hundred and five acres for three thousand 
one hundred dollars, making a fine farm of 
two hundred and sixty-five acres, all in one 
body, which is well improved with good and 
substantial buildings. Our subject manages 
the place, but it is operated by his sons, 
one of whom (Bert D.) also owns a tract 
of eighty acres. 

Mr. Sherbondy and his wife have severa 

49 



times visited their native state, but are con- 
tent to make Nebraska their home, for here 
they have prospered, having acquired a com- 
fortable competence. .Ml that they possess 
is the result of their own efforts, as they 
started out in life for themselves in limited 
circumstances, but now in their declining 
days they are enjoying the wealth that has 
been accumulated by years of toil. In his 
farming operations he has met with more 
than ordinary success, and since locating 
upon his present place has raised as high as 
fifty-two and three-quarters bushels of wheat 
to the acre, and other grains in proportion. 
In politics he is a stanch adherent of the 
Democratic-Populist part}', in which he sees 
the best guarantees for the preservation of 
our national liberty. He and his family are 
prominent members of the Lutheran church, 
and are highly respected by all who know 
them. 



SIPKE VANDERKOLK.— Butler county 
has been the home and scene of labor 
of many men who have not only led lives 
that should serve as an example to those 
who have come after them, but have also 
been of important service to their county 
and state through various avenues of use- 
fulness. Among them must be named j\Ir. 
Vanderkolk, a prominent and well-known 
farmer residing on section 10, Bone Creek 
township. For man\- years he has labored 
with all the strength of a great nature and 
all the earnestness of a true heart for the 
bettering of the world about him, and he 
has gained the lo\-e and respect of all who 
know him. 

Mr. \'anderkolk was born ui Holland, 
May 21, 1843, and at the age of six years 
was brought to America by his parents, 
William and Margaret (De Hann) Vander- 
kolk, who settled in Pella, Iowa. Of their 
five children, three were born in Holland: 
Sipke, Viger and Tabitha; and the others, 



860 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Addie and Katie, in Iowa. The motiier's 
death occurred in Pella, and later, in 1867, 
the family came to Butler county, Nebraska. 
By trade the father was a carpenter. When 
the Civil war broke out our subject and his 
brother, Viger, enlisted, but the former was 
rejected, and the latter was killed at the 
battle of Shiloh. 

Through the efforts of our subject, his 
sisters were given liberal educations in 
Iowa, which well fitted them for the work 
they afterward accomplished in their Ne- 
braska home. When the family reached 
this state, Butler county had not yet been 
organized, and there were no schools, 
churches or Sunday schools in this region. 
They set to work to establish these, and 
the first Sunday-school was organized in 
June, 1867, with Sipke Vanderkolk as 
superintendent and his sister Tabitha as 
assistant superintendent. On the 28th of 
April, 1869, the Rev. Chase came from 
Schuyler and organized the first Con- 
gregational church in Butler county. Among 
the thirteen charter members appeared the 
names of Sipke, Tabitha and Katie Vender- 
kolk, and the old records of this church are 
now in the possession of our subject, who 
served as its clerk. The Christian character 
of this gentleman and his family, has left 
its impress on the events of those early 
days and upon the many young men and 
women who have since become the leading 
spirits of the county. The people owe to 
the Vanderkolk family a debt of gratitude 
which can never be repaid. 

On his arrival in Butler county, Mr. 
Vanderkolk took up a homestead on sec- 
tion 10, Bone Creek township, and the same 
year erected thereon a house 16x26 feet, it 
being at that time the largest and best 
house in the county. Part of the lumber 
for its construction was hauled from Platts- 
mouth. In 1868 it became evident to the 
settlers of this locality that a county organi- 
zation was necessary, and among the lead- 



ing men who took an active and prominent 
part in this work was Mr. Vanderkolk. 
They met in a log school house, later known 
as the Hartford school, and effected an or- 
ganization. Thus we see that our subject has 
been prominently identified with the entire 
development and improvement of his county, 
and has materially aided in the advance- 
ment of all social, industrial, educational, 
and moral interests. 

In 1878 Mr. Vanderkolk married Miss 
Amelia Parnell, a daughter of Thomas and 
Catharine (Best) Parnell. The children 
born to them are as follows: William E., 
Viger S., Katie E. and George E. In po- 
litical sentiment Mr. \'anderkolk is a Prohi- 
bitionist and has successfully opposed the 
saloon in his vicinity. He has never cared 
for political preferment, desiring rather to 
give his entire time and attention to his 
family and to those enterprises calcu- 
lated to prove of public good. The county 
has no more honored or highly respected 
citizen, and he is certainly deserving of 
prominent mention in a work of this charac- 
ter. 

In connection with the above sketch, we 
would also like to say something of the life 
of the sister, Tabitha. She was born in 
Friesland, Holland, in 1846, and died in her 
home near David City, November 14, 1895, 
being nearly fifty years of age. She was 
but eleven years of age, when her mother 
died, and the entire responsibility of caring 
for the household, and the rearing of her 
two younger sisters, soon rested on her 
youthful shoulders. When she was nineteen 
years of age, she united with the Baptist 
church, and through her entire life to the 
time of her death she always lived a devoted 
christian life. She was married to J. V. 
Wood, in 1878. She always filled a prom- 
inent place in religious and educational 
circles, and her influence for good was wide- 
ly felt. She was ever ready to lend a help- 
ing hand to those in need, and all who knew 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGjRAPHI'. 



861 



her loved and respected her. Beside her 
husband, she left four children to mourn the 
loss of a loving and devoted mother. 



CHARLES DUNN, as a pioneer of Polk 
county, has watched with interest the 
entire growth and development of this re- 
gion, yet has not been an idle looker-on, 
but has contributed his share to the wonder- 
ful transformation that has taken place here 
in the last quarter of a century. Since 
April, 1 87 1, he has been identified with the 
agricultural interests of the county, and has 
made his home on section 20, township 15, 
range 2, Valley precinct. 

A son of Robert and Mary Ann (Bell) 
Dunn, our subject was born June 4, 1850, 
in county Cavan, Ireland, upon the old 
homestead which has been handed down 
from father to son in this family since 1688, 
when it came into possession of William 
Dunn, a native of Scotland, who was a sol- 
dier in the army of William of Orange, and 
removed to the Emerald Isle from England 
with that famous leader. The place con- 
tains thirty acres and was successfully oper- 
ated by the father of our subject until his 
death, which occurred in 1886. There the 
mother still continued to reside. In their 
family were four sons and one daughter, of 
whom three sons are now living, namely: 
Charles, Francis and James. Francis Dunn, 
an uncle of our subject, was a soldier in the 
English army and was killed at the taking 
of Sebastopol. 

Charles Dunn was reared on the old 
homestead and received a fair common- 
school education. In 1871, on leaving the 
parental roof, he crossed the ocean in a 
steamship, and landed at Castle Garden, 
New York, whence he proceeded at once to 
Nebraska, arriving in Columbus, in March 
of that year. He first made his home with 
a maternal uncle, Mr. Bell, and in April, 
1 87 1, they took up adjoining claims in Polk 



county when there were no other settlers 
between their homes and Clear creek, a 
distance of twelve miles. No other settle- 
ments were made for some time, and their 
only visitors were the Pawnee Indians, who 
still inhabited this section of the state. 
Their nearest market was Columbus twenty 
miles away, and wolves, deer and antelope 
were still quite plentiful. Upon his place 
Mr. Dunn erected a sod house, and the first 
year broke twenty acres of prairie land 
and raised some sod corn. He well remem- 
bers the terrible snow-storm of April, 1873, 
and with the other early settlers passed 
through the grasshopper plague of 1874. 
His first team was a yoke of oxen. In 1878 
he built a frame house I2x 18 feet, but the 
main part of his present comfortable home 
was erected in 1890. He has a good 
orchard covering one acre of land, and has 
also set out two acres in forest and shade 
trees, which add greatly to the beauty of 
his place. Having prospered in his new 
home, he is now the owner of two hundred 
and ninety-three acres of good land, of 
which one hundred and three acres have 
been placed under the plow, and he is still 
successfully engaged in general farming and 
stock raising. 

Returning to Ireland, in 1879, Mr. Dunn 
was married there on the i ith of December, 
of that year, to Miss Lizzie Beatty, who 
was born in county Cavan, September 7, 
1855, a daughter of Thomas and Mary 
(Blair) Beatty, both now deceased. She 
was the second in order of birth in their 
family of four children, the others being 
Thomas; Willie, a merchant of county 
Cavan; and Margery, who now lives in Can- 
ada. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn have five chil- 
dren: William F. , Robert C, Eva M., Maud 
E. and Calmer J. They have spent their 
entire married life upon their present farm, 
and are educating their children in the 
schools of this locality. 

Politically, Mr. Dunn is a Democrat but 



862 



COMPENDIUM or BIOGRAPin: 



has never cared for official honors. He and 
his wife are members oi the Church of Eng- 
land, and belongs to the blue lodge, F. and 
A. M., at Osceola, holding a demit from 
Orange Lodge, No. 606, District of Beltur- 
bet, county Cavan, Ireland, forwarded to 
him February 4, 1880. Mr. Dunn has al- 
ways been in hearty sympathy with every 
movement that will in any way add to the 
prosperity of his adopted county. He 
helped to organize his township and pre- 
cinct, and assisted in building the school- 
house of district No. 5. 



WILLIAM P. TROUTMAN, although 
still on the sunny side of fifty, is 
spoken of as one of the older settlers of 
York county, and from his pleasant rural 
home in the vicinity of Benedict, Morton 
township, he can look out upon a prairie 
that he has seen transformed from original 
wildness to high cultivation, and rich pro- 
ductiveness. He has done well in the past 
years, and can well hope for peace and 
comfort in the home he has won by hard 
work, for years to come. 

Mr. Troutman was born in Fayette coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and is a son of 
Charles and Mary (Hardin) Troutman. They 
were both natives of Pennsylvania. They 
came west in 1S58, and located in Grundy 
county, Iowa, where he followed farming un- 
til the day of his death in 1 862. The grand- 
father of the gentlman who forms the theme 
of this article was George Troutman, and 
he died in Pennsylvania at the age of eighty- 
three years. 

William P. Troutman was the 3'oungest 
son of his parents, and remained with them 
until the death of his father, when at the 
tender age of eleven years he began life on 
his own account. He was reared to a 
farmer's life, and when he became a man 
embraced it as his own calling. He fol- 
lowed it in Iowa until 1878, when he came 



to York county, and bought two hundred 
and forty acres of railroad land on section 
33, Morton township. It was all raw prai- 
rie, and while it offered neither rocks nor 
woods to hinder his toil, yet the labor of 
improving it was immense. He put up a 
good house, and began at once the labor of 
putting his farm in order. The first year of 
his residence here he broke one hundred 
acres, and now has the entire place under 
cultivation. 

Mr. Troutman was married, in 1880, to 
Miss Mary Miller, a daughter of Daniel and 
Leah Miller, residents of Lee county, Illi- 
nois. She has presented her husband with 
five children, whose names are Charles A., 
Leah M., May, Ralph D., and Lydia V. 
They are all living, and parental partiality 
seems warranted in painting a bright future 
for them. The father and mother are 
members of the Lutheran church at Bene- 
dict, and are active and devoted supporters 
of that noble organization. He is a mem- 
ber of the fraternal order of United Work- 
men, and also of the Modern Woodmen of 
America. He is a Republican, but has 
never sought or accepted an office. He 
has had many difficulties in the past years, 
but has been quite successful. He has a 
good home, which is out of debt, and he is 
surrounded by friends, who testify of his 
good character. What more can a man 
justly ask.' 



WILLIAM C. DARNELL was born in 
Coles county, Illinois, November 24, 
1833, a son of Dr. Amos E. and Elizabeth 
(Maryan) Darnell. The parents were natives 
respectively of Kentucky and Tennessee, but 
later moved to Coles county, Illinois, and 
from thence to Clark county, of the same 
state, where they both died, the mother on 
July 1 8, 1848, at the age of forty-seven, and 
the father on the 20th of the same month 
and year, at the age of fifty-two years. To 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



863 



them were born eleven children, nine of 
whom survived them, and of whom the sub^ 
ject of this sketch is the fourth in the order 
of their birth. The 3'oungest brother is one 
of the leading attorneys of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska. 

Our subject's schooling consisted of only 
thirteen days. He was five years of age 
when his parents moved to Clark county, 
Illinois, and was thirteen years of age when 
his parents died, and during his father's ill- 
ness he was sent twenty-three times for the 
doctor. After the death of his parents he 
was not only obliged to work for his own 
living, but also support a younger brother 
and one sister. He began life as a farm la- 
borer at five dollars per month, and not un- 
til he was nineteen years of age did he re- 
ceive a larger salary. At this age he was 
united in marriage to Miss Anna Smith, who 
was but sixteen years of age, the date of 
their marriage being July 7, 1852. 

After his marriage, Mr. Darnell decided 
to start farming on his own account. He 
took a life lease of his father-in-law's farm , 
which consisted of forty acres of prairie, 
most of which was swampy, ditched it and 
hauled lumber seventy-five miles with which 
he built a house and barn. While on this 
farm, he devoted most of his attention to 
raising hogs and was doing quite an exten- 
sive and profitable business when his entire 
drove was swept away by the cholera just 
as they were about ready for market. He 
afterward left his father-in-law's farm, and 
in the spring of i860 he was elected con- 
stable and was also appointed deputy sheriff 
of the county, and the two positions involved 
considerable hard work. Although our 
subject has been unfortunate several times 
during his life in the loss of property and 
sickness and death in his family, and also 
himself receiving injury while operating a 
threshing machine that crippled him for the 
remainder of his life, he has made a marked 
success in life and he will be long remem- 



bered in the communities in which he has 
lived for his example. His whole-souled 
generosity has found expression in the do- 
nation of large sums to various worthy 
causes and his integrity in the example of 
an honest and upright life. In 1863 he 
made the largest donation to the United 
States soldiers that was made by any one 
man in Edgar count}', Illinois. 

In 1867, Mr. Darnell moved with his 
wife and family of six children to Nebraska 
City, camped there for a time, and then 
moved on to Oak Creek and filed a home- 
stead claim to eighty acres in A precinct, 
Seward county. When first reaching Ne- 
braska he had an opportunity to locate a 
homestead on the present site of the state 
capitol, but as he was entirely without 
means, he was obliged to move to where 
he could earn money to start farming. In 
1 880, our subject purchased a quarter sec- 
tion of land, and two years later he pur- 
chased another quarter in the northeastern 
part of A precinct. In 1S85 he bought 
eighty acres in the western part of the same 
precinct, and at different times during the 
same year he purchased two other eighty- 
acre tracts in the vicinity. In 1891 he 
bought the sixty-five acre tract that he now 
makes his home. His first domicile after 
locating in Nebraska was a dug-out covered 
with poles and earth, and in this he lived 
three years, and by this time the family of 
children had increased to nine. He then 
erected a log house, and by the time he was 
able to move from this to a frame house 
his own family numbered twelve and he was 
caring for six adopted children. 

Mr. Darnell has served the citizens of 
A precinct in the capacity of a school offi- 
cer for twenty years. He has also served 
as justice of the peace continuously for 
fourteen years, and during that time not 
one of his decisions has been changed by 
the higher courts. He is public spirited and 
enterprising, and every project that tends to 



864 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the growth and prosperity of the commu- 
nity in which he hves receives his support 
in influence, time and means. 

Mr. Darnell's children, except the 
youngest daughter, are all married and 
own the homes in which they live and are all 
located in or near A precinct. Mrs. Darnell's 
father, David Smith, lived in Tennessee. 
At the age of twenty-one he was united in 
marriage to Miss Cynthia Edwards, and 
three sons and two daughters blessed their 
wedded life. About five years after the 
death of his wife, he married Sarah W. 
Martin, and to them were born nine chil- 
dren. Mr. Smith died at the age of sixty- 
two years, and his wife survived him only 
two years. 



OLIVER C. JACKSON. —Prominent 
among the leading farmers of Morton 
township, York county, may be found the 
name of the gentleman of whom this sketch 
is written. He is also quoted as one of the 
influential citizens of his community and a 
first-class agriculturist. 

Mr. Jackson was born in Lincoln, Logan 
county, Illinois, on the 29th of December, 
1857, and is a son of Joseph and Jane 
(Develbiss) Jackson, natives of Maryland, 
who removed to Illinois in 1856, and since 
1 88 1 have made their home in York county, 
Nebraska, being numbered among its hon- 
ored and highly esteemed citizens. By oc- 
cupation the father is a shoemaker and 
farmer. His family consists of nine chil- 
dren, six sons and three daughters, six of 
whom are now living in York county. 

In much the usual manner of farmers' 
sons, Oliver C. Jackson passed his boyhood 
and youth, acquiring a fair district school 
education and early becoming familiar with 
the duties which fall to the lot of the agri- 
culturist. He wisely chose that for his 
future calling, to which he was best adapted 
both by nature and experience, an as a 



farmer occupies an enviable position among 
the progressive men of his community. 
On first coming to York county, in 1881, he 
settled in Arborville township, but later 
moved to Morton township, where he now 
resides. He has converted the raw land in- 
to highl}- cultivated fields and now has one 
of the best farms of the locality. 

In Illinois, Mr. Jackson was married, in 
1878, to Miss Permelia, a daughter of 
Charles and Mary Jackson, who were from 
Ohio and Indiana, respectively. Seven 
children bless this union: Clarence C, 
Elmer W., Jennie E., Mary M., George 
H., Harvey E. and Ray C, all living. In 
religious belief the parents are Lutherans, 
and in political sentiment Mr. Jackson is a 
Democrat. Socially, he affiliates with the 
Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



DIETRICH DANKERS, a well-known 
and prosperous citizen of I precinct, 
Seward county, was born in Germany, 
December 21, 1843, a son of Hans and 
Maggie (Schmidt) Dankers, in whose family 
were eleven children, our subject being the 
third child. After the father's death, which 
occurred in Germany, the mother came to 
America at the age of fifty-six years and 
made her home with her children. She 
died in the spring of 1898, at the age of 
seventy-nine, years and was laid to rest in 
Middle Creek church cemetery. 

As is customary in his native land Mr. 
Dankers was sent to school between the 
ages of six and fourteen years, and during 
his sixteenth and seventeenth years learned 
the carpenter's trade, at which he worked 
until attaining his majority. During the 
following three years he was a soldier in the 
German army. In the spring of 1867 he 
took passage on a vessel at Hanover, bound 
for New York, which he finally reached in 
safety. Two years were then spent in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



865 



Fond du Lac count}', Wisconsin, and the 
year 1869 witnessed his arrival in Seward 
county, Nebraska, where he has since made 
his home. On his arrival here most of the 
land was still in its primitive condition and 
there were no railroads through this section 
of the state, though roads were being built 
from Nebraska City and also from Platts- 
mouth to Lincoln, and the latter was com- 
pleted in 1870, and the former about a year 
later. The capital city at that time was 
only a small town but was very rapidly being 
populated and to-day numbers 60,000 souls, 
being the second largest city in the state. 

Mr. Bankers secured a homestead of 
eighty acres in I precinct, and commenced 
at once to transform the land into rich and 
productive fields. At the age of twenty-six 
he was married in Nebraska City to Miss 
Anna Moyer, then twenty-five years old, 
and they began their domestic life upon the 
farm in a little house, partly dugout and 
parti}' logs. Being a skilled workman, he 
found employment at the carpenter's trade, 
and in this way added not a little to his in- 
come while engaged in the development 
and cultivation of his land. He has met 
with remarkable success in his undertakings 
and is to-day the owner of four hundred 
and eighty acres of valuable land in I pre- 
cinct, Seward county, upon which he erect- 
ed a comfortable residence in 1874 and a 
large barn in 1S88. In fact, the place is 
supplied with all of the conveniences and 
accessories found on a model farm of the 
nineteenth century. Mr. Bankers is also a 
stockholder in the Pleasant Bale creamery, 
which was built in 1896 at a cost of about 
twenty-five hundred dollars, and has a 
capacity of seven thousand pounds of milk 
per day. This has been of great benefit to 
the farmers of the surrounding country. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bankers are the happy 
parents of eight children, namely: Mary, 
Anna, Chris, Minnie, John, Lizzie and Car- 
rie, all at home with their parents; and 



Maggie, now the wife of John Clindworth, 
of I precinct, Seward county. In his po- 
litical affiliations Mr. Bankers is a Repub- 
lican, having cast his first vote for U. S. 
Grant. His fellow citizens recognizing his 
worth and ability have called upon him to 
fill a number of local ofSces of honor and 
trust, including the school offices and that 
of supervisor of his township, the duties of 
which he has discharged in a most credit- 
able and acceptable manner. 



GEORGE E. RICHARBSON, the pio- 
neer merchant of Linwood, estab- 
lished a general store in that village in 
1 87 1, and has since been prominently iden- 
tified with its commercial interests. From 
the beginning his trade has steadily in- 
creased, and he now has one of the largest 
mercantile houses in Butler county, occu- 
pying a large double brick building. Self-re- 
liance, conscientiousness, energy, honesty — 
are the traits of character that insure these 
the highest emoluments and greatest success, 
and to these may be attributed the success 
that has crowned the efforts of Mr. Rich- 
ardson. 

He was born inRockford, Illinois, March 
30, 1840, and is a son of Charles W. Rich- 
ardson, who was a native of Maine, and of 
Scotch extraction. In early life the father 
removed to Michigan, where he married 
Miss Edna Penhollow, whose ancestors were 
of old colonial stock, and prominently iden- 
tified with the early struggles for liberty, 
having taken an active part in the Boston 
Tea Party. About 1839 or 1840 Mr. and 
Mrs. Richardson removed to Rockford, Illi- 
nois, where they made their home until our 
subject was about nine years old, when they 
went to Clayton county, Iowa. Having at- 
tained to man's estate, and feeling that his 
country needed his services, the son en- 
listed, in 1 86 1, in Company F, Fourteenth 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for three yeitrs. 



S66 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7\ 



and took part in the battles of Fort Henry, 
Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth, and in 
the Red River expedition. He has never 
recovered from the effects of his arduous 
service, being crippled, the result of an at- 
tack of typhoid fever during the war. 

On receiving his discharge Mr. Richard- 
son returned to Clayton county, Iowa, which 
continued to be his place of residence until 
1868. He was married in that county, in 
1867, to Miss Lizzie Husenetter, and they 
now have one son, Ira F., born in Linwood, 
Nebraska. It was in 186S that Mr. Rich- 
ardson came to Nebraska, and took up a 
homestead about three miles from Linwood, 
across the county line in Saunders county. 
To the cultivation and improvement of his 
farm he devoted his energies until coming 
to Linwood in 1871, when he was obliged 
to lay aside the arduous duties of farm life 
on account of the infirmities brought on by 
his army experience. As a merchant he 
has met with excellent success, and to-day 
occupies a position of prominence in busi- 
ness, social, and religious circles. He was 
one of the first trustees of the Linwood Con- 
gregational church, organized June 4, 1873, 
has ever been a liberal contributor to all 
objects tending to advance the welfare of 
the church, and in his daily walk has shown 
himself to be consistent with the beliefs 
which he professes, being generous and 
charitable in answering the appeals of the 
distressed. 



LAURENCE C. VAN ALEN (or Van 
Allen). — Men of marked ability, force- 
ful character and culture, leave their impress 
upon the world, written in such indelible 
characters that time is powerless to obliter- 
ate their memory or sweep it from the 
minds of men. Their commendable acts 
live long after they have passed from the 
scene of their early careers. Mr. Van Alen, 
who portrait appears on another page, is 



one of the strong characters who have be- 
come an intregal part in the life of York 
county, and by the exercise of his powers 
has not only advanced his individual pros- 
perity, but has contributed to the welfare 
of his adopted county. Since coming to 
this locality in pioneer days he has made 
his home on section 4, Stewart township, 
and has there developed an excellent farm. 
Mr. Van Alen was born December 5, 
1828, in the town of Perth, Fulton county. 
New York, and is a son of Cornelius and 
and Margaret (Taylor) Van Alen, who spent 
their entire lives in that state. Both fam- 
ilies were originally from Holland and were 
founded in New York at and early day, 
Johannes, being the first of the Van Alens 
to come to the new world, settling at Kinder- 
hook, New York. Laurence E. Van Alen, 
our subject's grandfather, was a very promi- 
nent man of his community, was a well 
known squire, and also held office under 
King George, prior to the Revolution- 
ary war. During his business career, our 
subject's father was interested in farming, 
merchandising and hotel-keeping, and met 
with fair success in his undertakings. Both 
he and his wife held membership in the 
Dutch Reformed church. In the family of 
this worthy couple were three children: 
Mrs. Christina Traver; L. C. ; and Mrs. 
Mary Ann Brown. 

Losing his own father when quite young, 
L. C. Van Alen was reared by a stepfather, 
and grew to manhood in Fulton county. 
New York. He obtained an excellent edu- 
cation for those days, supplementing the 
knowledge acquired in the common schools 
by a course in a high school and also in the 
Johnstown Academy. At the early age of 
twenty-two years he was elected county 
superintendent of schools of Fulton county, 
but a year later resigned his position to go 
to California, traveling by way of Nicarau- 
gua. He successfully engaged in teaching 
school in Stockton, that state, for three 




L. C. VAN ALLEN. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



869 



years, and then engaged in the book and 
stationery business for five years. During 
this time he was elected superintendent of 
schools in San Joaquin county, and credit- 
ably filled that office for four years. Re- 
turning to New York, he took charge of the 
old home farm, which he operated in con- 
nection with merchandising for two years. 
He then removed to New York City, but 
afterward returned to the old homestead 
and resumed farming. 

On the 13th of July, 1866, Mr. Van Men 
married Miss Teresa F. Harris, of New York 
city, who was born in Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania, June 26, 1839, but was reared in 
the former city and was educated at Ply- 
mouth, New Hampshire. She successfully 
engaged in teaching school and also music, 
in New York city, prior to her marriage. 
Her parents, James and Mary (Chapman) 
Harris, were natives of Maine and Mary- 
land, respectively, and made their perma- 
nent home in Baltimore, Maryland, where 
he served as cashier in the Susquehanna 
bank for some time. He was educated for 
the law, but at the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1844, was engaged in survey- 
ing. Mrs. Harris still survives her husband, 
at the age of eighty-seven years, and now 
resides with her daughter in Nebraska. She 
has only two children, the younger being 
S. V. Harris, proprietor of the Hotel Ryan, 
of St. Paul, Minnesota. He was a soldier 
of the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Van 
Alen were born eight children, of whom 
seven are still living: Russell, Mrs. Maud 
Campbell, Ardell, Olive, Lowell, Una and 
Ethel. 

Until 1872 Mr. Van Alen continued to 
reside in New York and then came to York 
county, Nebraska, locating upon his present 
farm, where in June of that year he built a 
shanty and in the fall banked it with sod. 
At the end of a year he had it raised and 
put in a floor, making it what was then 
called a big frame house, 24X 12 feet. The 



first year he raised some sod corn and 
melons; in 1873 raised good crops, but the 
following year the grasshoppers destroyed 
all his corn. However, he has generally 
prospered and now has a fine farm of three 
hundred and thirty-two acres under e.xcel- 
lent cultivation and well improved. His 
comfortable residence was built in 1885, 
and enlarged in 1894. For four winters 
after coming to this state he taught school 
in Polk county, and has been prominently 
identified with the early educational and 
religious welfare of this region. He helped 
to organize the first Congregational church 
in the county, served as one of its deacons, 
and the first Sunday-school in four counties 
of this section of the state was organized in 
his house, and he was chosen superintend- 
ent of the same. He and his wife are now 
prominent and active members of the 
Presbyterian church at Gresham, in which 
he has served as elder for several years, and 
also trustee. Mrs. Van Alen has con- 
tributed her share to the music of these 
organizations. Our subject has served as 
master of the Masonic lodge at Gresham, 
and is also a charter member of the Odd 
Fellows lodge of that place, having become 
identified with both orders while a resident 
of Stockton, California. Politically, he is 
a Democrat, has served as local school 
director and township treasurer, and has 
been the candidate of his party for the 
state senate twice, and also for county 
superintendent of schools. On the 17th of 
April. 1 89 1, he was obliged to have his left 
leg amputated, after eighteen years of 
trouble from a felon on his finger, which 
had been badly treated by an over- dose of 
strong lye, and the poison settled in his leg. 
Laurence E. Van Alen, the grandfather, 
had three sons and two daughters. Of the 
descendants of Evert Van Alen, one of these 
sons, three were ministers and two were 
physicians. A sister of Laurence E. became 
Mrs. H. L. Van Dyke. Of her sons, one 



870 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



was the Hon. H. H. Van Dyke, who filled 
the office of state superintendent of public 
instruction, also state bank examiner, and 
also superintendent of United States sub- 
treasury, of New York city. 



OSCAR D. KEELER is a prominent 
and representative citizen of York 
county whose name is inseparably connected 
with its agricultural and commercial inter- 
est. He is one of the pioneer settlers of 
the county and has borne an active part in 
its development and upbuilding. He now 
resides upon a farm in Morton township 
and is devoting his time and attention to 
agricultural pursuits with most gratifying 
results. 

Mr. Keeler was born on the 17th of 
April, 1 84 1, in Madison county, New York, of 
which state his parents, Oscar and Parnel 
Keeler, were also natives. There our sub- 
ject was reared and educated until seven- 
teen years of age, when he came west and 
located in Will county, Illinois, where he 
found employment on a farm. He con- 
tinued to engage in farming in that state 
until 1862, when he responded to the Presi- 
dent's call for troops, and enlisted for three 
years in Company D, One Hundreth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, with which command he 
participated in the battles of Stone River, 
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta 
campaign, and the battles of Franklin and 
Nashville, Tennessee. In the engagement at 
Kenesaw Mountain he was wounded and 
still carries a ball in his right hip. He also 
received several other slight wounds at dif- 
ferent times. The war having ended, he 
was honorably discharged with the rank of 
sergeant and returned to Illinois to resume 
the more quiet pursuits of farm life. 

After spending four years in that state 
Mr. Keeler came to York count)-, Nebraska, 
in 1 87 1, and took up a homestead in Brad- 
shaw township, to the cultivation and 



improvement of which he devoted his 
energies for some years. His first home 
here was a sod house, which was subse- 
ently replaced by a more comforta- 
ble and substantial dwelling, and many 
other improvements were made upon the 
place, which added greatly to its value and 
attractive appearance. On selling his farm 
in 1S90 he removed to Benedict, where he 
successfully engaged in the coal trade for 
eight years, and then purchased a farm 
adjoining the village. Upon that place 
he now makes his home and is success- 
fully engaged in its operation. 

While a resident of Illinois, Mr. Keeler 
was married, in 1867, to Miss Martha Hess, 
by whom he had seven children, four still 
living, namely: Walter G., Gracie P., 
Clyde S. and Rhena H. The wife and 
mother was called to her final rest in 1893, 
and in 1896 Mr. Keeler wedded Mrs. Retta 
A. Green, a native of Ohio. The family 
holds membership in the Presbyterian 
church, and in his social relations Mr. Kee- 
ler is identified with the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, and the Grand Army 
of the Republic. Politically he is a stal- 
wart supporter of the Republican party 
and its principles, and most acceptably 
served as a member of the town board for 
si.x years. Financially he has met with 
success since becoming a resident of York 
county, and his career has ever been such 
as to command the confidence and esteem 
of all with whom he has come in contact. 



ALICE A. AND ALONZO ANDREWS 
are the fortunate owners of one of the 
productive and well equipped farms of 
Savannah township, Butler county. 

Alice A. Andrews was born in Foster, 
Rhode Island, March 20, 1833. Her maiden 
name was Miss Alice A. Walker, and she is a 
sister of Captain Henry A. Walker, of 
Stewart, Holt county, Nebraska. She is a 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



871 



daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Whit- 
man) Walker. Her mother's parents were 
of Puritan stock, whose ancestors came from 
England about the time of the Mayflower 
company. Alice A. moved from Rhode 
Island to Sterling, Connecticut, where she 
received her education in the public and 
select schools. During the four years next 
preceding the year in which she went west, 
she was in Providence, Rhode Island, where 
she was engaged in teaching and dress-mak- 
ing. She went west with her uncle and 
aunt and located in Nebraska in 1870. In 
the fall of that year she was united in mar- 
riage to Mr. Frederick Irwin, a homesteader 
in that locality. Mr. Irwin died in 1880, 
and is buried in the David City cemetery. 
In the fall of 1883, she was again united in 
marriage to her present husband, Mr. 
Alonzo Andrews. 

Alonzo Andrews was born in Upping- 
ham Center, Fulton county, New York, 
November 15, 1833, a son of Subina An- 
drews. His father was a native of Maine 
and moved to Saratoga county. New York, 
when a boy and was reared on a farm in 
that county. He was a soldier in the war 
of 18 12 and his ancestors participated 
in the Revolutionary war. He reared 
a family of seven children, of whom our sub- 
ject is the youngest son. One sister, Eliza- 
beth Wheeler, is now living at Fort Atkin- 
son, Holt county, Nebraska. Mr. Andrews 
worked on the Erie canal from the time 
he was ten years of age until he was eight- 
een. He then, in 1857, went to Illinois and 
located in Kendall county. Two years later 
he went to Missouri, but, owing to his sup- 
port of the Union cause, he was forced to 
leave there upon the breaking out of the 
Civil war. He then went back to Oswego, 
Illinois, and enlisted in Company A, One 
Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois In- 
fantry, in the spring of 1862, and served 
three years. He participated in the siege 
of Vicksburg, the charge of Kenesaw Mount- 



ain, battles of Dallas and Resaca, was with 
Sherman on his march to the sea, and par- 
ticipated in the Grand Review at Washing- 
ton, District of Columbia. After being dis- 
charged from the service of the government 
he returned to his home in Illinois and was 
there married to Miss Alice Severance, July 
6, 1866. Two children were born to this 
union, Mary Elizabeth and Van D. Mrs. 
Andrews died in Oswego, and four years 
later our subject was married to Martha A. 
Colgon, of Plainfield, Illinois. To this 
union were born three children, Lorana, 
William S. and-Lettie A. His second wife 
died when the last-named child was about 
twenty months of age. 

In 1 88 1, Mr. Andrews moved from Illi- 
nois to Holt county, Nebraska, and two 
years later he moved to Butler county, Ne- 
braska. Mr. Andrews and his present wife 
have no children, but they adopted and 
reared a daughter, Sarah, who was married 
November 16, 1893, to Mr. Bernard H. 
Mais. They have two children, Daisy E. 
and Henry B. 



KARL J. G. HOFMANN, one of Seward 
county's representative citizens, and 
one of the leading instructors of Malcolm, 
was born in Bavaria, Germany, April 25, 
1866. the second and youngest son of G. 
Christian and Elizabeth (Bom Horn) Hof- 
mann. The older brother is still living in 
Germany. The father died prior to our 
subject's birth, and the mother subsequently 
moved to the city of Neustadt Aisch to give 
her two sons an education in the city 
schools. Mrs. Hofmann is still living in 
Germany and has reached the age of sixty- 
six years. 

Mr. Hofmann attended the city schools, 
as stated in the preceding paragraph, from 
1872 until 1875. From the year last named 
until 1880, he attended the Latin school, 
preparatory to entering college, and from 



872 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1880 until 1884, he prepared for the semi- 
nary in college. Also from 1876 until 1884, 
he served as chorister of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church. In 1884 he entered the 
seminary at Altdorf and two years later he 
graduated with honors and began teaching. 
After following the practice of his profession 
in Germany for two years, in 1888 he 
migrated to America, leaving Bremen 
March 12, and landing in New York on the 
26th of the same month. From New York 
he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and for a time 
made his home with a friend in that city. 
He then secured a position from the St. 
Paul congregation, of Lincoln, Nebraska, 
as teacher, and began his work in that city 
January 12, 1890. While here he culti- 
vated the acquaintance of Miss Louisa 
Greiner, to whom he was married in May of 
of the same year, Mr. Hofmann's success 
in this school was something remarkable, 
for he entered upon his duties with but two 
scholars, and left the institution with an 
enrollment of seventy-five. In April, 1S91, 
he moved to Mississippi and continued the 
continued the practice of his profession for 
two years in the town of Merrell. In 
Angust, 1892, he returned to Seward coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and began teaching in the 
Trinity of the Evangelical Lutheran Con- 
gregation, which has about eighty-two chil- 
dren enrolled, and has now been employed 
continuously for five years in this place. 
Mr. Hofmann is a man of marked ability as 
an instructor, and wherever he has been he 
has made many friends by his push and 
energy. 

Mrs. Hofmann, wife of our subject, is a 
daughter of Godfred and Louisa (Wiedner) 
Greiner. She was born in Shormdorf, Ger- 
many, and emigrated from thence to Amer- 
ica at the age of eighteen jears, having re- 
ceived her education in the land of her na- 
tivity, and was confirmed in the Evangelical 
Lutheran church at the age of fourteen 
years. Upon arriving on the American side 



of the Atlantic, she landed in New York, 
went from there to Philadelphia, and from 
thence to Nebraska, where she met Mr. 
Hofmann, to whom she was married at the 
age of twenty-six years. She was called to 
mourn the death of her father before leav- 
ing Germany, but her mother came to Amer- 
ica and located in Seward county, Nebraska, 
near Staplehurst, where she died at the age 
of about eighty years. She was a faithful 
and devoted member of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church, having joined that denom- 
ination in Germany at the age of fourteen 
years, and to the day .of her death she was 
true to its principles and was known by all 
who had the pleasure of her acquaintance, 
to be one of its earnest and valued members. 
Mrs. Hofmann is the second in the order of 
birth of a family of thirteen children, only 
three of whom are now living. One brother 
married Miss Anna Fisher and is now living 
near Staplehurst, and the other is making 
his home in Omaha, Nebraska. Our sub- 
ject has an adopted child, Lydia B. 



HENRY C. MOUNTS.— While it is true 
many people are seeking to accumu- 
late vast fortunes by selfish and unscrupulous 
means, there is nothing more worthy of 
praise than the quiet and steady pursuit 
of some honest calling and the determined 
e.xercise of industry, economy and sagacity 
which enables a man to acquire a home and 
competence. The subject of this biography, 
now a prosperous farmer residing on sec- 
tion 36, Ham.ilton precinct, Fillmore coun- 
ty, is a man whose brave struggle with 
early adversity has brought him a com- 
petence without sacrifice of principle. 

Mr. Mounts was born in Bartholomew 
county, Indiana, August 27, 1844, a son of 
Joseph and Susan (McFault) Mounts, na- 
tives of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, respect- 
ively. The father died in 1867, at the age 
of sixty-four years, the mother in 1888, at 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



873- 



the advanced age of eighty-nine. In their 
family were seven children, of whom four are 
still living. Reared in his native state, our 
subject early acquired an excellent knowl- 
edge of farm work, but his literary educa- 
tion was limited to a short attendance at the 
common schools. 

Leaving Indiana, in 1878, Mr. Mounts 
came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and in 
Bryant precinct purchased a quarter section 
of school land, for which he paid one thou- 
sand dollars. To the cultivation and im- 
provement of this place he has since de- 
voted his energies with marked success, has 
set out fruit and ornamental trees, has 
erected good and substantial buildings, and 
has made the place one of the best and 
most attractive in the localit}'. He is a 
shrewd business man and able financier, as 
well as one of the most skillful farmers in 
Fillmore county, and always carries forward 
to successful completion whatever he under- 
takes. By his ballot he supports the men 
and measures of the Republican part)-. In 
manner he is very pleasant, and he has made 
many warm friends during his residence in 
this state. 



ROBERT M. LYTLE, an honored 
pioneer of York county, is the owner 
of one of the most valuable homesteads of 
Morton township, and has distinguished 
himself as one of its most active and enter- 
prising citizens. He is a native of Penn- 
sylvania, born in Center county, Septem- 
ber 6, 1840, and is a son of William and 
Catharine (Smith) Lytle, also natives of 
that state. By trade the father is a miller 
and iron worker. In 1854 he emigrated to 
Scott county, Iowa, and now makes his 
home in Des Moines, that state. Our sub- 
ject is the eldest in his family of five 
children — four sons and one daughter. 

Robert M. Lytle is indebted to the pub- 
he schools of Pennsylvania for his early 



education, his home being in that state 
until fourteen years of age, when in 1854, 
he accompanied his father on his renoval 
to Iowa. There he engaged in farming 
until the fall of Fort Sumter. He was 
among the first to respond to his country's 
call for aid, enlisting in April, 1861, 
in Company B, Second Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry, and with his regiment partici- 
pated in the battles of Fort Donelson and 
Shiloh. After one year of service he was 
discharged on account of wounds recei\ed 
at Donelson, but in September, 1862, again 
enlisted, this time being mustered in as sec- 
ond lieutenant of Company C, Twentieth 
Iowa Volunteer infantry, with which he 
served for three years. During the engage- 
ment at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, he was 
wounded by a shot passing through his thigh. 
He was in the siege of Vicksburg and Es- 
peranza, Texas, and the battles of Fort 
Morgan, Mobile and Fort Blakely, Ala- 
bama, — the last engagement of the war. 
When finally discharged Mr. Lytle was 
holding the rank of first lieutenant and was 
a most popular and efficient officer. 

Returning to his home in Iowa, he en- 
gaged in farming there for five years, but in 
1 87 1 we find him numbered among the 
pioneer settlers of York county, Nebraska, 
having taken up a homestead claim on sec- 
tion 32, Morton township, and erected a sod 
houses, 18x22 feet. Three years later that 
little pioneer home was replaced by a more 
commodious and comfortable frame resi- 
dence. Mr. Lytle has given his close at- 
tention to the improvement and cultivation 
of his land, and now has one of the best 
farms in the locality. 

In 1866, in Iowa, was celebrated the 
marriage of Mr. Lytle and Miss Caroline, 
daughter of James Lytle, of Clearfield 
county, Pennsylvania. They have a family 
of eight children, as follows: Roland J.; 
Annie M., now Mrs. Dickey; Nellie M., 
now Mrs. Isaac White; Dudley B. ; How- 



874 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ard R. ; Stanley W. ; Charles C. and Kate 
O. Fraternally Mr. Lytle is an honored 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic. He is an unswerving supporter of Re- 
publican principles, and takes quite an act- 
ive interest in the success of his party. He 
has efficiently served as school director in 
his district, and has done much to elevate 
the standard of schools in his township. 



JOSIAH LOCKE is one of the best known 
and most prominent citizens of Osceola, 
Polk county, Nebraska, where he is living 
in peace and retirement. He was born in 
Falmouth, Maine, April 5, 1841, and is the 
sixth child in order of birth of a family of 
ten children born to Abijah and Mary (Hall) 
Locke. 

The editors take pleasure in presenting a 
brief history of the Locke family in Amer- 
ica, of which there are two distinct 
branches, one in Massachusetts and one in 
New Hampshire. It was supposed that the 
heads of the two families were brothers. 
Our subject is a direct descendant of the 
New Hampshire branch, his immediate an- 
cestor was John Locke, who lived in New 
Hampshire about 1640. His son, Nathaniel 
Locke, the great-grandfather of our subject, 
died April 18, 1780, at the age of eighty 
years and six months. His wife, Mary 
Locke, died March 21, 1802, at the age 
of eighty-three years and eight months, 
having been the mother of the following 
children: Jonathan, John, Mary, Rebecca, 
Abijah, Dorothy and Josiah. Josiah Locke 
was the youngest member of the family and 
the grandfather of our subject. He was 
born May 12, 1757, and died April 12, 1841. 
He married Miss Elizabeth Gilpatrick, a 
member of the family of that name, who 
subsequently left off the " Gil," and the 
family are now known as the Patricks. 
Josiah and Elizabeth (Gilpatrick) Locke 



were the parents of eleven children, of 
whom we have the following: Mary, 
Eliza, Deborah, Johanna, Nathaniel, Abi- 
jah and Dorothy. Abijah, the first, died in 
infancy; John, Mary, the second, and Ma- 
tilda. Grandfather Josiah Locke was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war, and the 
command to which he belonged marched to 
what was then know as Bajaduce, but is 
now called Castine, Maine. When the con- 
tinental soldiers arrived there the English 
had decamped, so the Americans then re- 
turned to their home. Mr. Locke, in com- 
pany with three other men, built and 
equipped a vessel for service in the war of 
181 2, but two of them were unable to carry 
out their part of the bargain, so the entire 
cost was shouldered by him and one of the 
others. His son, Nathaniel, went as mate 
of the vessel, which was captured by the 
English. Nathaniel was kept a prisoner on 
board one of the English prison ships for 
six months, and was then transferred to the 
Dartmore prison, where he was detained 
for another six months, in company with 
others who were captured at the same time. 
At the end of their year of captivity they 
were released and sent home, and Nathaniel 
settled in New Brunswick, where he mar- 
ried. Two of his daughters still survive, 
and were married, one to a Mr. Foster and 
the other to a Mr. Pulsifer. 

The father of our subject, Abijah Locke, 
was born at Falmouth, Cumberland county, 
Maine, on September 8, 1801. He grew 
to maturity in his native place and in his 
early manhood he was a coaster. He was 
married on December 31, 1828, to Miss 
Mary Hall Morse, who was born February 
13, 1810, in Freeport, Cumberland county, 
Maine. The bride was a daughter of 
Leonard and Sarah (Porter) Morse. The 
former was a student at Harvard College, 
from which he graduated and took up the 
practice of law. He died at Freeport, 
Maine, in 1818, but his widow subsequently 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



875 



married a James Simonton, and died at 
Camden, Maine, in October, 1885, at the 
age of seventy-four. After his marriage, 
Abijah Locke followed agriculture pursuits 
in the summer, and in the winters he hauled 
ship timbers. He was engaged in the above 
mentioned occupations during the time he 
was a resident of Falmouth, Maine, which 
was thirty-one years. In 1841 he moved to 
Camden, Maine, where he made his home 
for one year, and in 1842 he removed to 
Charleston, in the same state, where he 
lived until 1858, and then removed to Milo, 
also in Maine. He made his home in the 
last-mentioned place until 1869, and then 
went to Iowa, settled at Clarence, Cedar 
county, where he resided for three years. 
On the loth of April, 1872, he located a 
timber claim on section 30, of township 13, 
range i west, in Polk county, Nebraska, 
and resided on the same until he sold out, 
October 24, 1883, and removed to Areata, 
California, where he died, October 11, 
1 887. His wife died at Wayland, on May 2, 
1883, after having borne her husband ten 
children, of whom we give the following: 
John M. now a resident of Winnebago 
county, Illinois; Elizabeth Morse Herrick, 
of Charleston, Maine; Sarah P. Locke, 
now a resident of Areata, California, who 
proposed the name Wayland for the post- 
office which was located at the place where 
her mother died, was a homesteader on sec- 
tion 30, of township 13, range i west, 
in Polk county, Nebraska, on which she 
erected a sod shanty in 1872; she complied 
with all of the requirements, proved up on 
the tract, improved the same and then sold 
out. She accompanied her father to Cali- 
fornia, and was with him at the time of his 
death, this being her second trip to the 
coast, as she had previously made a trip 
from Nebraska to California and return, 
without any companions. She is unmarried 
and an active worker in the Methodist 
church; Stephen D., a resident of Cal- 



ifornia since 1849; Susannah M. Hardy, 
who resides in Mt. Vernon, Washington; 
Josiah, the subject of this biography; De- 
borah, deceased; Eleanor H. Lord, of Ar- 
eata, California; Leonard M., of^Garfield, 
Washington, and William F., deceased. 
The parents were members in good stand- 
ing of the Congregational church, ]^and two 
of their sons, John M. and our subject, 
served in the great Civil war. The names 
of the descendants of Abijah Locke and 
their children are as follows: John M. be- 
came the father of two children, Richard F. 
and Sarah E. Elizabeth M.'s children were 
John L., Mary J., Rodney I., Lincoln, 
Susie H., and Daniel A. Stephen D. has 
eight children; the names of two of them 
were Walter P. and Mary G. , (deceased). 
Susannah M. 's children were George F. , 
Susie (deceased), and Louis M. Josiah, our 
shbject, has no children. Eleanor H. be- 
came the mother of Oscar W., Lewis M., 
Charles W., S. Bessie, Benjamin H., Frank 
D. and Edward Locke. Leonard M.'s 
children were Janet B., Susie H., Walter 
P., T. Chester, Sarah C. and Mary. 

Josiah Lock, the subject of this sketch, 
was educated in Charleston, Maine. He 
attended the common schools of the dis- 
trict, and during his early life he followed 
agricultural pursuits. On November 4, 
1864, he enlisted in Company H, Eleventh 
Maine Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He 
served three years and with his regiment 
participated in the following engagememts: 
Lee's Mill, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, 
Seven days battle in Virginia, Glendale, and 
others of the same day, Malvern Hill, Siege 
of Fort Wagner, Drury's Bluff, Bermuda 
Hundred, Petersburg, Second Bermuda 
Hundred, Deep Bottom, Strawberry Plain, 
Weldon Railroad, Walthal Junction, Ches- 
ter Station, Richmond Pike, Warebottom 
Church, Deep Bottom, Fazzell's Mill, New- 
market Road, Darbytown Road, Charles 
City Road and Johnson's Plantation. Dur- 



876 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



ing the campaign of 1864 in General Ter- 
ry's division of the Tenth Army Corps, in 
the Army of the James, the regiment was 
known as the "fighting regiment" and 
never was beaten by the enemy- They 
they took part in engagements on fifty-nine 
different days, and marched thousands of 
miles in discharging their duty as soldiers. 
Mr. Locke was a first-class soldier, and re- 
ceived his honorable discharge at Augusta, 
Maine, on November t8, 1864. 

In the spring of 1865, he went to Oil 
Creek, Pennsylvania, where he remained 
for a short time and then located at Pit 
Hole City, where he operated a meat market 
for eighteen months. When Mr. Locke 
arrived at the last-mentioned town it had 
only one log house, but in the space of six 
months there were seven thousand inhabit- 
ants in the town. He next started over- 
land to Delaware county, Iowa, where he 
arrived in September, 1866, and in the 
same year he purchased eighty acres of land 
in Cedar county, of the same state. In the 
following December he went to Mille Lacs, 
Minnesota, where he worked in the pineries, 
until the next spring, when he returned to 
his farm and opened it. The next winter 
he worked in Jones county, Iowa, in the 
timber, and in the spring again returned to 
his farm. Josiah Locke was united in 
marriage on March 4, 1869, in Delaware 
county, Iowa, to Miss Louisa Anna Bond, 
who was born in Farmersville, Cattaraugus 
county. New York, February 8, 1S45. The 
bride was a daughter of Henry F. and 
Martha (Ingalls) Bond, a brief sketch of 
whom will be found in the biography of 
O. M. Bond on another page of this volume. 
She was reared in her native town until she 
was twelve years of age, when she ac- 
companied her parents to Iowa in the fall 
of 1856. She received her education in the 
schools of New York and Iowa, and later 
taught school for six terms, while living in 
the last mentioned state. Mr. and Mrs. 



Locke have never had any children. They 
made their home in Cedar county, Iowa, 
until the fall of 1872, when they sold their 
farm, which was then fully improved, and 
then settled on a homestead which he had 
taken in May of that year, which was locat- 
ed on the southeast quarter of section 30 of 
township 13, range i west, in Polk county, 
Nebraska. The land was all wild and un- 
broken, and it was necessary to go to Co- 
lumbus for lumber, with which he built 
a frame house into which he moved 
just before the great snow-storm of 1873. 
The house was the second one on the road 
from Seward to Osceola, a distance of for- 
ty-five miles, and. it is still to be seen on the 
farm. At this time the county was very 
sparsely settled, and they had many visits 
from wandering bands of Indians. Mr. 
Locke started at once to break his land, 
and he now has a fine estate of two hundred 
and forty acres of land, all of which is un- 
der cultivation. The place has a full line 
of improvements, and is adorned with a fine 
orchard containing one hundred trees, and 
also a grove containing fifteen acres of 
shade trees. He carried on a general farm- 
ing and stock-raising business, dealing large- 
ly in fine and blooded stock, one of which 
is an imported English shire horse, named 
" Sampson X," which weighs nineteen hun- 
dred pounds. It took the first premium 
and sweepstakes at the Polk County Agri- 
cultural Fair, and also took a prize at the 
Omaha Horse Fair. He also owned a fine 
roadster, " Phil M," with a record of 2:32.!, 
but who had trotted in 2:24. He fattened 
seventy-eight head of cattle and one hun- 
dred hogs of his own raising in one season, 
and also raised on his own farm all of the 
cord that was necessary to fatten them, with 
the exception of one hundred bushels. He 
was a model farmer and had the best kept 
farm in his locality, when he resided upon 
it. In March, 1896, they moved from their 
farm and took up their residence in Osce- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



87r 



■ola, where they have a neat and cozy little 
home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Locke have membership 
in the Christian church at Wayland, Ne- 
braska, and are earnest workers in the cause 
of Christianity. Mrs. Locke was president 
of the W. C. T. U. at Wayland. Nebraska, 
four years, and was also a delegate to the 
state convention of the same, which was 
held at York, Nebraska, in 1S94. She is 
also a member of the J. F. Reynolds Relief 
Corps, No. 69, of Osceola, and attended the 
National encampment of the G. A. R. 
which was held at Portland, Maine, in 1885. 
Mr. Locke is a leader of the G. A. R., in 
this part of the state, and was a charter 
member of the J. F. Reynolds Post, No. 69, 
of Osceola, Nebraska, and was also a char- 
ter member of the B. F. Stephenson Post, 
No. 132 of Gresham, Nebraska, of which he 
was first adjutant of the same, and also 
served as commander of the same. He also 
served for two terms, or six years, as com- 
missioner for soldiers relief in Polk count)-. 
In 1883 he was a delegate to the National 
encampment at Denver, Colorado, also 
delegate to the same which was held at 
Portland, Maine, in iSS^j. He also attend- 
ed the state encampment at Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, in February, 18S3, in the capacity of 
a delegate, and in 1892 he was an attendant 
at the National encampment held at Wash- 
ington, D. C. Mr. Locke is also very 
prominent in the Masonic order, of which 
he became a member in the fall of 1864, at 
Milo, Maine. He was a charter member 
of. the Blue Lodge, Osceola Lodge, No. 65, 
of which he has been Junior Warden, and 
is also a charter member of the Blue Lodge, 
Morning Star I^odge, No. 197, of which he 
has also been Junior Warden, and of which 
he has been Past Master. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. Locke have been members of the Or- 
der of the Eastern Star, of which he was 
a delegate to the Grand Lodge at Omaha. 
Politically he affiliates with the Republican 

50 



party, which he has always stanchly suppor- 
ted at the polls. He has held numerous 
local offices, and was moderator of school 
district No. 33. Mr. Locke has also been a 
member of the Polk County Agricultural 
Society, president of the Farmers Club, and 
has also been superintendent of the horse 
department at the county fair, at the same 
time he also held the offices of judge of the 
speed ring, and time judge. In 1883 he 
put in si.x weeks in traveling, and made a 
trip to California and return, in that time. 
Mr. and Mrs. Locke retain the entire con- 
fidence and esteem of all who know them- 
and they are highly respected for their up- 
rightness of character and integrity. 



MRS. ISABELL JOHNSON.— Nebraska 
owes its high standing among the 
states of the Union to the high character, 
dauntless spirit and perseverance of her 
pioneers. To them is due her wonderful 
progress along all lines of endeavor, having 
transformed the wild prairies into fine farms 
thriving villages and magnificent cities. 
Among these brave, far-sighted and hardy 
pioneers is the West famil}', of which Mrs. 
Johnson is a worthy representative. She 
was born in Maryland in 1836, and is the 
oldest daughter of Thomas and Catherine 
(Hufmaster) West, who with their family 
settled on the W^est Blue, in Seward county, 
at a point now known as West's Mills, in 
1859. The party consisted of the parents 
and six children, Isabel, Cornelius, Thomas, 
Jr., John, James and Charles, besides a 
young man by the name of Orion Johnson, 
who afterward became the husband of 
Isabell West. The family was founded in 
the United State.= over a century ago by 
her great-grandfather, Cornelius West, who 
came from the north of Ireland and first 
located in Pennsylvania, but late's removed 
to New Jersey. For some years the grand- 
father, James West, lived on a large plan- 



878 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



tation near Pittsburg on the Mono gahela 
river; and there the father, Thomas West, 
was born. When seven years old he was 
taken by his parents to Maryland, where he 
grew to manhood and married Miss Cather- 
ine Hufmaster. Leaving Maryland, in 1845, 
they removed to Ogle county, Illinois, and 
settled on the Rock river, but from 1852 
until 1859 they made their home on the 
Maquoketa river in Iowa, coming to Ne- 
braska in the latter year. They have thus 
been pioneers of three states, always going 
ahead of the railroads. 

In 1859 the West family started from 
Jackson county, Iowa, for the gold fields, 
traveling by way of Plattsmouth, where 
they crossed the river. There they met a 
party of surveyors returning from the Blue 
river valley, and as they gave such glowing 
accounts of its fertility, Mr. West decided 
to locate here and make for himself and 
family a home. Leaving the beaten trail, 
they came to the locality where Mrs. John- 
son now lives, in Seward connty, which sec- 
tion at that time had no white settlers. 
The only people on the river were the Vif- 
quains, who had a place near the junction 
of the West and Big Blue rivers. The West 
family went up the river until they found a 
suitable spot, and there stopped and built a 
log house late in the summer of 1859. They 
had with them five cows, four o.\en, one 
horse, four wagons, and plenty of provi- 
sions, and the first winter they lived com- 
fortably, but in March of the following year 
the Indians burned their home and nearly 
everything they possessed. This was the 
beginning of a long series of depredations 
intended to drive the white men away, but 
in this they were unsuccessful, for the sturdy 
pioneers possessed plenty of perseverance 
and determination. The Indians stole their 
cattle, destroyed their crops and threatened 
their lives, but to no purpose. The second 
winter the family nearly starved, having 
nothing to eat but hominy for si.xteen days, 



but they stuck to their home, having re- 
built the cabin. In 1864 Mr. West built a 
sawmill and later erected a gristmill, which 
brought people to their place from many 
miles around, and was an important factor 
in the upbuilding and development of this 
region. The family has always been widely 
and favorably known, standing deservedly 
high in the esteem of their fellow citizens. 
It was in 1861 that Miss Isabell West 
gave her hand in marriage to Orion John- 
son, and they have become the parents of 
two children, Thomas, and Ida, now the 
wife of William Hayes. 



DM. LEFEVER is one of the most 
prominent and substantial citizens of 
Hamilton precinct, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and is the owner of an elegant farm 
on section i, one and one-half miles from 
Strang. The spirit of self-help is the source 
of all genuine worth in the individual and is 
the means of bringing to man success when 
he has no advantages of wealth or influence 
to aid him. It illustrates in no uncertain 
manner what it is possible to accomplish 
when perseverance and determination form 
the keynote to a man's life. Depending 
upon his own resources, looking for no out- 
side aid or support, Mr. Lefever, with the 
assistance of his estimable wife, has become 
one of the most prosperous and wealthy citi- 
zens of his community. 

He was born in Lancaster county, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1850, and is a son of Daniel 
and Frances (Martin) Lefever, who were 
also natives of Lancaster county, as were 
the grandparents on both sides. The fa- 
ther died on the old homestead in the Key- 
stone state, at the age of seventy si.x years, 
the mother at the age of si.xty-four, and 
both were laid to rest in the cemetery of 
Landis Valley, Lancaster county. In their 
family were fourteen children, of whom ten 
are still living. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



879 



During his boyhood and youth, D. M. 
Lefever attended the common schools of 
his native county, and continued to reside 
there until twenty-four years of age. In 
1874 he removed to Illinois, where the fol- 
lowing six years were passed, and in Jan- 
uary, 1880, took up his residence in Ham- 
ilton precinct, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he purchased three hundred and 
twenty acres of railroad land, paying for the 
same one thousand five hundred dollars. 
To the cultivation and improvement of his 
land he at once turned his attention, and 
soon acre after acre was placed under the 
plow until the place was converted into one 
of the most productive and valuable farms 
of the township. 

Returning to his native county, in 1S89, 
Mr. Lefever was united in marriage with 
Miss Lizzie Rohrer, who was born there in 
1862, and who attended the public schools 
of the county for some time. She is a very 
accomplished lady and a most amiable and 
happy wife. Her parents were Henry and 
Eliza (Harnish) Rohrer. Her father died 
in Lancaster county at the age of sixty-one 
years, and her mother is still residing on 
the old homestead there at the age of sev- 
enty. Of the seven children in the family, 
four are still living and all make their home 
in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, with the 
exception of Mrs. Lefever. Our subject 
and his wife have an interesting family of 
three children: Paul, Maude and Nora, 
who are all attending school. 

Immediately after their marriage Mr. 
Lefever brought his bride to the beautiful 
home he had prepared for her in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, where they at once be- 
gan housekeeping, and by their united ef- 
forts they have prospered in their adopted 
state, being now the owners of seven hun- 
dred and twenty acres of some of the finest 
and best improved land in the county. On 
coming to Nebraska, Mr. Lefever's capital 
consisted of but one thousand dollars in 



cash, but he has continually prospered; his 
land is all free from incumbrance; he has 
money out on interest; his farms are well 
stocked; and his granaries and corn cribs 
are full of grain, which at the present time 
would bring five thousand dollars in cash. 
This property has all been acquired through 
the industry, perseverance, economy and 
good management of himself and wife. 
Wheat has been his principal product, and 
with the exception of a very few years, he 
has always harvested an excellent crop. 

Politically Mr. Lefever is a stanch Re- 
publican, of the Abraham Lincoln type, and 
he is one of the most prominent and influen- 
tial men of his locality. They move in the 
best social circles of the community in 
which they live, and occupy an enviable 
position. Those who know them best are 
numbered among their warmest friends, and 
no citizens of the county are more honored 
or highly respected. 



WILLIAM H. NEWCOMER is one of 
the representative and general farm- 
ers of York county, Nebraska, in Thayer 
township of which he has a very fine farm. 
He has been a conspicuous figure in the de- 
velopment and extension of the great agri- 
cultural and stockraising interests of the 
county. He is one of the early settlers of 
the township in which he resides, and has 
done much toward bringing it to its present 
prosperous condition. 

William H. Newcomer is a son of 
Daniel and Abigail (Leckrone) Newcomer, 
who were both natives of Pennsylvania. 
The father was a farmer by occupation, and 
followed that profession in his native state 
until his death, which occurred in 1869. 
His wife still survives, and at present re- 
sides in Pennsylvania. They were the par- 
ents of seven children, fine sons and two 
daughters. William H. Newcomer, of whom 
this sketch is written, was born in Fayette 



880 



COMPEXDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



county, Pennsylvania, July 36, 1846, and 
is the only one of the family who resides in 
the west. He received his rudimentary 
education in the common schools of the na- 
tive state, and at an early age he began 
following agricultural pursuits. He con- 
tinued in this line of work in Pennsylvania, 
until 1875, when he located in Knox county, 
Illinois. He remained in the last named 
place for two 3'ears, and then removed to 
Henry count}-, where he remained until he 
took up his permanent residence in York 
county, Nebraska, in 1879. He purchased 
a farm in Thayer township, which at the 
time he purchased had nothing on it but a 
sod house, and there were but eighty acres 
of it under cultivation. Nothing daunted 
by the almost herculean task before him, 
Mr. Newcomer set to work to develop his 
farm, and today it has been brought to a 
state of cultivation that is well nigh im- 
possible to excel. It is given over to gen- 
eral farming, which our subject carries on 
according to the most improved methods, 
thereby winning reward for toil and fore- 
thought. The farm is provided with ex- 
cellent improvements, and the dwelling is 
one of the best homes in the country. The 
farm now consists of six hundred and forty 
acres of fine arable land, all of which is un- 
der cultivation. 

Mr. Newcomer was married in Pennsyl- 
vania, on December 24, 1868, to Miss 
Catharine Henderson, a daughter of Stewart 
and Eliza A. Henderson, who were both na- 
tives of Pennsylvania, though they after- 
wards removed to Illinois, where the father 
died, and the mother still resides. Mr. and 
Mrs. Newcomer are the parents of eight 
children, six of whom are now living, viz: 
Mary A., Dora A., William H., Edith P., 
Carrie M. and Blanche \'. ; Eliza N. and 
Elizabeth are deceased. The family are 
all members in good standing of the 
Lutheran church. Socially, Mr. Newcomer 
is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 



America. In his political life he is a firm 
believer in the principles of the Republican 
part}', and stands well in the community, 
though he has never sought political prefer- 
ment. Mr. Newcomer has followed general 
farming and stock raising, and has enjoyed 
well-merited success as a crown to his per- 
sistent and untiring energy, with which he 
labored to overcome all difficulties. He is 
considered one of the most substantial and 
highly esteemed citizens of the county, and 
is respected by ail who know him for his 
many sterling traits of character. 



DAVID BELSLEY, who is now success- 
fully engaged in the grain business at 
Bellwood, Butler county, as a member of 
the firm of Belsley, Allen & Co., has led a 
life of honest effort. Throughout his career 
of continued and far-reaching usefulness his 
duties have been performed with the great- 
est care, and business interests have been 
managed as to win him the confidence of 
the public and the prosperity which should 
always attend honorable effort. 

Mr. Belsley was born in Woodford coun- 
ty, Illinois, November 26, 1855, and is a 
son of Joseph Belsley, a native of France, 
born in Alsace-Lorain, in i8i3. As a 
young man he came to this country in 1832 
and settled in Woodford county, Illinois, 
near Spring Bay, before the Indians had 
left that region. At that time he was poor, 
but being industrious, energetic and perse- 
vering, due success was not denied him, and 
at his death was quite wealthy. In Peoria 
county, Illinois, he married Miss Barbara 
Engle, daughter of Peter Engle, and they 
became the parents of seven sons, of whom 
our subject is the fourth in order of birth. 

In the county of his nativity David Bel- 
sley was reared to agricultural pursuits, 
and there engaged in farming on his own ac- 
count for some time after reaching man- 
hood. He was married in Woodford coun- ' 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



881 



ty, in 1880, to Miss Annie Nicklos, whose 
stepfather, Peter Ecker, came to Butler 
county, Nebraska, the year prior to our sub- 
ject's removal. Here her parents made 
their home for about ten years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Belsley have five children, two sons 
and three daughters, namely: Barbara E., 
Jesse Joseph, Irvine Cleveland, Evaline 
Frances and May Bessie. 

In 1879 Mr. Belsley made a trip to Ne- 
braska, but did not locate permanently in 
Butler county until 1882, when he pur- 
chased three eighty-acre tracts of land, in- 
cluding the northwest quarter of section 28, 
Savannah township, and the north half of 
the northeast quarter of the same section. 
In June, 1884, he established the Platte 
Valley Bank at Bellwood, of which he was 
president and H. I. Converse cashier until 
he sold out in the fall of 1886. He then 
bought one hundred and aixty acres on sec- 
tion 15, Savannah township, and has since 
been largely interested in real estate, doing 
an extensive business along that line in con- 
nection with the grain trade at Bellwood. 
He is an upright, reliable business man, 
and has the confidence and respect of all 
who know him. Although a stanch Demo- 
crat in politics and an active worker for the 
success of his party, Mr. Belsley has always 
declined to become a candidate for office. 



DANIEL BROWN, a leading and repre- 
sentative farmer of Seward county, 
Nebraska, residing on section 10, precinct 
L, was born in Monroe county, Ohio, De- 
cember 19, 185 1, a son of Alexander and 
Margaret (Brady) Brown, the former a na- 
tive of \'irginia, the latter of Pennsylvania. 
They were early settlers of Monroe county, 
Ohio, whence they removed to Iowa in the 
fall of 1866, locating in Lucas county, 
where the father died in 1867. In 1871 the 
mother with her children came to Nebraska 
and settled on section 10, precinct L, Sew- 



ard county, but after the marriage of our 
subject she lived with him and a daughter 
in Seward until her death, which occurred 
February 21, 1898. In the family were 
three children, namely: Mrs. Mary Ann 
John, a resident of Seward; Daniel, the 
subject of this review; and Ebenezer, who 
lives at University Place, Nebraska. By a 
former marriage the father had two daugh- 
ters, Margaret and Jane, and three sons, 
John, James and Benaga. The two latter 
were soldiers of the Civil war, in Company 
K, Sixty-second Ohio Infantry, and the last 
named was one of the pioneers of Sew- 
ard county, having located in precinct L 
in 1871. 

Daniel Brown, of this review, spent his 
boyhood and youth in Ohio and Iowa, ac- 
quiring his education in the public schools 
near his home. He remained with his 
mother until his marriage, which was cele- 
brated March 6, 1878, Miss Margaret E. 
Cross becoming his wife. She is a native 
of Jones county, Iowa, and a daughter of 
Henry and Catharine (Hedges) Cross, early 
settlers of Seward county, having taken up 
their residence on section 12. precinct L, 
in the fall of 1870. Our subject and his 
wife have become the parents of seven chil- 
dren, but only three are now living: Clar- 
ence Leroy, Willis Irving and Laurence 
Vernon. 

Mr. Brown commenced life in Nebraska 
in true pioneer style, his first home being a 
little sod shanty with a car roof. The first 
year he raised only sod corn and a few 
garden vegetables, and in 1872 raised a 
crop of small grain. The family pre-empted 
the land first, but later homesteaded it, and 
Mr. Brown today has a fine farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres, all under a high 
state of cultivation, well improved with 
good buildings, and has an orchard and cedar 
grove. Here he has made his home since 
coming to Nebraska, with the exception of 
a year and a half, and is successfully en- 



882 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



gaged in general farming, raising both grain 
and stock. For the past fifteen years he 
has also engaged in well digging. Politic- 
ally he is a Populist, and he has been 
honored with a number of local offices of 
trust, being township assessor three terms; 
director of school district No. 42 for twelve 
years; and the present township clerk, an 
office he has most acceptably filled for 
several terms. Socially he and wife are 
members of the Royal Oaks, at Utica, Ne- 
braska, and religiously his wife is an active 
worker in the Methodist Protestant church. 



EL. MARTIN, the present mayor of 
Fairmont and one of its most energetic 
and enterprising business men, has been a 
resident of that place for over thirty-two 
years and has therefore witnessed the great- 
er part of the growth and development of 
this region. In its progress he has mani- 
fested a deep interest and has ever taken 
his part in support of those measures cal- 
culated to prove of public good. 

A native of New York, Mr. Martin was 
born in Allegany county, August 22, 1828, 
and is a son of Jeremiah and Polly (^Little- 
field) Martin, natives of Vermont. During 
the war of 1812, the father entered the 
American army and served one year. When 
hostilities ceased, he returned to his home 
in Vermont and later removed from there 
to Allegany county. New York, where he 
studied medicine and engaged in practice 
until 1844. From New York, he went to 
Dodge county, Wisconsin, where, in con- 
nection with the practice of his chosen pro- 
fession, he served as a local Methodist Epis- 
copal minister. He never took any inter- 
est in politics or sought office. Both he 
and his wife died in Wisconsin, the former 
in 1854, the latter in 1858. In their family 
were six children, five sons and one daugh- 
ter, but all are now deceased with the ex- 
ception of our subject. 



Reared in New York, Mr. Martin, of 
this review, acquired a limited education in 
the schools of that state. When very young 
he began the battle of life for himself, his 
first employment being as cook in a logging 
camp. He accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Wisconsin, and assisted in clear- 
ing and cultivating the home farm, on 
which he worked until reaching his major- 
ity. On the 8th of August, 1849, he led to 
the marriage altar Miss Delight A. Nichols, 
also a native of Allegany county. New York, 
and to them were born six children, namely: 
Horace L., Melvin E. , Effie L. ; Lucretia 
A. and Mary, both deceased; and Edwin. 
For some years Mr. Martin remained a 
resident of Wisconsin, following various oc- 
cupations, being engaged for three years in 
the manufacture of looking glasses, and for 
eleven years in the making of butter bowls. 
In November, 1868, we find him en route 
for Nebraska, and on reaching Plattsmouth 
he proceeded by stage to Lincolm. The 
same year he homesteaded a tract of land 
near Fillmore Mills, and laid out and plat- 
ted the village of Fillmore, continuing to re- 
side there until coming to Fairmont in 1874. 
Here he has since engaged in business as a 
dealer in coal, grain, stock and farm ma- 
chinery, and has succeeded in building up an 
excellent trade. 

Mr. Martin took an active and promi- 
nent part in the organization of the county 
and townships and was appointed a mem- 
ber of the first board of county commission- 
ers. Later he was elected to that office 
and served in all seven terms, receiving all 
the votes in the county at the first election. 
He was the first postmaster in the county, 
filling that office at Fillmore by appoint- 
ment from President Grant. At one time 
he was the Republican nominee for repre- 
sentative, and although defeated, he re- 
duced the majority of the opposition from 
one thousand to twenty-two. He tried 
hard to have the county seat established at 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



883 



Fairmont, but failed; was a member of the 
board of supervisors when the first court 
house was built and also when the poor 
farm was bought. It will thus be seen that 
he has been prominently identified with the 
development and prosperity of the county 
from the very beginning. Since coming to 
Fairmont, he has served seven terms as 
mayor and is still filling that responsible 
position. Never were the reins of city 
government in more capable hands, for he 
is a progressive man, pre-eminently public 
spirited, and all that pertains to the public 
welfare receives his hearty endorsment. He 
has also served as a member of the city 
council for several years and has ever dis- 
charged his official duties with promptness 
and fidelity, worthy of all commendation. 
Socially he has been identified with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows for 
forty-five years, is a charter member of the 
lodge in Fairmont, and has filled all its 
chairs. 



CHRISTIAN HOLOCH, one of the first 
settlers of York county, Nebraska, was 
born in Wurtemberg, Germany, November 
29, 1828. His parents, Jacob and Anna 
Holoch, were both natives of the same 
province, and lived and died there. They 
were farmers by occupation, and reared a 
family of nine children. Our subject and 
one sister came to the United States. 

Christian Holoch, the subject of our 
sketch, was educated in Germany, and held 
the position of overseer of a Geological 
University for ten years. This institution 
was supported by the government. In 1853 
Mr. Holoch came to America, landing at 
Mew York, and first found employment in 
a cabinet maker's shop in that city. Here 
he remained for two years and then moved 
to Wayne county, New York, and was there 
engaged in farming for two years. In 1857 
he moved to LaSalle county, Illinois, and 



worked at farming in that county for nine 
years. In June, 1866, he went to York 
county, Nebraska, and filed a homestead 
claim in McFadden township, near Red Lion 
Mills. This land he still owns and has 
added to it from time to by purchase until 
he has a fine farm of 560 acres, all well 
improved and in a high state of cultivation. 
Mr. Holoch devoted his attention to the 
operation of this farm until 1893, and then 
rented it and has since lived in the city of 
York, retired from active life. Being one 
of the oldest settlers of the county, and lo- 
cating there before the townships were or- 
ganized, our subject at once became actively 
interested in the organization of the town- 
ship in which he had made his home, and 
his name is indissolubly connected with the 
history of its growth and development. 

Mr. Holloch was married in 1855 to 
Miss Anna Kemmele, also a native of Ger- 
many. They were married in Wayne coun- 
ty. New York, and their wedded life has 
been blessed by the advent of a famil}- of 
nine children, whose names and the dates 
of their births are as follows: Frederika, 
born September 12, 1857; Henry, January 
21, 1859; George, November 4, i860; Caro- 
line, July 17, 1862; Charles, March 14, 
1864; Christian W., September 29, 1865; 
Ella and Emma, twins, born February 11, 
1870; and Mary, January 28, 1872. Emma 
died in May, 1886, and Mrs. Holoch died 
in York, Nebraska, in 1893. In politics 
Mr. Holoch is identified with the Repub- 
lican party, but has never sought public 
office. He has for many years been a mem- 
ber of the United Brethren church and one 
of the leaders in the society of that de- 
nomination in this county. Mr. Holoch 
came to this county with practically no cap- 
ital, but by industry, prudence and econ- 
omy he has won a handsome fortune, a 
powerful influence in the community and 
the respect and esteem of all who know 
him. 



884 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



WILLIAM LONG, of whom a portrait 
appears on another page, is a promi- 
nent farmer and stock raiser residing on sec- 
tion 34, Franklin township, Butler county. 
He was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, 
July 9, 1854, and on the paternal side is of 
Irish descent, his grandfather, William 
Long, having been a native of Ireland, 
whence he came to the United States at the 
age of twenty-four years, and took up his 
residence in Virginia. Our subject's father, 
John Long, was a native of the Old Domin- 
ion, and after reaching manhood removed 
from that state to Ohio, where he was num- 
bered among the pioneer settlers. He was 
in the ninety days' service during the Civil 
war, and as a means of livelihood he fol- 
lowed the occupations of carpentering and 
farming throughout life. His wife, who 
bore the maiden name of Mary J. Crawford, 
was a native of Ohio, and a daughter of John 
Crawford, who was also born on the Emer- 
ald Isle, and emigrated to America at about 
the age of twentj' years. Our subject is the 
oldest in the family of si.\ children born to 
John and Mary J. (Crawford) Long- -three 
sons and three daughters, all of whom 
reached 3'ears of maturity, with the excep- 
tion of one daughter, who died at the age 
of eight years. 

William Long removed to Mercer coun- 
ty, Illinois, with his parents at the age of 
eight years, and was there reared and edu- 
cated in much the usual manner of farmer 
boys. The year 1880 witnessed his ar- 
rival in Butler county, Nebraska, and he 
purchased a tract of eighty acres on section 
34, Franklin township, to the improvement 
and cultivation of which he devoted his 
energies until 1897, when he sold the place 
and purchased his present farm of similar 
size on the same section. In connection 
with general farming he is interested in the 
raising of sheep, and is accounted one of 
the most industrious, energetic and enter- 
prising business men of his community. 



On the 2d of January, 1890, Mr. Long 
was united in marriage with Miss Josie 
Beckner, who was born in Kosciusko coun- 
ty, Indiana, January 2, 1869, a daughter of 
Jacob and Sallie (Chivington) Beckner, na- 
tives of Ohio and Indiana, respectively. 
She is the youngest in their family of eight 
children, and by her marriage has become 
the mother of three children: Arthur, Lena 
and John B. 

Although Mr. Long is a stanch Republi- 
can in politics he has never cared for politic- 
al preferment, his time and attention being 
fully occupied with his business interests. 
Socially he affiliates with the Knights of 
Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, of David City, while his wife be- 
longs to the Daughters of Rebecca, and 
both are worthy members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 



SF. ASHBY, M. D., of Fairmont, is one 
of the most successful and prominent 
representatives of the medical fraternity in 
this section of the state. One of the most 
exacting of all the higher lines of occupa- 
tion to which a man may lend his energies 
is that of the physician. A most scrupu- 
lous preliminary training is demanded and 
a nicety of judgment little understood by 
the laity. Then again the profession brings 
its devotees into almost constant associa- 
tion with the sadder side of life — that of 
pain and suffering — so that a mind capable 
of great self control and a heart responsive 
and sympathetic are essential attributes of 
him who would essay the practice of the 
healing art. Thus when a professional suc- 
cess is attained in any instance it may be 
taken as certain that such measure of suc- 
cess has been thoroughly merited. 

Dr. Ashby was born in Carroll county, 
Illinois, September 10, 1864, a son of John 
S. and Catherine E. (Bancroft) Ashby, na- 
tives of Canada and Ohio, respectively. 




WILLIAM LONG AND FAMILY 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



887 



The Ashby family came to the United 
States about 1840 and settled in Carroll 
county, Illinois, where the doctor's father 
was reared and continues to make his home. 
By occupation he is a farmer and stock 
raiser. His wife is still living, also their 
seven children. 

Dr. Ashby was reared on the home farm 
and commenced his education in the com- 
mon schools of the neighborhood, but was 
later a student for two years in Jennings 
Seminary, Aurora, Illinois, and for three 
years in the high school of Thomson, Car- 
roll county. During that time he began 
the study of medicine under the direction 
of Dr. A. Van Patten, of Mt. Carroll, Illi- 
nois, and in 1883 entered Hahnemann Med- 
ical College, Chicago, where he was gradu- 
ated in 1885. As a homeopathic physician 
he then engaged in practice in Mt. Carroll 
for si.\ months, but in the fall of 1885 we 
find him established at Fairmont, where he 
was not long in building up the extensive 
practice which he still enjoys. He is a pro- 
gressive physician and a close student of his 
profession, and since locating here has 
taken a post-graduate course at Hahnemann 
College, another at the Post-Graduate 
school of Chicago, and spent some time in 
study at the Cook County Hospital in that 
city. He now has a large general practice; 
in July, 1897, was elected head physician 
for the Modern Woodmen of America for 
Nebraska and Wyoming; was appointed 
railroad physician for the Burlington & Mis- 
souri River Railroad, February 7, 1894, and 
is still filling that position to the entire satis- 
faction of the company. He is an honored 
member of the American Institute, and also 
of the Nebraska State Homeopathic Med- 
ical Society. 

In 1890 was celebrated the marriage of 
Dr. Ashby and Miss Nellie R. Cowdry, a 
native of Wisconsin and a daughter of Will- 
iam Cowdry, and they now have one child, 
Ruth C. Socially the Doctor is quite prom- 



inent, and is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. He joined the Woodmen's Camp 
at Thomson, Illinois, July 16, 1883, becom- 
ing the one hundred and fifty-sixth member 
of that order, and has since been prominent- 
ly connected with it. He was one of the 
founders of the camp at Fairmont, in which 
he has filled all the chairs; has represented 
the state of Nebraska in the National Camp 
three times; and for two years served as 
state physician for the order. In politics he 
is an ardent Republican, and has most effi- 
ciently and satisfactorily served as city 
physician of Fairmont for several years. 
He has met with success, financially, as well 
as professionally in his adopted state and is 
now the owner of some valuable property 
in his town and county. As a pleasant, 
genial gentleman, he is widely and favor- 
ably known, and has many friends. 



BENJAMIN F. FARLEY, M. D., has re- 
sided in York county thirteen years. 
He was born in Crawford county, Pennsyl- 
vania, June 9, 1843, a son of Samuel C. 
and Jane A. (Walker) Farley, who were 
natives of New York and Pennsylvania, re- 
spectively. The father was a carpenter and 
builder by occupation. In 1845 he moved 
to Illinois, settled in DeKalb county and 
there engaged in farming. He died in Ford 
county, Illinois, in July, 1877, and his wife 
died two years later. They were the par- 
ents of eight children, one of whom died in 
infancy. 

Doctor Farley was educated in the com- 
mon schools of Illinois, the Fowler Institute 
at Newark and the Wesleyen University at 
Bloomington, and then engaged for a time 
in teaching school. He be began the study 
of medicine in 1866, and in 1867 he en- 
tered the medical department of the Uni- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



versityof Michigan, and remained there one 
year, and spent the following summer in the 
chemical laboratory of that institution. In 
1869 he entered the Rush Medical College, 
of Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from the 
same in 1870. Dr. Farley also took a post- 
graduate course in the Rush Medical College 
in 1 878- 1 879, and also a practitioner's course 
in the same college and a special course in 
1881. In 1889-90 he took a course at the 
Post-Graduate School and Hospital of New 
York, and also a course in surgery and 
gynecology at the New York Polyclinic. 
In the spring of 1890 he attended the Chi- 
cago Polyclinique, and in the spring of 
1894 he took a course in the Chicago Post- 
Graduate School and Hospital. 

After graduating from the Rush Medical 
College, in 1870, Dr. Farley began the 
practice of his profession at Braceville, 
Illinois, and one year later he went to 
Buckingham, Kankakee county, Illinois, 
and was stationed at that place for fifteen 
years. In 1885 he went to York, Nebraska, 
and has since made that city his base of 
operations. February 8, 1865, Dr. Farley 
was united in marriage to Miss Emly A. 
Smith, daughter of Dr. S. T. Smith, of 
Grundy county, Illinois. Doctor Smith is 
still living, is now eighty-one years of age 
but is practicing medicine in Florida. Our 
subject and Mrs. Farley are the parents of 
a family of three children: Rosie E., wife 
of O. L. Linch of Denver, Colorado; Edna 
I. and Bessie M. The Doctor is a member 
of the State Medical Society, the Nebraska 
District Medical Society for which he has 
performed the duties of president for two 
years, and the York County Medical Society 
of which he has been president one term. 
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
K. of M., and other insurance lodges. He 
is a man of superior ability, has an enviable 
reputation for integrity of character and 
uprightness in business methods, and has 
been very successful and built up for him- 



self a large and lucrative patronage. In 
politics he is a Prohibitionist and is a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



GROVE DISNEY, whose home has 
been on section 30, Oak Creek town- 
ship, Butler county, since the 9th of June, 
1868, is one of the most thorough and 
skillful farmers of his community. In 
common with the other early settlers he en- 
dured all the hardships and privations of 
pioneer life, but in his efforts to secure a 
good home for himself and family, he labor- 
ed steadily until this was accomplished, be- 
ing now in the enjoyment of a comfortable 
competence. 

Mr. Disney was born near Baltimore, 
Maryland, December 15, 1832, and is a son 
of James and Elizabeth (Leshar) Disney, 
the former of Scotch-Irish descent, the 
latter of German origin. His paternal 
grandfather, James Disney, was a native of 
Scotland, but came to this country prior to 
the Revolutionary war and settled in Mary- 
land. As a soldier in the Continental army, 
he aided the colonies in their successful 
struggle for independence. The parents of 
our subject, who are farming people, were 
married in Maryland, whence they emi- 
grated to Ohio in 1836, settling in Licking 
county, where they made their home for ten 
years. About 1846 the father traded his 
property in that locality for three hundred 
and seventy-five acres of land in La Grange 
county, Indiana, which at that time was 
covered with a heavy growth of timber. 

In their forest home. Grove Disney, who 
was the fifth son in the family, early be- 
came familiar with the use of the ax, as- 
sisting in clearing and improving the farm. 
Of this work there was plenty to keep the 
boy busy, leaving little time for idleness. 
Until he attained his majority he remained 
under the parental roof, and on leaving 
home in 1852 he started across the plains 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



SS* 



to the gold fields of California, via Fort 
Larimie and Salt Lake Cit}', to Hangtown, 
being five months and twenty-six days en 
route. At first he followed mining, but 
later engaged in teaming and in various 
other occupations until he had cleared two 
thousand when he decided to return to the 
east. Leaving San Francisco on the 7th 
of April, 1856, he proceeded to New York 
by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the 
Island of Jamaica, arriving in the eastern 
metropolis about a month later. 

Prior to his going to the Pacific slope 
Mr. Disney was married to Hannah N. Os- 
borne, who died during his absence, leaving 
one son, Albert. Six months after his re- 
turn to the east he located in Rock Island, 
Illinois, where he remained until August, 
1862, when he entered the Union service, 
as a member of Company I, One Hundred 
and Twenty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infan- 
try. He served with the army of the Mis- 
sissippi and Tennessee until taken sick at 
Ball's Bluff and sent to the hospital, where 
he was finally discharged. He did not re- 
cover his health for a year after his return 
home, and then the war was over. 

In Mercer county, Illinois, Mr. Disney 
was again married, March 29, 1865, his sec- 
ond union being with Mrs. Margrett J. Rog- 
ers, whose maiden name was Wellever, by 
whom he has eight children, namely: Ed- 
ward; Thomas; John; James, who married 
Delia Scott and has one child; May, who 
married Charles Fleek and has two chil- 
dren ; Elsie ; Grove ; and Rebecca (deceased). 
With the exception of the first two all were 
born in Nebraska. 

After his marriage, Mr. Disney engaged 
in farming in Rock Island county, Illinois, 
and in Iowa until 1868, when he decided to 
come to Nebraska, and with his family, two 
wagons, two cows and two calves, he start- 
ed across the country, passing through 
Plattsmouth and Lincoln. "One had to 
look close to see the latter city," which at 



that time consisted of two or three houses 
and and a sawmill. Securing a homestead 
of one hundred and sixty acres on Oak 
creek, in Butler county, Mr. Disney and 
his family lived in their wagons until a log 
house, fourteen by eighteen feet, could be 
erected. The surrounding country was then 
unbroken prairie, and in the wonderful 
changes that have since taken place, our sub- 
ject has been an important factor. Since 
attaining his majority he has always been 
identified with the Democratic party, which 
had but three supporters in Butler county 
when he took up his residence here. Fra- 
ternally he is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 



FRANK DURHAM.— Among the promi- 
nent and progressive young men of 
Fillmore county, who are turning their at- 
tention to agricultural pursuits, is Mr. Dur- 
ham, whose home is on section 26, Belle 
Prairie township. Although young in years, 
still, having excellent business ability, he 
has already placed himself in a position 
with the prosperous and well-to-do farmers 
of this portion of the county, and is ranked 
among the best citizens of the township. 

For a quarter of a century Mr. Durham 
has been a resident of Fillmore county, be- 
ing only four years old when he came here 
with his parents, George and Anna B. 
(Stowell) Durham, who were among its 
honored pioneers. The father was born in 
England, July 26, 1830, and at the age of 
twenty-three crossed the Atlantic and took 
up his residence in Canada, where he was 
married in May, 1859, to Miss Anna B. 
Stowell. She was born in New York state, 
September 27, 1841, and obtained only a 
common-school education. Her parents 
were Oliver and Mary (Church) Stowell, 
who were married in this country. Mrs. 
Stowell was a native of England and died 
in New York at the early age of twenty- 



890 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7'. 



seven years, leaving a husband and three 
daughters -to mourn her untimely death, 
Mrs. Durham being at that time only five 
years old. The other children were Martha 
and Mary, of whom the latter died at the 
age of two, soon after the mother's death. 
Subsequently the father married Miss Mary 
Sipes, and to them was born a son, Ralph 
Stovvell, who lives on a farm in Belle 
Prairie township adjoining that of Mrs. 
Durham. The father died in New York 
state at the age of thirty-eight years, but 
his second wife is still living and a resident 
of Nebraska. 

In the spring of 1872, Mr. and Mrs. 
Durham, the parents of our subject, came 
to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and in Belle 
Prairie township took up a farm of eighty 
acres, on which the mother and son still re- 
side. At that time the family had only one 
team and a small amout of personal proper- 
ty, but by industry, perseverance and econ- 
omy, they have accumulated a good prop- 
erty and now have two hundred and forty 
acres in Fillmore county. Their first home 
here was a sod house, in which they lived 
for ten years, but it has since been replaced 
by a comfortable and attractive residence, 
surrounded by good out-buildings, a beautiful 
grove and orchard. At one time they re- 
moved to Frontier county, this state, where 
they owned a quarter section of land, but 
three years ago returned to the old home- 
stead in Fillmore county, where the father 
died January 14, 1896, at the age of sixty- 
five years, leaving a widow and three sons 
to mourn his loss. His remains were in- 
terred in Harmony cemetery, Fillmore coun- 
ty. He was a devoted husband and loving 
father. He was a true Christian, being a 
life-long member of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and was greatly beloved and re- 
spected for his many qualities and noble 
character. 

George Durham, the oldest son, married 
Miss Ida Randolph, a native of Illinois, who 



came to this state with her parents. She 
died on the Durham homestead at the age 
of twenty-three years and was laid to rest 
in Harmony cemetery. She left one son, 
Merton R., now twelve years of age, who 
lives with our subject and his grandmother. 
For his second wife George Durham mar- 
ried Miss Lillian Brown, and they now live 
in Frontier county. John Durham, the sec- 
ond son, married Miss Neola Crawford and 
resides in Frontier county. 

Frank Durham, who completes thefamily, 
continues to reside upon the old homestead 
with his mother and nephew. He can re- 
late many interesting incidents of pioneer 
life and has watched with interest this region 
change from a wild, unsettled prairie to a 
thickly populated and well improved coun- 
try. In this transformation he has borne an 
important part by aiding in the develop- 
ment and cultivation of a fine farm. The 
early settlers experienced many hardships 
and privations but they also had many 
pleasures, and their little log cabins, sod 
houses were the scenes of great merry- 
making and keen enjoyment. At times they 
also displayed great heroism, and Mr. Dur- 
ham can vividly picture and relate heroic 
acts of many of the noted homesteaders in 
Fillmore county. His family has ever been 
one of the most prominent and highly re- 
spected in this region and have always given 
their support to all enterprises calculated to 
advance the moral, social or material wel- 
fare of the community. They all hold 
membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Politically Mr. Durham is a Re- 
publican. 



LEVI HAFER, an industrious and thrifty 
farmer, has been an important factor in 
the upbuilding and development of Seward 
county, where he has now made his home 
for thirty years. The difference between 
past and the present can scarcely be real- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHT. 



891 



ized, even by those who were active par- 
ticipants in the transformation that has ' 
taken place. When our subject located 
here nearly all the land was still in its 
primitive condition, the few settlers were 
widely scattered and the Indians were far 
more numerous than the white men. 

Mr. Hafer was born in Northumberland 
county, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1844, 
and is a son of Andrew and Susan Foust) 
Hafer, highly respected farming people, who 
spent their entire lives in the Iveystone 
state. The mother died in Nebraska while 
here on a visit. Their family consisted of 
ten children, six sons and four daughters, 
and of these our subject and a sister now 
make their home in Seward county, Ne- 
braska. During his boyhood and youth 
Levi Hafer attended school in his native 
state, and when his education was completed 
he engaged in farming there until 1868, 
when he decided to try his fortune in the 
west and came to Seward county, driving 
across the country from Illinois. He took 
up a homestead where he now lives, erected 
thereon a sod house, and at once turned 
his attention to the improvement and culti- 
vation of his land, which he soon converted 
into a fine farm. He now owns four hun- 
dred acres of land, all under a high state of 
cultivation and equipped with all the acces- 
sories and conveniences of a model farm of 
the nineteenth century. 

In Pennsylvania, in 1866, Mr. Hafer 
was united in marriage with Miss Sarah L. 
Huffman, a native of that state and a daugh- 
ter of Daniel and Mary (Frymire) Huffman, 
and to this worthy couple have been born 
the following children: Martin A., Ervin 
R. , John S., Susie M. and Charles E., all 
living; and the following now deceased: 
Lewis F., Ida M., William T. , Ernest 
R. and Daniel B. The family hold mem- 
bership in the United Brethren church of 
Seward, of which Mr. Hafer is one of the 
officers, and he assisted in building the first 



church ever erected in the county, having 
always taken an active interest in every 
movement calculated to benefit his fellow 
men. Being a strong temperance man, he 
casts his ballot for the men and measures 
of the Prohibition party and does all in his 
power to advance its interests. The success 
that he has achieved in life is due entirely 
to his own unaided efforts, and he has not 
only gained a handsome competence, but 
has won the esteem of all who know him. 
Mr. Hafer has given special attention to the 
breeding of pure Poland China hogs and 
now owns one of the finest herds in the 
county. 



THE FAIRMONT TRIBUNE, one of 
the leading and most popular journals 
of Fillmore county, was founded January 
I 5, 1897, by C. J. Resler and Norman Jack- 
son, who conducted it until April of that 
year, when E. T. Child became interested 
in the plant, the firm becoming Resler & 
Child. On the ist of March, 1898, Mr. 
Resler retired, and since then Mr. and Mrs. 
Child have conducted the paper quite suc- 
cessfully and have displayed marked skill 
and ability in its management. The cir- 
culation has been increased from eighty- 
eight to over three hundred. 

Mr. Child is a native of Iowa, born in 
Dunlap, Harrison county, in 1873, and was 
reared and educated in that state, attending 
first the common schools and later the 
Woodbine Normal School at Woodbine, 
Iowa. For four years he successfully en- 
gaged in teaching school in Iowa and at the 
same time was also employed by the pub- 
lishers of the " W'allace Farmer and Dairy- 
man," and " The Iowa Homestead." In 
April, 1897, he came to Fairmont, Ne- 
braska, and became connected with "The 
Tribune," since which time he ha? devoted 
his entire attention to journalism. In his 
political proclivities Mr. Child is a stalwart 



892 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



supporter of the Populist party and its prin- 
ciples, and both personally and in his edi- 
torial utterances he wields a potent influ- 
ence in furthering the interest of its cause. 
He has served as a delegate to the different 
conventions of his party, and is a member 
of the Sons and Daughters of Protection. 
He is an enterprising and progressive young 
man, and has succeeded in building up a 
good business in his chosen profession. 

In Iowa, Mr. Child was married, in 
April, 1897, to Miss Mamie B. Hall, of 
Ames, that state, and to them has been 
born a daughter, Frances H. Mrs. Child 
is a most estimable lady and has been of 
great assistance to her husband in the pub- 
lication of the "Tribune." 



WW. MAXWELL.— Among the active 
and enterprising farmers and stock 
raisers of Hackberry precinct, Polk county, 
the gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this sketch holds a prominent place. 
His home is on the southeast quarter of 
section 14, township 13, range i, and he has 
one hundred and sixty acres, all but ten of 
which are under excellent cultivation, and 
well improved with good and substantial 
buildings, which stand as monuments to his 
thrift and industry. 

Mr. Maxwell was born in Montgomery 
county, Ohio, February 10, 1834, and is a 
son of Benjamin and Jane (McCormick) 
Maxwell, natives of Virginia and Pennsylva- 
nia, respectively. The paternal grandfather, 
Henry Maxwell, was a native of Ireland, 
and settled in Pennsylvania on coming to 
the new world with his father, who took up 
arms against the mother country in the 
Revolutionary war. Our subject's mater- 
nal grandfather, William McCormick, was 
born in Scotland, and at an early age 
crossed the Atlantic and took up his resi- 
dence in Virginia. The parents of our sub- 
ject were married in Montgomery county, 



Ohio, and in 1S34 emigrated to Indiana, 
becoming pioneer settlers of Carroll coun- 
ty, where the father cleared and improved 
a farm, but in 1850 moved to Jefferson 
county, Iowa, and again opened up a new 
farm on what was then the frontier. There 
he died in 1884 and his wife in 1882, hon- 
ored and respected by all who knew them. 
Prompted by a love of country he enlisted 
in October, 1861, at the age of sixty years, 
in Company F, Third Iowa Cavalry, and 
served for one year. By his horse falling 
one of his wrists was broken, and he was 
honorably discharged at the end of that 
time. In his family were fourteen children, 
nine of whom reached years of maturity, 
namely: John, now deceased; George, who 
went to Oregon in 1850, and was a major 
in an Indian war, and also governor of 
Washington territory; W. W., the subject 
of this sketch; Abner, now dead, who was 
also a member of the Third Iowa Cavalry 
during the Civil war; Mrs. Elizabeth Root, 
a resident of Jefferson county, Iowa; Mrs. 
Isabel Frazee, who lives near Thayer, Ne- 
braska; Harvey, a resident of Jefferson 
county, Iowa, who was a soldier in the 
Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and 
was never off duty except six days during 
his entire service; Isaac, who also lives in 
Jefferson county, Iowa; and James, who 
was drowned in Iowa. 

During his infancy W. W. Maxwell was 
taken by his parents to their new home in 
Carroll county, Indiana, and was fifteen 
years of age when he accompanied them on 
their removal to Jefferson county, Iowa. 
He received a common-school education 
and began life for himself at the age of eight- 
een years, working out by the month for 
four years. He then engaged in farming on 
his own account in Iowa until August, 1861, 
when he laid aside all personal interests 
and enlisted in Company F, Third Iowa 
Volunteer Cavalry, as wagoner. He was 
sent to St. Louis on a scouting expedition 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



893 



of ten days, but never got back to his regi- 
ment for over two years. By way of Jeffer- 
son City, he went to Mexico, Booneviile 
and Fulton, Mo., where he arrived Decem- 
ber 25, 1 86 1. Later he was again at Mex- 
ico and Paris, Missouri, and then back 
again to Mexico, where he responded to a 
call for one hundred men to go to Camp 
Jackson, St. Louis. From there he went 
to Rolla, Missouri, and then to Lebanon, 
and was sent to Houston, where General 
Warren was stationed. He was in the en- 
gagement's against Price and Marmaduke 
at Hartsville, and in December started for 
Little Rock, Arkansas, but on reaching 
Pleasant Plains was ordered back to Pilot 
Knob, where he remained until going to 
Helena, Arkansas. After the rebels were 
driven from that place he returned to Pilot 
Knob, and July I, 1863, started for Little 
Rock with General Davidson's command, 
which met General's Steele's forces near 
Brownsville, where an engagement was 
brought on. The Third Iowa Cavalry were 
the first Union soldiers to enter Little Rock, 
and after a short time spent there were 
ordered to Lebanon, Arkansas, where they 
were engaged in scouting, etc. There Mr. 
Maxwell re-enlisted with seven hundred and 
seven of the regiment, and was granted a 
thirty days' furlough. He was sent to 
Memphis, Tennessee, was in the fight at 
Guntown, and also at Memphis during For- 
rest's raid. The regiment was re-united at 
Benton, Arkansas. Our subject remained 
at Memphis until December, 1864, when he 
was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky, and 
was later sent to the hospital at Keokuk, 
Iowa. He was mustered out with his regi- 
ment and paid off at Davenport, Iowa, in 
August, 1865, returning home with an hon- 
orable war record, of which he may be 
justly proud. 

After farming for one year in Jefferson 
county, Mr. Maxwell removed to Keokuk 
■county, Iowa, where he was similarly em- 



ployed for four years, and then came to 
Polk county, Nebraska, taking up his resi- 
dence upon his present homestead May i, 
1870. While he and his wife were erecting 
their sod house they spent the nights in a 
dug-out belonging to Colonel Roberts. 
They had no neighbors; there had been no 
roads laid out, and they had to go to Lin- 
coln to do their marketing, but notwithstand- 
ing the inconveniences and hardships, their 
pioneer life was a happy one. With the ex- 
ception of two years spent in the hotel busi- 
ness in Rising City, Mr. Maxwell has given 
his entire time and attention to the improve- 
ment and cultivation of his farm, which is 
now one of the best in the locality. 

While home on a veteran furlough, Mr. 
Maxwell was married February 18, 1864, 
to Miss Rebecca Sunderland, who 
was born in Washington county, Penn- 
sylvania, a daughter of William and Matilda 
(Klechner) Sunderland, natives of Maryland 
and Ohio, respectively. In 1851 her parents 
emigrated to Iowa, where the father died in 
1 85 1, but the mother is still living. Their 
children were Mrs. Maxwell; John, who 
died in the service of his country during the 
Rebellion, being a member of the Forty- 
fifth Iowa Infantry; Alvin; Mrs. Martha 
Abraham; Joseph; Harry; and William. Of 
the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Max- 
well, six are living: Pearl, now the wife of 
Richard Marsden, by whom she has three 
children, Ruby, Verne, Willie and an infant; 
Ida, wife of Perry Pogue, by whom she has 
three children, Ethel, Fay and Harry; 
Hayes; Ellsworth; and Alvin. The parents 
are both faithful members of the United 
Brethren church of their township, in which 
Mr. Maxwell is serving as trustee and treas- 
urer of the board. He is one of the most 
prominent members of B. F. Stephenson 
Post, No. 132, G. A. R. , of Gresham, in 
which he has filled all the offices, being the 
present commander. He has always been 
an ardent supporter of the Republican party, 



894 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



takes an active and influential part in local 
political affairs, and has frequently served 
as a delegate to the conventions of his party. 
For three years he was an efficient county 
commissioner of Polk county, and for many 
years has been a member of the school board, 
being the present moderator in school dis- 
trict No. 3. Together with \V. F. McClean 
and Levi Fuller, he organized the Old Set- 
tlers' Society of Polk county, calling the first 
meeting August 18, 1885, at which time 
there were between five and six thousand 
people in attendance. 



I 



GEORGE W. GRIBBLE is one of the 
most popular and influential agricul- 
turists of precinct F, Seward county, and 
is a true type of western progress and en- 
terprise, taking a deep and commendable 
interest in public affairs, and giving his sup- 
port to all undertakings which he believes 
calculated to advance the interests of his 
township and county along any line. 

Mr. Gribble is a native of Pennsylvania, 
his birth occurring in Fayette county, Oc- 
tober 30, 1855. His parents, John and 
Malinda (McCormick) Gribble, were also 
born in Fayette county, where the father 
still continues to follow the occupation of 
farming, which he has made his life-work. 
In the family were five sons, but our sub- 
ject is the only one in the west. He is in- 
debted to the public schools of his native 
county for his educational advantages, and 
his business training was obtained upon the 
home farm, where he remained until attain- 
ing his majority. In 1876 he went to Ful- 
ton county, Illinois, where the following 
four years were passed, and in 1880 be- 
came a resident of Seward county, Ne- 
braska, his home being in precinct F' since 
that time. That year he was united in 
marriage with Miss Edith Henderson, a 
daughter of Samuel Henderson, whose sketch 
appears on another page of this volume. 



Seven children grace this union: Blanch, 
Lawrence, Iva, Nellie, Grace, Elsie Z. and 
John S., all living. 

Socially Mr. Gribble affiliates with the 
Woodmen of the World, and the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and politically is 
identified with the People's party. His 
fellow citizens recognizing his worth and 
ability, have called him to public office, and 
he most acceptably served as supervisor of 
F township from 1886 to 1893, chairman of 
the county board of supervisors three years, 
assessor two terms, and has also filled some 
school offices. In 1891 he was the candi- 
date of his party for sheriff of the county, 
and was defeated by only forty-one votes, 
his popularity being plainly indicated by 
the large vote he received. 



E DOUGLAS BENNETT, an ambitious 
and wide-awake farmer, with business 
habits and proclivities, has his home on sec- 
tion 17, Waco township, and is one of the 
most prominent characters of York county. 
He is still in the prime of life, and made a 
record for himself of which any man could 
be proud. 

Mr. Bennett was born in Clarke county, 
Indiana, March 20, 1856, and was only five 
and a half years old when his parents 
brought him to Adams county, Illinois. 
There he lived until he attained manhood. 
He was a student in the common schools, 
and made of their opportunities. He was 
born and bred a farmer, and though he has 
tried other occupations, yet the habits and 
methods of early life were not easily broken, 
and the farm has always wooed him back 
from any other work to which he might 
have set his hand. When twenty-one years 
old he struck out for himself, and imme- 
diately contracted a marriage with Miss 
Harriet E. Robertson, a native of Adams 
county, Illinois, where she was born March 
20, 1856. She is a daughter of Joseph 



COMPENDIUM 01^ BIOGRAPIIV 



895 



Robertson, who is now a resident of 
Seward county, Nebraska. The young hus- 
band engaged in farming in Illinois until 
1880, when he came into this county, and 
settled where we find him today. He 
bought a place that was partially improved, 
and putting up a little frame residence, six- 
teen feet square, and a sod stable, was ready 
for work. He built his present residence in 
1892, and is most comfortably and con- 
veniently located. He holds an uncontest- 
ed title to two hundred and forty acres of 
as good land as the state presents, and prac- 
tically has it all under cultivation. He is 
engaged in general farming, has a good 
grade of stock on his place, and is constant- 
ly improving it. In 1884 he moved into 
the city of Waco, and engaged in the insur- 
ance business for a year, and was in a store 
for a year, but went back to the farm. 
After two years in the country he located at 
Gresham, where he was in the livery busi- 
ness for three years, but the farm was too 
attractive, and he came back to it once 
more. This time he staid. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett are the parents of seven children, 
all of whom are still living. The oldest 
daughter, Mary Ethel, is the wife of Warren 
Moore. The other and younger children 
are all at home. Their names are Jephtha 
L., Lola, Nellie Myrtle, Jennie E., I^ulu A. 
and Ezra T. J. He is a member of the 
Ancient Order Order of United Workmen, 
at Gresham, aud votes and works with the 
People's party in all matters of political 
importance. He has been treasurer of the 
township, and is the present moderator of 
school district, No. 51. 

Mr. Bennett traces his descent from an 
old and respectable family of North Caro- 
lina. His father and mother were both 
natives of that state. Thomas Bennett 
was born in 1808 and Rachel (Prather) 
Bennett in 181 1. He was a farmer, and 
when he married in North Carolina, it was 
with the resolution that his home should be 

51 



in the west. They emigrated to Indi ma 
nearly si.xty \earsago, and in 1858, removed 
to Adams count}-, Illinois, where he settled 
on a prairie farm. He lived there all the 
rest of his days and died there October 4, 
1877. She still survives, and keeps her 
home on the Adams county homestead. 
They were the parents of ten children: Al- 
vin, Chloe, Emma, Benton, Nancy, Sarah, 
Jefferson, Kate, Missouri, and the subject 
of this article. The}' were members of the 
Methodist church south, and were much 
esteemed b\' those who knew them best. 



THE FILLMORE CHRONICLE, of 
Fairmont, is the Pioneer paper of Fill- 
more county, and is one of the best edited 
and most popular journals in this section of 
the state. It was founded May i, 1872, as 
the Fairmont " Bulletin " and retained that 
name until 1886, when it was changed to 
the Fillmore "Chronicle." It changed 
ownership from time to time until 1885, 
when it was purchased by Joseph Frazier 
and his son, Lou \\'. , who then took charge 
of the same. 

Joseph Frazier was a native of Jefferson 
county, Ohio, born June 11, 1828, and 
grew to manhood in that state, where he 
followed the millwright's trade and engaged 
in merchandising up to the time of the 
breaking out of the Civil war. In 1861, he 
responded to his country's call for aid, en- 
listing in Company G, Fifteenth Ohio \'ol- 
unteer Infantry, for ninety days. At the 
end of that time he was mustered out with 
the rank of second lieutenant, but soon 
afterward re-enlisted as a private in Com- 
pany B, of the same regiuient, and was in 
many of the important battles of the war 
until wounded at Kenesaw Mountain, June 
24, 1863, being shot by a sharp-shooter 
through the left arm and shoulder. Being 
unfit for further service, he was honorably 
discharged and returned home. He re- 



890 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPH7'. 



mained in Ohio until November, 1 870, when 
he came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
took up a homestead on section 12, Grafton 
township, where the Fillmore Mills are now 
located. There he engaged in milling for a 
short time, but in the spring of 1875 came 
to Fairmont and for some years ran a hack 
line from that place to York. He then fol- 
lowed different occupations until he became 
interested in what is now the Fillmore 
" Chronicle " of which he wa's editor and 
manager until 1889, when he was com- 
pelled to relinquish the work on account of 
failing health and lived retired until his 
death on the 13th of August, 1892, after 
eighteen months' illness. 

In 1857, in Ohio, Joseph Fra2ier was 
'united in marriage with Miss Talitha Spence, 
Avho was born in Harrison county, Ohio, 
and is still living in Fairmont, Nebraska. 
Of the five children born to this union, one 
son and one daughter, also survive, namely; 
Lou W. and Anna M. Mr. Frazier affiliated 
with the Grand Army of the Republic and 
was a charter member of Fairmont Post. 
Politically he was an ardent Republican, 
and took an active and prominent part in 
the councils of his party. He also assisted 
in the organization of the county, and was 
recognized as one of the most valuable and 
useful citizens of his community. He had 
many warm friends, and his death was deeply 
regretted by all who new him. 

Lou W. Frazier was born in Belmont 
county, Ohio, December 2, 1869. He was 
reared in this state and educated in the 
schools of Fairmont. At the age of fourteen 
he began learning the printer's trade in the 
office of which he has control, and in 1885 
assisted in establishing a paper at Kimball, 
then known as Antelopeville, but remained 
there only a few months. On his return to 
Fairmont, the same year, he and his father 
purchased the present Fillmore Chronicle, 
with the publication of which he has since 
been prominently identified. Since 1889, 



he has had entire control of the paper, and 
prior to that time had charge of the me- 
chanical department. It is published in 
the interest of the Republican party and 
now has a circulation of seven hundred and 
fifty. Mr. Frazer is assisted by his sister in 
reporting for the paper. He was married, 
April 7, 1892, to Miss Anna Shoff, a native 
of Iowa, and a daughter of John Shoff, one 
of the pioneers of Fillmore county, and they 
now have one son, Donald W. Socially 
Mr. Frazier is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, the Modern 
\\'ookmen of America, the Royal Highland- 
ers, the Sons of Veterans, and the Knights 
of Ak-Sar-Ben. As a Republican, he takes' 
quite an influential part in local politics, 
and has served as a delegate to a number of 
state and county conventions. He is a 
member of the State Press Association and 
also the Nebraska Federation of Republican 
Newspapers. 



HENRYC. LANPHERE, whose home is 
on section 14, Stewart township, is a 
prominent representative of the agricultural 
interests of York county, and since coming 
to the county, in 1872, he has borne an im- 
portant part in its development and pros- 
perity. He was born in Booneville, Oneida 
county. New York, June 30, 1842, and is a 
son of Caleb P. and Lucinda (Martin) Lan- 
phere, also natives of the Empire state. 
His grandfathers were George Lanphere and 
James M. Martin, the latter a captain in 
the war of 1812. The Lanphere family is 
of French and Welsh origin, and was found- 
ed in the United States at an early day by 
three brothers, who all settled in New Eng- 
land. 

Dr. Caleb P. Lanphere, our subject's 
father, was born May 11, 1799, and though 
still in his teens he took up arms against 
England in the war of 181 2. In 1842 he 
removed, with his family, to Whiteside 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



897 



county, Illinois, where he made his perma- 
nent home, and successfully engaged in the 
practice of medicine. He died there in 
May, 1875, and his wife, who was born 
April 19, 1803, passed to her reward De- 
cember 9, 1864. Both were consistent 
members of the Methodist church, and 
most estimable people. In their family 
were nine children, namely: Almira, still a 
resident of Whiteside county, Illinois; 
James M., deceased; Clark C, deceased, 
who was a soldier of the Mexican war; 
George J., also a soldier of the Mexican 
war, and now a resident of Utica, Nebraska; 
Albert P., a soldier of the Civil war, and a 
resident of Chicago, Illinois; Mary, de- 
ceased; Harriet, a resident of Sioux City, 
Iowa; Henry C, of this sketch; and J. C, 
a soldier of the Civil war, and a resident of 
Whiteside county, Illinois. 

Henry C. Lanphere was six years old 
when he accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Whiteside county, Illinois, where 
he was educated in the district schools. 
Coming of a patriotic family, he could not 
remain quietly at home when he believed 
that his services was needed by his country, 
and on August 6, 1862, he enlisted in Com- 
pany I, One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, as a member of the 
regimental band. From Illinois they pro- 
ceeded to Covington, Kentucky, and went 
into winter quarters at Lexington, that 
state. They were then mounted and did 
guard duty in Kentucky and Tennessee un- 
til the campaign through Georgia, when 
they formed a part of Sherman's army, go- 
ing with him to Atlanta. They were under 
General Thomas in engagements against 
Hood, and after the battle of Nashville 
were transferred to Major General Scholield's 
army in North Carolina, remaining there 
until the arrival of General Sherman, which 
was followed by the battle of Goldsboro. 
Mr. Lanphere was taken ill with typhoid 
fever, January 5, 1865, and sent to the 



hospital at Alexandria, Virginia, and later 
to Philadelphia, where he was finally dis- 
charged on the 3rd of July, following. 

Returning to Whiteside county, Illinois, 
he engaged in farming there until 1872. In 
the meantime he was married, March 26, 
1866, to Miss Elvira Marvel, a native of 
that county, of which her father. Rev. John 
Marvel, a United Brethren minister, was an 
early settler. In 1872 they came to York 
county, Nebraska, and Mr. Lanphere se- 
cured his present homestead, which, at that 
time, was all wild and unimproved, and not 
a single house could be seen from his little 
dug-out. The following year a sod-house 
was erected and it remained the home of the 
family until 1880, when the present com- 
fortable residence was erected. Our sub- 
ject raised nothing the first year, but raised 
a fair crop in 1873, and in 1874 the grass- 
hoppers destroyed his corn. Prosperity at 
length crowned his efforts, however, and he 
now has a fine farm of three hundred and 
twenty acres under a high state of cultiva- 
tion and improved with good buildings. 
During the winter he feeds cattle quite ex- 
tensively. 

Mr. Lanphere's first wife died in 1878, 
leaving six children, namely: Lulu, now 
the wife of Dr. Hylton, of Gresham, Ne- 
braska; Newton A., Dora, wife of Lot 
Richards, of Lincoln, Illinois; George, Dol- 
lie and Ralph. In 1882, Mr. Lanphere 
married Amanda Hoddinott, a native of 
Illinois, by whom he has six children: 
Alice, Thomas, Grant, Alpha, Hattie and 
Sherman. The wife and mother holds 
membership in the Presbyterian church. 
Mr. Lanphere is a charter member of 
Gresham post. No. 132, G. A. R. , of which 
he has been commander for two terms, and 
has also held office in the blue lodge of the 
Masonic order at Gresham, to which he be- 
longs. He is prominently identified with 
the Republican party in his locality, and 
has been called upon to serve as supervisor 



898 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHy. 



of Stewart township two terms, township 
clerk, and a member of the school board. 
In all the relations of life he has been found 
true and faithful to every trust reposed in 
him, and has the confidence and esteem of 
the entire community. 



AUGUST STOLLDORF.— Among the 
most energetic and thrifty farmers of 
Momence precinct, Fillmore county, are 
those who have come from beyond the .^ea 
and have brought into this fertile and pro- 
ductive countrj'the industrious and econom- 
ical habits of the old world. An able rep- 
resentative of this class is Mr. Stolldorf, 
whose home is on section 8, and the success 
that he has achieved in life is due entirely 
to his own perseverance, industry and good 
management. He was born in Germany, 
September 23, 1856, and in the spring of 
1865, was brought to America by his par- 
ents, Louis and Mary (Weisenbauch) Stoll- 
dorf, also natives of the Fatherland, who 
first located in Toledo, Ohio, and later re- 
moved to fllinois, where they made their 
home upon a farm. The father died a quar- 
ter of a century ago, at the age of 'forty- 
three years, the mother twenty years ago, 
at the age of forty-one, and both were laid 
to rest in l^ed Oak Grove cemetery, Bureau 
county, Illinois. Our subject is the second 
in order of birth in their family of eight chil- 
dren, seven sons and one daughter, all of 
whom are still living. 

August Stolldorf is a self-educated as 
well as a self-made man, for he had no school 
privileges during his boyhood and youth. 
He adopted the occupation of farming, to 
which he had been reared, and continued 
to engage in that pursuit in Illinois for some 
years. There he was married on the i8th 
of December, 1879, to Miss Minnie Goesch, 
also a native of Germany, born May 28, 
1859, and a daughter of Charles and Sophia 
(Klafersa) Goesch, who on their emigration 



to the United States located in Illinois, but 
are now leading and prominent citizens of 
Bennett precinct, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska. In their family were seven chil- 
dren. Mrs. Stolldorf was reared and edu- 
cated in her native land, and was there 
confirmed in the Lutheran church at the age 
of fourteen years. Our subject was con- 
firmed in the same church, in this country, 
and in it he and his family now hold mem- 
bership. They have six children, namely: 
Annie, Will, Emma, Lena, Louis and Mary, 
all at home. 

In 1884 Mr. Stolldorf, with his family, 
came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
after renting land for some time in Bennett 
precinct, he purchased eighty acres, in 1886, 
for one thousand si.x hundred and fifty dol- 
lars. He and his wife started out in life 
empty-handed, but being industrious, eco- 
nomical and enterprising, they have succeed- 
ed in accumulating a comfortable compe- 
tence, and now have a well improved and 
highly productive farm in Momence pre- 
cinct as the result of their combined efforts 
and good management. In political senti- 
ment, Mr. Stolldorf is a Populist, but al- 
ways votes for the man whom he believes 
best qualified to fill the office, regardless of 
party affiliations, and cast his first presiden- 
tial ballot for Grover Cleveland. Upright 
and honorable in all things, he commands 
the respect and confidence of all who know 
him, and has been called upon to serve in 
several school offices and also as trustee of 
his church. 



B MILLER, whose home is on section 
8, of Beaver township, York county, 
Nebraska, is a worthy representative of 
that great host of straightforward and up- 
right men and women that Germany has 
contributed to the making of this country. 
They have taken away brawn and muscle, 
and have identified themselves with the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



899 



free institutions in the new world, and ab- 
solutists like Count Bismarck bewail the 
loss to Germany. But we, who are close at 
hand and see how much they have gained 
for the little they have left behind, con- 
gratulate them on the choice they have 
made. They are free and independent citi- 
zens of a modern republic, the peer of any, 
and protected in the least of their rights, 
and not condemned to trail along in the pro- 
cession of mediaeval imperialism. Their 
lot is a happier one by far than it could pos- 
sibly be, had there been no way of escape 
from old-world tyrannies and oppressions. 
Mr. Miller was born in Hesse Cassel, 
Germany, December ii, 1847, and was a 
son of John and Annie Miller, both of whom 
died in their Hessian home. Four of their 
children came to America, and are still liv- 
ing. They were the subject of this sketch 
and his three sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Hern- 
miller, who lives in Chicago, Mrs. Martha 
Appel, whose home is in Jo Daviss county, 
Illinois, and Mrs. Anna Thomas, who lives 
in this same township with her brother. 
Mr. Miller remained in Germany until he had 
attained his majority. He was a waiter for 
several years in a hotel in a native town, 
but when he reached this country he en- 
gaged in farming in Jo Daviess county. 
This was in the spring of 1870, and he con- 
tinued in that region for the next six years 
or more. In 1876 he wedded Dora A. 
Moore, who was a Hessian compatriot, 'and 
had emigrated to this country in 1872. The 
young couple came into this county the 
next year, and located where they are now 
living. On the place which they secured 
twenty-three acres had gone under the 
plough, and he immediately put half of this 
into corn. He had a team, and worked 
in harvesting and threshing for his neigh- 
bors. He rented a house for a j'ear, 
and the next moved in a sod house on his 
own place. This was their home for seven 
years. In 1878 he had wheat to sell, and 



entered upon a career of prosperity that 
warranted the erection of a twelve hundred 
dollar family residence in 1885. In these 
years he has improved and increased his 
original plantation. He. has to-day a hand- 
some and well equipped farm of two hundred 
and forty acres, of which one hundred and 
eighty acres are under thorough cultivation. 
Part of the untilled sixty is used as pasture, 
and part is meadow land. He carries on a 
mixed farming, and has some very present- 
able stock on his place. 

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the parents of 
six children, Mary, Lizzie, Matilda Augusta, 
Minnie Christiana, Oswald Louis, and Al- 
bert Edwin. He is a member of the Ger- 
man Methodist church, in which he is an 
important and active worker. He is trustee, 
steward and class leader, and has acted as 
superintendent of the Sunday school. He is 
a Republican, but has never been a candi- 
date for any office. 



MH. MITCHELL, one of the represent- 
ative citizens and honored pioneers 
of precinct C, Seward county, is a native 
of Pike county, Ohio, born December 20, 
1834, and is a son of Henry and Sarah 
(Vince) Mitchell, natives of Virginia and 
Ohio, respectively. The father, who was a 
farmer by occupation, became a resident of 
Pike county, Ohio, during childhood, and 
there spent the remainder of his life, dying 
in 1837. Five children constituted his fam- 
ily, two sons and three daughters. 

Left fatherless at the early age of three 
years, M. H. Mitchell was denied the privi- 
lege of attending school, and when a mere 
child began working for other people, 
spending his boyhood and youth in his na- 
tive county. In 1858 he went to Delaware 
county, Indiana, but after living there six 
years removed to Winneshiek county, Iowa, 
and later to Mills county, that state. De- 
ciding to try his fortune still farther west. 



900 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



he came to Seward county, Nebraska, in 
1866, settling on the farm where he now 
lives, April 30 of that year, and securing 
his homestead the same month. At that 
time there were only two other settlers in 
precinct C, the country for miles around 
was all wild and unimproved, and the few 
inhabitants were troubled by the Indians 
stealing their corn and other things. The 
nearest post-office was then at Lincoln, and, 
in common with the other early settlers, 
Mr. Mitchell endured all the hardships and 
privations incident to life on the frontier. 
After erecting a small log cabin upon his 
place, he commenced to break the prairie 
with two yoke of cattle, and soon acre after 
acre was placed under the plow until to-day 
he has a fine farm of one hundred acres un- 
der a high state of cultivation and well im- 
proved. 

In April, i860, Mr. Mitchell wedded 
Miss Mary Shidler, also a native of the 
Buckeye state, and a daughter of Peter and 
Julia A. (Blake) Shidler, who removed to 
Indiana when she was only three years old. 
There the mother died, but the father's 
death occurred in Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. 
Mitchell have three children: Thomas C, 
James H.. and Sarah E., now Mrs. John 
Hatra. Socially Mr. Mitchell belongs to 
the Masonic fraternity and the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows, and politically 
he is identified with the Populists. 



JAMES H. SISTY, whose home is on 
section 24, Read township, Butler 
county, has resided here since April 
1868. He came to Nebraska, however, in 
the fall of 1867, before the county was or- 
ganized. The difference between the past 
and the present can scarcely be realized, 
even by those who have been active partic- 
ipants in the development of the county. 
Those arriving in later years can have no 
conception of what was required by the 



early settlers in transforming the wild land 
into productive farms and thriving cities 
and villages. In this work of transforma- 
tion our subject has borne an important 
part, and has secured for himself a com- 
fortable home and competence. 

Mr. Sisty was born in Columbia county, 
Pennsylvania, November 16, 1820. His 
grandfather, John Sisty, who was of French 
descent, was born in 1760, and died in 1801, 
being laid to rest in the First Baptist cem- 
etery, on Second street, between Market 
and Arch streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylva- 
nia. He was a Revolutionary hero, having 
aided the colonies in their struggle for inde- 
pendence. He married a lady of German 
extraction, and the third son born to them 
was Curtis Sisty, our subject's father, whose 
birth occurred in Delaware. On reaching 
manhood he was married in Pennsylvania 
to Miss Jane McEwen, by whom he had the 
following children: James H., John, Will- 
iam, Milton, Margaret and Susan. 

In 1 83 1, when James H. Sisty was 
eleven years old, the family emigrated to 
Seneca county, Ohio, where he was reared. 
In 1848, in Henry county, that state, he 
was united in marriage with Miss Mary 
E. Crockett, and in Ohio were born to 
them the following children: Hannah J., 
Arthur C, John, Ezra B., Warren, Ellen, 
Mabel, Curtis and Erwin G. The mother 
died after the removal of the family to Ne- 
braska, and Mr. Sisty was again married in 
September, 1883, his second union being 
with Mary Thomas, who was born in Penn- 
sylvania, in 1845, a daughter of Thomas 
Thomas, a native of Wales. She came to 
Nebraska from Wisconsin in 1882, and by 
her marriage to our subject she became the 
mother of one son. Nelson J. By a former 
marriage she has a daughter, who is now 
the wife of Arthur C. Sisty, a son of our 
subject by his first wife. 

Mr. Sisty manifested his loyalty and pa- 
riotism during the war of the Rebellion, by 



COMPENDIUM- OF BIOGRAPHY. 



901 



enlisting in Company C, Fifty-fifth Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, and faithfully serving 
until the close of the war. After the fall of 
Atlanta his regiment joined Sherman's army 
on the celebrated march to the sea. Mr. 
Sisty was always found at his place of duty, 
valiantly defending the old flag and the 
cause it represented, and in days of peace 
has proved a valuable citizen of the com- 
munity, winning the confidence and esteem 
of all with whom he comes in contact either 
in business or social life. Politically he is 
an ardent Republican, and never fails to 
cast his ballot for the candidates of that 
party. 



SAMUEL BAIR, a leading and represent- 
ative citizen of Fairmont township, 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, rs successfully 
engaged in agricultural pursuits on section 
2, where he has made his home since 1870. 
A gentleman of integrity and sterling 
worth, he has pursued the even tenor of 
his way as an honest man and good citizen, 
and commands the respect of all who know 
him. 

Mr. Bair was born in Bedford county, 
Pennsylavania, May 4, 1837, and is a son 
of Samuel and Nancy (Anderson) Bair, also 
natives of Pennsylvanaia, where the father 
died, but the mother's death occurred at the 
home of our subject in this county. The 
paternal grandfather, Zacharias Bair, was 
a native of Maryland and was a farmer by 
occupation, as have been most of the an- 
cestors of our subject. 

Mr. Bair, of this review, was reared in 
his native stale and is indebted to its public 
schools for his educational advantages. 
There he commenced life for himself as a 
farmer, and also engaged in blacksmithing 
to some extent. In the spring of 1867, he 
removed to Fulton county, Illinois, and the 
following three years were passed in that 
county and in Knox county, the same 



state. The year 1870 witnessed his arrival 
in Nebraska, and he immediately took up 
the homestead he now occupies, his papers 
being the first made out for any land in his 
township or range. In the first sod-house 
he constructed he lived for one year, and 
then replaced it by a larger and better one, 
which served as his home for eight years, it 
then giving place to his present comfortable 
and pleasant frame residence. He soon 
transformed the wild land into highly culti- 
vated fields, and the farm now ranks sec- 
ond to none in the county. Although his 
crops were destroyed by the grasshoppers 
in 1874, he has prospered in his adopted 
state and is now quite well to do. 

On the 29th of April, 1858, was cele- 
brated the marriage of Mr. Bair and Miss 
Eleanor French, also a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, of which state her parents, Israel 
and Mary (Edwards) French, were life-long 
residents. Her paternal grandfather came 
to this country from England. Of the 
twelve children born to our subject and his 
wife, eight are still living, as follows: George 
W. , now a resident of York county, Nebras- 
ka, married Sarah Kaohn and has five chil- 
dren, two sons and three daughters; Isabel 
is the wife of L. R. King, of Nuckolls coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and has six children, two sons 
and four daughters; Anna E. is the wife of 
L. Fraizer, of Buffalo county, Nebraska, 
and they have five children, three sons and 
two daughters; William H., who lives near 
the home farm, wedded Mary Jordan and 
they have four children, one son and three 
daughters; Edwin S., also a resident of Fair- 
mont township, married Lizzie Drumond 
and they have one daughter; Samuel W., 
who lives three miles east of the old home- 
stead, married Lucy Drumond and has one 
son; Ernest N. resides at home and is suc- 
cessfully engaged in teaching school; and 
Clara F. is also at home. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bair are earnest and faithful members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, and merit 



902 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV 



and receive the respect and esteem of all 
who know them. In his political views, he 
is a stalwart Republican, but has never 
cared for the honors or emoluments of public 
office. 



SUMNER DARNELL, one of the most 
persevering, energetic and progressive 
agriculturists of Butler county, as well as 
one of the most popular and influential 
citizens, resides on section 4, Ulysses town- 
ship, where he made his home since the 
first of May, 1S96. He is an old settler in 
the county and has taken an active and 
prominent part in the early development 
of this region. 

Mr. Darnell was born Knox county, Illi- 
nois, April 16, 1839, and is of remote 
Scotch-Irish descent. His father, \\'illiam 
Darnell, was a native of North Carolina, 
born about 1806, but when a child was 
taken by his parents to Ohio, where iie 
grew to manhood and married Priscilla 
Thurman, daughter of Thomas Thurman, 
and niece of Allen G. Thurman, the prom- 
inent statesman. Prior to the Black Hawk 
war, Mr. and Mrs. Darnell .left their Ohio 
home and removed to Knox county, Illinois, 
being among the first settlers of that region. 
The father was reared upon a farm, and 
throughout life continued to follow agricul- 
tural pursuits. 

In earl}' life Sumner Darnell displayed 
a love of adventure and this led him, in 
1859, to join a party, in which were five 
older brothers, bound for the gold fields of 
the west. The project, however, was 
abandoned after the party reached Nebras- 
ka, much to the disgust of our subject, but 
being a mere boy at that time and unsup- 
ported in his desire to continue, he was 
forced to submit to the decision of the ma- 
jority. It was on this occasion that he 
first gazed on the prairies of Butler county, 
the party having reached a point in this 



countywhen they determined to retrace their 
steps. After his return to Illinois, Mr. 
Darnell was married in 1861 to Rachel Zim- 
merman, a daughter of Thomas Zimmer- 
man, formerly a resident of Ohio, and 
later a homesteader in Butler county, Ne- 
braska, where he died in January, 1885. 

Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, Mr. 
Darnell enlisted in August, 1862, in Com- 
pany F, Eighty-sixth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, but owing to a severe attack of 
rheumatism he was honorably discharged 
before the expiration of a year. Not, how- 
ever, before he had a taste of real war at 
Perryville, Tennessee. After his discharge 
he returned to his home and famil)-, his 
oldest daughter having been born before 
he enlisted. Besides our subject he had 
five brothers in the service, the famil}- hav- 
ing valiantly aided their country in her suc- 
cessful efforts to preserve the Union. 

In the early spring of 1867 Mr. Darnell 
started with a complete outfit and a fine 
team of horses for Nebraska, with the in- 
tention of making for himself and family 
a home on the unbroken prairies, reaching 
Butler county about the first of May. After 
erecting a cabin he returned to Illinois for 
his family, then consisting of his wife and 
three children — Martha, Sumner J. and 
Charles. In addition to his outfit, Mr. 
Darnell had three hundred dollars in cash 
on locating in this county, but before the 
first winter had passed this was all gone 
and he found himself in debt for ten dollars' 
worth of supplies to start the next second 
season. This season proved a failure, and 
probably the darkest period in his life was 
the second winter of his residence in Butler 
county. In fact, it was only by the most 
herculean efforts that he managed to stick 
to his claim, where a less determined spirit 
would have abandoned all and returned to 
civilization. Though the " wolf was often 
at his door," Mr. Darnell's courage never 
waned, and with the coming of spring came 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



903 



more settlers and brighter prospects. But 
few of this generation can realize the hard- 
ships of those early pioneer days. Since 
coming to Nebraska the family circle has 
been increased by the birth of four other 
children, namely: Fred, Judd, Myrtle and 
Maud. 

Mr. Darnell is a recognized leader in the 
ranks of the Republican party in his com- 
munity, and in 1S87 was honored by his 
party by the nomination for sheriff of the 
county. Being duly elected by a handsome 
majority, he served for one term with 
credit to himself and to the entire satisfac- 
tion of the general public. He is a Royal 
Arch Mason, being the second oldest in the 
county, and he is also an honored member 
of Lincoln Post, No. 10, G. A. R. He is 
widely and favorably known and is held in 
high regard by all with whom he comes in 
contact. 



ERASTUS M. HICKMAN.— No state in 
the Union can boast of a more wide- 
awake, energetic and enterprising class of 
agriculturists than Nebraska, and of these 
Seward county has its share, including the 
subject of this biographical sketch, who was 
also a faithful defender of the Union during 
the dark days of the Civil war. He was 
born in Randolph county, Indiana, January 
6, 1840, and is a son of Samuel and Mar- 
garie (Moffett) Hickman, the former a na- 
tive of North Carolina, the latter of Indiana. 
The paternal grandfather, John Hickman, 
was also born in North Carolina, but at an 
early day in its history removed to the 
Hoosier state, where he and his family fol- 
lowed agricultural pursuits for several years. 
The father of our subject passed his last 
days in Iowa, where his death occurred in 
November, 1896. 

Erastus M. Hickman spent his boyhood 
and youth in Indiana and Iowa, and as soon 
as old enough assisted in the work of the 



farm, in this way acquiring an excellent 
knowledge of the occupation he has made 
his life-work. Laying aside all personal 
considerations, he joined the Union army 
in 1S62, becoming a member of Company C, 
Twenty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
and he was in active service for three years, 
taking part in the engagements at Cham- 
pion Hill, Black river, Vicksburg, Port Gib- 
son and Grand Gulf. Fortunately he es- 
caped without wounds, and at the close of 
the war returned to his home in Iowa with 
an honorable war record. He continued a 
resident of that state until May, 1869, when 
he came to Seward county and homesteaded 
the tract on which he now resides, his first 
dwelling here being a sod house. He has pros- 
pered in his new home, and now owns three 
quarter-sections of good land, all under cul- 
tivation and improved with good and sub- 
stantial buildings. 

On the 1st of January, 1866, Mr. Hick- 
man led to the marriage altar Miss Lizzie 
Thomas, a native of Ohio, and a daughter 
of George W. and Elizabeth (Reed) Thomas, 
who at an early day removed to Iowa and 
subsequently came to Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hickman have become the parents of 
seven children, as follows: Walter E., 
Helen G., Jennie F., E. Perry, Edna F. 
Ethan E. and Effie L., all living. In poli- 
tics Mr. Hickman is independent, and has 
been honored with the office of justice of 
the peace and assessor, which he most ac- 
ceptably tilled. 



ABRAHAM SMITH, whose attractive and 
well-kept acres on section 29, Hays 
township, York county, attest the hand of a 
master farmer, has been a resident there 
for about twelve years, and in that time 
has proved himself a good neighbor, an hon- 
est man and a patriotic citizen. He is in- 
terested in public affairs, keeps the run of 
current events, and is not afraid of meeting 



904 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



his duty in any social or business relation in 
which he may be involved. 

Mr. Smith was born in Rock Island coun- 
ty, Illinois, October 31, 1846, and is a son 
of Joseph and Catherine (Fuhlmer) Smith. 
His parents were natives of Westmoreland 
count}-, Pennsylvania, and surrounded their 
children with the most wholesome influences 
of the Quaker commonwealth. They came 
west in 1838, and were drawn to the vicin- 
ity of Rock Island by the marvelous possi- 
bilities that it presented for the establish- 
ment and growth of a great industrial cen- 
ter. His father, who was born in 1812, 
lived to see Rock Island, Davenport and 
Moline assume importance as commercial 
cities. He died in 1863, and his name is 
remembered as that of an honorable and 
upright man, a tiller of the soil all his days, 
and throughout his career industrious and 
hard working. His wife, the mother of the 
subject of this writing, survives him, and is 
still living on the Rock Island homestead 
at the advanced age of eighty-one. 

Abraham Smith grew to manhood un- 
der the parental roof, and when he reached 
maturity took up his father's occupation, 
and, like him, has pursued an agricultual 
career, and derived his living from the 
fields. He was educated in the common 
schools of his county, and was married 
there in 1872 to Miss Eliza Bailey, a lady 
of character and attainments. She is a na- 
tive of Rock Island county, and is a 
daughter of Charles and Carlissa (Calahan) 
Bailey. Her father was born in Delaware 
and her mother in Virginia, and after their 
marriage settled in Ohio. They came still 
further west, and were numbered among 
the pioneers of Rock Island county. The 
wife and mother died when Eliza was a 
little girl, but her father lived for many 
years after, and died in Crawford county, 
Iowa, in 1880. Mr. Smith tilled a rented 
farm in Illinois for two years, and met 
with very fair success. At the end of that 



time he bought a farm in Crawford county, 
Iowa, which he conducted very successfully 
for several years. In 1876 he came to this 
county, and bought a farm which became his 
family residence, and where he is found to- 
day very comfortably situated. It consists of 
one hundred and fifty-four acres, and was 
practically all under cultivation at its pur- 
chase. Under his able management it has 
greatly increased in value, and is to-day one 
of the most attractive farms in this part of 
the county. They are the parents of one son, 
Glenn, a bright and hopeful lad, who was 
born in their Iowa home. 



NJ. V E N E L L. — The representatives 
of the farming interests of Fillmore 
county acknowlege this gentleman to be one 
of the important factors who have aided in 
bringing this section of the state to its pres- 
ent enviable condition. He is a man of 
more than ordinary business capacity, in- 
telligent and well-informed, and at once 
upon becoming a resident here identified 
himself with the progress and best interests 
of the people. He now owns and operates 
a fine farm of two hundred acres in Bryant 
precinct, and is meeting with a well-de- 
served success. 

Mr. Venell was born in Sweden, in 
1842, and was there reared and educated. 
His parents never came to America, both 
dying in Sweden, the father at the age of 
eighty-three years, the mother at the age of 
eighty. In their family were eleven chil- 
dren, seven sons and four daughters, all of 
whom emigrated to the new world with the 
e.xception of three sons. Those still living 
are Aaron, Emma, Ida, Oscar, and N. J., 
of this review. 

For two years our subject served as a 
soldier in the Swedish army, and later en- 
gaged in farming in his native land until 
twenty-five years of age, when he decided 
to try his fortune on this side of the At- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



905 



lantic, believing that better opportunities 
were afforded ambitious young men in the 
United States. After taking up his resi- 
dence here he first worked at the carpen- 
ter's trade, which he had learned in Swe- 
den. In 1873, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Minnie Walstrom, of Chicago, Il- 
linois, who was born in Sweden, in 1854. 
Her father died at the age of seventy years, 
while living in Burlington, Iowa, leaving a 
widow and three children, two daughters 
and one son. The mother now finds a 
pleasant home with our subject, while one 
daughter lives in Edgar, Nebraska, and the 
son in Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Venell have 
a family of nine children, namely: Clara, 
Lydia, Esther, Amelia, Ellen, Arthur, 
George, Ervin and Julia, all at home with 
the exception of the two oldest. 

Coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
in 1879, Mr. Venell bought one hundred 
and sixty acres of land in Bryant precinct, 
at four dollars and fifty cents per acre, and 
in 1889 purchased forty acres more at 
twenty-five dollars per acre, and the raw 
land he has since converted into well-culti- 
vated fields. He has made manj' improve- 
ments upon the place which add to its value 
and attractive appearance and now has one 
of the best farms of its size in the precinct. 
Politically he has always been a stanch sup- 
porter of the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party. Both he and his wife were 
confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran church 
before leaving their native land, but now 
belong to the Free Mission church. They 
are also influential and highly respected 
people of the community in which they re- 
side. 



HENRY C. MAYLAND, a succcessful 
and enterprising farmer and early set- 
tler of Seward county, has been prominently 
identified with the agricultural and business 
interests of this section of the state for 



thirty years. His first home was in Allen 
county, Indiana, where he was born May 
29, 1857, a son of Ferdinand and Lezetta 
(Beaming) Mayland. The father was a na- 
tive of Germany, but during childhood was 
brought to the United States by his parents, 
who located in Allen county, Indiana, and 
there he grew up and followed farming and 
stock raising until 1868. It was in that 
year that he came to Seward county. Ne- 
braska, and settled in F. township, where 
he erected a log cabin and then turned his 
attention to the development and cultiva- 
tion of his land. He still resides upon that 
farm and is held in high regard by the en- 
tire community. Of the six sons and three 
daughters born to him three now living and 
all make their home in Seward county. 
The daughters are as follows: Elizabeth 
S., Mary and Sophia, all of whom reside in 
the city of Seward. 

In a little log school-house in Indiana, 
Henry C. Mayland obtained his early edu- 
cation, which has been greatly supplemented 
by reading, study and observation in later 
years. Coming with his parents to Ne- 
braska, he assisted in herding cattle and in 
making a home in the wild west. He re- 
mained under the parental roof until nearly 
twenty-one years of age, and then started 
out in life for himself without means, but 
with a determination to succeed. He 
worked as a farm laborer for some years, 
and then rented land which he successfully 
operated until able to buy a farm of his 
own. He is now the possessor of a fine 
farm of two hundred acres, which he has 
placed under a high state of cultivation, 
but he has not confined his attention alone 
to agricultural pursuits, but has branched 
out into other lines of business, making a 
specialty of the raising and shipping of 
stock. From 1884 until 1894 he also con- 
ducted a butcher shop in Staplehurst, and 
since then has devoted his time almost ex- 
clusively to shipping stock. He is an enter- 



906 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



prising, wide-awake business man, and the 
success that he has already achieved in life 
is certainly well merited. 

Mr. Mayland was married in 1885 to 
Mrs. Jennie Smith, a native of New York 
state, and to them has been born one son, 
Charles H. The parents are both members 
of the Presbyterian church, and Mr. May- 
land also belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. Politically he is an 
ardent Republican, but has never sought or 
desired office. 



HIRAM S. CRAIG.— Many of the pio- 
neers of Butler county served their 
country during the dark daj's of the Rebel- 
lion, making a record honorable and glorious. 
Among the brave boys in blue was Mr. 
Craig, now a leading citizen and enterpris- 
ing business man of Ulysses, having been 
prominently identified with the interests of 
that village for over a quarter of a century. 

A native of Ohio, Mr. Craig was born in 
Highland county, April 18, 1847, and is a 
son of Joseph Craig, whose birth occurred 
in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 
181 1. When a young man the father re- 
moved to Ohio and settled in Brown county, 
where he subsequently married Miss Telitha 
Runion, a daughter of Henry Runion. For 
twenty-seven years they continued to make 
their home in the Buckeye state, where 
were born to them a family of twelve chil- 
dren, of whom our subject was the seventh 
in order of birth. On leaving Ohio they 
went to Illinois, and in that state and Ne- 
braska the father successfully engaged in 
the practice of medicine for many years. 

The first twelve years of his life Hiram 
S. Craig passed in his native state, and in 
its common schools he began his education. 
He then accompanied his parents on their 
removal to Mercer county, Illinois, and re- 
mained with them until after the outbreak 
of the Civil war. Responding to the Presi- 



dent's call for aid in 1863, he entered the 
United States Marine service, where he re- 
mained but a short time, and then enlisted 
in the Thirtieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
serving with that regiment until hostilities 
ceased, and participating in many of the 
fiercest battles of the war. He took part 
in the engagements at Buzzard's Roost, 
Kingston, Bush Mountain, Kenesaw M©unt- 
ain, and at the battle of Peach Tree 
Creek was wounded, but remained with his 
command until after the fall of Atlanta. He 
was with Sherman on the march to the sea, 
and in the battles of Marietta and Jones- 
boro, and was present at the surrender of 
General Johnston at Raleigh, North Caro- 
lina. After this he went to Washington, 
where he took part in the grand review. 
He was mustered out at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, and was discharged at Springfield, 
Illinois. His war record is one to which he 
may point with pride. 

While in the service, his father's family 
.had moved to Kno.x county, Illinois, and 
there Mr. Craig joined them after his dis- 
charge. He then learned the wheelwright's 
trade, which he followed for a time. In 
Knox county, he was married in August, 
1869, to Miss Lucinda Mick, a daughter of 
George A. Mick, formerly of Ohio, who 
emigrated to Illinois in the ' 50s, and in 
1870 came to Butler county, Nebraska, 
where he secured a homested on section 28, 
Union township. After his marriage, Mr. 
Craig continued to live in Illinois until 
1 87 1, and there his oldest child — Joseph — 
was born. Since coming to Nebraska 
seven other children have beea added to 
the family, five sons and two daughters, 
namely: Homer, Eva, Claude, Cora, Bert, 
Hiram H. and George. 

On the 15th of May, 1871, Mr. Craig 
arrived in Butler county, and at one secured 
a homestead on section 26, Read township, 
but has lived most of the time in Ulysses, 
where for some time he was engaged in 



COMPEXD/CM OF BIOGRAPHT 



907 



contracting and building, erecting many of 
the best buildings in the village. He was 
also interested in the furniture and under- 
taking business for two years. For the 
past several years he has been engaged in 
the real estate and loan business, with an 
office in the State Bank building, and is 
also interested in western land and is serving 
as notary public. His strict integrity and 
honorable dealing in business commend 
him to the confidence of all; his pleasant 
manner wins him friends; and he is one of 
the popular and honored citizens of his 
adopted county. Socially he affiliates with 
the Masonic Order and the Grand Army of 
the Republic, and religiously is a faithful 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



JONATHAN A. HORTON, an honored 
pioneer and worthy citizen of Fair- 
mont township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
has for almost thirty years been promi- 
nently identified with its agricultural inter- 
ests and is justly numbered among its most 
enterprising and progressive farmers. Like 
many of our best citizens, he is a native of 
Pennsylvania, born in Bedford county, July 
II, 1843. His parents, Ezekiel and Nancy 
(Anderson) Horton, were also born in that 
state, and the paternal grandfather, Ab- 
ner Horton, a native of England, spent 
the greater part of his life in Pennsylvania, 
where he engaged in farming until called 
from this life. The father of our subject, 
also a farmer by occupation, was born in 
18 19, and in 1866 removed from his native 
state to Fulton county, Illinois, where he 
made his home until coming to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, m the fall of 1879. Here 
he took up a homestead of eight)' acres ad- 
joining the tract where our subject now 
lives, and to the cultivation and improve- 
■ ment of his land devoted his attention until 
his death, which occurred March 22, 1891. 
His wife, who was born April 8, 1809, de- 



parted this life June 13, 1886. To this 
worthy couple were born two sons: James 
\V. , who is now living in Colorado; and 
Jonathan A. The parents were widely and 
favorably known in this region and left 
many friends to mourn their loss. 

Jonathan A. Horton was reared on a 
farm in his native state and assisted in its 
operation during the summer months, while 
through the winter season he attended the 
local schools, pursuing his studies in a log 
school-house of primitive style, with slab 
seats and heated by an immense fire-place 
at one end. At an early age he commenced 
the battle of life for himself as a farm hand 
and followed that calling in Pennsylvania 
until after the breaking out of the Civil war. 
In 1862, he offered his services to his coun- 
try, enlisting in Company C, One Hundred 
Thirty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- 
try, under Colonel Spegman, but after 
serving for nearly a year he was discharged 
from the service on account of disability. 
He took part in the battle of Antietam and 
was in numerous skirmishes, seeing much 
hard service in Virginia and Maryland. 

After his discharge, Mr Horton returned 
to his home in Pennsylvania, but in 1865 
went to Fulton county, Illinois, where he 
worked for others for about a year, and 
then rented land which he operated on his 
own account until 1S70, when he came to 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, traveling the 
entire distance in a covered wagon. He 
selected the homestead on section 2, Fair- 
mont township, where he now resides, and 
in the sod house he erected thereon, he 
made his home for eleven years, replacing 
in at the end of that time by a good frame 
residence. He has placed the land under a 
high state of cultivation and has made many 
e.xcellent improvements upon the farm, 
which add greatly to its value and attract- 
ive appearance. In 1874 his crops were 
destroyed by the grasshoppers, but he has 
gradually overcome all difficulties in the 



SOS 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



path to prosperity and is now in com- 
fortable circumstances. 

Mr. Horton was married, January 4, 
1866, to Miss Hannah Figard, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and a daughter of James and 
Rachel (Evans) Figard, who removed from 
that place to Illinois in 1856, and are still 
residents of Fulton county. Nine children 
have been born to our subject and his es- 
timable wife, but only four are now living, 
namely: George H., who wedded Mary 
Price, of Fillmore county, but formerly of 
Pennsylvania; Minerva J., wife of R. I. 
Bivens, who lives on a farm adjoining the 
Horton homestead; Minnie I., wife of J. 
Armstrong, of Fairmont; and Oca W. , at 
home. 

Religiously Mr. Horton is a member of 
the Church of God, which was established 
at Indian Creek in February, 1874, and he 
was elected the first elder. He was offi- 
crally connected svith the organization at 
that place for many years, or as long as the 
church there existed, and he now holds the 
original records of the same. He gave land 
to the church for a cemetery and leased 
land where school No. 78 is located. So- 
cially he is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Grand 
Army Post at Exeter, Nebraska. His po- 
litical support is always given the men and 
measures of the Republican party, and he 
has most creditably and satisfactorily served 
as school director for many years, and as 
road overseer for fourteen years. In the 
estimation of his fellow citizens he is one of 
the representative men of his community, 
and his circle of friends and acquaintances 
in Fillmore county is extensive. 



CHARLES W. TALBOT, a skillful and 
practical agriculturist whose home is 
on section 10, township 13, range 3, Polk 
county, is a native of Ohio, born in Wash- 
ington county, March i, 1850, and is a son 



of A. O. and Elmus (Biddle) Talbot, the 
former born in Ohio, in 1818, the latter in 
Maryland in 1820. The great-grandfather 
was a native of Scotland. The paternal 
grandfather. Rev. Charles W. Talbot, was 
one of the early settlers of the Buckeye 
state. He was a member of an Ohio regi- 
ment in the Mexican war, and was a life- 
long minister of the Methodist church, serv- 
ing at one time as presiding elder, and 
always a faithful laborer in the Master's 
vineyard. His life was filled with good 
deeds, and he died at the ripe old age of 
ninety years, honored and respected by all 
who knew him. In 1853 the parents of our 
subject left Ohio and removed to Mercer 
county, Illinois, where the father developed 
a fine farm. He was a quiet, unassuming 
man, but commanded the confidence and 
esteem of all the entire community. Both 
he and his wife held membership in the 
Baptist church, and she took an active part 
in its work. Their children were Charles 
W. , A. O. , J. M., Spencer B., Eliza, de- 
ceased, and J. R. 

The subject of this sketch obtained his 
education in the public schools of Mercer 
county, Illinois, and acquired an excellent 
knowledge of farm work on the old home- 
stead there. On leaving the parental roof 
at the age of twenty-one, he began life for 
himself as a farmer in that county, but in 
1872 came to Polk county, Nebraska, and 
secured the land on which he located the 
following year, and on which he still con- 
tinues to reside. His first home was a sod 
house, which in 1879 was replaced by a 
good frame residence. He broke prairie the 
first year, and in 1874 raised some wheat, 
but the grasshoppers destroyed his corn. 
For the following two years he clerked in 
the store of L. Headstrom, at Stromsburg, 
but since that time has devoted his energies 
to agricultural pursuits, and now has an ex- 
cellent farm of 160 acres, all under culti- 
vation and well improved with good build- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



909 



ings. He located here when this part of 
the county was very sparsely settled, and 
is one of the few remaining pioneers, who 
bore so important a part in the development 
and prosperity of this region. 

In October, 1882, Mr. Talbott led to the 
marriage altar Miss Lottie Knerr, who was 
born in Jefferson county, Iowa, June 8, 
1854, and was educated in that state. Her 
father, Frederick Knerr, is now a resident 
of Pleasant Home precinct, Polk county, 
Nebraska. Four children bless this union: 
Richard, Ida Pearl, Mabel May and Ed- 
ward. 

Fraternally, Mr. Talbott is a member of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
the Knights of the Maccabees, both of 
Stromsburg; and politically is prominently 
identified with the local Republican organ- 
ization, being the candidate of his party for 
county commissioner in the fall of 1897. 
For nine years he has faithfully served on 
the school board in district No. 41, and 
always gives his support to all measures 
for the public good. 



JACOB M. WITTER.— The subject of 
this notice is certainly entitled to promi- 
nent mention among the leading and enter- 
prising citizens of Fairmont township, Fill- 
more county, as well as among its honored 
pioneers. He has been an important factor 
in the development and prosperity of the 
county for almost thirty years, and has 
made for himself a fine farm on the north- 
east quarter of section 12, Fairmont town- 
ship, having transformed the wild, yet fertile 
land, into highly cultivated fields. 

Mr. Witter claims Pennsylvania as his 
native state, his birth occurring in Bedford 
county, June 4, 1840. His parents, Abra- 
ham and Catherine (Piper) Witter, were 
natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, re- 
spectively. The paternal grandfather, John 
Witter, who was a miller by trade, settled 



in the Old Dominion at an early day and 
latter removed from there to Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, where his death oc- 
curred. The father of our subject was a 
millwright, and followed that occupation in 
connection with farming throughout life. 
He was a soldier of the war of 1812. He 
died in 1888, his wife in 1892, honored and 
respected by all who knew them. In their 
family were six sons, but our subject is the 
only one residing in Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska. His maternal grandparents came 
to this country from Holland. 

Jacob M. Witter was reared and educat- 
ed in Pennsylvania, conning his lessons in 
the log school-houses so common during 
his boyhood. In 1863. he enlisted for 
ninety days in Company B, Forty-sixth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infanty, and spent 
most of the time in drilling and guard- 
ing prisoners. At the end of that time he 
returned home, but in 1864 was drafted, and 
this time went to the front as a member of 
Company F, Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania Vol- 
teer Infantry, with which he served until the 
close of the war. He participated in the 
battle of Hatcher's Run, October 4, 1864; 
was in an engagement the same place the 
following year; was in the battles of Five 
Forks, Virginia, 'and Boydtown Plankroad; 
and was present at the surrender of General 
Lee at Appomattox. He took part in the 
grand review at Washington, District Col- 
umbia was mustered out in that city. 

Returning to his home in the Keystone 
state, Mr. Witter engaged in farming there 
until 1868, when he removed to Knox coun- 
ty, Illinois, but after living there two years 
continued his westward journey, landing in 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, in 1870. He 
made the entire trip by wagon. Upon his 
claim he erected a sod house, in which he 
lived for ten years, while breaking and im- 
proving his land. He traded his horses for 
oxen, and with them cultivated his land for 
some years. His first crops were very sue- 



910 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



cessful.but in 1874 everything was destroyed 
by the grasshoppers. His entire quarter 
section is now under e.xceilent cultivation 
and improved with good and sustantial 
buildings, which stand as monuments to his 
thrift and industry. 

In 1862, Mr. Witter led to the marriage 
altar Miss Susan French, also a native of 
Pennsylvania and a daughter of Israel and 
Mary (Edwards) French, who spent their 
entire lives in that state. The five chil- 
dren born to our subject and his wife are as 
follows: Etta W., now the wife of Henry 
Vance, of Newcastle, Wyoming; Ida M., 
wife of B. Gleason, also of Wyoming; 
John A., who is now a member of Company 
G, First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, and 
is with the army at Manila, as one of the 
protectors of our newly acquired posses- 
sions in the Philippines; William M., who is 
in the employ of the Burlington & Missouri 
River Railroad; and Marcus W., at home. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Witter are active and 
prominent members of the Indian Creek 
United Brethren church, with which de- 
nomination they have been connected for 
many years. In politics he is a Democrat. 
He is enterprising, industrious, upright, and, 
in fact, possesses in an eminent degree all 
the qualifications that go to make up a good 
citizen and a honorable man. 



HENRY WELLMAN, long identified 
with the farming and stock-raising in- 
terests of Beaver township, York county, 
is an enterprising and successful exponent 
of modern agricultural ideas as they are ap- 
plied to conditions presented by life and 
labor in Nebraska. He is the proprietor of 
two very valuable farms, both highly im- 
proved and provided with ample and com- 
modious farm buildings of every sort re- 
quired to do business at the present time. 
He seeks comfort and profit, and makes 
use of everything that helps along the busi- 



ness in which he is engaged. He puts into 
it his heart and soul, and it has well reward- 
ed his unshared devotion, as this sketch will 
hereafter show. 

Henry Wellman comes of a Teutonic 
ancestr)', and was born on German soil 
February 2, 1852. He was a son of George 
and Louise Wellman, who were natives of 
Hanover. They emigrated to America 
after they had reached mature years, and 
settled in Nebraska. They are still living 
and make their home with their children, 
of whom there were originally eight. Six 
children are now living: Mrs. Sophia 
Plum, Mrs. Minnie Piper, Herman, Mrs. 
Zena Kellerman, Louise, who is still in the 
old country, and the subject of this article. 

Mr. Wellman remained in the old coun- 
try until he had attained the age of eighteen 
years. He received good schooling, and 
was indoctrinated with German ideas of 
thrift, honor and industry. It may be said, 
in passing that his career in this country 
illustrates the value of this early training. 
He first set foot on the American shore in 
1870, and passing directly through the city 
of New York, hastened on to this county. He 
was still too young to avail himself of the 
provisions of the homestead law, and he 
worked out on neighboring farms until he 
had reached the time limit. He went out 
into the unclaimed prairie, and located a 
claim on section 22, in Beaver township. 
At that time this tract was remote from 
settlement, and long isolation was prophe- 
sied the adventurous pioneer. He went on, 
however, built himself a sod house in 
which he lived for the ne.xt three years. 
By that time he had grown sufficiently 
prosperous to undertake a frame dwelling. It 
was a two-story building, a very substantial 
building, 16.X32. Grasshoppers took his 
corn in 1874, and other plagues and 
troubles befell him from time to time, but 
he kept on, and stuck to the soil, and is a 
wealthy man. In 1875 he was married to 



■jfv 






I'-^^^^W^^^^^ 5s> .*»# 



HEHHY WELLMAN. 



COMPENDIUM OF UTOGRAPHT. 



9 m 



Augusta Bellgrin. She was a native of 
Germany, where she was born in 1853 but 
has Hved iw this country since her child- 
hood. They lived ora the homestead farm 
until i8go, when they removed to th'eir 
present home on section 28 of the same town- 
ship. Mr. Wellman has erected a handsome 
residence, and is making many other im- 
provements in barns and out-buildings, which 
will, when fully completed, put this farm 
among the list of the best in the county. 
On the old place he has good buildings, 
fences, orchards, vineyards, and altogether 
he has about three hundred and fifty acres 
under an intensified cultivation. In all he 
owns over five hundred acres, with an ample 
equipment of live stock and machinery. 
He is exclusivly a farmer and stock raiser, 
and aims to carry on what might be called 
a system of general farming as opposed to 
specializing methods that would tie a man 
up to one line. He shows a fine herd of 
Durham cattle, and has good stock about 
him. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wellman are the parents 
of seven boys and one girl: Arthur, Rein- 
hart, Laura, Arnold, George, Robert, Henry 
and Walter. They are members of the 
German Lutheran church, where he has 
been a trustee for many years. He is a 
Democrat, and takes a lively interest in the 
fortunes of the party. He has been super- 
visor of the 4th district since 1894, and was 
for two years chairman of the committee on 
roads and bridges. He is anxious that the 
neighborhood in which he lives should have 
a good school, and is willing to give time 
and attention to the school which his chil- 
dren attend. He has been a member of the 
school board of the sixth district for eight- 
een years and much of the excellence of 
that well known country school is due to 
his careful supervision. 

He assisted in the organization of the 
York county German Mutual Fire Insurance 
company in 1892. He was elected its first 

52 



president and has served as such ever since, 
and also on the board of directors. 

A portrait of this worthy citizen is pre- 
sented on another page of this volume. 



ROBERT J. EVANS, deceased.— In the 
death of the late R. J. Evans, of Frank- 
lin township, Butler county lost a worthy 
citizen and an excellent farmer. The estate 
upon which he lived for several years con- 
sists of one hundred and sixty acres, andl 
bears a full line of improvements, including 
every convenient arrangement in the way of 
buildings and the adornments with which 
people of good taste surround themselves. 
The land was carefully and thoroughly 
tilled, made to produce abundantly, and in 
the quality of the crops raised compared 
favorably with others in the township. 

Mr. Evans was born in Greene county, 
Pennsylvania, August 5, 1836, and was 
there reared and educated in the public 
schools. In 1 861, he enlisted in Company 
F, First Pennsylvania Cavalry, served three 
years, and was in many of the principal 
battles. After leaving the army, he re- 
turned to Greene county, Pennsylvania, and 
turned his attention to the oil business. In 
1866 he was married, in Pennsylvania, and 
soon after moved to Iowa and located in 
Washington county, on a farm. Here he 
remained until 1883, and then moved to 
Butler county, Nebraska, and settled on a 
farm in section 28, Franklin township, 
where Mrs. Evans now lives. This he 
made his home until his death, which oc- 
curred August 13, 1890. He was a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church, a man who en- 
joyed the respect and esteem of all and 
was well-known throughout the county. In 
politics he was a Republican. 

Mr. Evans' widow, Mrs. Eunice A. (Mi- 
nor) Evans, was also born in Greene coun- 
ty, Perinsylania, August i, 1844. Her fa- 
ther, Otho Minor, was born in Greene 



914 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



county, Pennsylvania, and was a farmer by 
occupation. He died in his native county 
at the age of forty-one years. His father, 
Noah Minor, was supposed to be of English 
descent. Mrs. Evans' mother. Pleasant 
Myers, was also a native of Greene county, 
Pennsylvania, and died at the age of thirty- 
five years, leaving a family of seven chil- 
dren, of whom Mrs. Evans was the fifth in 
the order of birth. She was but three years 
of age when her mother died, and was 
reared by her uncle and aunt in her native 
county. She was married to Mr. Evans in 
1866, and their wedded life was blessed 
by the advent of a family of five children, 
as follows: Jesse R. , is living at home; 
Wiliam M., is a clerk at David City, Ne- 
braska; Pleasant J., a teacher in Butler 
county; Afary L. , a teacher in the David 
Citj' school; and MerlieM., at home. Mrs. 
Evans has a farm of one hundred and sixty 
acres, and with the assistance of her son is 
carrying on a successful general farming 
business. 



WILLIAM C. FORSTER, the well- 
known manager of one of the leading 
general mercantile houses of Staplehurst, 
Seward county, was born in Bremen, Ger- 
many. January 11, 1875, a son of Henry 
and Betha Forster, also natives of Bremen. 
The father was a soldier in the German 
army during the Franco-Prussian war. He 
was a carpenter by trade, and followed that 
occupation in his native land until his death, 
which occurred in 1883. His wife only sur- 
vived him about four years, dying in 1887. 
The subject of this sketch was reared 
and educated in Germany, attending the 
Dome school, which corresponds to the 
high schools of this country, and from that 
institution he graduated. On leaving school 
he came direct to the United States, and 
proceeded at once to Seward county, Ne- 
braska, where he had an uncle living, who 



was in the employ of H. Diers, of Seward. 
Mr. Forster also found employment with 
that gentleman, as clerk in a branch store 
at Staplehurst, and remained with him un- 
til May, 1890, when he changed to the store 
of H. H. Weller, being with him for one 
year. He then entered the employ of 
Fritz Meyer, in a general store, and had 
charge of the books, etc., for one year, 
leaving in July, 1892, when he returned to 
Mr. Diers. On the ist of March, 1893, he 
was given full control of the business, 
though only eighteen yeass of age, and has 
continued as general manager of the store 
up to the present time. Being a courteous, 
genial gentleman, he easily wins friends, 
and also the patronage of the community, 
and is a business man of more than ordi- 
nary ability. Although he came to the new 
world without means, working to pay his 
passage after his arrival, he has already 
succeeded in accumulating some property, 
being the owner of two business buildings 
and a pleasant home in Staplehurst. 

On the 23d of January, 1896, Mr. 
Forster was united in marriage with Miss 
Emilie Schultze, a daughter of Henry 
Schultze, of Staplehurst. They attend the 
German Lutheran church and occupy an 
enviable position in social circles. In his 
political affiliations Mr. Forster is a Demo- 
crat,' but has never sought or cared for of- 
ficial preferment. 



J 



AMES M. HILL. — Among the men who 
have been instrumental in the develop- 
ment of the rich resources of Fillmore coun- 
ty, the subject of this sketch holds no un- 
important position. Since 1871 he had 
been a resident of the county, and has been 
prominently identified with its agricultural 
interests, carrying on operations as a gener- 
al farmer on the northeast quarter of section 
34, Fairmont township. 

Mr. Hill is a native of Ohio, born in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



915 



Highland county, February lo. 1843, and is 
a son of Joseph H. and Ellen E. (Lloyd) 
Hill. The birth of the father occurred in 
Carroll county, Virginia, in 1814, and there 
he continued to reside until 1831, when he 
removed to Kentucky, and later to High- 
land county, Ohio, where he followed his 
trade, that of a blacksmith, until 1847. He 
then went to Jasper county, Iowa, where he 
also worked at his trade in connection with 
farming until called from this life in 1889. 
He was the father of nine children, six 
sons and three daughters, of whom three 
sons served in the Union army during the 
war of the Rebellion, these being William 
F., John H. and James M. The wife and 
mother passed away in 1896. 

James M. Hill was but a child when the 
family removed to Iowa, and he was there 
reared amid pioneer scenes. He well re- 
members when the white settlers were com- 
pelled to ilee to the blockhouses to escape 
from the treacherous Indians, and he assist- 
ed, when yet a lad, in repelling those raids. 
He was denied the advantages of a good ed- 
ucation, and was only permitted to attend 
school but a few months in his life. His 
education has all been acquired since reach- 
ing manhood by reading and observation, 
and he is to-day a well-informed man. In 
response to President Lincoln's call for vol- 
unteers, he offered his services to the coun- 
try to assist in putting down the Rebellion, 
and became a member of Company G, 
Twenty-Third Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
which was assigned to the western army. 
He was engaged in many skirmishes with 
with Price and Marmaduke, but after one 
year of arduous service was discharged for 
disabilities and returned home. He was 
twice hit by spent balls, but fortunately was 
never seriously wounded. 

Mr. Hill continued to reside in Jasper 
count}', Iowa, until 1871, when he came to 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, and took up the 
homestead where he yet lives, it being at 



that time all wild and unimproved. His 
first home here was a small frame residence, 
14x20 feet, the lumber for which he paid 
sixty dollars per thousand. This served as 
the family dwelling until 1887, when he 
erected his present fine house. The farm 
is now under a high state of cultivation, 
and is one of the best-improved places of 
the county. The family endured all of the 
privations of frontier life, their crops were 
destroyed by drouth and grasshoppers, but 
as the years have passed they have steadily 
prospered, notwithstanding these misfor- 
tunes, and are to-day quite well to do. 

In 1869, Mr. Hill was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Lydia A. Barber, a native of 
Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and a daugh- 
ter of John S. Barber, who was born in the 
same state. The children of this union are 
as follows: Joseph F.; James A.; Frances 
E., now the wife of E. Houchin; Nora S. ; 
Eulalie N.; and Jessie I. Mr. and Mrs. Hill 
are consistent members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, to the support of which 
they give liberally and cheerfully. In his 
social relations he is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Modern Woodmen of America, and in poli- 
tics has always been a steadfast Republican, 
having assisted in organizing the party in 
Fillmore county. As a man and citizen he 
contributes his full share towards enhancing 
the intellectual and moral welfare of the 
community in which he has so long made 
his home, and where he is so widely and 
favorably known. 



KIRKMAN TUTTY is a skillful and en- 
ergetic farmer, who is engaged in his 
chosen calling on section 27, Fairmont 
township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
has prospered in his labors. He is a man 
of excellent business ability, and his habits 
of thought and observation have tended to 
provide him with a good fund of general in- 



916 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



formation, which has proved valuable in 
every respect. 

England is his native land, his birth oc- 
curring in Lincolnshire, February 14, 1847. 
His parents, Daniel and Rebecca (Black- 
burn) Tutty, were natives of the same shire 
and they spent their entire lives in England. 
The father, who made farming his principal 
occupation, died June 30, 1880, at the age 
of sixty-eight years, and the mother de- 
parted this life in 1859. To them were 
born eight children, five sons and three 
daughters, and three of the sons are now 
living in the United States. James, the 
eldest, settled in York county, Nebraska, in 
1873 or 1874, but in 1876 removed to the 
Black Hills, where he still resides. In 
connection with the operation of his large 
ranch, he also engages in preaching for the 
Baptist church. John is engaged in mining 
near Keystone, South Dakota. 

In the common schools of his native 
land, Kirman Tutty acquired his literary 
education, and during his youth he also be- 
came familiar with every department of 
farm work. In April, 1872, he emigrated 
to America, landing in New York city, and 
proceeded at once to Chicago, Illinois. 
From there he went to Davenport, Iowa, 
where he remained one year, and later en- 
gaged in farming in Gentry county, Mis- 
souri, for a little over a year. Coming to 
York county, Nebraska, in 1875, he pur- 
chased a homestead right in McFadden 
township, and upon the raw land he con- 
structed a dugout, which was the first home 
of the family in this state, but later re- 
placed by a more comfortable frame resi- 
dence. To the cultivation and improve- 
ment of that farm, Mr. Tutty devoted his 
attention for five years, and on selling that 
place bought a quarter section adjoining it 
on the south. There he lived until 1883, 
when he came to Fillmore county, and 
bought the farm where he now resides, it 
being the southwest quarter of section 27, 



Fairmont township, which he has placed 
under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved in an excellent manner. 

In September, 1866, Mr. Tutty led to 
the marriage altar Miss Matilda Caster, a 
native of London, England, and a daughter 
of Richard and Anna (Vasey) Caster, who 
were born in Berkshire and Yorkshire, 
England, respectively, and were representa- 
tives of some of the oldest families in that 
country. Mr. and Mrs. Tutty have three 
children: Agnes, now the wife of L. B. 
Neihaus, who lives one mile from the Tutty 
homestead; Daniel, a resident of Fairmont, 
who is married and has three children; and 
John W. , at home with his parents. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tutty are both devout 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and he also belongs to the Sons and 
Daughters of Protection. In political senti- 
ment he is a Republican, but has never 
sought Hor desired office. He is one of the 
prominent and representative men of his 
township, and wherever known is held in 
high regard. 



CHARLES M. SMITH, who is residing 
on section 29, McFadden township, 
came to York county in February, 1874, 
and bought the northwest quarter of section 
29, township 9, range 2. It was railroad 
land, and cost him seven dollars an acre. 
It was raw prairie, and he was one of the 
first settlers in his neighborhood. He made 
his home for a time with his brother-in-law, 
Benjamin Johnson, for a year, and then 
rented a farm on the.>Blue river, where he 

•a! ' 

spent a second year, and then he built a 
house on his own land. During these two 
years he had done some work on his own 
farm, and had a sod house. He traded a 
team, harness and wagon for the homestead 
right to eighty acres in section 28, and that 
he might hold this he put up a house and 
secured his title by a residence of five years. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



917 



He bought the southwest quarter of section 
29, and put a frame house on his purchase, 
and there he has his present home. He 
has improved his property and now has a 
fine farm. He owns in all six hundred acres 
in McFadden township, a very satisfactory 
statement, when it is considered that Mr. 
Smith arrived in this county with less than 
a thousand dollars in money, and he will 
never forget the year of the grasshopper 
visitation that swept his place bare of corn. 
Mr. Smith was born in Wapello county, 
Iowa, March i, 1851, and was a son of 
Charles and Sarah (Dubenhier) Smith. 
They were among the early pioneers of that 
region. His father died when he was but 
ten years old, but his mother lived to an ad- 
vanced age. He was reared on the Hawk- 
eye homestead, and received a common- 
school education. He was the youngest in 
a family of four boys, aad when he attained 
maturity he had charge of the Iowa home- 
stead for several years. He was married 
November 11, 1870, to Miss Mary J. How- 
ell, a native of England, who came to this 
country when a child under the care of her 
parents, Matthew and Jane (Watkins) How- 
ell. After the marriage the young couple 
rented a farm for several years before com- 
ing to this county. They are the parents 
of seven children. George, Bertha, Frank, 
John, Sadie, Maggie and Jennie. Mr. Smith 
is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and is a Republican. 



SOLOMON CASE ALLEN is an honored 
resident of David City, where he is liv- 
ing, retired from active business, in a com- 
fortable home that is the center of true and 
generous hospitality. He is one of the old 
settlers of Butler county, formerly being 
one of its successful farmers, and is now 
passing the evening of his life enjoying the 
fruit of his labor. 

Our subject was born in Tioga county. 



New York, in May 22, 1822. The family 
formerly lived in Connecticut. Our subject 
was the older of a family of two sons, 
his brother, Orrin D., is now living in 
New York and is engaged in the mer- 
cantile business. In his early life our 
subject learned the shoemaker's trade, but 
on the account of poor health was obliged 
to discontinue this work and turn his atten- 
tion to some less confining employment, 
and farming seemed to him the most desir- 
able outdoor work. While yet living in 
New York, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Anna C. Whitney, a daughter of Sam- 
uel Whitney, who died in Butler county, Ne- 
braska, in 1887, at the advanced age of 
eighty-seven 3'ears. 

Shortly after his marriage to Miss Anna 
C. Whitney, our subject and his wife moved 
to southern Wisconsin, where their oldest 
son, Samuel Whitney Allen, was born. 
They soon after moved to Ogle county, Illi- 
nois, and settled on Rock River for a short 
time and then moved to the southern part 
of the county and settled on a farm near 
Rochelle. In Ogle county, the other chil- 
dren were born, viz.: Emily E., who mar- 
ried Mr. Wetzel, and is now living at Curtis, 
Nebraska; Charles D., is living in Summit 
township, Butler county, Nebraska; Fred 
A., for some time one of the officials of the 
institute for the feeble minded, at Beatrice, 
Nebraska, but now living with his parents 
at David City; Evaline, married Mr. Leui, 
and is a resident of Polk county, Nebraska, 
and Annie L. , wife of Mr. Miller, died at 
McPherson, Kansas, in 1897. Upon mov- 
ing to Butler county, Nebraska, in 1875, 
our subject settled on section 31, Olive 
township, where he now owns three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of fine farming land, 
furnished with choice improvements. This 
he made his home until a few years ago, 
when he decided to rent his farm and move 
to David City and spend his declining years 
in comfort and retirement. The city resi- 



918 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



dence in which he and the estimable lady, 
who for nearly fifty years has shared alike 
his griefs and joys, losses and gains, are now 
making their home is -among the most 
beautiful and attractive in the city, and they 
enjoy the confidence and esteem of a wide 
circle of friends. In politics, Mr. Allen is 
a Populist, but has never sought or filled 
office. 



HERMAN MEYER, the present popular 
and accommodating postmaster of 
Staplehurst, is widely known as an enter- 
prising merchant whose constant aim is to 
keep in the front rank of the procession. 
He has been a resident of Seward county 
since 1875, and was the first merchant of 
this village to offer the people the advan- 
tage of a large and well selected stock of 
goods. His enterprise in this direction was 
quickly rewarded by a large and increasing 
patronage. 

Mr. Meyer was born in Hanover, Ger- 
many, August II, 1849, and is a son of 
Deterick and Margurette Meyer. They were 
natives of Germany, and came of a long line 
of Hanoverian ancestry. They died when 
Herman was only four years old. He was 
taken into the home of a sister, and grew to 
manhood under her fostering care. She 
gave him such education as her circum- 
stances permitted, and prepared him for an 
honorable and useful life. He left Han- 
over in 1874 in company with an older 
brother, and sought the American shore, 
which had been a haven of desire to mill- 
ions of ambitious sons of his native land. 
They made their way to Randolph county, 
Illinois, where they spent one year, but 
Herman was not satisfied with the outlook, 
and pushed farther west. In the spring of 
1875 he entered this county, and purchased 
a farm near Seward. He improved it, and 
held it for several years. As the county 
filled up it became desirable, and he sold it 



for a good price. He moved nearer the vil- 
lage, and taking another farm operated it 
for several years. He saw an opening for 
a good store in town, and took advantage of 
it. He established a general mercantile 
business, and while he was not the first 
merchant of the place, he was the first to 
carry any large line of goods. He was the 
original implement and hardware dealer of 
this section of the county, and this interest 
has assumed large proportions in his hands. 
He is still at the old stand, and caters as 
successfully as ever to the wants of the com- 
munity. He was appointed postmaster un- 
der President Harrison; President Cleveland 
displaced him, and he was reappointed by 
present administration in 1897. 

Mr. Meyer and Miss Fredrika Von der 
Ohe were united in marriage November i, 
1877. She is of German birth, and is an 
accomplished and popular lady, and pre- 
sides with grace and dignity over her house- 
hold. They are the parents of three girls 
and two boys, John, Henry, Emma, 
Fredia, and Dora. They belong to the 
German Lutheran church, and make their 
faith a practical power. He is a Republic- 
an, and has considerable influence in town 
and county affairs. He has served on the 
county committee, and his opinion has 
weight in its deliberations. He is one of 
the leading citizens of the town. 



PM. ALDRICH. — Among the prominent 
agriculturists who have assisted materi- 
ally in the development of Fillmore county 
is the subject of this sketch, who is residing 
on section 33, Fairmont township. He 
was born in Cumberland county, Rhode 
Island, July 25, 1830, and is a worthy rep- 
resentative of one of the honored old fami- 
lies of that state. There his paternal 
grandfather, Nathan Aldrich, spent his en- 
tire life as a farmer and owned an extensive 
tract of land. He was very fond of hunt- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



919 



ing and during his younger years was an ex- 
pert marksman. His old iiome is still 
standing, and during his life there was never 
a stove inside of it, the cooking and heat- 
ing being done by fire-places. He was born 
in 1762 and died February 28, 185 1.* He 
was twice married, his first wife, and the 
grandmother of our subject, being Phebe 
Appleby, who was born September 30, 1765, 
and died March 26, 1824. His second 
union was with a Connecticut lady. He 
was the father of seven children, five sons 
and two daughters, all of whom are now 
deceased. The sons all grew to manhood 
in Rhode Island, but later two removed to 
New York State and one daughter became 
a resident of Oregon. 

Simeon Aldrich, our subject's father, 
was born in Rhode Island, February 20, 
1794, and was reared and educated in that 
state, attending its public schools. He 
followed farming until 1840, when he sold 
his place and commenced working in ma- 
chine shops, but his last years were spent 
in retirement from active labor. He was 
married, October 6, 1825, to Miss Mary 
Daniels, also a native of Rhode Island, and 
they become the parents of seven children, 
four sons and three daughters, all of whom 
are still living with the exception of one, 
but our subject is the only representative of 
the family in Fillmore county, Nebraska. 
The mother, who was a faithful member of 
the Friends' church, departed this life in 
1875, and the father passed away August 
12, 1877. He was a stanch supporter of 
the Republican party and its principles, and 
most acceptably served as tax collector of 
his district. 

Our subject spent the first sixteen years 
of his life in his native state and piirsued his 
studies in its public schools. He then went 
to Connecticut, where he worked in a woolen 
factory for some time, and from there re- 
moved to Manville, Massachusetts, where 
he had charge of a similar factory for a 



short time. Returning to Connecticut, he 
learned the trade of a cigar maker, which 
he followed there for eighteen years, and 
then moved to Cortland, New York, where 
he engaged in the manufacture of cigars for 
two years. In 1865 he came farther west 
and took up his residence in Bureau county, 
Illinois, where he worked at his trade until 
his factory and his entire possessions were 
destroyed by fire. Later he followed farm- 
ing, conducted a brickyard and engaged in 
other callings in Illinois until coming to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, in 1874. Here he 
purchased a tract of railroad land on sec- 
tion 33, Fairmont township, for twelve dol- 
lars and fifty cents per acre, and from the 
wild land developed the fine farm on which 
he now resides, it being to-day one of the 
most desirable places in the township. On 
his arrival here he erected a good frame 
house which he still occupies. The country 
at this time was mostly in its primitive con- 
dition, and in the spring and fall large num- 
bers of Indians passed through this region 
on their excursions north. On taking up 
his abode here, Mr. Aldrich had but thirty- 
four dollars in money and a team of horses, 
and the first year his entire crops were de- 
stroyed by the grasshoppers, with the excep- 
tion of his wheat, but by industry, perse- 
verance and economy he has overcome all ob- 
stacles and is to-day a well-to-do man, own- 
ing a good farm under a high state of culti- 
vation. 

In Connecticut, Mr. Aldrich was mar- 
ried, in 185 1, to Miss Celesta Johnson, a 
native of Cortland, New York, and a daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Harriet (Sisson) Johnson. 
Her father was born in Connecticut. Of 
the seven children born to our subject and 
his wife only two are now living. They are 
as follows: Inez married Isaac Eastwood, 
and died, leaving one child, Sadie; Murtis 
married G. W. Wellman, and died, leaving 
two sons, Glenn and Winn; Rhena, Orman 
and Rosalia, are all deceased; Ivan is stdl 



920 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



living; he has three children, Imelda, Ira 
and Mar)-; and Hattie is now the wife of 
F. C. Chapin, of Fairmont, by whom she 
has four children, Pliny, OUie, Ray and 
Charles. Mr. Aldrich has been called upon 
to mourn the loss of his estimable wife, who 
died in 1883. He is a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows in all its 
branches, and is a supporter of the Repub- 
lican party, but has never sought official 
honors, being convinced that he can serve 
the interests of the public fully as well by 
sustaining the principles of the party, and 
allowing other men to enjoy the offices. 



HENRY O. ERB.— Among the young 
men of York county who have selected 
agriculture as their vocation in life, and 
who, judging from present indications, are 
bound to realize their most sanguine antici- 
pations, is the subject of this biographical 
notice, who is residing on section 28, Baker 
township. He was born on that farm June 
9. 1877, a son of David and Gertrude 
(Quering) Erb, both of whom are now de- 
ceased. The father was a native of Lan- 
caster county, Pennsylvania, born January 
12, 1836, of German descent, and was one 
of the pioneers of York county, Nebraska, 
locating in Baker township, in 1873. He 
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of 
wild prairie, which he soon transformed 
into a fine farm. Being industrious, thrifty, 
and a good manager, he prospered in his 
undertakings, and became one of the most 
substantial farmers of the county, owning at 
the time of his death which occurred De- 
cember II, 1893, si.x hundred and forty 
acres of valuable land in York county. He 
was honored and respected by all who knew 
him. His wife had died when our subject 
was only two years old, leaving two chil- 
dren, the younger being Sarah Q., now the 
wife of Frank Broadwell, a farmer of Baker 
township. 



With the exception of when visiting 
relatives in Pennsylvania, the subject of 
this sketch has spent his entire life upon the 
home farm in Nebraska, and in the district 
schools near his home he obtained a good 
practical education, which has well fitted 
him for life's responsible duties. At the 
death of his father he came into control of 
the farm, and being a systematic and skilled 
agriculturist he is now successfully operating 
three hundred and twenty acres, nearly all 
of which is under a high state of cultivation. 
In connection with general farming he is 
quite extensively engaged in stock raising, 
and is also prosperous in that line of busi- 
ness. 

On the 5th of January, 1898, Mr. Erb 
was united in marriage with Miss Esther 
Peck, also a native of York county, and a 
daughter of John H. and Hattie E. (Carr) 
Peck, who were old settlers of the county. 
Mr. and Mrs. Erb are members of the 
Christian church at Charleston, and in 
social circles occupy an enviable position. 
Politically he is identified with the Repub- 
lican party. 

MILLER VALENTINE is one of the 
prosperous and substantial farmers of 
Fillmore county, his home being on section 
22, Belle Prairie township. His career 
proves that the only true success in life is 
that which is accomplished by personal 
effort and consecutive industry. It proves 
that the road to success is open to all young 
men who have the courage to tread its 
pathway, and the life-record of such a man 
should serve as an inspiration to the young 
of this and future generations, and teach by 
incontrovertible facts that success is ambi- 
tion's answer. 

Mr. Valentine was born in Monmouth 
county. New Jersey, January 16, 1838, a 
son of W'illiam and Julia (Valentine) Valen- 
tine, who spent their last years in Illinois, 
where both died in 1856, the mother sur- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



921 



viving her husband only three days. Their 
remains were interred in Havana cemetery, 
Mason county, Illinois. Of their ten chil- 
dren only four are now living, namely: 
Emeline, aged seventy-five years; Henry, 
sixty-six; Miller, sixty-one; and Anna, forty- 
seven. 

Miller Valentine was educated in the 
common schools of his native state. His 
education was very limited, as they had no 
free schools in the state at that time, but 
he has acquired a wide range of information 
by reading the public press, and few to-day 
have any better knowledge of events than 
he has. In 1855 he accompanied his par- 
ents on their removal to Illinois, where he 
engaged in the butcher business until the 
fall of 1862. In response to his country's 
call for troops to help put down the Re- 
bellion, he then enlisted in Company I, One 
Hundred and Third Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and served for three years, during 
which time he participated in many import- 
ant battles and skirmishes, such as the 
battle of Missionary Ridge. He was mus- 
tered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and was 
then sent to Chicago, Illinois, where he re- 
ceived his full pay. Returning to his home 
in Mason county, Illinois, he resumed the 
butcher business for nine years and later 
turned his attention to farming. 

On the 8th of March, 1866, Mr. Valen- 
tine married Mrs. Catherine Heater, widow 
of Corporal Heater, who was killed in the 
battle of Shiloh. She was born in Colum- 
biana county, Ohio, in 1833, a daughter of 
Philip and Louise Bayler, who died in Ma- 
son county Illinois, and were also buried in 
Havana cemetery. In their family were 
twelve children, of whom seven are still liv- 
ing. In order of birth they are as follows: 
Eliza, Fannie, Rebecca, Jessie, Mary, 
Catharine, Sarah, Sophia and four who 
died in childhood. 

Mr. and Mrs. Valentine began married 
life in limited circumstances and at first had 



many hardships with which to contend, 
but before leaving Illinois he had managed 
to save two thousand dollars. Coming to 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, in 1886, he 
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in Belle Prairie precinct, for three 
thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars, 
and in 1891 bought an eighty acre tract in 
the same precinct for one thousand two 
hundred dollars. This was raw land, but 
he soon converted it into well-cultivated 
fields, and now owns and controls five hun- 
dred acres of well, improved and tillable 
land. His home farm ranks second to none 
in this locality, being under excellent culti- 
vation, nicely arranged and improved with 
good and substantial buildings. The lawn 
is adorned with beautiful shade trees, and 
a good orchard yields its fruit in season. 
This attractive home has become a place of 
rest, contentment and ease for oursubject and 
his worthy wife. In connection with general 
farming he is also engaged in stock raising, 
and by his own good management, enter- 
prise and industry, he has become a weal- 
thy citizen. 

Socially Mr. Valentine affiliates with the 
Grand Army of the Republic and the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He cast 
his first presidential ballot for Abraham 
Lincoln, and has since been an ardent sup- 
porter of the Republican party. He and 
his wife are highly respected by all who 
know them on account of their genuine 
worth and many excellencies of character, 
it being .their constant aim to do good to 
their fellow citizens. 



WILLIAM HAYNES.— There is no 
class of biography which is more in- 
teresting to the reader than that of the in- 
dustrious, enterprising farmer's boy who has 
risen unaided from humble circumstances 
in life to a position of affluence and com- 
fort. Prominent among the men of Butler 



922 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



county who have thus laboriously toiled 
onward and upward is the subject of this 
sketch, now successfully carrying on opera- 
tions as a general farmer on section 28, 
Olive township, where he owns a highly 
cultivated and well improved farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres, which has been 
acquired by industry, frugality and excellent 
management on his part. 

Born in Greene county, Indiana, Octo- 
ber 20, 1842, Mr. Haynes is a son of Berry 
and Nancy (Bingham) Haynes, natives of 
Virginia and North Carolina, respectively. 
His maternal grandfather and uncle, Fred 
Bingham, were both soldiers of the war of 
18 12. The parents of our subject were 
married in the Old Dominion, and at an 
early day emigrated to Indiana, where our 
subject, who was the eighth child and 
second son in the family, was reared upon a 
farm until eleven years of age, when they 
removed to Illinois, settling in Tazewell 
county, about three miles from Pekin. 
There both parents died, honored and re- 
spected by all who knew them. The father 
died in 1865 and the mother in 1878. 

After two years spent in Illinois, Will- 
iam Haynes went to Iowa, where he re- 
mained a year, and then returned to Illi- 
nois, this time locating in Mason county, 
where the following three years were passed 
At the end of that time, when about seven- 
teen years of age, he returned to Indiana, 
there engaging in farm work until the fall 
of i860, when he went to Logan county, 
Illinois, and made his home near Lincoln 
until after the outbreak of the Civil war. 

Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, Mr. 
Haynes enlisted in July, 1861, in Company 
D, Seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry — the 
first regiment raised in that state for the 
war of the Rebellion — and joined his com- 
mand at Cairo. His first engagement was 
at Springfield, Missouri, which was followed 
by the battle at Belmont, that state. Hav- 
ing been rendered unfit for service by sick- 



ness, he was discharged in April, 1862, and 
returned home, where he soon recovered 
under the careful nursing of his mother. 
In August of that year he re-enlisted, this 
time becoming a member of Company C, 
One Hundred and Sixth Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, and about the ist of December 
was ordered south with his regiment to 
Jackson, Tennessee, taking part in the raid 
from that place to Columbus, Kentucky, 
under Colonel Lawler. During this expe- 
dition most of his company was lost, and 
the remainder returned to Jackson, and 
thence proceeded to Bolivar, Tennessee. 
In April, 1S63, Mr. Haynes went with his 
command to Vicksburg, later to Helena and 
Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was de- 
tailed on the Red river expediton, and on re- 
turning from Galveston, Texas, marched 
overland to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he 
was mustered out. On reaching Springfield, 
Illinois, he was honorably discharged Au- 
gust 2, 1865, and gladly returned to the 
pursuits of peace, finding farming more 
congenial to his tastes than fighting. 

For some time Mr. Haynes made his 
home in Tazewell county, Illinois, and he 
was married August 12, 1866, in Clinton 
county, that state, to Miss Sarah Sheets, a 
daughter of Adam Sheets, of Dewitt county, 
Illinois. They began their domestic life in 
Tazewell county, where three children were 
born to them: Harriett, Thomas and Will- 
iam, and since coming to Butler county, 
Nebraska, in September, 1871, five others 
have been added to the family: Charles, 
Nancy, Arthur, Walter and Laura. In his 
political views Mr. Haynes has always been 
a Republican, and still holds to the princi- 
ples of that party, although at the presi- 
dential election of 1896 he supported the 
free-silver platform. In days of peace he 
has ever been as true to the interests of his 
country as he was when fighting on south- 
ern battle fields for the old flag and the 
cause it represented. Butler county has no 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



923 



more honored or highly esteemed citizen 
than William Haynes. 



JOHN DALTON, the present chairman 
of the county board of supervisors of 
Seward county, needs no special introduc- 
tion to the readers of this volume, but the 
work would be incomplete without the rec- 
ord of his life. No man in the community 
has been more prominently identified with 
its agricultural and political history or has 
taken a more active part in its upbuilding 
and progress. He cheerfully gives his sup- 
port to those enterprises that tend to public 
development, and, with hardly an exception, 
he has been connected with every interest 
that has promoted general welfare. 

Like many of our most progressive and 
public-spirited citizens, Mr. Dalton was 
born on the other side of the Atlantic, his 
birth occurring in county Longford, Ireland, 
June 24, 1853. His parents, John and 
Nancy (Heslin) Dalton, were also natives 
of the Emerald Isle. The father, who was 
a blacksmith by trade, came to the United 
States when a young man and located at 
Cold Springs, New York, where he worked 
at his trade for some years, but finally re- 
turned to Ireland, where both he and his 
wife died. They had only two children, 
our subject and a sister, Mrs. Ella Reb- 
holtz, who died July 11, 1886, at La Porte, 
Indiana. 

Mr. Dalton, whose name introduces this 
sketch, was reared and educated in La Porte 
county, Indiana, where he also learned the 
blacksmith's trade, which he followed in 
connection with carriage making in that 
county until 1878. It was in that year that 
he became a resident of Seward county, 
Nebraska, where he purchased a tract of 
railroad land adjoining his present farm and 
erected thereon a small house. He at once 
began to break and improve his land, and 
as his financial resources have increased he 



has added to the original purchase until he 
now has three hundred and twenty acres of 
valuable and productive land in A and B 
townships, on which he is still successfully 
engaged in general farming and stock raising. 

On the 9th of February, 1880, Mr. Dal- 
ton led to the marriage altar Miss Nora A. 
Condon, a daughter of David and Catherine 
(Regan) Condon, who emigrated from Ire- 
land to the new world in early life and were 
among the first settlers of La Porte county, 
Indiana, where they still reside. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Dalton have been born five chil- 
dren, as follows: Bernard V., Thomas \V., 
Erma R. , Ella M. and Nona C, all living. 
The parents are communicants of the Cath- 
olic church. 

Mr. Dalton is a recognized leader in the 
ranks of the local Democratic organization, 
and has done much to advance the interests 
of his party in Seward county. His fellow 
citizens, recognizing his fitness for office, 
have elected him to a number of important 
positions of honor and trust. For one term 
he served as assessor of A township, which 
he also represented on the board of super- 
visors, and he has also filled the office of 
assessor of B township for two terms. In 
1896 he was appointed live stock commis- 
sioner by the governor of Nebraska for one 
year, and is now serving his third term as 
supervisor from the first district, and his 
second term as chairman of the board. In 
1885, 1886 and 1887 he was a member of 
the county board of agriculture and is also 
a member of the board of directors of the 
Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of 
Seward. 



M 



ARTIN VAN VLEET is a substantial 
and well-to-do farmer and stock raiser 
of York county, and his career is a brilliant 
illustration of what is possible for energy 
and persistence in a new country. His 
business operations, which have been varied 
and extensive, have been characterized by 



^24 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



sound sense and have invariably justified 
his judgment. 

Mr. Van Vleet was born in Saint Joseph 
county, Michigan, March 27, 1852, and is a 
son of Philo and Helen (McDonald) Van 
Vleet. His father drew his first vital breath 
in the state of New York and his mother in 
Ireland. They married and settled in Saint 
Joseph county at an early day, but after- 
wards removed to Clinton county, where 
they both died, the wife and mother in 1 863, 
and the husband and father surviving until 
1897. Martin was only two years old when 
this removal was made, and in that county 
he lived until his early manhood. He found 
an opportunity to begin life for himself un- 
der advantageous circumstances, and located 
near Pittsford, Hillsdale county. There he 
became a husband and the head of a family 
in 1875, leading to the matrimonial altar 
Miss Ida Lake. She was also Michigan 
born and bred, and claims the town of Ovid 
as her native place. She is a daughter of 
Otho and Charity (Lovejoy) Lake. They 
were born in New York, and came into 
Branch county in 1832, where they lived 
and died, the former in 1889, and the latter 
in 1856. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Van 
Vleet lived in Pittsford three years and then 
came west to Saunders county, Nebraska, 
where they settled on a farm. Here Mr. 
Van Vleet made several changes to good 
advantage, buying and selling with a profit 
at every transaction. In 1892 he came to 
York county and bought a quarter section 
of land near Waco. This became valuable, 
and he sold it to buy again three eighties, 
where he now resides. This farm shows 
the handiwork of an experienced farmer, 
and is under a high state of cultivation. 
To-day he is one of the most prosperous 
and independent farmers in the county, and 
a very sharp contrast might be drawn with 
his financial condition when he came to this 
state twenty years ago, when he was prac- 



tically without resources. Industry, enter- 
prise and push have lifted him in that time 
to an ample competency. He is independ- 
ent in politics, and refuses to let any man 
do his thinking for him, either in that or 
religion. He is the father of a numerous 
and interesting family of seven children, all 
of whom are living. Their names are 
Charles, Frank, George, Barbara, Edna, 
Clara and Philo. 



EMIL SCHOTT.— No country has af- 
forded greater opportunity to the poor 
man than our own; it is indeed the poor 
man's country. Here an industrious, fru- 
gal man has a chance to secure a fortune. 
Many fail to do so, but the best of our pop- 
ulation lay by some of their earnings, and 
soon find themselves in the possession of a 
handsome property. Among them is the 
gentleman whose name heads this article, 
being the owner of a fine farm of two hun- 
dred and forty acres on section 26, town- 
ship 15, range 2 west. Valley precinct, Polk 
county. 

Mr. Schott was born December 14, 1850, 
in Alsace, now a province of Germany, but 
at that time formed a part of France, and 
there his parents, Joseph and Lena (Mier) 
Schott, spent their entire lives, the former 
dying in 1886, the latter in 1884. The fa- 
ther was a farmer, and served for seven 
long years in the French army. The chil- 
dren of the family are Emil, of this sketch; 
Catharina, still a resident of Alsace; Martin 
and Mary, twins, who also maiie their home 
in Alsace; and Anthony, who is now living 
in Polk county, Nebraska. 

Upon the home farm in his native prov- 
ince Emil Schott remained until nineteen 
years of age, but in August, 1870, volun- 
teered to join the French army, and was 
assigned to the Chasseurs. He participat- 
ed in eight important battles, including the 
engagements at Amiens and Arras, and at 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



925- 



the last one, in the department of Bartkallis, 
January iS and 19, 1871, he was taken 
prisoner by Prince Charles' army. With 
his fellow prisoners he was kept in a barn 
over night, and then marched to Arras, 
where they were confined in the National 
prison until they could be placed on a train 
and shipped to Germany, being three nights 
and two days without food. On reaching 
Metz they were given some rice and meat, 
and then marched back to the cars and sent 
on to Peniprich , where they obtained sup- 
per. Proceeding to Coblentz, Mr. Schott 
was under guard at that place from Jan- 
uary 28, 1 87 1, until the 2d of April, and 
then worked for a time in a restaurant, after 
which he returned home. At one time, 
while in active service, a bullet passed 
through the overcoat strapped to his shoul- 
ders, making seven holes in it, but he was 
fortunately uninjured. 

On the 9th of June, 1871, Mr. Schott 
bade good-by to friends, home and native 
land, and sailed for America, locating first 
in Canton, Ohio, where he worked on a 
farm for nine years. In 1880 he wedded 
Miss Mary Friedman, who was born in 
Stark county, Ohio, in i860, a daughter of 
Joseph Friedman, a native of the United 
States, but of German parentage. They 
began their domestic life upon a rented 
farm in Stark county, Ohio, where they re- 
mained for five years, coming to Polk coun- 
ty, Nebraska, in 1885, and locating upon 
their present farm of two hundred and forty 
acres. With the exception of four acres 
the entire tract is under excellent cultiva- 
tion, and their comfortable residence was 
erected in 1893, and barn in 1888. Mr. 
Schott gives his entire time and attention 
to general farming and stock raising, and 
has prospered in his undertakings, being to- 
day one of the most substantial citizens of 
his community. 

Of the eight children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Scott, the eldest died in infancy. The 



others are as follows: Cora and Clara, 
twins; Rosa, Annie, Joseph, Eva and John. 
The parents are devout members of St. An- 
drew's Catholic church, with which Mr. 
Schott has been officially connected, and he 
also belongs to the Modern Woodmen camp 
at Osceola. He is entirely independent of 
party lines in his politics, considering, in the 
exercise of his elective franchise, rather the 
fitness of the man for the office than the 
party who placed him in nomination. 



HON. W. R. DAVIS, of Seward, was 
born in Yadkin county. North Caro- 
lina, November 26, 1824. He was married 
to Miss Margaret A. Bohannon, and to 
them were born eight children, two of 
whom died in infancy; Rebecca, Annice, 
Mattie, Abner Y. , Major A. V., and Joseph- 
ine. They moved to Iowa in the year of 
1852, and in 1857 came and settled in Cass 
county. He was elected to three sessions 
of the Territorial Legislature, and in 1862 
was appointed assistant assessor of internal 
revenue. In 1864 he enlisted in the army, 
and on December 10, 1864, while he was 
yet in the army, his wife died. He was 
discharged by his own request, and upon 
his return home from the army, he was im- 
mediately appointed assistant assessor of 
internal revenue. In August, 1866, he 
married Miss Hannah C. Coleman, and to 
them were born two children, Nellie R. , 
and Frank R. Mr. Davis has always been 
an active business man, and has done much 
to build up Seward, always taking an active 
part in any enterprise that would lead to 
the development of his county. 



JOHN HOKOM, a prosperous and repre- 
sentative agriculturist of Momence 
precinct, Fillmore county, Nebraska, living 
on section 19, was born in Sweden, in 1839, 
and in that country bis parents spent their 



926 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



entire lives, the mother dying only a few 
years ago. The meager education he ac- 
quired during his boyhood and youth was 
obtained by three months' attendance at 
the common schools of his native land. At 
the age of fifteen years he was confirmed 
in the Lutheran church of Sweden, and for 
two years he served as a soldier in the 
Swedish army. 

With the hope of bettering his financial 
condition, Mr. Hokom emigrated to Amer- 
ica at the age of twenty-nine years, and on 
landing in New York proceeded at once to 
Knox county, Illinois. Later he spent a 
short time in Wisconsin, but returned to 
Knox county, Illinois, where he spent six 
years in farming, at first working for others 
by the month. While residing there Mr. 
Hokom was married, in 1872, to Oliva 
Anderson, also a native of Sweden, born 
April 23, 1846. She was reared and edu- 
cated in her native land and came alone to 
the new world. She is the third in order 
of birth in a family of five children, three 
sons and two daughters, the parents of 
whom were Andrew and Lena (Monson) 
Bangston. To our subject and his wife 
have also been born five children, as fol- 
lows: Martin, Henry, Hattie, John and 
Ida, all residents of Nebraska. 

On leaving Galesburg, Knox county, 
Illinois, Mr. Hokom came direct to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, and in Bryant precinct 
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of 
land south of Shickley for six dollars per 
acre, but the family was forced to endure 
many hardships during their early residence 
here, and he at one time offered to trade the 
entire tract for a horse, as he become very 
discouraged. He remained, however, and 
a year later sold the place for one thousand 
eight hundred dollars. In 1883, he bought 
his present farm of two hundred and forty 
acres in Momence township, for which he 
paid three thousand and two hundred dol- 
lars, and which is now one of the best 



places in this locality, but all of the im- 
provements found thereon have been placed 
there by himself and family. The land is 
under a high state of cultivation, the build- 
ings are of a good substantial character, 
and everything about the place betokens 
thrift and prosperity. Left fatherless at an 
early age, Mr. Hokom began the struggle 
of life for himself when quite young, and on 
coming to Fillmore county had but five 
hundred dollars in money and a team of 
horses, but he has gradually worked his 
way upward, overcoming the obstacles in 
his path, until he is now the possessor of 
a comfortable competence and is one of the 
well-to-do citizens of his community. In 
his political affiliations he is a Populist, but 
was originally a Republican, and he gives 
his support to all measures which he be- 
lieves calculated to prove of public benefit 
or will in any way advance the interests of 
the people around him. 



ERWIN E. LINCOLN, a prosperous and 
enterprising business man of McCool 
Junction, Nebraska, holds a prominent po- 
sition among the mercantile workers of York 
county. He opened up a hardware store in 
1889, and in 1897 added furniture and farm 
machinery, and each department carried a 
very complete stock. In furniture and hard- 
ware he is the first and only dealer in the 
Junction, and by the observance of business 
habits and strict integrity he has won a wide 
circle of friends. 

Mr. Lincoln was born in Canton, New 
York, April 27, 1857, ^^d is now at the 
very prime of his powers. He is a son of 
Myron and Sylvia A. (Page) Lincoln. His 
father was born in New Hampshire, and 
his mother in Vermont. They both re- 
moved to New York at an early age, and 
in that state they married. They came to 
Illinois, and settled on a farm in Grundy 
county in 1857, and continued its tillage 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



927 



many years. Myron Lincoln died in Strea- 
tor, Illinois, in 1874, and his widow is still 
living, and has her home in McCool Junc- 
tion. She has attained the venerable age 
of seventy-five, and still keeps her mental 
vision clear and unimpaired. Erwin grew 
to manhood in Illinois, remaining on the 
farm and attending the district school after 
the fashion of farm lads until he was sixteen 
years old. At that time his parents removed 
to Streator. He followed them, and was a 
teamster for some years, when he bought a 
farm in company with a brother-in-law, and 
engaged in its cultivation. He made a trip 
to this state in 1877, and spent two years 
in farming some leased school lands in York 
county. In January, 1888, he brought his 
young wife from Streator, and locating at 
the Junction began that business career which 
has in a few brief years yielded such sub- 
stantial results. He worked in an elevator 
for some six months, and then conducted 
a butcher business for himself a year or 
more. He laid the foundation of his pres- 
ent large and extensive business by buy- 
ing a half interest in a small stock of hard- 
ware, and opening a store under the firm 
name of Lincoln & Grier. In less than 
three months, he not only bought his 
partner out, but also bought the goods of 
another and rival firm, and consolidated the 
two stores and has managed a large and 
growing business without assistance other 
than that of hired labor. He has one of 
the leading establishments of the county, 
and draws patronage from a long distance 
away. His success is due to his own energy 
and honest character. He brought but little 
money into the county, and has conquered 
a place in the business world by strict at- 
tention to his work, a desire to please, and 
honesty in the simplest transactions. He 
is looked upon as one of the leading citizens 
of the town, and has served on the village 
board several years, and is now acting in 
that capacity. He is a Democrat, though 



not an earnest politician. He prefers rather 
to give his time and attention to his busi- 
ness, which is richly repaying a close devo- 
tion. He is a charter member of the 
Lackens camp of Modern Woodmen, and 
was its clerk for some four years after its 
organization. He has filled nearly every 
official station in that order since his con- 
nection with it. He was married September 
18, 1 88 1, to Miss Catherine Teters. She 
was born in Grundy county, Illinois, and 
is a daughter of John and Susan (McAllister) 
Teters, who formerly lived in Ohio. She 
has presented her husband with three chil- 
dren, Cora, Lewis and Emmet, and has 
contributed materially to his success in life 
by her housewifely genius and social in- 
stincts. 



JOHN HILGER. — Among some of the 
most enterprising citizens of Butler 
county are those who were born in Ger- 
many, and who have brought into this fer- 
tile and productive country the thrift and 
economy of the old world. Among these 
there is no figure that stands out more 
prominently in the history of the county 
than John Hilger, a well-known farmer, re- 
siding on section 10, Olive township. 

Mr. Hilger was born April 2, 1841, in 
Luxemburg, Germany, of which place his 
father, Dominick Hilger, was also a native. 
Our subject obtained his early education in 
the public schools of his native land, and 
remained in that country until 1855, when 
he sailed for the United States, livmg on a 
farm in Jackson county, Iowa, until after 
the Civil war broke out. In 1862 he en- 
listed in the Fifth Iowa Cavalry for three 
years or until the close of the war, and with 
the Army of the Cumberland participated 
in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chattanooga 
and Atlanta, being honorably discharged 
from the service in 1865. 

Returning to his home in Iowa, he en- 



928 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



gaged in farming there for three years. In 
the meantime he was married, in Jackson 
county, on the 30th of December, 1867, to 
Miss Florence Grier. Her father, Peter 
Grier, of Jackson county, was also a native 
of Luxemburg, Germany, and having crossed 
the Atlantic became a resident of Iowa 
early in the '50s. Mr. and Mrs. Hilger be- 
came the parents of six children, whose 
names and dates of birth are as follows: 
Julia, 1868; George, 1870; Louisa, 1872; 
Christian, 1874; Emma, 1876; and Agnes, 
1880. The wife and mother was called to 
her final rest October 15, 1882. 

On leaving Jackson county, Iowa, Mr. 
Hilger came to Butler county, Nebraska, 
and has since been prominently identified 
with its agricultural interests, making for 
himself a comfortable home and fine farm. 
Politically he is a free silver Democrat, and 
has served his fellow citizens in the capacity 
of township treasurer and collector, filling 
the latter office for five years, his last term 
just expiring. In religious belief he is a 
Catholic. 



CYRUS B. THOMPSON is one of the 
early settlers and representative farm- 
ers of Fillmore county, having since the 
spring of 1871 successfully engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits in Fairmont township. As 
a man of more than ordinary intelligence 
and enterprise, he has materially assisted 
in the building up of the township and at- 
tracting to it a thrifty and industrious class 
of people. 

Mr. Thompson was born in Mercer 
county, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1837, 
a son of John S. and Nancy (Osborn) 
Thompson, also natives of Pennsylvania. 
The paternal grandfather, William M. 
Thompson, was born in the same state of 
Scotch-Irish parentage, his ancestors hav- 
ing come to the United States from county 
Armagh, Ireland, prior to the war of 18 12. 



He was a farmer by occupation and spent 
his entire life in Pennsylvania. He had 
three sons, who grew to manhood, and of 
these John S., our subject's father, was the 
eldest. In early life he learned the car- 
penter's trade, which he followed in his 
native state until 1867, and then removed 
to Iowa. Later he made his home with our 
subject in Nebraska, and his youngest son 
in Kansas, and died at the home of the lat- 
ter in 1898. His wife had passed away in 
Fairmont, Nebraska, in 1886, and the re- 
mains of both were interred there. To 
them were born nine children, seven sons 
and two daughters, but only three sons are 
now living, and our subject is the only one 
living in Fillmore county. 

During early life Cyrus B. Thompson 
pursued his studies in the common schools 
of Pennsylvania, and later engaged in teach- 
ing school and farming in that state until 
after the Civil war broke out. In 1862 he 
went to the front as a member of Company 
A, One Hundred and Forty-second Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteer Infantry, and remained in 
the service until honorably discharged May 
29, 1865. He participated in the battle of 
Fredericksburg, in Burnsides' muddy march, 
and the engagements at Chancellorsville, 
Gettysburg, Franktown, Thoroughfare Gap, 
Rappahannock Station, the Wilderness, 
Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania, Tolopotomy 
creek. North Anna river, Bethesda church, 
Cold Harbor and Petersburg. In front of 
Petersburg he was wounded, July 14, 1864, 
by a shot in the right hand, and for some 
time was unfit for duty. Later he took 
part in the battles of Hatcher's Run, Dob- 
ney's Mills, the second battle of Hatcher's 
Run, Fort Stedman, Boydton Plank Road, 
Five Forks and Appomattox Court House, 
where Lee surrendered. He was several 
times slightly wounded, but never seriously, 
and was only off duty a short time. When 
mustered out he was holding the rank of 
first sergeant. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



929 



Returning to his home iii, Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Thompson remained there until the fall 
of 1866, when he went to Jackson county, 
Iowa, and rented land for a short time, but 
the folio wimg year moved to Jasper county, 
the same state, where he made his home 
until coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
in the spring of 1 87 1 . On the 27th of Feb- 
ruary, of that year, he located his home- 
stead on the northwest quarter of section 
14, Fairanont township, and it was not long 
before he transformed the wild land into 
highly ciaJtivated fields. He hauled the 
lumber for his first home from Lincoln, and 
■erected a little house, 14 x 16 feet, in which 
the family lived for some years. A few In- 
dians were still to be seen in this region, 
and wild game was plentiful. His third 
■crop wasdestroyed by the grasshoppers, and 
be has encountered many other trials, but 
in the main he has prospered in his adopt- 
■ed state, and is now the owner of three 
qaiarter sections of land, all under excellent 
cultivation and improved with good build- 
ings. 

On the 4th of March, 1869, Mr. Thomp- 
son was united in marriage with Miss Sarah 
M. Sterrett, a native of Allegheny county, 
Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Robert 
and Martha (EJrod) Sterrett, who were also 
born in that state. Of the seven children 
born of this union, four are still living, 
namely: John S., Stella L. , Charles D. and 
Fred H., all residing at home, and the 
daughter is successfully engaged in teaching 
school. The parents and children hold 
membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and receive and merit the respect 
and esteem of all who know them. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Thompson belongs to the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, the Ancient Order of Unit- 
ed Workmen and the Grand Army of the 
Republic, and politically he affiliates with 
the Republican party. He has served as 
assessor of his township, but has never 

sought office, preferring to give his time and 
53 



attention to his business interests. He is a 
man honored and esteemed wherever known 
and most of all where he is best known. 



OWAN LARSON is one of the enterpris- 
er ing, energetic and industrious citizens 
of Bryant precinct, Fillmore county, his 
home being on section 13, where he has a 
fine farm of eighty acres pleasantly located 
only a mile and a half from Shickley. By 
his industrious application to his work and 
good management, he has succeeded in ac- 
quiring this valuable property, for he start- 
ed out in life for himself in limited circum- 
stances. 

Mr. Larson was born in Sweden in 1837, 
and is a son of Lars and Mary Bengston, in 
whose family were twelve children, but only 
three sons and one daughter came to Ameri- 
ca. The parents both died in Sweden, the 
father at the age of eighty-two years, the 
mother at the age of eighty-nine. They had 
the respect and esteem of all who knew 
them. Our subject was educated in his 
native land and was there confirmed in the 
Swedish Lutheran church at the age of four- 
teen years. For two years he was a soldier 
in the Swedish army, and during his resi- 
dence in that country followed the occupa- 
tion of farming. 

Before leaving Sweden, Mr. Larson was 
married, in 1874, to Miss Ingrid Stahl, who 
was born there in 1847, and was confirmed 
in the Lutheran church at the age of fifteen. 
Her parents were Swan and Stina Stahl, 
who spent their entire lives in Sweden, the 
former dying at the age of seventy, the 
latter at the age of seventy-two. For forty 
three years the father was a soldier in the 
regular army. Mrs. Larson is the fourth 
in order of birth in a family of eight chil- 
dren, and of these she had three brothers 
who also became residents of the United 
States. Three children have been born to 
our subject and his wife, namely: Nels, 



930 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Olof and Hilda. The younger son and 
daughter are still at home. Nels, who is 
now twenty-three years of age, has been in 
the employ of business men of Shickley for 
the past nine years and has won the con- 
fidence of all by his honesty and manly 
bearing. He is conversant with several 
languages, is an energetic and shrewd busi- 
ness man of sterling qualities, is highly re- 
spected by all who know him, and undoubt- 
edly the future has in store for him success 
and honor. 

In 1883 Mr. Larson and his family came 
to the new world, and on reaching the shores 
of this country proceeded at once to Bry- 
ant precinct, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he rented land until 1892. He then 
purchased eighty acres of raw land, which 
he began to break and improve, but subse- 
quently sold that place at a good profit and 
purchased his present farm of eighty acres 
at a cost of $2,200. This beautiful tract 
is well improved and under a high state of 
cultivation and yields to the owner a golden 
tribute in return for the care and labor be- 
stowed upon it. The first home he owned 
here was a sod house, but prosperity has 
crowned his well-directed efforts and he 
now has a comfortable residence, surrounded 
by good out-buildings. Mr. and Mr. Larson 
united with the Lutheran church in Sweden, 
to which they still adhere, and they and 
their children now hold membership in the 
Stockholm church, Bryant precinct. 



REV. JOHN AMSDEN CHAPIN. —Only 
the history of the good and great 
comes down to us through the ages. The 
true religion has been the strongest influ- 
ence known to man through all time, while 
the many false doctrines that have sprung 
up have flourished only for a day and then 
vanished. More potent at the present time 
than at and period in the world's history 
are the work and influence of Christianity, 



and among those who are devoting their 
lives to its inculcation among men is Rev. 
Chapin, of Seward county. 

He was born in Calais, Washington 
county, Vermont, April 2, 1833, and is the 
fifth child in the family of John Amsden 
and Diadama (Merrill) Chapin. He at- 
tended the Calais common and private 
schools and aided his father in the work of 
the home farm until twenty years of age, 
when he went to Springfield, Massachusetts, 
where he worked in a lumber-yard for eight- 
een months. He then entered the old 
Ames machine shops at Chicopee, Massa- 
chusetts, as an apppentice, remaining there 
two years and a half, or until the autumn 
of 1857. Living on the sea coast, he often 
made trips as a sailor on the fishing boats 
along the coast and in the gulf of the St. 
Lawrence, but he finally became satisfied 
that this was not a very paying business, 
and accordingly he returned home in the 
fall of 1858 and entered the academy at 
Westfield, Massachusetts, where he pur- 
sued his studies for two years. 

While employed as a sailor Mr. Chapin 
became acquainted with Miss Sarah Perkins 
and upon the completion of his academic 
course they were married in May, 1S61, 
after which he worked in the government 
machine shop, manufacturing Springfield 
rifles until December, 1863. In company 
with two of his brothers he then enlisted in 
Company I, Third Massachusetts Heavy 
Artillery, the company being afterward 
detailed by order of General Butler to 
serve as an engineering corps, in which 
capacity they served until hostilities ceased. 
They were finally discharged at Galloup's 
Island with honors for faithfulness and 
promptness in the discharge of their duties in 
making pontoon bridges and doing other 
work in the engineering line. After their 
return home. Governor Andrews of Mas- 
sachuetts issued a circular complimentary to 
Company I, giving them full praise for 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



931 



efficiency in their department of the 
service. 

In the last of September, 1865, Mr. 
Chapin rejoined his family at Gloucester, 
Massachusetts, where he made his home 
until 1872, being engaged in the manufac- 
ture of yawl boats, now used by all vessels 
putting to sea. With his wife and two chil- 
dren he started westward and landed at 
Lincoln, Nebraska, April 5, 1872. He im- 
mediately found work at his trade in the B. 
& M. R. R. machine shops at Plattsmouth, 
where he remained for three years. In the 
meantime, believing he could do much more 
good in the world, he applied for a license 
from the Methodist Episcopal church to 
preach the Gospel and received his first 
charge at Wilber, Nebraska. He has since 
labored untiring in the Master's vineyard, 
and has had charge of the churches of his 
denomination at Geneva, Valparaiso and 
Peru, where his first wife died. He after- 
ward located at Osceola, where he became 
acquainted with and married Mrs. Louisa 
Jane Austin. Her parents were Luther H. 
and Eleanor (O'Brien) Nutting, both of 
Tonawanda, New York. Her maternal 
grandfather, Daniel O'Brien, was a native 
of the Emerald Isle, but her other ancestors 
were all born in this country and all were 
tillers of the soil. Daniel O'Brien was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war under Gen- 
eral Washington, and her father served in 
what is often called the second war for in- 
dependence, or the war of 1812. Her first 
husband, James Austin, was a member of 
the Union navy during the Civil war, and, 
as previously stated, her last husband, our 
subject, was also a defender of the Union 
in that struggle. 

By his first marriage Mr. Chapin had 
three children: (i) Nellie P. is now the 
wife of Herbert Mackie a farmer and stock- 
raiser, and they have three children: Har- 
old C, Winifred E. and Lloyd E. (2) Ed- 
ward P. married Minnie Hilton, and they 



have two children: Maggie and Saida. (3) 
Edith M. makes her home with her sister in 
Lapeer, Nebraska. By her first husband, 
Mrs. Chapin had six children, of whom five 
are living, (i) John W. married Sarah 
Jeffrey and they have one child, Law- 
rence. (2) George C. is single and inter- 
ested in mining operations in Montana. ('3) 
Millie J. is the wife of A. M. Sheets, of An- 
aconda, Montana. (4) Emogene L. is the 
wife of William Hilbert, and they have 
three children: James L. , Hazel E. and 
Ruble. (5) Willard J. married Maude Mil- 
ler and they have two children: Lloyd and 
Clarence. All live in the far west and are 
interested in the rich mines of Montana. 

Like her husband, Mrs. Chapin is a faith- 
ful member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and their lives are such as command 
for them the respect and esteem of all with 
whom they come in contact. He keeps 
well posted on the leading questions and is- 
sues of the day, and is a believer in bimet- 
alism. For several years he has cast his 
ballot with the Prohibition party and is a 
supporter of all measures which he believes 
will in any way benefit his fellow men or 
make the world better. 



JOHN WHOLSTENHOLM, who is now 
spending the closing years of a long and 
active life in peaceful retirement in the vil- 
lage of McCool Junction, is one of the 
earlier settlers of York county. He made a 
permanent settlement on section 26, McFad- 
den township, in the fall of 1871, where he 
secured a quarter section of land under the 
law relating to soldiers' claims under the 
homestead act. He had made a trip into this 
county the previous year, and had filed his 
first claim upon the land and constructed a 
dug-out, which became the first home of his 
family after their arrival in the county. In 
1874 he erected a two-story frame residence 
at a cost of one thousand dollars. At that 



m-2 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



day it was one of the most imposing country 
residences in the count3\ The new settlers 
found no water except in the "basins," but 
they came prepared with tools, and immed- 
diately drilled a well. As neighbors congre- 
gated, he found well-drilling quite a paying 
occupation, and many of the best farm wells 
of the region are the result of his labors. 
Lincoln was the nearest trading point for 
the people of this section at that time, and, 
as it was over fifty miles away, going to 
market was an inconvenient undertaking. 
There were no roads on the prairie, and on 
one occasion, when the neighbors were all 
out of flour, Mr. Wholstenholm started for a 
mill some eight miles away. The sun was 
hid by clouds, he lost his way, and spent 
the afternoon in aimless wanderings. He 
spent the night in his wagon, and meeting a 
man the next morning discovered he was 
far away from his destination. The trip 
consumed three days, and in his absence 
everybody had to live on crushed corn. 
His return with four sacks of corn was the 
occasion of a jo3ful demonstration. 

Mr. Wholstenholm continued to live 
upon his homestead and develop and im- 
prove it in every way. He added one hun- 
dred and sixty acres to the place, which he 
afterward divided among his two sons. He 
still holds the original homestead, which he 
rents to good advantage. He relates that 
at the time settlers were coming in rapidly, 
and the land was being taken correspond- 
ingly fast, he started for Fairmont early 
one morning to do some trading. He took 
the usual path, and before he saw where he 
was going had driven across an elevation in 
the way, of which he had known nothing. 
He had scarcely passed over it, when he 
was surprised to hear a man's voice, and 
learn that he had driven entirely over the 
habitation of a new settler. The man had 
dug a hole in the ground, and had covered 
it over with dirt and sod and had lived there 
some two weeks. 



Mr. Wholstenholm was born in Haywood, 
Lancastershire, England, April 17, 1823, 
and is a son of William and Martha (Aspinall) 
Wholstenholm, who were also of English 
nativity. They lived and died in England. 
He was reared in his native town, and, his 
parents being poor, he was obliged to go to 
work in the cotton mills when only eight 
years old for the magnificent salary of a 
shilling a week. He worked in the mills 
until he was twenty-five years old and be- 
came a capable carder. At this time he 
tired of the old world and set out to seek 
his fortune in America. In 1850 he crossed 
the ocean in a sailing vessel, and landed at 
New Orleans. He made his way up the 
river, and reached Peoria, Illinois, when 
nine weeks out from England. He worked 
for a farmer at thirteen dollars a month, 
and felt he was earning large wages. Three 
years after his arrival he was married in 
Peoria county, to Miss Hannah Lonsdale, 
who was born in his native town in England. 
She was a daughter of Thomas and Helen 
(Halsted) Lonsdale, and bore her husband 
six children, James, Miles, John, Martha A., 
Ellen and Alice. She died in 1875, leaving 
behind her the saintly memories of a good 
woman, and a true wife and mother. Mr. 
Wholstenholm subsequently married again, 
and Anna Perrins became his wife in Feb- 
ruary, 1878. She was also a native of Hay- 
wood, England. Her parents were John 
and Margaret (Norris) Perrins, and they 
lived and died in their English home. 

Mr. Wholstenholm enlisted August 15, 
1862, in Company K, seventy-seventh Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry, and served through- 
out the Civil war. He participated in many 
important engagements, and the roll of the 
battles in which he was engaged would con- 
tain the greater part of the more important 
events of the war in the west. He was at 
Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post, Magnolia 
Hills, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, 
Vicksburg, Jackson, Mansfield, Kane River, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



933 



Marksville, Yellow Bayou, Fort Gaines, 
Spanish Fort, Blakely and Whistler Station, 
and many unimportant skirmishes not here 
mentioned. Throughout this long and active 
career he was not wounded, nor taken priso- 
ner, though he was in many dangerous 
situations, and on more than one occasion 
would have sold out his chances for a small 
consideration. On one occasion he was 
struck by a spent rifle ball. It pierced 
through two thicknesses of his leather belt, 
and was stopped by his cartridge box. He 
was discharged at Mobile, Alabama, July 
lo, 1865, and was mustered out at Spring- 
field, Illinois. He is, as might be expected, 
a prominent member of the Lushton post of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, and takes 
much interest in its prosperity. He is a 
social member of the Ancient Order of the 
United Workmen, and gives much care to 
the welfare of that splendid institution. In 
politics he takes an independent position, 
and holds that the best men should go into 
office to carry out the best measures that 
can be devised for the welfare and pros- 
perity of the people. 



DR. WILLIAM G. HARRIGER is a well 
known resident of Brainard, Butler 
county, Nebraska, and has been intimately 
identified with the history of this entire re- 
gion almost from its beginning. He has 
seen it grow from a prairie wilderness to its 
present populous and prosperous condition, 
and in many ways he has rendered its peo- 
ple valuable service. The history of the 
county demands his name. 

Dr. Harriger was born in Canada in 1 848, 
while his parents were temporarily residing 
in that country. He is of German descent, as 
his name might indicate, his grandfather; 
George Harriger, having been born m the 
German empire in 1781, coming to this 
country with his parents fourteen years la- 
ter. They located on the banks of the 



Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, where 
they lived and died. George Harriger re- 
moved to Jefferson county in that state in 
later life, where he married, and where 
Cyrus Harriger, the father of our subject, 
was born. He was married in Pennsylva- 
nia to Lavinia J. Haraga, whose parents 
were natives of Holland. Our subject is 
their oldest son, and enjoyed good educa- 
tional advantages. He was educated in 
the public schools, and studied medicine 
with Dr. Barber, of Strattinsville, Pennsyl- 
vania. He remained with his preceptor, 
and engaged in medical studies until the 
breaking out of the Civil war in 1861. He 
enlisted in the army of the Union, and was 
a member of Company H, One Hundred 
and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer In- 
fantry. He was presently appointed an 
assistant surgeon, and served two years in 
that capacity. He was severely wounded 
at Dallas, Georgia, but quickly recovered 
and returned to his regiment, and com- 
pleted his term of enlistment. After the 
war he engaged in the practice of medicine, 
and was also a local preacher of the Method- 
ist church. He finished his medical stud- 
ies under the instruction of that Canadian 
institution known as Bishops' College. In 
1876 he decided to remove to Nebraska, 
and coming into this state made his home 
for the first three months in Columbus, and 
then took charge of the North Bend Circuit. 
When he came to Brainard the following 
year, the town was in its infancy, only two 
or three houses having been erected, and 
the rest of the town being in the magnifi- 
cent future. He has been in the closest 
touch with all its growth, and is widely 
known as a pioneer, who has cared for the 
souls and bodies of the early settlers. With 
all these demands upon his time and 
strength. Dr. Harriger has kept up with 
professional progress, and among men of 
medicine is recognized as a worthy peer 
and congenial associate. To him and his 



934 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



estimable wife have been born five children, 
May, Charles H., Kittie B. , Lewanron C, 
and Harrold. They form a bright and in- 
teresting family. The Doctor and his good 
wife are much respected and greatly beloved 
for their many good qualities by a wide 
circle of admiring friends, who have occa- 
sion to remember years of devoted sacrifice 
to the best interests of a new country. He 
was married June 4, 1866, to Miss Martha 
I. Harigan, a native of Pennsylvania. The 
Doctor is a member of Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and is a charter member 
of the Woodmen of the World, Ben Hur and 
Cruft Post, No. 121, Grand Army of the 
Republic. 



PATRICK REA, one of the active, prom- 
inent and most enterprising citizens of 
Leroy township, York county, is at pres- 
ent engaged in farming on section 23. He 
is an honored son of the Emerald Isle, his 
birth occurring in county Limerick, Ireland, 
March 10, 1838, and is a son of Thomas and 
Bridget (Ryan) Rea, also natives of county 
Limerick, where they spent their lives. The 
father, who was a common laborer, died at 
the age of forty years, and the mother 
passed away at the age of seventy-seven. 
In their family were six children, four sons 
and two daughters, all of whom, with the 
exception of one daughter, eventually came 
to America. 

Our subject was the youngest son and 
upon the home farm he was reared, having 
no educational advantages to speak of. For 
a few terms during the winter he attended 
a subscription school, walking five miles, 
and carrying on his back turf which was used 
as fuel to keep up the fire in the school- 
house. As his parents were very poor he 
was not able to attend school any length of 
time, as he had no money to pay his tuition. 
Finally times became very hard, rents were 
very high, and he was obliged to leave Ire- 



land. In the fall of 1850 he came to 
America with one of his sisters on a sailing 
vessel, which was a little over three weeks in 
crossing the ocean. He landed in Boston 
and soon afterward located in Lockport, 
Massachusetts, where he secured work on a 
farm, remaining there five years. The fol- 
lowing seven years he was employed in a 
stone quarry, and in 1862 removed to Illi- 
nois, locating in Clinton, Dewitt county, 
where he worked in the round house for a 
railroad company for about ten years. He 
then rented a farm in that county and suc- 
cessfully operated the same for ten years. 

In the spring of 188^, Mr. Rea came to 
York county, Nebraska, and rented land in 
Leroy township, on which very few im- 
provements had been made. He was finally 
able to buy eighty acres, and as he has 
steadily prospered he has extended the 
boundaries of his farm from time to time, 
as his financial resources would permit, 
until he now has a valuable place of two 
hundred and forty acres, under excellent 
cultivation, with the exception of that used 
for pasture and meadow lands. A fine mod- 
ern residence has been erected, and many 
other improvements made, representing 
many years of hard labor and good man- 
agement on the part of the owner. He is 
to-day one of the well-to-do farmers of the 
township, and the prosperity that has 
crowned his efforts is certainly well merited, 
for he is one of the most industrious, en- 
terprising and reliable citizens of the com- 
munity. 

While a resident of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Rea was married in 1855, the lady of his 
choice being Miss Kate Donlon, a native of 
county Roscommon, Ireland, and a daugh- 
ter of Thomas Donlon. They have become 
the parents of ten children, namely: 
Thomas, John, Michael, James, Mary, 
Bridget, Dennis, Kate and Nellie. Dennis, 
John, the first of the name, and Bridget are 
all deceased, and the others are still under 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



935 



the parental roof with the exception of John 
and Mary, who are married in York county. 
Parents and children are all communicants 
of the Catholic church, and the family is 
widely and favorably known. 



CHARLES N. PHILLIPS, the well- 
known and popular postmaster of E.xe- 
ter and an honored veteran of the Civil war, 
was born in Potter county, Pennsylvania, 
July 25, 1843, and belongs to one of our 
most loyal and patriotic American families, 
one that has been well represented in the 
wars of this country and in days of peace 
has been devoted to its interests. His par- 
ents were John and Mary (Richardson) 
Phillips, natives of New York and New 
Hampshire, respectively. At an early day 
the father removed with his parents, Nathan 
and Sarah Phillips, to Pennsylvania. Na- 
than Phillips was a soldier in the war of 
18 12, and his father, Isaac Phillips, the 
great-grandfather of our subject, was one 
of the heroes of the Revolution, having 
valiantly aided the colonies in their struggle 
for independence. The father, who was a 
farmer by occupation, entered the Union 
service during the dark days of the Rebel- 
lion, soon after the breaking out of the war, 
as a member of Company G, Forty-sixth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and par- 
ticipated in several engagements around 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and went with Sher- 
man as far as Atlanta, Georgia, where he 
was taken ill with fever. He died at Chat- 
tanooga, in August, 1864, being one of the 
men who so willingly sacrificed their lives 
on the altar of their country that the Union 
might be spared. In his family were two 
sons and two daughters, and the former 
both entered the Federal service during the 
Civil war. Moses R. was also a member of 
the Forty-si^th Pennsylvania Volunteer 
Infantry, took part in many a hard-fought 
battle during his three years' service, and 



died from the effects of a sunstroke at the 
battle of Antietam. 

In his native state, Charles N. Phillips 
was reared to manhood, and in its public 
schools he acquired a good practical educa- 
tion, which has well fitted him for life's re- 
sponsible duties. In August, 1862, he 
donned the blue and went to the front as a 
member of Company K, One Hundred and 
Forty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- 
try. He participated in the battles of Fred- 
ericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 
and during the last-named engagement, in 
July, 1863, he suffered the loss of his right 
hand and was also shot in the face and 
shoulder. For three days he lay on the 
battle field uncared for, and then had his 
wounds dressed by a rebel surgeon. The 
following October, he was honorably dis- 
charged and returned home, but it was some 
time before he was able to engage in active 
labor. 

Mr. Phillips continued his residence in 
Pennsylvania until 1871, when he started 
for Nebraska in a covered wagon, driving 
the entire distance from Potter count}', 
Pennsylvania, to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he arrived after two months spent 
upon the road. He homesteaded the south- 
west quarter of section 24, Fairmont town- 
ship, erected a sod house thereon, and be- 
gan to break and improve his farm. There 
he successfully engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits for several years and still owns the 
place. 

Before leaving his native state, Mr. Phil- 
lips was married, in 1870, to Miss Rosina 
Whitney, a native of New York, and they 
have become the parents of four children: 
Fred J., Otto C, Elva A. and Ethel, all liv- 
iving but the last named, who died when but 
two years old. Socially Mr. Phillips is an 
honored member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, and politically is an ardent sup- 
porter of the men and measures of the 
Republican party. In July, 1897, he was. 



936 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



appointed postmaster of Exeter, and the 
prompt and able manner in which he has 
discharged the duties of the office has won 
the commendation of its many patrons. 
He takes a deep interest in everything per- 
taining to the pubHc welfare of the town, 
and withholds his support from no enterprise 
calculated to prove of public benefit. As a 
citizen, friend and neighbor, he is true to 
every duty and justly merits the esteem in 
which he is held. 



JOSEPH McFADDEN, deceased.— 
Among the honored pioneers of Fillmore 
county who opened up the way to civiliza- 
tion was this gentleman, whose name is 
inseparably connected with the history of the 
locality. He was an enterprising, energetic 
man, and helped to transform the wild 
prairies of the west into rich and highly 
cultivated farms. A portrait of this worthy 
man is presented in connection with this 
sketch. Born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, 
June 13, 1S28, he removed with his parents 
to Illinois during his childhood, and later 
went with them to Iowa, where he was 
reared to manhood. During the gold ex- 
citement in California he went to that state 
to seek his fortune, and spent several years 
in the mines of the Pacific slope. 

After his return Mr. McFadden engaged 
in farming in Iowa for a time, and in May, 
1 87 1, came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he secured a pre-emption claim of one 
hundred and sixty acres on section 10, 
Geneva township. He then constructed a 
dug-out in which he lived and kept bache- 
lor's hall until his marriage, in the mean- 
time developing and improving his farm. 
On the 28th of September, 1873, he married 
Miss Louisa H. Chaplin, who is also num- 
bered among the pioneers of the county. 
She was born in Highland county, Ohio, a 
daughter of Reuben and Mary (Barr) Chap- 
lin. Her parents were also natives of the 



Buckeye state, and in 1857 removed to 
Iowa, locating in Marion county, where Mr. 
Chaplin died more than thirty years ago. 
His widow is still living at an advanced age 
and resides in Jasper county, Iowa. Mrs. 
McFadden has been a resident of Fillmore 
county since 1871, having removed to this 
place in March of that year, in company 
with her uncle, James A. Barr. They pre- 
empted adjoining claims of one hundred and 
sixty acres each in West Blue township, and 
on the division line they exected a small 
frame house of two rooms, the lumber be- 
ing hauled in wagons from Lincoln, fifty 
miles away. This was the second frame 
house built upon the prairie. Mrs. McFad- 
den lived upon her claim until her marriage, 
and in the meantime made a number of im- 
provements on it. She afterward traded it 
for one hundred and sixty acres of land on 
section 4, Geneva township, adjoining the 
farm on which she now resides. She ex- 
perienced many of the hardships and trials 
of pioneer life, but also retains many pleas- 
ant memories of the friendly relations and 
genuine hospitality which prevailed among 
the early settlers. 

Mr. McFadden continued to devote his 
energies to agricultural pursuits until his 
death, which occurred July 22, 1895. He 
wrought a great change in the appearance 
of the farm, the raw prairie being trans- 
formed into rich and fertile fields, giving 
promise of abundant harvests. Substan- 
tial buildings were erected, and all the ac- 
cessories of the model farm were added. He 
was energetic and progressive, and his well 
directed efforts brought to him a comfort- 
ble competence. He was a public-spirited 
citizen, interested in all that pertained to 
the general welfare, and in his death the 
community mourned the loss of one whom 
they had learned to respect and honor. 

Mrs. McFadden still resides on the 
homestead and oversees the operation of 
her fine farm of three hundred and sixty 




MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH McFADDEN AND SON. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



939 



acres. In this she is ably assisted by her 
only son, Charles, who was born August 19, 
1878, and is active in the operation of the 
fields, largely filling his father's place in 
the care of the property. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. McFadden were among the early 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church 
in Fairmont, and Mrs. McFadden still 
retains her connection therewith. 



JACOB LABART.— The sturdy German 
element in our national commonwealth 
has been one of the most important in 
furthering the substantial and normal ad- 
vancement of the country, for this is an ele- 
ment signally appreciative of practical val- 
ues and also of the higher intellectuality 
which transcends all provincial confines. 
Well may any person take pride in tracing 
his lineage to such a source and, our subject 
can do this. He is himself a native of the 
fatherland, where he was born March 7, 
1847, his parents being Conrad and Eliza- 
beth Labart, the latter a daughter of 
George West. The father emigrated from 
Germany to America in 1853, and on the 
1st of January, 18 54, arrived in Portsmouth, 
Ohio, where for ten years he followed vari- 
ous occupations that would yield him an 
honest living. Having in that time acquired 
some capital, he then purchased a farm on 
the Ohio river in Sciota county, Ohio, there 
carrying on agricultural pursuits until his 
death, which occurred in 1886, at the age of 
sixty-three years. His wife is still living on 
the old homestead at the age of eighty- 
four. 

Jacob Labart was seven years of age 
when he came with his parents to the new 
world. In the fall of 1S67 he left his fa- 
ther's home and went to Illinois, securing 
work as a farm hand four miles from Lin- 
coln, that state. He worked for two years, 
receiving twenty-three dollars per mouth 
the first year, and twenty-five dollars the 



second. At the age of twentj-two he mar- 
ried Eliza Jane Willis, daughter of William 
and Mary Willis, the wedding being cele- 
brated October 9, 1869. 

Mr. Labart then rented a farm and met 
with fair success in its operation, but hear- 
ing of the new state beyond the Missouri 
river, he sold everything that he could not 
load in a two-horse wagon and started for 
Nebraska. After traveling four weeks he 
reached Walnut Creek, in Seward county, 
and there left his wife and one child, while 
he continued on his way to Fillmore coun- 
ty, where he took a homestead and erected 
a sod house. He then returned for his 
family, who were ensconsed in the new home 
October 15, 1871, and he at once began 
breaking prairie and transforming the wild 
land into richly cultivated fields. When 
his house was finished and his family in- 
stalled therein, he had only a five-dollar 
bill remaining. This he loaned to a man 
more needy than himself, it being returned 
to him after twelve months, having been 
passed from man to man until it finally 
came back to him in the condition of 
Franklin's rolling stone, " having gathered 
no moss." Mr. Labart remained on his 
farm in Fillmore county until February, 
1878, when he sold and came to York coun- 
ty, purchasing one hundred and sixty acres 
of land on section 28, Henderson township. 
He paid half down, the remainder being 
due in five years. He still owns that land, 
which has been converted into a valuable 
farm. 

In March, 1881, Mr. Labart was called 
upon to mourn the death of his wife, who 
died leaving three children. After a year 
he married Adell Scovell, who was born 
December 10, 1852, daughter of A. E. and 
Avilla Scovell. This marriage occurred 
March 12, 1882. By the first marriage 
there were five children, two yet living: 
John Lewis, who operates the home farm 
and who married Rosa Davis, by whom he 



940 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



has one child, Floyd; and Mary, wife of 
Arthur Dixon, by whom she has two chil- 
dren. By the second marriage of Mr. La- 
bart there were also five children: Iva J., 
Jacob R., Harry E. , Otis and Avilla. 

Our subject continued his farming oper- 
ations until 1892, when he traded one of his 
farms for a hotel in Lushton. Becoming 
weary of the hotel business, however, he 
afterward traded that property for a dwell- 
ing, and about the year 1897 established a 
lumber-yard, which he has since conducted 
with good success. He is very energetic 
and industrious, and his persevering and 
well directed efforts have brought to him a 
gratifying competence. In politics he has 
been a stalwart Republican since casting his 
first presidential vote for General Grant. 
His last vote was cast for Major McKinley. 
His wife belongs to the United Brethren 
church, and both Mr. and Mrs. Labart are 
people of the highest respectability, having 
the warm regard of many friends. 



SMITH RODMAN, one of the most reli- 
able and highly respected business men 
of Goehner, Seward county, Nebraska, was 
born in the state of New York, June 16, 
i860, and is a son of Hiram and Ethalinda 
A. Rodman, also natives of New York. As 
far back as the family can be traced its 
members have followed agricultural pur- 
suits. When our subject was fourteen 
years old his parents removed to eastern 
Iowa, where they lived for several years, 
and then bought a farm on Goose Lake, 
Clinton county, that state. In 1872 they 
came to Nebraska, and in Seward county 
the father selected the east half of the 
northeast quarter of section 6, precinct K, 
which he still owns. 

Our subject assisted his father in the 
improvement and cultivation of his land 
until his marriage, which was celebrated in 
the city of Seward, October 2, 1884, 



Miss Charlotte Griffin becoming his wife. 
Her father, Joshua Griffin, was born in 
Maryland, of Welsh parentage, while her 
mother, who bore the maiden name of 
Mary Ann Long, was born in New Bruns- 
wick, of Irish parentage. They became 
residents of Seward county, Nebraska, in 
March, 1881. To our subject and his wife 
have been born two children: Smith Earl, 
now thirteen years of age, and Irving, five. 
They are bright, intelligent boys, in which 
the parents take a just pride, and are being 
provided with good educations, Mr. Rod- 
man believing in giving them the best oppor- 
tunities, within his means, of improving 
themselves both mentally an physically. 

The spring after his marriage Mr. Rod- 
man rented an eighty-acre farm south of 
the present town of Goehner, but after 
operating it one year he removed to the 
city of Seward in March, 1886. Here he 
began work at the carpenter's trade, which 
he followed for a few months, but finally 
becoming weary of town life he removed to 
his father-in-law's farm, which he conducted 
for the remainder of the year. In 1S87 he 
commenced farming on land belonging to his 
father, and successfully engaged in its cul- 
tivation for four years. He then moved 
to the northwest quarter of section 9, 
precinct K, where he also followed agricul- 
tural pursuits with marked success from 
1 89 1 until August, 1898. Desiring to 
change his occupation and having been 
warmly recommended by a business friend, 
one of the elevators at Goehner was 
entrusted to his care. His services here 
command a fair salary, for faithfulness, 
honesty and industry are the cardinal points 
in all his dealings with the public. He 
is a strictly temperance man, having never 
drank a dram of whisky or brandy, or 
emptied a glass of beer, and his course 
through life has ever been such as to com- 
mend him to the confidence and esteem of 
all with whom he has come in contact. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



941 



Although not a member of any religious de- 
nomination, he and his wife frequently at- 
tend services at the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and their children regularly attend 
Sunday-school. In politics he has always 
been a stanch Democrat, and in his social 
connections is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and Prudence 
Lodge, 'No. 179, F. and A. M., of Beaver 
Crossing, Seward county, with which he is 
officially connected, while both he and his 
wife hold membership in the Degree of 
Honor. 



WILLIAM EDWARD LEMMON, an 
honored and worthy citizen of pre- 
cinct N, Seward county, was born Novem- 
ber 17, 1828, in Sangamon county, Illinois, 
a son of Ulick and Susan (Pierce Backus) 
Lemmon. His paternal grandfather was 
Lemuel Lemmon and his maternal grand- 
father was George Pierce. He obtained 
a limited education in the old subscription 
schools of Sangamon county, but his train- 
ing at farm work was not so meagre, and he 
continued to assist his father in the labors 
of the home farm until he attained his ma- 
jority. He had a severe attack of the gold 
fever in the early part of November, 185 i, 
and one fine day started for California by 
way of New Orleans and the Isthmus of 
Panama, but at the latter place he was 
taken ill with Panama fever and was forced 
to return to New Orleans. When he ar- 
rived home, March 27, 1852, he found his 
father very low with consumption, and on 
the 6th of January, 1853, he died. Our 
subject then remained with his mother until 
his marriage, which was celebrated February 
28, 1856, Miss Elizabeth Martin becoming 
his wife. Her parents, Jonathan and Annie 
(Cook) Martin, lived in the little village of 
Salisbury, Sangamon county, Illinois. 

For eight years after his marriage, Mr. 
Lemmon remained on the old homestead in 



his native county and then removed to 
Athens, Menard county, Illinois, where he 
operated a steam sawmill for two years and 
for the same length of time engaged in farm- 
ing on rented land. The following three 
years were spent in Logan county, Illinois, 
and in 1874 he moved by railway to Ne- 
braska, landing in the town of Seward in 
March of that year. He selected a quarter 
section of land in precinct N, and took up 
his residence in a sod house already erected 
thereon, but which he enlarged, making it 
his home for eight years. To the joy of 
his wife it was then replaced by a frame 
dwelling, to which additions have been 
made, so that it is now a commodious and 
comfortable country home. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Lemmon were born 
nine children, eight of whom are still living, 
(i) Oran A. married Lucretia, daughter of 
James W. and Frank (Summers) Houser, 
and they have five children: Clarence, Neva, 
Frankie, Byron and Gay. They have re- 
cently sold their farm in Seward county 
with the intention of moving to Saline coun- 
ty, Nebraska. (2) Opha A. is now the wife 
of George Walker, a son of Benjamin and 
Mary Walker, and they have two children: 
Earl and Zeva. They live in York county, 
west of Gresham. (3) John L. , a resident 
of Indiana, married Anna Watts and has 
one child, Florence. (4) Ernest O., who 
is engaged in the commercial business at St. 
Joseph, Missouri, married Jessie Clayton 
and they have one child. (5) Ida B. is the 
wife of George Crofton, of Omaha, and 
they have three children, Luma, Beulah and 
Merrill. (6) Orville. (7) Maggie J. and (8) 
Arthur are still with their father, and since 
the mother's death, which occurred March 
29, 1876, the daughters have filled her place 
as best they could, and Miss Maggie is now 
her father's housekeeper. Mr. Lemmon un- 
derstands the advantages of a good educa- 
tion and has provided his children with good 
school privileges. He is now practically 



942 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



living retired, leaving the active manage- 
ment and arduous labors of the farm to his 
two sons. He cast his first presidential 
vote for General Scott, and since the forma- 
tion of the party has been an ardent Re- 
publican, casting his last vote for William 
McKinley. He is a sincere and faithful 
member of the Christian church, and does 
all in his power to advance Christ's king- 
dom on earth. 



CHARLES S. MILLER is the well- 
known and popular cashier of the 
Farmers State Bank of Fairmont, Nebraska, 
one of the most solid and reliable financial 
institutions in Fillmonre county. The bank 
was first organized in 1882, with Charles S. 
Miller as president and general manager, 
and associated with him was Henry Mussel- 
man. It was then a private bank and did 
business as such until 1886, when it was re- 
organized a sa state bank with Charles 
Aldrich as its first president, George E. 
Aldrich vice-president; and Charles S. 
Miller, cashier. The capital stock at that 
time was $40,700, but as that large amount 
was not needed it was reduced to $25,000 
in 1898. They do a large banking business, 
having from $100,000 to $150,000 in 
deposits and handle domestic and foreign 
exchange. The present board of directors 
consits of George C. Aldrich, Charles S. 
Miller, B. E. Aldrich, O. E. Miller and 
George W.Jackson. 

Charles S. Miller was born in Lowell, 
Wisconsin, in 1856, a son of Henry and 
Delia (Weed) Miller, natives of New York 
state, who in 1840 removed to Wisconsin, 
where the father engaged in the practice of 
medicine and surgery, being a graduate of 
the Berkshire Medical College of Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts. He had practiced some in 
the east and continued to follow the pro- 
fession throughout the remainder of his life, 
■dj'ing in 1887. He was an active supporter 



of the Republican party, was an honored 
member of the state and county medical as- 
sociations, and was highly respected by all 
who knew him. The mother died when 
our subject was about sixteen years of age, 
leaving two sons, both now living in Fair- 
mont, Nebraska. Our subject's paternal 
grandfather was Elias Miller, a native of 
New Jersey and a contractor and builder 
by occupation. He died in New York state. 
He married Miss Hannah Southard, also a 
native of New Jersey, and a representative 
of one of the old and honored families of 
that state. 

In his native state, Charles S. Miller 
was reared and educated, attending the 
Wayland Academy at Beaver Dam and the 
Albion College, in Michigan, from which he 
was graduated in 1879. Later he entered 
the law department of the University of 
Wisconsin and was graduated from that in- 
stitution in 1 88 1, being admitted to prac- 
tice the same year in both the federal and 
state courts. Coming to Fairmont the same 
year, he opened an office and continued to en- 
gage in the practice of his chosen profession 
for some time, after becoming interested in 
the banking business. He assisted in or- 
ganizing the state bank at Lebanon, Ne- 
braska, of which he is president, and be- 
sides his banking interests there and in 
Fairmont, he owns real estate in Fillmore 
county and elsewhere in the state. In his 
business undertakings, he has been remark- 
ably successful and is now one of the most 
prosperous and substantial citizens of Fair- 
mont. 

In 1883, Mr. Miller was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Minnie F. Divine, a native 
of Lexington, Michigan, and also a graduate 
of Albion college, in the class of 1881. 
They now have two children: John D. and 
Mildred A. Politically Mr. Miller is an ar- 
dent Republican and has been a most active 
and influential worker for the interests of 
the party, but has never sought public office. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



943 



He has served as a member of the state cen- 
tral committee, and held the same position 
on the congressional committee. Frater- 
nally he is a member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and is now serving as 
vice-president of the American Bankers 
Association, a national organization, in 
which he now represents Nebraska. He 
enjoys a wide acquaintance throughout the 
state, and in business, political and social 
circles stands deservedly high. 



CHARLES M. SHELDON, proprietor 
of one of the fine farms of Savannah 
township, Butler county, is one of the men 
in whose coming to this county all who 
honor honest industry and good citizenship 
can rejoice. His career has been marked 
throughout with persistent and faithful ef- 
forts to advance his own interests, and he 
has been rewarded by the acquisition of a 
good property and a high reputation. He 
settled on section 29, Savannah township, 
in the fall of 1877. 

Mr. Sheldon was born in Sullivan coun- 
ty, New York, in 1830, the oldest son of 
Ira and Abigail Sheldon. Ira Sheldon was 
born in Massachusetts, was a descendant of 
one of two brothers who came from Eng- 
land and settled in Massachusetts. He 
afterward moved to New York with his par- 
ents and was there married. About the 
year 1836, he moved with his family from 
New York to Michigan and became one of 
the earliest settlers of Branch county, of 
that state. 

Our subject grew to manhood in Branch 
county, Michigan, and was there married, 
in 1852, to Miss Sarah Jane Parsons, daugh- 
ter of Barney Parsons, and their wedded life 
has been blessed by the presence of a family 
of four children, whose names are as follows: 
Cora Lindsle}', Barney Sheldon, Eva Mc- 
Cauley and Bert Sheldon. In politics our 
subject is a free-silver Republican. He 



was one of the founders of the Republican 
party in Michigan, and was also a delegate 
to the first Free Silver convention in Butler 
count}', Nebraska. He is public-spirited 
and progressive and stanchly supports any 
feasible plan that will tend to advance the 
public welfare. He is a valued and re- 
spected citizen and a representative man in 
the community in which he makes his home. 



JOHN HAGER, an honored veteran of 
the Civil war, and a representative 
farmer of York county, owns and success- 
fully operates a fine farm on section 12, 
Henderson township. He was born in Fay- 
ette county, Pennsylvania, November 28, 
1840, and is a son of Peter H. and Cath- 
erine (Romesburgh) Hager, also natives of 
the Keystone state. His maternal grand- 
father was George Romesburgh, and on 
both sides of the family his ancestors were 
of German origin and farmers by occupa- 
tion. 

Reared upon the home farm in Penn- 
sylvania, John Hager obtained his educa- 
tion in the public schools of the neighbor- 
hood, and also fitted himself to enter higher 
institutions of learning, but as the Civil war 
broke out at that time he laid aside all per- 
sonal interests to aid in the defense of the 
Union. In July, 1863, at the age of twenty- 
two, he enlisted for three years in Company 
C, Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer In- 
fantry, and first went into camp at White 
Sulphur Springs, Virginia. Later he par- 
ticipated in the following engagements in 
that state: Auburn, October 13, 1863; 
Kelly's Ford, November 7; Brandy Station, 
November 8; Locust Grove, November 
27; Mine Run, November 29 and 30; 
Wilderness, May 5, 6 and 7, 1864; Todd's 
Tavern, May 9, Po River, May 10 and 
II, and Spottsylvania, May 12. At the 
last-named battle General Hancock made 
his famous charge at the break of day. 



944 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



breaking into the lines of the enemy. For 
the privilege of taking part in this charge 
Mr. Hager had to sleep with his gun beside 
him all night, and from the 13th to the 15th 
of the same month was engaged in skirmish- 
ing at the same place. He took part in 
the battle of North Anna River on May 23, 
and in skirmishing at that place from the 
24th to the 26th of May; at Tolopotomy 
creek, on May 30 and 31; at Cold Harbor, 
June 4 and 5, followed by the battle of 
Cold Harbor, June 6, and skirmishing from 
the 7th to the 12th of the same month. 
His next engagement was the battle of 
Petersburg, June 16, and skirmishing there 
from the 17th to 20th, Weldon Railroad, 
June 21 and 22; skirmishing at Petersburg, 
June 23; at Deep Bottom, July 22 and Au- 
gust 17; the capture of the rebel picket line 
September 9; the skirmish at Poplar Grove 
church, October 7; Boydton plank road, 
October 27; raid on the Weldon Railroad, 
December 7. During the campaign of 1865 
Mr. Hager was in the skirmish at Hatchie's 
Run, February 5, March 25 and 29, mak- 
ing two charges on the enemy's line and 
capturing the whole train April 6, 1865. 
He was in the skirmish near Farmville, Vir- 
ginia, April 7, and was present at the sur- 
render of Lee's army at Clover Hill, or 
Appomattox, April 9. He was several times 
struck by spent balls, which drew no blood, 
and was never confined in the hospital. 
When the war was over he returned to his 
father's home, July 17, 1865, having been 
honorably discharged on the iithof that 
month. 

For some time Mr. Hager remained on 
the home farm, and in Pennsylvania was 
married, September 6, 1866, to Miss Mary 
E. Crutchman, a daughter of Timothy and 
Maria (Leighty) Crutchman, who were na- 
tives of Pennsylvania and of German de- 
scent. In May, 1867, our subject's father 
died in his eighty-first year, and he and his 
brother Samuel purchased the old home- 



stead, where he remained for sixteen years. 
Loading his possessions on a railroad train, 
he then started for Nebraska, landing in 
York, December i, 1882, and after looking 
about for a suitable location for a new home, 
in February he purchased the northeast 
quarter of section 12, Henderson township, 
York county. He was joined by his family, 
March i, 1883, and has since made his 
home upon that place, devoting his entire 
time and attention to its improvement and 
cultivation with most gratifying success. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Hager were born four 
children, two of whom are still living: 
Henry N.; and Homer M., who married 
Miss Pearl E. Warren. Formerly the par- 
ents held membership in the Methodist 
Episcopal church at Charleston, but are un- 
able to attend services often, owing to the 
distance and ill health. Politically Mr. 
Hager is a pronounced Republican, and 
socially is an honored member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic. 



ANDREW O. SHOSTROM is the pro- 
prietor of one of the most attractive 
homesteads in Polk county, it being pleas- 
antly located on section 5, township 13, 
range 3. His comfortable residence is 
flanked by a good barn and the various 
other out-buildings required by the progress- 
ive agriculturist. As a tiller of the soil he 
is thorough and skillful, and has been uni- 
formly fortunate in his investments. 

Like many of the best citizens of this 
section of the state, Mr. Shostrom is a na- 
tive of Sweden, born at Hogobruk, June 
6, 1846, and is a son of Olof and Anna 
Shostrom, both natives of Gestleborgslan, 
Sweden. The mother died in that country 
when our subject was only four years old, 
and a sister also departed this life there. 
There were only three children in the family, 
and the other son died in Illinois. 

Olof Shostrom was born January 11, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



945 



1819, and in 1857 emigrated to America, 
settling at Oneida, Knox county, Illinois, 
on the 20th of October, that year. He was 
an iron worker in his native land, and that 
occupation he continued to follow for 
twenty-one years, working at the same in 
both Wataga and Altona, Illinois. Later 
he engaged in the manufacture of wagons 
at Kewanee, that state, and after coming 
to Nebraska, in 1872, gave his attention to 
farming and blacksmithing. His home- 
stead was the east half of the southwest 
quarter of section 32, township 14, range 
3, Polk county, which he secured on first 
coming to the county, but in the fall of 
1872 he returned to Illinois, and did not 
locate permanently here until the following 
spring. He was a member of the Lutheran 
church in that state, and wherever known 
was held in high regard. He died August 
II, 1887, while on a visit to Burlington, 
Iowa, but his remains w€re brought back 
and interred in the Swede Home cemetery. 
Prior to leaving Sweden, he was a second 
time married, and this wife died in 1865. 
The two children born of this union are 
also deceased. 

Andrew O. Shostrom was eleven years 
old when he came with the family to the 
new world. His education, which was be- 
gun in Sweden, was completed in the 
schools of Knox county, Illinois, and he 
grew to manhood in that state, devoting his 
time while not in school to assisting his 
father in the shop. Together they worked 
until the latter's death. When they came 
to Polk county, Nebraska, in 1872, our sub- 
ject secured the west half of the southwest 
quarter of the same section on which his 
father located, and to his homestead he 
brought his family in the spring of 1873. 
They were living in their little sod shanty 
during the frightful snow storm of April, 
that year, and the first season raised only a 
little sod corn. In 1874 they raised some 
wheat, but the grasshoppers destroyed the 



corn. Prosperity at length crowned their 
efforts, and Mr. Shostrom is now the owner 
of four hundred acres of valuable land, all 
under excellent cultivation with the excep- 
tion of one hundred and forty acres, it be- 
ing the work of his own hands. He raises 
a good grade of stock, and all the cereals 
adapted to this climate. 

In 1867 Mr. Shostrom married Miss 
Christina Ericson, also a native of Sweden, 
who came to America in 1854. Her father, 
Eric Ericson, also came to this country and 
lived for a time in Henry county, Illinois, 
but finally returned to Sweden, where his 
death occurred. Mr. and Mrs. Shostrom 
have a family of eight children: Eleanora 
C. , Louisa D., Estella C, Minnie J., Lillie 
A., Helen R. , Albin L. and Edwin A., all 
of whom have been educated in English 
schools, and Mr. Shostrom is now efficiently 
serving as treasurer of school district No. 
51. He is identified with the Republican 
party. To the enterprises calculated for 
the general welfare of the people around 
him, he has ever been a cheerful and liberal 
contributor, and the community has no 
more public-spirited or enterprising citizen 
than he. 



RALPH W. STOWELL is a well-to-do 
and prominent agriculturist residing on 
section 26, Belle Prairie precinct, Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, one whose success has 
been by no means the result of fortunate 
circumstances. It has come through energy, 
labor and perseverance, directed by an 
evenly balanced mind and by honorable 
business principles. From early life he has 
made his own way in the world unaided. 

Mr. Stowell was born in New York, 
September 3, 1846, a son of Oliver and 
Mary (Sipes) Stowell. His father died in 
that state at the age of thirty-two, when 
our subject was but two years old, and later 
his mother married again. When seven 



946 



COMPENDIUM OF BTOGRAPHT. 



years old he removed with the family to 
Illinois, and in that state he was reared and 
educated. In 1862, although only sixteen 
years, of age, he enlisted in Company K, 
One Hundred Thirteenth Illinois Infantry, 
and was in the service for almost three 
years, or until the close of the war, being 
mustered out at Memphis. Tennessee, in 
June, 1865. He served in the western di- 
vision and participated in the siege of Vicks- 
burg and in many hotly contested engage- 
ments besides numerous skirmishes. Return- 
ing to his home in Illinois, he worked as a 
farm hand by the month for about three 
years, and then rented land, which he suc- 
cessfully operated for the same length of 
time. 

In February, 1872, Mr. Stowell was 
united in marriage with Miss Frances Wag- 
ner, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of 
Daniel and Lydia (Parmely) Wagner, who 
were both born in New York and at an 
early day migrated to Illinois, where they 
died, the former at the age of fifty-one the 
later at the age of seventy-six years, their 
remains being interred in the cemetery at 
Union Corners, near Momence, Illinois. 
Mrs. Stowell has one brother and two sis- 
ters still living, namely. Mary, Celestia and 
Albert. The children born to our subject 
and his wife are Mary L. , Albert C. and 
Clyde O. This is a happy family and a 
model home. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Stowell came to^Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
and settled upon-their present homestead, 
being among the pioneers of this region. At 
first their nearest trading place was at 
Crete, about forty miles northeast of their 
farm, and they have watched with interest 
the changes that have taken place here and 
have been important factors in the develop- 
ment and progress. For some time they 
lived in a little frame house and their stock 
was sheltered in straw sheds, but as the 
years have passed they have continually 



prospered in their adopted state and are now 
the owners of a fine farm of three hundred 
and twenty acres of the best land to be 
found in the county. Mr. Stowell has 
made a specialty of stock raising, though he 
began on a very limited scale, and is now 
extensively interested in the business. 

Mr. Stowell cast his first presidential 
vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He 
was not of legal age for voting, but on ac- 
count of being in the Uunited States service 
and carrying a musket in the defense of his 
country, he was allowed to cast his ballot 
for "Honest Old Abe." He has since 
been true to the Republican party, and has 
most efficiently and satisfactorily filled a 
number of minor offices. He is a public- 
spirited, enterprising citizen, who com- 
mands the confidence and respect of all 
with whom he comes in contact either in 
business or social life, and he and his wife 
are held in high regard by their neighbors 
and many friends. 



DENNIS McCarthy is one of the 
worthy citizens that the Emerald Isle 
has furnished to York county. He is truly 
a self-made man and his career has been 
one of earnest, indefatigable labor, but his 
efforts have not been without their reward, 
which is seen in his fine farm of four hun- 
dred acres of the rich land of York county. 
He was born in Bantry, county Cork, Ire- 
land, February i, 1844, his parents being 
Dennis and Catharine (Collins) McCarthy. 
His father and mother could neither read 
nor write and spoke the old Irish tongue. 
Their son Dennis was four years old when 
the awful famine occurred in that land, and 
he remembers seeing a relative of his 
mother's come to their home. While 
crossing the yard he fell every few steps. 
The mother gave him a slice of oatmeal 
cake and he went away eating this, but was 
found a few days later in an old building 



■COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



947 



with a number of otlver dead bodies. 
Deaths were so frequent that coffins could 
not be procured and ihe poor were buried 
in sacks. 

After he had reached thfe age of ten 
years our sutoject attended school for two 
or three years during the summer months, 
but could not go in the winter on account 
of having insufficient clothing. He worked 
on their rented farm until after his father's 
death, when on6 morning the police and 
•the landlord came and turned the mother, 
with her seven children, out of doors be- 
cause she could not pay the rent. A friend 
however, gave her shelter in a poor little 
shanty, where she lived, supported by 
Dennis, who worked for the man who had 
befriended them. In the meantime two of 
his sisters had gone to America, and believ- 
ing that there was no chance for him in Ire- 
land, one foggy night Dennis left his home 
quietly, for he could not bear to say good- 
bye. He walked forty miles the first day 
to Cork, where he worked for nearly a 
month and then with his wages which had 
just been given him secured passage to 
Cardiff, Wales. He immediately went to 
Mertha Twidwell, where he was employed 
by a coal company for about si.x weeks; he 
then secured employment in a blast furnace 
and received better pay. After having 
worked two weeks he sent all the money he 
could spare to his mother, who was thus 
relieved of her anxiety as to his whereabouts, 
and of some of her financial troubles. An 
odd circumstance occurred in Cardiff. 
McCarthy had secured board there with a 
man who years before had borrowed money 
from his mother and never repaid it. This 
debt he was able to collect, and it proved 
of great assistance to his mother, who was 
very needy. 

On leaving Mertha Twidwell, Mr. McCar- 
thy went to Aberdare, where he worked in 
a stone quarry for si.x weeks, and then se- 
cured employment as a laborer in the coal 

54 



mines, being thus engaged for fifteen months- 
During that time he boarded with Mrs. Don- 
ovan and formed the acquaintance of hfer 
daughter, -by her first marriage, -Miss Phillis 
Gibbs. Six months later they were married 
by Rev. Father Marshall, on the 2ist of 
November, 1865, after which the young hus- 
band returned to visit his mother, and then- 
accompanied by his brother and sister sailed- 
from Queenstown for America, February i, 
1866. They landed in New York after a- 
voyage of seventeen days, and in January 
following Mr. McCarthy sent for' and was 
joined by his bride. His brother; sister and 
himself worked for farmers near New York 
for eight months, and then the brothers se- 
cured work on the railroad, working for 
twenty-two years, in which time our subject 
only lost twenty days. After he had been 
in this country thirteen months, the children 
sent for their mother and the two sisters who 
had been left behind, and who arrived in 
this country- in'March, 1867. 

In May, 187.8, Mr. McCarthy, of this 
review, gave his money to a'friend to invest 
for him in Nebraska land, and -the northeast 
quarter of section 23, Brown tbwnship, was 
purchased, but hfe continued to -work on the 
railroad for three years longer. He then 
received a telegram from an old friend in 
Lincoln, Nebraska, to come west at once, 
as there was work awaiting him. This he 
did and on viewing his farm for the first 
time was so pleased with it that he sent 
word to his wife to sell their property in the 
east and come to York county. He built a 
house and other buildings with the money 
he had saved, and soon his family was estab- 
lished in their new home. He, however, 
continued his labors on the railroad, and as 
he was enabled to save part of his earnings- 
he invested the money in improvements on 
the farm, but it was not until 1890 that he 
put aside other cares in order to give his 
entire attention to the development and cul- 
tivation of his land. The same industry 



•948 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



which had marked his previous career char- 
acterized his agricultural pursuits. He now 
owns four hundred acres of land, much of 
which is under a high state of cultivation 
and the growing crops indicate his thrift and 
enterprise. This is now a valuable and de- 
sirable property and is the merited reward 
of his labors. 

To Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy were born 
ten children, all yet living, as follows: Den- 
nis}., Catharine A., Daniel D., Cornelius, 
Mary, John, Joseph, Michael T. , George E., 
Leo J. and Nora E. The eldest son was 
married April 28, 1897, to lola Taylor, 
daughter of Jesse P. Stevens, of Aspen, 
Colorado. Cornelius is now a member of 
'Company I, First Regiment of Nebraska 
Volunteers in the war with Spain, and is loy- 
ally serving his country in the Phillipines. 
The parents and all their children are mem- 
bers of the Catholic church and Mr. Mc- 
Carthy belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. He is well content with 
his western home, and in his hope of bet- 
tering his financial condition in America he 
has not been disappointed. 



JEFFERSON COX, a prominent farmer 
of Seward county, Nebraska, living 
near Ruby, was born June 6, 1849, in the 
state oi Ohio. 

Our subject was the seventh in a family 
of ten children born to David and Rachel 
(Brown) Cox. Of these our subject and 
three brothers are living. David Cox was 
born in New Jersey and removed to Ohio at 
the age of eighteen years, and in the latter 
state his marriage occurred. Both parents 
died in Illinois about twenty-four years ago, 
the father at the age of seventy-four and 
the mother at the age of sixty years. They 
spent their lives on the farm. 

Jefferson was educated in Illinois, where 
his parents had removed when he was but 
one year old. He followed farming for sev- 



eral years in Illinois and in 1878 re- 
moved to Nebraska, arriving there October 
8. He purchased a homestead in Seward 
county comprising eighty acres, for which 
he paid fifteen dollars per acre. He has 
since added one hundred and twenty acres, 
paying thirty dollars per acre. The first 
tract was entirely uncultivated when he 
purchased it. 

At the age of twenty-three Jefferson 
Cox married Miss Eliza B. Reeves in Illi- 
nois. To them were born two children, 
Mary Albina and Lydia E. Mrs. Cox lived 
but a few years. After her death he was 
subsequentl}' married to Miss M. E. Reeves. 
The children of this marriage were Charles 
W. and Lily May, both deceased. The 
family was again called to mourn a mother's 
death and her remains rest in Mount Pleas- 
ant cemetery, Seward county, Nebraska. 

Mr. Cox has since married a most es- 
timable lady, whose maiden name was 
Emma E. Hill. She is the daughter of Mr. 
and Mrs. C. H. Hill. Her father died in 
Pittsfield, Illinois, January 25, 1896, at the 
age of sixty-three years, leaving a widow 
and six children. Mrs. C. H. Hill, who 
was born in North Carolina, June 20, 1842, 
and was married at the age of eighteen, is 
now a resident of Seward county, having 
located there about one 3'ear ago, and pur- 
chased property in the city of Seward, 
where she makes her home. She is the 
mother of six children, of whom five are 
living. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cox are members of the 
United Brethren church. In political views 
he is a Republican, having cast his first vote 
for President Grant. 

On his arrival in Nebraska his worldly 
goods consisted of three horses and thirty 
dollars in money. He is now the owner of 
two hundred acres of fine land with sub- 
stantial improvements, besides a large 
amount of personal property. He is one 
of the substantial farmers of Seward coun- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



949 



ty, and his accumulations have been made 
by honest toil. 

They have four children by his last mar- 
riage, Pearl E., Doras D., Earl C. and 
Altha J., all living. 



WILLIAM A. BIVENS.— Among the 
sturdy, energetic and successful farm- 
ers of Fillmore county, who thoroughly un- 
derstand the vocation which they follow, 
and consequenty are enabled to carry on 
that calling with profit to themselves, is the 
subject of this notice, who is actively en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits on section i, 
Fairmont township. 

Mr. Bivens was born on the 30th of Oc- 
tober, 1836, near Mercersburg, in Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Jo- 
seph and Elizabeth (McKune) Bivens, also 
natives of that county, where the father 
after reaching man's estate engaged in busi- 
ness as a wagon maker until 1S60, when he 
removed to Warren county, Illinois. There 
he turned his attention to farming and con- 
tinued to make his home until called from 
this life, February 21, 1890, at the age of 
seventy-nine years. The mother died on 
the same farm October 23, 1895. Both 
were consistent members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and were held in high 
regard by all who had the pleasure of their 
acquaintance. In their family were nine 
children, three sons and six daughters, and 
of these two sons and one daughter are now 
residents of Fillmore county. Our subject's 
paternal grandfather, William Bivens, spent 
his entire life in Pennsylvania, as did also 
the maternal grandfather, Alexander Mc- 
Kune. 

During his early boyhood, William A. 
Bivens, of this review, pursued his studies 
in the public schools of his native state, 
and at the age of thirteen he learned the 
printer's trade, which he followed there for 
five years. In 1855 he went to Fulton 



county, Illinois, where he engaged in farm- 
ing for five years, and then removed to 
Warren county, the same state, where he 
continued to make his home until coming 
to Nebraska, in May, 1870. In the mean- 
time, however, he served for nearly three 
years in the Union army during the Civil 
war, enlisting in August, 1862, in Company 
K, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, which was as- 
signed to the Army of the Cumberland. 
He participated in the second battle at 
Corinth, Mississippi, in the fall of that 
year; was in the engagement at Hudson's 
Lane, in 1863; Coffeeville, Mississippi; 
Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. The 
remainder of his service was devoted to 
skirmishing and hunting bushwhackers. Al- 
though he fortunately was never wounded, 
he once narrowly escaped death at Red- 
land, Tennessee, as a ball clipped the hair 
from his head and he was unconscious for 
some time afterward. He was honorably 
discharged at Decatur, Alabama, in July, 
1865, and after being mustered out returned 
to his home in Illinois. 

As previously stated, Mr. Bivens came 
to Nebraska in May, 1870, at which time he 
took up a homestead on section 2, K pre- 
cinct, Seward county, which was all raw 
prairie, and after erecting a sod house, he 
commenced to break and improve his land. 
He continued to make his home in that 
county until the spring of 1883, when he 
sold his place and came to Fillmore county, 
and located in Fairmont township, which 
he has since successfully operated. 

In 1864, Mr. Bivens was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary Snyder, a native of 
Ohio, and a daughterof Hiram and Catherine 
(Doty) Snyder, who both died in Brown 
county, that state. Ten children have been 
born of this union, all of whom are still liv- 
ing, namely: Rony I.; Charles A.; Frank; 
Lewis; Fannie, wife of William V. Frazier; 
Josephine, wife of M. Witter; Edward; 
Frederick; Harry and Chester. In his so- 



950 



COMPEXDJUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



cial relations, Mr. Bivens is a member of 
a member of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, and in poHtical sentiment is ah ardent 
Republican. He is well-known and highly 
respected by his neighbors and friends, who 
appreciate his sterling worth and many ex- 
cellencies of character. 



ALLEN VINCENT is classed among the 
most energetic and capable farmers of 
Savannah township, Butler county. His 
career has been marked throughout with 
persistent and faithful effort to advance his 
own interests and those for whom he worked, 
and he has been rewarded by the acquisi- 
tion of a good property and a high reputa- 
tion. His farm, on which he settled in 
1872, is located on section 8, of the above 
named township. 

Mr. Vincent was born in Bedfordshire, 
England, March 18, 1834. the oldest son of 
James and Elizabeth Vincent, both of Bed- 
fordshire. The mother is still living and is 
eighty-five years of age. Our subject mi- 
grated from his native country to Onondaga 
county, New York, in 1856. and worked 
there for ten years. He was married in 
Syracuse, New York, in 1S60, to Miss Eliza 
Moore. She was born in county Cork, 
Ireland, in 1836, and her parents both were 
bom and died in Ireland. Upon migrating 
to America, she first located in Canada and 
lived there three years, and then moved to 
New York state, where she met Mr. Vincent. 

In 1863 Mr. Vincent moved from New 
York to Michigan, and settled on a farm in 
Hillsdale county. In the spring of 1872, 
the}' disposed of their interests in Michigan, 
and, with their eleven year old daughter, 
Delia, set out with a wagon and outfit for 
Nebraska, where they had heard of the ad- 
vantages which this state ofiered to enter- 
prising and thrifty agriculturists through 
friends who had returned to Michigan from 
that state and they decided to avail them- 



selves of these advantages. They crossed 
the river at Omaha, and camped over night 
in the bed of the river. When they arrived 
in Butler county, they found it a vast 
stretch of raw, unsettled prairie, and his first 
home there was a sod house, which, although 
it had a broad roof, its walls were four feet 
in thickness and was plastered on the inside, 
and was quite comfortable. This structure, 
however, soon gave place to a much more 
cosy and attractive home, in fact, one of 
the most comfortable and modernly con- 
structed in the neighborhood. The original 
homestead, which was a little less than 
eighty acres, has been increased to about 
two hunered acres. 

Mr. and Mrs. Vincent both came to 
America with no capital whatever, and hav- 
ing no one to lean upon, the success which 
has crowned their efforts has been brought 
about as the direct result of their own inde- 
pendent endeavor. Their lines have not 
always fallen in pleasant places and they 
have often met with discouragements suffi- 
cient to daunt the spirit of almost any young 
couple, but courage and fortitude were 
dominant traits in their characters and they 
always arose equal to every emergency. 
Mr. and Mrs. Vincent are both members of 
the Episcopal church. Although taking no 
active part in political affairs, our subject is 
a stanch supporter of the free-silver doctrine. 
Mr. Vincent has one brother living in Col- 
fax county, Nebraska. 



JOHN S. DILLENBECK, one of the 
most enterprising, progressive and reli- 
able citizens of P precinct, Seward county, 
was born on the 19th of January, 1841, in 
Jefferson county. New York, and is a son of 
John and Maria (Lintner) Dillenbeck, also 
natives of the Empire state, where they 
spent "their entire lives, the former dying at 
the age of eighty-four years, the latter at 
the age of forty-three. Our subject is the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



951 



fourth in order of birth in their familj' of 
eight children, of whom only four are now 
living. His maternal grandfather, John 
Lintner, had a narrow escape from the In- 
dians when a babe of two years, and his 
great-grandfather, George Lintner, shoul- 
dered a musket and fought for the independ- 
ence of the colonies as a soldier of the 
Revolutionary war. The ancestors of our 
subject were from Germany, and he is able 
to understand their language but cannot 
speak it. 

During his boyhood and youth Mr. Dil- 
lenbeck attended the common schools of 
New York, and at the age of twenty years 
entered the service of his country, enlisting 
as a private in Company C, Twentieth New 
York Volunteer Cavalry, under Col. X. B. 
Lord. He took an active part in the en- 
gagements at Spring Hill, Virginia, Black- 
water and Suffolk, and was in the service 
for one year, nine months and twenty-one 
days, being honorably discharged at the 
close of the war with the rank of captain, 
won by meritorious conduct on field of bat- 
tle. Soon after his return home he decided 
to seek his fortune in the gold fields of 
California, and taking the Nicaragua route 
passed through Yucatan, Nicaragua, Costa 
Rica, New Granada and Mexico, and on 
his return to New York gained by investi- 
gation a thorough knowledge of the West 
Indies. 

At the age of twenty-six Mr. Dillenbeck 
%vas united in marriage with Miss Lizzie 
Gates, a native of Massachusetts, who was 
then nineteen, the ceremony being per- 
formed at Easton, New York. She is a lady 
of culture and refinement, who was educa- 
ted in the high schools of Charleston, 
Massachusetts, and successfully engaged in 
teaching in \'ermont and New York. , Her 
ancestors were passengers on the famous 
Mayflower which landed the Pilgrims on 
Plymouth Rock in 1620. Her parents were 
Winthrop and Lydia N. (\\'jman) Gates, na- 



tives of Maine and Massachusetts, respect- 
ivel}'. They were married in the old Bay 
state, where they continued to reside for 
some years and then removed to New York, 
where the father died at the age of seventy- 
two years, leaving five children besides the 
widow, who is still living in New York at the 
ripe old age of eighty-two years. In the 
family were originally eight children, of 
whom Mrs. Dillenbeck is the fourth in order 
of birth. B\' her marriage to our subject 
she has become the mother of seven chil- 
dren, of whom four are now living: John 
Winthrop, who married Alice Sanders and 
lives on a farm in Seward county, Nebras- 
ka; Lydia M., who was principally educated 
in the Milford high school, and has been a 
most popular and successful teacher since 
fourteen years of age; and Wilford and 
Maude E., who are at home and are still at- 
tending school. 

For four years Mr. Dillenbeck engaged 
in the general mercantile business in New 
York state, and at the age of thirty-two was 
elected sheriff of Saratoga county, for a 
term of four years, and most creditably 
filled that office. At the age of thirty-eight 
he emigrated to Seward county, Nebraska, 
with his family, consisting of wife and two 
children, and located a homestead of eighty 
acres in P precinct, it being the last to be had 
in the county. He at once began its improve- 
ment and development. The land was very 
rough for this section, but he had had experi- 
ence in mining in California, and believed his 
land contained mineral ore of value, which 
has proved to be the case, as gold, silver, 
iron and copper have been found. The 
first assays were made September 5, 1895, 
at which time a company was formed, 
known as the Middle Creek Mining Com- 
pany, but owing to a disagreement among 
the members it was soon disbanded and 
nothing was accomplished. A friend and Mr. 
Dillenbeck then advanced six hundred 
dollars each but made little progress 



952 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



toward the erection of a plant. Finally a 
syndicate was formed, a sluice made and a 
smelter put in operation, but this proved 
only partially successful. The vein of ore 
is only four feet below the surface and ex- 
tends down to the depth of fifty feet all 
over Mr. Dillenbeck's eighty-acre farm, and 
contains an average of eight dollars to 
the ton of gold, silver, iron and copper. As 
soon as he is able to get the proper machin- 
ery, for he has had to work alone and al- 
most empty-handed, he believes he will be 
able to make a fortune from his land. One 
difficulty has been to get a smelter that will 
properly extract the different minerals from 
the soil without wasting too much of the 
precious metals, but he now thinks that he 
has completed the proper process and plan 
for operation. Mrs. Dillenbeck has ever 
taken an active interest in these prepara- 
tions, is herself a geologist, and with her 
husband owns several rich mines in Arkan- 
sas, where he is now working in connection 
with four companions, who have formed a 
corporation representing five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Besides this valuable prop- 
erty, Mr. and Mrs. Dillenbeck own four 
hundred acres of land in this state, much 
of which is underlaid with rich mineral de- 
posits, and the prosperity that has crowned 
their efforts has been due entirely to their 
own enterprise, perseverance and good 
management. They are pleasant, genial 
people, who make many friends, and their 
hospitable home is ever open to their large 
circle of acquaintances. 



GEORGE COON.— The man who was 
content to go through the Civil war as 
a "high" private, doing his duty nobly and 
unflinchingly on the field of battle or in the 
camp, is to-day one of the leading citizens 
of Belle Prairie township, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, being successfully engaged in 
agricultural pursuits on section 6. He was 



born in Lee county, Illinois, in 1844, a-nd is 
a son of John and Louisa (Shaw) Coon, na- 
tives of Indiana. The father died in Clinton 
county, Iowa, at the age of forty-one years, 
leaving a widow and eight children. Seven 
children are still living, namely: George, 
our subject; Henry, a professor in the Na- 
tional Business college of Kansas City; John, 
a cook employed in Kansas City; Levi; 
Ellen; Sarah and Emily. 

The subject of this review received only 
a common-school education. At the early 
age at seventeen years he offered his services 
to the government to fight for the preser- 
vation of the Union, enlisting in 1861, in 
Company F, Sixteenth Iowa Volunteer In- 
fantry. He was sworn into the United 
States service at St. Louis in 1862, and 
participated in a number of important en- 
gagements, including the battles of Pittsburg 
Landing, Corinth, luka, Champion Hill, 
Vicksburg and Black River Bridge. Dur- 
the last-named engagement he helped to 
burn the bridge. At Atlanta, Georgia, he was 
captured after he and his comrades had 
used up sixty rounds of cartridges and made 
three empty charges. They were at length 
overpowered and taken pfisoners. The 
battle ground was so strewn with dead and 
wounded that it was almost impossible to 
pass along. This was during the siege of At- 
lanta, July 22, 1864, and Mr. Coon was not 
released until April i, 1865, when he was 
exchanged. He was incarcerated in Ander- 
sonville prison, where he suffered untold 
hardships, being almost starved to death. 
His weight was reduced from one hundred 
and fifty to ninety pounds. After his ex- 
change he returned home on a furlough as 
soon as his health would permit, and at the 
close of the war was honorably discharged. 

For some years Mr. Coon made his home 
in Wheatland, Iowa, where he was married 
in 1868, to Miss Madora Barber, a daughter 
of Luman and Susan (Alford) Barber. The 
mother died at the age of twenty-five years. 



COMPENBICrM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



953 



leaving a husband and four children to 
mourn her untimely death. The father 
subsequently married Miss Anna Shiffer, by 
whom he had ten children. He is still liv- 
ing in Custer county, Nebraska, at the age 
of seventy-five years, and enjoys good 
health. Mr. and Mrs. Coon have a family 
of ten children, all living, namely: Will- 
iam, John, Bessie, Samuel, Eugene, Marion, 
Raymond, Charles, Arthur and Mabel. The 
youngest three and daughter are still at 
home. 

In iS/t, Mr. Coon brought his family 
to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and in Belle 
Prairie precinct he took up a homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres, on which he 
has since continued to reside, devoting his 
time and attention to its improvement and 
cultivation. On his arrival here he had but 
twelve dollars in money and a team of 
horses, and for the first five or six years the 
family lived principally on corn and the 
vegetables grown in their own garden, and 
they experienced all the other hardships and 
privations incident to pioneer life. Their 
nearest mill was at Pleasant Hill and they 
went to Beatrice for their groceries. The 
sod house, which was their home for eleven 
years, has since given place to a comfort- 
able frame residence, supplied with all the 
comforts of life, and the wild land has been 
converted into well cultivated fields by the 
industry, perseverance and good manage- 
ment of our subject. He now receives a 
pension from the government, to which he 
is justly entitled, as his health is greatly im- 
paired, the result of his army life and his 
imprisonment at Andersonville. Since cast- 
ing his first presidential ballot for Abraham 
Lincoln, he has been unswerving in his sup- 
port of the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party, and he always faithfully and 
conscientiously discharges his duties of citi- 
zenship. He is highly respected by all who 
know him and has many friends in his 
adopted county. 



PETER DOYLE has been a resident of 
Bradshaw township, York county, for 
some sixteen years, and in that time he has 
proved himself a bright and progressive 
farmer, reaping substantial results from 
hard work and capable management. He 
is now about forty years old and is among 
the leading citizens of the county. He be- 
longs to an old Irish family, which has con- 
tributed strong men to Ireland in former 
generations, and he himself is not an un- 
worthy representative of a virile race. 

Peter Doyle was born in Sangamon 
county, Illinois, December 15, 1857. His 
father, Peter Doyle, was born in county 
Westford, Ireland, and was a contractor 
and employer of labor in the old country. 
He left Ireland and came to America about 
1850, and landed in New York. For a 
year or more he was alone in this country, 
but his wife came over and then life resumed 
its wonted comfort. He spent several years 
in boating on the Mississippi river, part of 
the time in charge of a dredging boat at 
New Orleans. He went from the southern 
city to Sangamon county, Illinois, and en- 
gaged in farming in that and Logan county, 
where he died in 1856, at the age of forty- 
two. A sketch of his wife appears else- 
where under the name of Mrs. Mary Haney. 

Peter Doyle, the subject of this article, 
when he was eighteen years old, left the 
parental roof, and started out to fight the 
battle of life for himself. His step-father 
gave him a mule, and with this as his en- 
tire capital he rented land, and by hard 
labor and good management forced the soil 
to yield him a generous award each year. 
He took his money that he saved during six 
years of this arduous labor, and came to 
this county in the fall of 1881, and found 
eighty acres in Bradshaw township that 
pleased his critical eye. He bought the 
tract, taking a bond for a deed. He re- 
turned to Illinois, and was married to Miss 
Anne Kelly, February 8, 1882. She is a 



954 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



daughter of John and Alice ('Fagan) Kelly. 
Her parents were married in Hancock coun- 
ty, Illinois, in 1857. Her father and grand- 
father came from Limerick, Ireland. In 
this country they were tillers of the soil, 
which was probably their occupation in the 
old Irish home. 

The young couple came directly to their 
Nebraska home, and arrived on the new 
farm March 3, 1882, where they have re- 
sided to the present time. They had only 
thirty acres broken, and not a tree growing. 
In the fall of 1889 they had finished paying 
for their land, and felt free to purchase a 
second eighty acres, which has rounded out 
their place into a quarter section of fine 
farming land. They are the parents of six chil- 
dren: Mary, William, Patrick, James, Katie, 
and John. They are in full connection with 
the Catholic church at York, and are de- 
vout believers in the apostolic way of salva- 
tion. He is a member of the Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen. He is a silver 
Democrat, and is a man of character and 
standing at home. 



PHILIP SMITH, the efficient and popu- 
lar postmaster of Bellwood, has since 
the spring of 1872 been prominently iden- 
tified with the agricultural interests of But- 
ler county, locating at that time on section 
4, Savannah township. From his old home 
in Wisconsin he made the journey by team, 
and as one of the pioneers of this region 
he took an active part in the development 
and prosperity of the county. 

Mr. Smith is a native of Cook county, 
Illinois, born January 11, 1845, where Bar- 
ington Station is now located, and there he 
made his home until ten years of age. The 
Smiths were of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, 
and the grandfather of our subject was a 
farmer by occupation. Martin Smith, our 
subject's father, settled in Cook county, Illi- 
nois, about 1842, having removed to that 



state from New York, where he was born 
and reared. He married Adaline Drake, a 
daughter of Otis Drake, who belonged to 
an old "Yankee" family. About 1852 our 
subject's parents, with their children, re- 
moved to Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, 
locating upon a farm, where Philip grew to 
manhood. Desirous of striking a blow in 
defense of his country, he enlisted in 1864, 
at the age of nineteen years, in Company 
D, Forty-fifth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, 
and with his regiment participated in the 
battle of Nashville. The war having ended 
he returned to Prairie du Chien, Wiscon- 
sin, where he was honorably discharged in 
1865. From that time until 1871 he spent 
in traveling over Missouri, Illinois and Wis- 
consin, in search of a desirable location. 

In the spring of 1S71, in Fond du Lac 
county, Wisconsin, was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Smith and Miss Sarah Gardner, 
a daughter of Benjamin Gardner. One son 
blessed this union: Benjamin, who was 
born in Wisconsin and is now living in Bell- 
wood, Nebraska. The wife and mother de- 
parted this life in Butler county, in 1877. 
Mr. Smith was again married, in July, 1882, 
his second union being with Miss Mary E. 
Buffalo, formerly of Indiana, and a daugh- 
ter of Bryant Buffalo. To them have been 
born seven children, three sons and four 
daughters, namely: Etta May, Mabel Eliz- 
abeth, Philip, Dayton J., Anna Marie, 
Charles and Mary Evaline. 

Until appointed postmaster of Bellwood, 
Mr. Smith gave his entire time and atten- 
tion to farming and stock-raising after com- 
ing to Butler county, and in the latter 
branch of his business has been remarkably 
successfully. He is a wide-awake, pro- 
gressive business man of known reliabillity, 
and is therefore justly deserving the pros- 
perity that has come to him through honest 
toil. Since attaining his majority he has 
given an unwavering support to the Repub- 
lican party, has taken quite an active inter- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



955 



est in its welfare and done all in his- power 
to insure its success. For five terms he 
served as assessor of his township, and has 
also creditably filled tne offices of justice of 
the peace and constable. He has also 
taken an active part in county and state 
conventions, being the nominating delegate 
to the last state convention of his party. In 
December, 1S97, he was appointed post- 
master of Bellwood and the prompt and 
able manner in which he is discharging the 
duties of that position wins the commenda- 
tion of all concerned. Socially he is connect- 
ed with the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men, and religiously is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. Also a mem- 
ber of C. R. Lowell Post, G. A. R.,No. 83. 



LEANDER S. CALLAGHAN. — This 
name will be readily recognized by the 
citizens of the vicinity of Germantown, 
Seward county, as one of the most popular 
and influantial citizens of H precinct, which 
has been his home for many years. Mr. 
Callaghan is of Irish descent, Dublin, Ire- 
land, being the birthplace of his grand- 
father, Patrick. Callaghan. The latter was 
reared in the land of his nativity and was 
there married. He subsequently migrated 
to America, locating in Schenectedy, New 
York, with his family which consisted of 
two sons and three daughters, of whom our 
subject's father, James Callaghan, was the 
second son. James Callaghan, being desir- 
ous to try the life of a seaman, determined 
to do so in spite of his father's objections, 
and the father afterward bound him on a 
man-of-war and he was there educated and 
there he reached the age of thirty-five 
years. He then returned to Schenectady 
and was there married to Miss Lucy Jen- 
nings, and followed the vocation of farm- 
ing during the greater part of the remaining 
years of his life. Later in life he moved to 
Allegany county, and for eight years he 



filled the position of foreman. He died at 
the age of eighty-nine years, after a sick- 
ness of only two hours, but his wife attained 
the age of ninety-eight years. 

Our subject was born in Tompkins 
county, New York, October 7, 1838, and 
was educated in the common schools of 
■Wellsville, of that county, and in the even- 
ing select schools, which he attended while 
learning the trade of a millwright. After 
serving an apprenticeship of eight and a 
half years in this line of work, he took 
charge of the machinery at Wellsville. Dur- 
ing this time, or on September 24, i860, 
he was united in marriage to. Miss Annie M. 
Smith. In the following September he en- 
listed and an outline of that part of his life 
that was spent in the Civil war will appear 
later in this article. After the close of 
hostilities, the state of Mr. Callaghan's 
health was such that he was unable to en- 
gage in any kind of labor for about three 
years. He next moved to Laporte, Indiana, 
and ;on January 13, 1867, he entered the 
employ of the Michigan Southern and 
Northern Indiana Railroad Company in that 
city, as a carver in their wood-shop. Here 
he worked until the fall of 1871, when he 
was employed by the Hannibal & St. Joe 
Company, in their shops and also as engin- 
eer of a locomotive. Owing to the sickness 
of his wife, he resigned this position in the 
spring of 1872 and moved to Plattsmouth 
at the time the B. h, M. railroad started in 
Nebraska, and was employed by that com- 
pany both as a carver of wood in the engine 
department and as engineer on the road. 
In 1873, when the road was completed as 
far as Kearney, he was sent to Lincoln and 
there served as master mechanic until 1875. 
Mr. Callaghan then moved with his family 
to Seward county, Nebraska, and located 
on a homestead in H precinct and made 
that his home for. nine years, or until he 
secured' a clear title to the property. He 
next moved to the town of Germantown and 



956 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



has since devoted his attention to contract- 
ing and building. He has performed the 
duties of the office of justice of the peace 
for nine years in succession, that of notary 
public for six years, and in March, 1898, he 
became postmaster at Germantown. In 
politics he is a stanch Republican, having 
cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Mrs. Callaghan is of Irish descent, her 
great-grandparents having been natives of 
that country. Tfiey moved from thence to 
Newburg, New York, where Mrs. Calla- 
ghan's grandfather, Leonard Smith, was 
born. The latter married Miss Emma 
Trimmer and to them were born seven sons 
and one daughter. Of this family, Henry 
Smith was born March 7, 1S13, and died 
March 30, 1870. He was united in mar- 
riage on November 6, 1834, to Miss Mary 
Smith, and of their family of nine children, 
four are still living, of whom Mrs. Calla- 
ghan is the youngest. Mr. and Mrs. Calla- 
ghan have one daughter, Mary, wife of Ly- 
man Smith. 

Leander S. Callaghan enlisted early in 
1861, in response to the first call for volun- 
teers, and was sent to Virginia in April of 
the same year. At the completion of the 
three months, for which he first enlisted, he 
re-enlisted for nine months. After this term 
expired, he enlisted in the renowned One 
Hundred and Thirtieth New York Volun- 
teers. This regiment arrived on the thir- 
teenth of September at Suffolk, Virginia, 
where a large number of newly organized 
regiments were sent. Here they camped 
in the immediate vicinity of a swamp, which 
caused a great deal of sickness and consid- 
erable death from malaria. They were 
nevertheless rapidly perfected in military 
dicipline, made several reconnoissances and 
earthworks were thrown up around Su- 
folk that that city might be made a base 
of supplies for future operations. While 
still at this city, on August 14, 1862, our 



subject was appointed first sergeant of Com- 
pany E, of the One Hundred and Thirtieth 
New York, which was but a beginning of 
the line of promotions he received during 
the war. On December 4, 1862, he became 
second lieutenant, and first lieutenant June 
15, 1863. September 15, of that year, he 
was transferred to the first New York Dra- 
goons, and finally received a captain's com- 
mission February 9, 1865, and was dis- 
charged July 18, 1865. 

It chanced to be Mr. Callaghan's lot to 
participate in an unusually large number of 
hotly contested engagements of the war. 
The principals ones with which he was con- 
nected are as follows: Deserted House, 
Virginia, January 30, 1863; Siege of Suf- 
folk, Virginia, April 11 to May 3, 1863; 
South Quay, Virginia, June 12, 1863; 
Franklin, Virginia, June 13, 1863; Balti- 
more Cross Roads, Virginia, July 4, 1863; 
Manassas Plains, Virginia, October 17,1863; 
Culpeper Court House, Virginia, November 
20, 1S63; Stannardville, Virginia, Febru- 
ary 23, 1864; Todds Tavern, Virginia, May 
7, 1864; Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 8, 
1864; Andersons Ridge, Virginia, May 10, 
1864; Yellow Tavern, Virginia, May 11, 
1864; Meadow Bridge, Virginia, May 12, 
1864; Mechanicsville, Virginia, May 12, 
1864; Howes Shop, Virginia, May 28, 1864; 
Old Church, Virginia, May 30, 1864; Cold 
Harbor, Virginia, May 31 and June i, 1864; 
Trevillian Station, Virginia, June 11 and 12, 
1864; Darby Town, Virginia, July 27 and 
28, 1864; White Post, Virginia, August 10, 
1864; Newtown, Virginia, August 11, 1864; 
Kearneysville, Virginia, August 25, 1864; 
Shepardstown, Virginia, August 25, 1864; 
Smithfield, Virginia, August 28-29, 1864: 
Opequan Mills, Virginia, September 19, 
1864; Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 
1864; Mount Jackson, Virginia, September 
23, 1864; New Market, Virginia, September 
25, 1864; Port Republic, Virginia, Septem- 
ber 26, 1864; Cross Keyes, Virginia, Sep- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



957 



tember 28, 1864; Tomms Brook, Virginia, 
October 8, 1864; Woodstock Races, Vir- 
ginia, October 9, 1864; Strasburg, Virginia, 
October 14, 1864; Cedar Creek, Virginia, 
October 19, 1864; Newtown, Virginia, No- 
vember 12, 1864; Bloomfield, Virginia, No- 
vember 29, 1864; Liberty Mills, Virginia, 
December 22, 1864; Gordonsville, Virginia, 
December 23, 1864; Dinwiddie Court 
House, Virginia, March 21, 1865; Five 
Forks, Virginia, April i, 1865; Souther- 
land Station, Virginia, April 2, 1865; Amelia 
Court House, Virginia, April 4, 1865; Sail- 
ors Creek, Virginia, April 6, 1865; Appo- 
mattox Station, Virginia, April 8, 1865; 
Appomattox Court House (Lee's Surren- 
der), April 9, 1865. Mr. Callaghan was 
also at the head of his regiment on de- 
tached service in the battle of Gettysburg, 
and participated in all of the Bull Run en- 
gagements. 

Mr. Callaghan can look back over an 
honorable military career spent in trying to 
defend the Union. Both as a private sol- 
dier and as an officer he was always true to 
his country and to the cause it was strug- 
gling to maintain. During those times he 
was a brave and true soldier and served his 
country well and faithfully, so to-day he is 
a true and faithful citizen and one of the 
most influential and exemplary men in the 
community in which he lives. Mr. Cal- 
laghan can still vividly picture and accur- 
ately describe many of his experiences while 
in the service. 



WILLIAM McCURDY.— Nebraska and 
its destinies are in the hands of 
young men, and among the young men of 
Fillmore county few possess that high de- 
gree of business ability and genuine integ- 
rity that are the leading characteristics of 
the gentleman whose name heads this arti- 
cle. His home is on section 24, Franklin 
township, near the village of Tobias. 



Mr. McCurdy was born in Iowa, Novem- 
ber 12, 1 87 1. His parents were Lewis 
Cass and Mary Wilson McCurdy. His 
father purchased for one thousand and 
three hundred dollars, one hundred and 
sixty acres of unimproved lands in Frank- 
lin township, Fillmore county, Nebraska 
and in October, 1880, moved with his 
family to the new home. They over- 
came the disadvantages of early Nebraska 
life, and soon changed the unimproved land 
into one of the best improved farms in that 
portion of the country. Their industry and 
skillful management placed them in a posi- 
tion to purchase additional land, and they 
were soon in possession of three hundred 
and sixty acres, comprising one of the finest 
tracts to be found in the locality. They 
had an attractive home, surrounded by all 
the conveniences that go to make farm life 
agreeable. Here the father, Lewis Cass 
McCurdy, died December 24, 1894. His 
remains rest in Pleasant Ridge cemetery, 
Franklin township, together with the re- 
mains of his son Henry, who died at the age 
of nineteen. Mr. McCurdy was a devoted 
and loving husband and father, a loyal citi- 
zen and highly respected by the entire com- 
munity. The daughter, Mrs. Effie Ains- 
worth, is now living in Tobias, Nebraska. 
The mother also lives in retirement in the 
same town with her daughter. 

William McCurdy grew to manhood in 
his Nebraska home. In 1893 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Lottie L. Stainbrook, daughter 
of Marcus and Julia Stainbrook, natives of 
Pennsylvania. Her parents moved to Illi- 
nois, and later removed to Jefferson county, 
Nebraska, where they entered a homestead 
claim, and where they are still living. They 
have a comfortable home, and have pros- 
pered in their adopted state. Mrs. Mc- 
Curdy was born in Jefferson, Nebraska, 
October 21, 1874. She received a liberal 
education in her native state, and is a lady 
of high attainments. She has one brother. 



^58 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Clarence, and one sister, Myrtle. To Mr. 
and Mrs. McCurdy three children have been 
born: Bessie, Eva, and Clarence Guy. 

Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy are living on 
their highly improved farm, surrounded by 
conveniences rarely found in rural homes, 
and with their interesting children, form a 
pleasant family circle. Mrs. McCurdy's 
pleasing manner has gained her many 
friends. Mr. McCurdy is a man of great 
natural ability, energy, and genuine integ- 
rity. He is an influential citizen, and 
destined to become a leader. In political 
views he is a Democrat. 



HENRY RHOADS.— Among the sub- 
stantial and enterprising agriculturists 
of York county, whose names are scattered 
through the pages of this volume none are 
more worthy of mention than the gentle- 
man whose name heads this brief biograph- 
ical notice. A native of New York, he was 
born in Chenango county, August 29, 1840, 
and is a son of Andrew and Almira (Coats) 
Rhoads, also natives of the Empire state, 
the former born in 181 5, the latter in 181 1. 
The paternal grandparents of our subject 
were of German birth and at an early day 
came to this country, while the maternal 
grandparents were pioneer settlers of Maine, 
from which state they afterward moved to 
New York. Our subject's parents were 
married in 1837, and when he was about 
six years old they removed, with the, pater- 
nal grandfather, to De Kalb county, Illinois, 
where the father engaged in farming until 
his death, which occurred April 14, 1,880. 

In De Kalb county, Henry Rhoads grew 
to manhood, and at the age of twenty-one 
years, he enlisted on the 15th of September, 
1 86 1, in Company C, Fifty-second Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry. He was honorably dis- 
charged December 25, 1863, and with the 
whole regiment re-enlisted at Pulaski, Ten- 
nessee, as a veteran volunteer, being finally 



discharged July 5, 1865, as hostilities had 
ceased and his services were no longer 
needed. He participated in the battle of 
Pittsburg Landing, Corinth and others; 
was with Sherman on the celebrated march 
to the sea, and was in all the engagements 
on the way. Although his service was ar- 
duous, he was fortunately never wounded, 
nor was ever confined in the hospital on ac- 
count of sickness. 

Returning to his home in De Kalb coun- 
ty, Illinois, Mr. Rhoads was there married, 
July 3, 1869, to Miss Hilah Hasbrouck, by 
whom he has thirteen children, all still liv- 
ing: Mary A., Albert and Alfred (twins), 
Lorena H., Anna G., Ada S., Garfield H., 
OrenE., Irvin L., LeeO., Stella O., Delia 
A. and Ernest A. 

In the fall of 1870 Mr. Rhoads brought 
his family to York county, Nebraska, where 
he secured a homestead claim, and at once 
set to work to improve his farm which, to- 
day is one of the most highly cultivated and 
desirable places of .the locality. Since at- 
taining his majority he has been a pro- 
nounced Republican in politics, but aside 
from voting he takes no active part in politi- 
cal affairs, preferring to give his entire time 
and attention to his business interests. His 
farm consists of two hundred and forty acres 
of rich and arable land, on which is a good 
bearing orchard and a' substantial residence 
and barn. Socially he is a member of No- 
ble Grave Post, G. A. R. , of Bradshaw, 
while his wife is identified with tlie Home 
Forum, and is consistent member of the 
United Brethren church. They have found 
a pleasant home in York county, and are 
surrounded by a large circle of friends and 
acquaintances. 



WILLIAM H. GARRISON, one of the 
early pioneers and self-made men of 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, located on sec- 
tion 28, Franklin township, where he now 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



959 



resides, in 1871. He came to this state in 
limited circumstances, aud by the exercise 
of his resolute will and persevering industry, 
has built up one the most creditable home- 
steads in his township. He took up one 
hundred and sixty acres of land over which 
the plowshare had never passed, and in due 
time effected the improvements necessary to 
complete the country home, and which now 
forms one of the pleasing features in the 
landscape of that section. His straightfor- 
ward methods of doing business and his 
value as a member of the community, have 
gained for him a wide circle of friends and 
acquaintances, who have watched his career 
with interest and are not slow to acknowl- 
edge that he is deserving of all the good 
that has fallen to him. 

Mr. Garrison was born in Lee county, 
Illinois, Janiiary 20, 1847, a son of William 
and Amelia (Omen) Garrison, who were 
born, reared and married in Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania, whence they emigrated to 
Lee county, Illinois. There the father fol- 
lowed farming for some years, but spent his 
last days in retirement from active labor, 
near Dixon, Illinois, where both he and his 
wife died and were buried. In their family 
were nine children, seven of whom are still 
living: George L., a Methodist Episcopal 
minister of Iowa; Mrs. Hannah Girton, a 
resident of Carthage, Missouri; Mrs. Martha 
J. Cooper, who lives near Carthage; Mrs. 
E. E. Riddelsbarger, of near Bellville, Kan- 
sas; Peter, of Azusa, California; Harriet E. , 
a physician of Dixon, Illinois, and William 
H., our subject. 

William H. Garrison was educated in 
the common schools and the Mt. Morris 
Seminary, of Mt. Morris, Illinois. In Sep- 
tember, 1864, when only seventeen years 
of age, he enlisted in Company F, First 
Illinois Light Artillery, and his battery was 
engaged in several hotly contested battles, 
including that of Nashville, Tennessee. 
The war being over and his services no 



longer needed, he was mustered out July 
26, 1865, and returned to his home in Illi- 
nois. Later he was married in that state 
to Miss Emmogene V. Simmons, a resident 
of Franklin Grove, Illinois, and in 1871 
they came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
taking up the horriestead previously men- 
tioned. Their first home here was a dug- 
out and for two years they lived in a sod 
house, but it has since been replaced by a 
good frame residence. Mr. Garrison had 
to go to Crfete for his lumber and groceries, 
and he was 'the first to raise a crop of grain 
west of Little Sandy creek, so thinly settled 
was this region at that time. His educa- 
tion was here put to practical use, as for a 
number of terms he successfully engaged in 
teaching school in his district and has since 
served almost contmuously as a school di- 
rector. He was one of the first teachers in 
the township. 

Mrs. Garrison died December 24, 1S74, 
leaving a husband and two children, Emmo- 
gene V. and William L. , to mourn her loss^ 
and her remains were interred in Franklin 
Union cemetery, which is located on the 
southwest corner of our subject's homestead 
and is known as the Franklin Union ceme- 
tery. It is the first" known cemetery in the 
township. Mr. Garrison was again mar- 
ried, in 1877, his second union being with 
Miss Sarah E. Appleford, who was born in 
Ontario, Canada, Jul} 13, 1856, a daughter 
of John G. and Mary (Colver) Appleford. 
The mother died in that country and the 
father later came to Nebraska, locating near 
Bruning, where he is now living retired at 
the age of seventy years. To them were 
born five children, two of whom are still 
living, George S. and Sarah E. Mr. and 
Mrs. Garrison have become the parents of 
the following children: Jennie E., Frank- 
lin F., Florence A., Clara J., Mary A., El- 
mer R. , and John G. 

Mr. Garrison has made farming and 
stock raising his principal occupation 



«60 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



throughout life, and has prospered in his 
undertakings, being now the owner of a 
valuable farm of two hundred and eighty 
acres under a high state of cultivation and 
well improved. He has thirty head of cat- 
tle and one hundred head of hogs and 
twelve horses. He is a member of the 
Farmers Elevator & Creamery Association, 
and gives his support to all enterprises 
which he believes calculated to prove of 
public benefit. His political support is al- 
ways given the Republican party, and he 
cast his first presidential vote for U. S. 
Grant. His fellow citizens, recognizing his 
worth and ability have often called upon 
him to serve in public positions of honor 
and trust. He has served as a member of 
the board of supervisors of the county for 
three years, and as assessor for two terms. 
Socially he is quite prominent, and is an 
honored member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. One of his first political efforts in 
Fillmore county was in the election held to 
organize the township and select its name, 
Mr. Garrison suggested Franklin, others in 
the meeting suggested Germantown. The 
vote was running so close that Mr. Garri- 
son took his team and went and brought 
other voters not present at the meeting, 
thus winning for the name of Franklin by 
one majority. 



JOHN SCHMIDT, a prosperous and suc- 
cessful farmer residing on section 5, 
Stanton township, Fillmore county, was 
born in Germany, November 15, 1840. He 
was the only son of Philip and Susan 
(Grebs) Schmidt, and when he was only 
nineteen months old, his mother died. He 
was reared and educated in Germany, at- 
tending the German schools until he was 
sixteen years of age, and then learned the 
cooper trade. He worked at this trade in 



his mother country until he was twenty- 
three years of age, when he determined that 
he could better his condition in the new 
world, and accordingly, in June of his 
twenty-third year, he sailed from Weinoll- 
sheim, in the Liberty, a vessel fitted with 
sails, and after a rough and stormy voyage 
lasting for thirty-three days, he finally landed 
in New York harbor. Immediately after 
his arrival in New York he started for Buf- 
falo, where he secured a position at his 
trade, and after a short stay in that city he 
went to Crawford county, Pennsylvania, 
and from there he went to Pittsburg, and 
then to Chicago, where he worked one year. 
From there he went to Milwaukee, and after 
working there for seven months, went to 
visit his father who was living in Canada. 
He only remained at home two months, 
however, when the roving desire came upon 
him, and he went to Titusville, Pennsylva- 
nia, and to various other eastern cities, 
working in Pittsburg two years, Cleveland, 
Ohio, three years, but on account of the 
low wages and lack of employment he went 
to Sterling, Illinois, and secured a position 
in the distillery, working in that one place 
for nine years. 

While he was living in Sterling he was 
married, on January 3, 1871, to Miss Bar- 
bara Meon, who was the daughter of Law- 
rence and Elizabeth (Vock) Meon. Her 
parents were born in Germany and have 
always lived there. To their marriage were 
born five children, of which number Bar- 
bara was the eldest, and she and her sister 
Mary were the only ones who ever came to 
America. Our subject and his wife lived 
in Sterling for about fifteen years, and see- 
ing the advantages offered in the west, came 
to Nebraska and purchased eighty acres of 
land, paying seven dollars per acre for it. 
This farm is still their home, but it has been 
wonderfully improved, all accomplished by 
the industry and perseverance of Mr. Schmidt 
and his family. To their marriage have 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



961 



been born eleven children, nine of whom 
are still living: Barbara, John, Anna, 
Lena, who died at eight years of age and 
was buried in the Catholic cemetery at 
Sterling, Lizzie, Emma, Caroline, Carl, Al- 
bert, who died at the age of eight months 
and is buried in Turkey Creek cemetery, 
May and Lula. All the children are living 
in Nebraska with the exception of one 
daughter, Anna. Mr. Schmidt is a mem- 
ber of the Catholic church, and he is hon- 
ored and respected by all who know him. 



MILTON M. WILDMAN, county judge 
of York county, Nebraska, was born 
in Piatt county, Illinois, October 25, 1856, 
a son of Thomas and Mary J. (Longnecker) 
Wildman, the former a native of New York 
and the latter of Kentucky. The father 
was a farmer and carpenter by occupation, 
and died in Illinois. 

Mr. Wildman received his preliminary 
education in the common schools of Illinois 
and afterward engaged in teaching in that 
state until 1882, when he went to York, 
Nebraska, and there taught school and 
worked at farming for a time. In 1885 he 
began the study of law and was admitted to 
the bar as a practitioner in 1 887. The same 
year he entered the law school at Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, and graduated from same in 1888. 
He then located at York, and began the 
practice of his profession which he continued 
with increasing popularity until 1893, when 
he was elected county judge, which office 
he still holds, being re-elected in 1897. He 
has also performed the duties of the offices 
of city clerk and justice of the peace. 

March 20, 1 88 1 , Mr. Wildman was united 
in marriage to Miss Martha A. Valentine, a 
native of Ohio, and to this union have been 
born four children, all of whom are living 
and upon whom they have bestowed the 
following names: Holland R., Blaine C, 
Ethel L. and Pearl E. The Judge is a 



member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica and also of the Royal Highlanders. Po- 
litically, he affiliates with the Republican 
party, and in all public matters he is, and 
has always been, one of the leaders, and his 
name is indissoluby associated with the his- 
tory of the growth and development, and 
also the political history, of York county. 
He is interested in everything that has a 
tendency to promote the public good, and 
has contributed liberally of his means to all 
worthy enterprises. He is thoroughly Amer- 
ican in his views, being in close sympathy 
with American methods and institutions. 
He possesses keen perceptions and is a close 
observer of all that is going on. 



THOMAS NELSON HOLDERNESS, 
one of the present county commission- 
ers of Butler county, and a representative 
business man of Rising City, is distinctively 
a man of affairs and one who has wielded a 
wide influence. A strong mentality and in- 
vincible courage, a most determined individ- 
uality have so entered into his make-up as 
to render him a natural leader of men and 
a director of opinion. Since the fall of 
1875 he has been a resident of the county, 
and is now serving his fourth term as a 
commissioner, a fact which plainly indicates 
his popularity and the confidence and trust 
reposed in him by his fellow citizens. 

Mr. Holderness was born in Canada 
West, April 8, 1849, a son of Joseph Hol- 
derness, a native of England, whence he 
emigrated to Canada when a young man. 
There he married Elizabeth Drew, a daugh- 
ter of Elisha Drew, who was of Scotch 
descent. Our subject is the youngest of 
the six sons born of this union, of whom 
three came to Nebraska, the others being 
Elisha and Isaiah. In 1850 during the in- 
fancy of T. N. Holderness, the family re- 
moved from Canada to De Kalb county, 
Illinois, where he grew to manhood upon a 



962 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHV. 



farm, early becoming familiar with all the 
duties which fall to the lot of the agricultur- 
ist, while his education was obtained in the 
common schools. 

In 1875 Mr. Holderness came to Butler 
county, Nebraska, to visit a brcJther and 
decided to locate here. He engaged in 
buying and shipping horses until 1882, 
since which time he has been interested in 
a number of business enterprises, principally 
in farming and real estate dealing. He is 
still the owner of a large and valuable farm 
in Reading township, Butler county, and 
his home in the south part of Rising City is 
one of the pleasantest places in the village. 
There hospitality reigns supreme, the many 
friends of the family always being sure of a 
hearty welcome, Mr. Holderness was mar- 
ried on the 3 1st of December, 1885, to Miss 
Ida Doty, a daughter of Gillis Doty, of But- 
ler county. Two daughters graced this 
union: Nellie May and Winnie Bell, who 
died September 14, 1898. 

As a member of the board of county 
commissioners, Mr. Holderness has taken a 
most active part in the development and 
prosperity of this section of the state. 
While serving in this office fifty thousand 
dollars was voted by the board for the erec- 
tion of a new court house at David City, 
and he continued a member during its con- 
struction. This elegant building now stands 
as a monument to the enterprise, honesty 
and fidelity of this board, of which Mr. 
Holderness is one of the most prominent 
members. 



WILLIAM P. MILLER, deceased, made 
his first appearance in Butler county, 
Nebraska, in 1870, in company with his 
uncle, Henry Miller. They had come on a 
prospecting trip, to determine for themselves 
the possibilities of this new section df the 
world, and were so pleased with what they 
heard and saw, that William P. Miller re- 



turned the following year and bought two 
sections of land. This land subsequently 
became the source of a large profit to him. 
He was living at that time in Lena, Ste- 
phenson county, Illinois, and wasengaged in 
very extensive farming. He did not break 
away from his Illinois interests and remove 
his family to this state for several years. 

Mr. Miller was born in Clarion county, 
Pennsylvania, August 21, 1831, and spent 
his early days amid the quiet and seclusion 
of farm life. He was a son of George and 
Mary Miller, and accompanied them when 
they came west and located in Stephenson 
county, Illinois, after he was a man grown. 
It was in that county that he found and 
lost his first wife. Her name was Mary 
A. Bobb, and she became the mother 
of four children: John M., Joseph H., Alice 
E., and Mary A. Mr. Miller entered 
into matrimonial engagements a second 
time, April 6, 1876, Miss Kate Clock 
bestowing upon him the gift of her heart 
and hand. She was a daughter of Fred- 
erick Clock, and is a woman of many charm- 
ing traits. She is still living and makes her 
home on the farm near Millerton, which is 
pronounced by competent critics to be one 
of the finest places in the county. 

In 1878 Mr. Miller removed his family 
to Nebraska, and made his home on his 
Butler county property until the day of his 
death, at which time he was the owner of 
fourteen hundred acres of farm land. He 
had other investments and was known as a 
prompt and reliable business man. The 
town of Millerton bears his name, and the 
impress of his strong character is on the 
community. He was a strong temperance 
man and a devoted member of the Lutheran 
church, and took a deep interest in every 
enterprise that looked to the morals and ed- 
ucation of the community. He has entered 
into his rest, but his name is still green in 
many hearts. In politics he was a Demo- 
crat first and later a Prohibitionist. He 





WM. P. MILLER, Deceased. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



9G& 



always took an acti%'e interest in all matters 
that affected the public welfare. His 
portrait appears on another page of this 
volume. 



REV. FREDERICK SCHWARZ, pas- 
tor of the Lutheran church of Frank- 
lin township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
has for three years ministered faithfully to 
the spiritual needs of his people and given 
powerful and effective aid to all influences 
which work for the advancement of the 
community. Revered and loved by his own 
flock, he has also won the honor and es- 
teem of ail others who have seen his devo- 
tion to his noble calling. 

Mr. Schwarz was born in Germany, 
November 12, 1863, a son of Frederick and 
Caroline (Siol) Schwarz, who spent their en- 
tire lives in that country. In their family 
were only two children, the daughter being 
Caroline, still a resident of Germany. Our 
subject went through the schools of his na- 
tive land, and partly paid his own way 
through school by teaching and literary 
labors. In 1887 he crossed the Atlantic to 
the United States, his destination being Ne- 
braska, where he at once entered upon the 
work of the ministry as pastor of a congre- 
gation in Dawson county. He tilled this 
charge in this state, winning the love and 
respect of all with whom he came in con- 
tact, and for seven years he had charge of 
a congregation at Greenleaf, Kansas, doing 
missionary work in other places besides. It 
was during his ministerial work there that 
he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza- 
beth Woeltje, who was born August 18, 
1873, a daughter of Eide and Kate (Riel) 
Woeltje, who are prominent farming peo- 
ple living near Greenleaf. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Schwarz have been born two children: 
Evangeline and Benedict. 

Our subject has done missionary work 

in Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota and 
55 



Nebraska, and in May, 1S96, accepted his 
present charge in Franklin township, Fill- 
more county, and has succeeded in cancel- 
ing a debt of two thousand dollars on the 
new church there. He is a true and earn- 
est Christian who has devoted his life to the 
saving of souls, has been secretary and 
presiding officer of his conference and has 
lately been elected' traveling representative 
of his synod. It is his intention to devote 
his time to the states of Kansas, Nebraska, 
South Dakota, Oklahoma, or any west of 
Ohio. His wife has been a true helpmeet 
to him in his work, and together they have 
labored for the good of those around them! 
with most gratifying results. 



CHARLES MINNEY, residing on sec- 
tion 26, Belle Prairie precinct, Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, presents in his life what 
may be accomplished by perseverance, in- 
dustry and close application to business. 
He commenced life at the foot of the ladder, 
but blessed with a prudent and sensible wife 
as a helpmate, he is now able to take life 
easily and comfortably, and is the owner of 
a fine farm, which he still successfully oper- 
ates. 

Mr. Minney was born June 2, 1834, and 
is a son of John and Mary Minney, natives of 
Scotland, who died in the prime of life 
while living in New Jersey, and were buried 
there. In their family were only two chil- 
dren, the daughter being Mary, who wedded 
a Mr. Huffman and now lives in Mauch 
Chunk, Pennsylvania. His father dying 
when our subject was only eleven j'ears of age, 
he was early thrown upon his own resources 
for a livelihood and his educational privileges 
therefore were limited. He attended private 
schools in New Jersey for a short time, pay- 
ing his own tuition. He began work as a 
farm hand at two dollars per month, and 
was employed as such until he was twenty- 
five years of age. 



966 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



On the 3d of December, 1858, Mr. 
Minney was united in marriage with Miss 
Lovinah Tompkins, who was born in Tiskil- 
wa. Bureau county, Illinois, August 24, 
1840, a daughter of Alfred and Mary Tomp- 
kins. The mother died in Illinois, after 
which the father went to Texas, where he 
passed away after a brief illness. Of their 
ten children, only three survive: Margaretta, 
Louisa and Mary. Fourteen children were 
born to our subject and his wife, all of 
whom are still living, namely: John Charles 
Fremont, William T., Alexander H., Mar- 
tin, David F. , Earnest, George W., Arthur, 
Mary E., Loella, Rosa, Fanny, May and 
Grace. Five of the daughters are married 
and three of the boys. Twelve grandchil- 
dren have been born. 

Mr. and Mrs. Minney began their do- 
mestic life in Illinois, where he engaged in 
farming upon rented land for fifteen years. 
In February, 1865, he enlisted in Company 
H, Ninth Illinois Cavalry, but was soon 
afterward taken ill and was not able to go 
to the front for some time. On the first of 
June, however, he joined his regiment at 
Pittsburg Landing, and remained in the 
service until long after hostilities ceased, 
being mustered out at Selma, Alabama, No- 
vember I, 1865. 

Returning to his home in Illinois, Mr. 
Minney continued his farming operations 
there until 1871, when, with his wife and 
six children, he started for Nebraska with 
an emigrant wagon drawn by a yoke of 
oxen, and when he landed in Belle Prairie 
precinct, Fillmore county. May 25, his en- 
tire earthly possessions consisted of two 
yoke of oxen and his wagon. The family 
lived in the wagon for several weeks until a 
little lumber could be secured for a rude 
cabin. Mr. Minney raised a crop of wheat 
before he was able to pay the cost of filing 
and entering a homestead claim, and he ex- 
perienced many hardships and privations in 
his attempt to secure for himself and family 



a good\gme. He had to go to Pleasant 
Hill or other points equally distant to do his 
trading. The district schools, however, 
were started in 1872, and in his district was 
a sod schoolhouse and there was a state 
fund to maintain the same. His children 
have been . provided with good, practical 
educations and are well fitted for life's re- 
sponsible duties. After an illness of a few 
weeks' duration, Mrs. Minney died, Feb- 
ruary 25, 1890, and was laid to rest in 
Harmony cemetery. Belle Prairie precinct. 
Mr. Minney has been quite a wanderer, 
and has either visited or lived in the follow- 
ing states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
New York, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, 
Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missis- 
sippi. He is a good citizen and one of the 
influential and highly respected men of his 
community. He cast his first presidential 
vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has since 
supported the men and measures of the Re- 
publican party. 



JOHN F. RANN. — This gentleman 
worthily illustrates the commonly ac- 
cepted view of the character of the enter- 
prising German citizen, who made his way 
into the western country at a time when 
strong hands and stout hearts were needed, 
and putting his shoulder to the wheel gave 
a decided impetus to the car of progress and 
assisted in opening up the country to civil- 
ization. He is a native of Schleiswig-Hol- 
stein, Germany, born May 28, 1819, and is 
a son of John and Catherine (Maltzen) Rann, 
in whose family were nine children, but all 
remained in the fatherland with the excep- 
tion of our subject. He was educated in 
the common schools of that country and 
confirmed in the Lutheran church at the 
age of fifteen years. At the age of sixteen 
he commenced learning the shoemaker's 
trade, which he followed for some years. 
When twenty-two he was drafted in the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



967 



German army, participating iqpPne war 
with Denmark, in 1848, and remained in 
the service for two years and a half. In 1850 
he was united in marriage with Miss Anna 
Deishler, and to them were born six chil- 
dren, one son, who died in infancy, and five 
daughters, namely: Christina, Anna, Abbie, 
Minnie and Amelia. The wife and mother 
died while living in Nebraska, at the age of 
sixty-five years, and was laid to rest in 
Yankee Hill cemetery, Seward county. 

In 1854, Mr. Rann with his family left 
Hamburg and by way of Liverpool came to 
the United States, arriving in New York 
city in October of that year. He proceeded 
almost immediately to Davenport, Iowa, 
and from there went to Hennepin county, 
Minnesota, where he engaged in farming 
from 1855 to 1864. With the intention of 
moving with his family to Montana in the 
latter year, he started west, but was driven 
back by the Indians, the company of emi- 
grants losing twelve able bodied men in two 
days' skirmishing and fighting. The white 
men then took refuge in the Black Hills 
near the Little Missouri river, where they 
lay in camp for seventeen days, being in 
constant danger all the time. Finally the 
Indians showed signs of friendliness and 
presented the white men with a letter from 
the noted chief Sitting Bull to the effect 
that for a favorable consideration of prop- 
erty he would deliver up to them a Mrs. 
Keller who had been captured from a Minne- 
sota emigrant train under Captain Fisk in 
1846, the rest of the company being slain 
and wounded. Her husband was among 
the wounded, but managed to escape to 
Missouri, where she joined him after her re- 
lease. It was finally agreed that they 
should give three horses, one wagon and a 
load of provisions in exchange for the pris- 
oner, but as the Indians failed to keep their 
part of the contract, a fight ensued. By 
strategy another chief and twelve of his 
braves entered the camp of Sitting Bull, 



located Mrs. Keller and at a preconcerted 
moment bore her off and safely delivered 
her to the commander of Fort Sully. While 
the skirmishing was going on between the 
white men and the Indians, this band 
treated the red men to some food which 
caused many to become ill and some died. 

Mr. Rann and his family finally retired 
to Omaha, where he spent the following 
winter, and in the spring moved to Crescent 
City, Pottawattomie county, Iowa, where 
he purchased ten lots and a house, making 
his home there from 1865 until 1880. He 
then again started westward, his destination 
this time being Montana, where for three 
years and a half he successfully engaged in 
gold mining. While in that state he also 
had many exciting adventures with the In- 
dians and endured many hardships and 
privations. At Fort Stephenson after fight- 
ing for his own life with a grizzly bear, he 
finally succeeded in killing the animal, and 
he killed many buffaloes, which furnished 
him with meat most of the time. He had 
made considerable money and on his re- 
turn to Crescent City, Iowa, in 1868, he re- 
sumed farming and invested some of his 
capital in a large herd of cattle, continuing 
to prosper in his undertakings. In 1875 he 
went to Oregon, where he purchased a farm 
and made his home until 1890. Since then 
he has practically lived retired, spending 
his summers on his farm in Pottawattomie 
county, Iowa, and the winter season in 
Pleasant Dale, Seward county, Nebraska, 
having invested largely in real estate in both 
the town and this county. Now at the age 
of eighty years, he is still hale and hearty 
and is very active, devoting a great deal of 
time to travel. He cast his first presidential 
ballot for Abraham Lincoln, and since that 
time has generally supported the men and 
measures of the Republican party. For 
the success he has achieved in life he de- 
serves much credit, for it is all due to his 
own industry, enterprise and good manage- 



968 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



ment, and his course in life has been such 
as to win for him the confidence and esteem 
of all with- whom he has come in contact. 



JOHN MANSFIELD, an old and hon- 
ored'citizen of Fillmore county, residing 
on section 19, Momence precinct, is now re- 
tired from the labors of a long and active 
life, and is spending his declining days in the 
midst of ease and plenty. He is a native of 
Sweden, born February 4, 1829, and in that 
country was educated in the public schools 
and confirmed in the Lutheran church. 
For twenty-si.\ years he served in the Swed- 
ish army, and continued a resident of his 
native land until he attained the age of fifty. 

When twenty-three, Mr. Mansfield was 
united in marriage with Miss Sarah Johnson, 
who was born in Sweden, January 4, 1831, 
and is one of a family of nine children, 
whose parents were John and Nellie (Lind- 
bom) Johnson. Our subject and his wife 
became the parents of ten children, all born 
in Sweden, but only five are now living, 
namely: William, Annie, Elsie, Julius and 
Emil, who were young when brought by 
their parents to America, and were educated 
in the schools of this country. All make 
their homes in Nebraska, and the daughters 
are married and living on farms. Julius is 
a graduate of a business college of Omaha, 
and is now a conductor on a street railway 
in that city, while the other sons are prom- 
inent farmers of Fillmore county, and Will- 
iam has served as assessor of his township 
for two years. 

In 1879, Mr. Mansfield with his family 
crossed the broad Atlantic, landing in New 
York, whence they went to Portland, Connect- 
icut. After a short stay in that place, they 
removed to Omaha where they lived for two 
years and a half, coming to Fillmore county 
in the spring of 1 883. The year previous Mr. 
Mansfield had purchased one hundred and 
sixty acres of land in Momence precinct, for 



one thousand and two hundred dollars, but it 
was entirely unimproved, not a building hav- 
ing been erected thereon. The land was soon- 
placed under excellent cultivation, a com- 
fortable house and good barns and out- 
buildings erected, and it is now one of the 
best farms in the locality. Although our 
subject had but one dollar and fifty cents- 
when he located upon the place, he has 
prospered from year to year, and is now 
able to lay aside business cares and enjoy 
the fruits of his former unremitting toil. 
He and his sons are strong advocates of the 
principles of the Populist party, and for ten 
years he efficiently served as school treasurer 
in his district. With his wife and children 
he holds membership in the Swedish Lu- 
theran church, and the family is one of the 
most prominent and highly respected in the 
community in which they live. 



SAMUEL I. BITTINGER, one of the 
pioneers of Morton township, York 
county, was born in Franklin county, Penn- 
sylvania, August 20, 1852, a son of John 
Bittinger, whose name appears in the sketch 
of Fred Bittinger on another page of this 
volume. 

Our subject moved west with his parents 
when quite young, settled in Iowa, was edu- 
cated in that state, and made his home 
there until 1872. He then moved with his 
parents and brothers to York county, Ne- 
braska, and there engaged in operating the 
homestead farm for ten years. In 1873, he 
bought a piece of railroad land on section 5, 
Morton township, and has since farmed and 
improved tha tract and has developed it 
into one of the finest farms in the county. 
He also owns one hundred and sixty acres 
of farm land on section 14, of the same 
township. 

In March, 1884, Mr. Bittinger was united 
in marriage to Miss Mary A. Heaton, a 
daughter of Henry and Harriet (Church) 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



969 



Heaton. Mr. and Mrs. Heaton came to 
York county with their family in 1880. Mrs. 
Heaton died in this county, but her hus- 
band is still living and is making his home 
with Mr. and Mrs. Bittinger. Our subject 
and Mrs. Bittinger are the parents of a fam- 
ily of three children, whose names, in the 
order of their birth, are as follows: Albert 
N., Verna M. and Roy R., all of whom are 
living. In politics our subject is independ- 
ent of parties. As a farmer he has been 
quite successful and is well-known through- 
out the community as a man of influence, 
and one whose character is beyond re- 
proach. 



FRANCIS \V. NORTON, one of the 
leading and influential farmers of Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, whose home is on 
section 32, Hamilton township, was born 
in Massachusetts, in 1834, and is a worthy 
representative of one of the old and promi- 
nent families of that state, where his par- 
ents, John W. and Esther (Naramore) Nor- 
ton, spent their entire lives, as did also his 
grandparents on both sides. His father 
died at the age of sixty-seven years, and 
both were laid to rest in the cemetery at 
Cummington, Massachusetts. They were 
numbered among the most highly respected 
and honored citizens of their community. 
Their children now living are Elizabeth, 
Edward, Charles and F. W. 

In the common schools of his native 
state our subject acquired a good practical 
education, and at the age of twenty-two 
years he removed to Illinois. He manifest- 
ed his patriotism and love of country by 
enlisting in August, 1862, in Company K, 
Ninety-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
which was assigned to General McPherson's 
command, and participated in the battles of 
Jackson, Champion Hill, Black River 
Bridge and the siege of Vicksburg. His 
first captain, David Lloyd, was killed at the 



hotly contested battle of Champion Hill. 
After the siege of Vicksburg, Mr. Norton 
was placed in General Logan's command 
and went to Chattanooga, Tenn. He was 
with Sherman on his celebrated march to 
the sea, and with that general proceeded to 
Washington, District of Columbia, where he 
took part in the grand review. He also saw 
the signals given by Sherman to General 
Corse to hold the fort for he was coming. 

After being mustered out of the service 
at Louisville, Kentucky, Mr. Norton re- 
turned to his home in Princeton, Illinois. It 
was there that he became acquainted with 
Miss Julia Bryant, a daughter of Cyrus and 
Julia (Everett) Bryant, and at Princeton 
their marriage was celebrated November 22, 
1866. They have two children: Bessie E. 
and Charles B., who are at home. Mrs. 
Norton was born February 3, 1845, '" 
Princeton, Illinois, where she was reared 
and educated, and she too belongs to a most 
distinguished and prominent family of Mass- 
achusetts. There her father was born in 
1798, and he died at his beautiful home in 
Princeton, Illinois, in 1865. He was a son 
of Dr. Peter Bryant, who was born in 
Massachusettes in 1767, and died in that 
state, in 1820. The other sons of the fam- 
ily were: Austin, who was born in 1793 
and died in 1866; William Cullen Bryant, 
the noted poet, who was born in 1794 and 
died in 1878; Arthur, who was born in 1803 
and died in 1883; and John H., who was 
born in 1807 and is still living. Mrs. Nor- 
ton's parents removed to Princeton, Illinois, 
in 1834, and with the exception of the poet, 
her uncles also became residents of that 
place. She has a sister, Mrs. Charity B. 
Robinson, of Princeton, Illinois, and three 
brothers, of whom Everett and Peter are 
now living retired in Holton, Kansas. Cul- 
len was in the United States military serv- 
ice for over thirty years and was holding 
the rank of major when he resigned on ac- 
count of advanced age. He is now living in 



970 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



elegant style in Alameda, California. Mrs. 
Norton's mother was born in Massachusetts 
in 1808, a daughter of James and Phcebe 
Everett, and died in Princeton, Illinois, in 
1875. She and her husband now sleep side 
by side in the cemetery at that place. 

In April, 1884, Mr. and Mrs. Norton re- 
moved from Illinois to Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and took up their residence in Ham- 
ilton precinct, where he had previously pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres of raw 
land for five dollars and fifty cents. This he 
has converted into his present delightful 
home. Convenient buildingsof modern archi- 
tecture have been erected, and the place is 
adorned with beautiful shade trees. The 
family receive and merit the high regard of 
the entire communit}' and those who know 
them best are numbered among their warm- 
est friends. 



WILLIAM K. LOUGHRIDGE, M. D., 
of Pleasant Dale, Seward county, 
Nebraska, is one of the most prominent and 
successful physicians in this section of the 
state. He is one of the younger members 
of the profession but his popularity is by no 
means measured by his years; on the con- 
trary he has won a reputation which many 
an older practitioner might well envy. 

The Doctor was born in Wllkesbarre, 
Pennsylvania, March 24, 1873, and is a son 
of William Loughridge, a native of Belfast, 
County Antrim, Ireland, who emigrated to 
America when twenty-one years of age and 
first located in New York, where he found 
employment in a railroad machine shop, 
having previously worked at that occupation 
in England. Subsequently he went to 
Georgia, where he continued to work at his 
trade until the yellow fever broke out and 
he returned north, settling this time in 
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Here he be- 
came acquainted with Miss Agnes M. Kess- 
ler, and on the 14th of September, 1868, 



they were united in marriage. Two chil- 
dren blessed this union: James and William 
K. The former, who is a blacksmith and 
wheelright by trade, married Miss Luella 
Brown, of Murray, Nebraska, and now 
lives in Wyoming, this state. When our 
subject was only si.x years old the family 
removed to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where 
the father worked in the B. & M. machine 
shops, but the parents now make their home 
in Murray, where he continued to follow 
his chosen occupation, blacksmithing and 
wagonmaking. As a public-spirited and en- 
terprising citizen, he is quite prominent in 
the community, and also stands high in Ma- 
sonic circles. Politically, he is a Republi- 
can, and both he and his estimable wife are 
devout members of the Presbyterian church. 
They have a very pleasant home in Murray, 
where they delight to entertain their many 
friends. On the paternal side the Doctor's 
ancestors were mostly mechanics and min- 
isters, and on the maternal side they were 
merchants. 

Dr. Loughridge obtained his literary 
education in the common schools of this 
state, and at the age of sixteen entered the 
high school of Plattsmouth, where he pur- 
sued his studies for two years. In the 
meantime he devoted his leisure hours to 
helping his father in the blacksmith's shop 
and on the farm. On leaving the high 
school he commenced the study of medi- 
cine, and later entered the medical depart- 
ment of Cotner University, Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, where he was graduated with high 
honors on the 13th of March, 1894. He 
began the practice of his chosen profession 
in Lincoln with Dr. J. S. Eaton, and re- 
mained there one month and came to Pleas- 
ant Dale the nth of May, 1894. Soon af- 
ter his graduation he was elected lecturer 
of neurology in the medical department of 
Cotner University, which he held until the 
year of 1895, when he was elected professor 
of diseases of children, which position he 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



971 



now holds, and is also a member of its 
board of directors. He has taken a post- 
graduate course in the Chicago Homeopathic 
Medical College, and one in the Chicago 
Polyclinic Medical College. Talent and 
culture have gained for him a most 
prominent position among his profession- 
al brethern, and he is today an hon- 
ored member of the Seward County Med- 
ical Society, the Nebraska State Eclec- 
tic Society and the National Eclectic Med- 
ical Association. Although his residence in 
Pleasant Dale has been of short duration, he 
has already built up a large and lucrative 
practice, and he receives many calls to treat 
difficult cases in the city of Lincoln as well 
as neighboring towns, for his reputation ex- 
tends throughout this section of the state. 

Socially, the Doctor is a leading mem- 
ber of the Blue Lodge, F. & A. M., of Mil- 
ford, in which he has passed all the chairs 
and is now past master. He also belongs 
to Lincoln Chapter, No. 6, R. A. M., and 
Mt. Moria Commandery, No. 4, K. T., also 
Sesostros Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and 
Delta Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite 
Masons, Lincoln, Nebraska, and will receive 
his thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite 
Masonry in March, 1S99. He is also con- 
nected with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
America and the Knights of the Maccabees. 
Religiously, he belongs to the Methodist 
Episcopal church of Pleasant Dale and is a 
member of its choir. He received the nom- 
ination for county coroner in 1897, but with 
the other Republican candidates, was de- 
feated, as the party was in the minority. 



MORRIS C. STULL. In this enlight- 
ened age when men of energy, industry 
and merit are rapidly pushing their way to 
the front, those, who, by their own individ- 
ual efforts, have won favor and fortune may 
properly claim recognition. During pioneer 
days, when Nebraska was entering upon its 



era of growth and development and Polk 
county was laying its foundation for future 
prosperity, there came thither from all parts 
of the country poor men but honest, and 
with a sturdy independence and determina- 
tion to succeed that justly entitle them to 
representation in the history of this region. 
Among this class is numbered Mr. Stull, 
who was for many years actively identified 
with the agricultural interests of Polk coun- 
ty, carrying on operations on section 14, 
township 15, range 2, Valley precinct, but 
he is now living a retired life in Lincoln. 

A native of McKean county, Pennsyl- 
vania, he was born February 20, 1837, 
and is a son of Andrew and Eliza J. 
(Corwin) Stull. The paternal grandfather 
was a resident of the Keystone state, but the 
maternal grandfather, who was one of the 
heroes of the Revolutionary war, made his 
home in New York. The parents of our 
subject were married in Pennsylvania, 
whence they removed to Illinois in 1840, 
settling at Marengo, McHenry county, 
where the father and his brother purchased 
a claim, which they later improved. In 
1870, having retired from farming, the 
former removed to Columbus, Nebraska, 
where his wife, who was a consistent mem- 
ber of the Baptist church, died in 1880. 
Later he went to Atlantic City, Iowa, where 
his death occurred. In the family of this 
worthy couple were six children: Dr. 
Theodore, now deceased, who was assistant 
surgeon of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry in 
the Civil war; Morris C, of this sketch; 
Ghordis, a resident of McHenry county, 
Illinois; Mrs. Olive C. Peeler, of Atlantic, 
Iowa; Charles, deceased; and Mrs. Char- 
lotte Bonesteel, of Great Falls, Montana. 

Morris C. Stull was reared in McHenry 
county, Illinois, and his early education ac- 
quired in the district schools, was supple- 
mented by a course in the college at Maren- 
go, that state. On leaving home at the 
age of twenty-one, he began life for him- 



972 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



self by working at farm labor by the month 
during the summer and teaching school in 
the winter in Livingston county, Illinois. 
He manifested his love of country by enlist- 
ing September i8, 1871, in Company G, 
Eighth Illinois Cavalry, which was organ- 
ized at St. Charles, Illinois, and first sent to 
Washington, District of Columbia. Cross- 
ing the Potomac they went into winter quar- 
ters near Alexandria, and after the engage- 
ment at Williamsburg, Virginia, and the 
seven days battle, Mr. Stull was detailed to 
help nurse his brother, thr Doctor, who had 
typhoid fever. On re-joining his regiment 
he took part in the battles of South Moun- 
tain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, under Gen- 
eral Burnsides; Chancellorsville, under Gen- 
eral Joe Hooker, and as a member of the 
Army of the Potomac was under the com- 
mand of McClellan, Burnsides, Hooker, Meade 
and Grant, respectively. His term of enlist- 
ment having expired, he was mustered out 
at Chicago in the fall of 1864. During a 
cavalry charge at Upperville, Virginia, a 
ball had passed through his right ear, and 
the next morning after the battle of South 
Mountain, while in a hand-to-hand engage- 
ment, he received a slight sabre wound in 
the left shoulder, but fortunately he was 
never taken prisoner, though when on his 
way with his brother to the hospital at Sav- 
age Station, Virginia, he came very nearly 
being captured. 

On his return home, Mr. Stull worked 
on his father's farm two years, the follow- 
ing two years were passed in Livingston 
county, Illinois, and for the same length of 
time he lived at Forest, that state. On 
the 1st of March, 1865, he married Miss 
Martha Maria Huntoon, who was born in 
Tazewell county, Illinois, June 19, 1840, a 
daughter of Alonzo and Marcia Evelyn 
(French) Huntoon, natives of Vermont. 
They were married in Vermont, emigrated 
to Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1837, and in 
187S removed to Crawford county, Kansas, 



where the father died in 1887, but the 
mother is still living. Their children were 
Mrs. Minerva Arnold, a resident of Girard, 
Kansas; Mrs. Martha M. Stull; Mrs. 
Jeanette Munroe; Dr. Alonzo F. , of Duluth, 
Minnesota; and Mary, deceased. 

Coming to Polk county, Nebraska, in 
1870, Mr. Stull secured a homestead and 
broke twenty acres of land, after which he 
returned to Illinois for his family, who 
arrived in 1871 and some time lived in a 
little shanty 16x22 feet, and one story in 
height. At first their nearest neighbor 
lived two miles east of them. On coming 
to this state Mr. Stull had to borrow money 
of his father, giving his note at ten per 
cent interest. To the cultivation and im- 
provement of his land he devoted his ener- 
gies untiringly, setting out a grove of sixty 
trees, planting a thirty acre orchard, and 
making many other improvements, includ- 
ing the erection of a commodious residence 
in 1886. He has met with excellent suc- 
cess financially and is now the owner of 
twelve hundred acres of valuable land 
mostly improved. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Stull have been born 
five children: Charles Clifford, born in Feb- 
ruary, 1866, completed his education at 
Doane college, Crete, Nebraska, and mar- 
ried Jennie Snodgrass, by whom he had two 
children — Marcia Evelyn and Helen Mar- 
garet; Bertha Bianca and Arthur Alonzo 
graduated from the same institution, the for- 
mer in 1893, the latter in 1895; Dell Der- 
onda is a member of the junior class in the 
high school at Lincoln; and the youngest of 
the family died in infancy. Bertha B. and 
Arthur A. are now students in the law de- 
partment of the State University of Nebras- 
ka. Mr. Stull is a prominent and honored 
member of J. F. Reynolds Post, G. A. R. , 
of Osceola, and both he and his wife belong 
to the Ladies of G. A. R. , Circle Custer, 
No. 26, of Lincoln. She was an honored 
department president in 1897, has also been 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



973 



president of the local circle, and is a promi- 
nent member of the Woman's Club, of Lin- 
coln. They removed to that city in 1897, 
and have already become the center of a 
cultured society circle there. Politically 
Mr. Stull has always been an ardent sup- 
porter of the Republican party, was an in- 
fluental member of the Polk county board 
of commissioners from 1884 to 1887, was 
once the candidate of his party for the state 
legislature, but was unable to overcome the 
large Populist majority. His ambition has 
been to acquit himself of life's duties honor- 
ably before all men, to improve his capabili- 
ties and opportunities and to become of use 
in the world; and it is this spirit mainly that 
has been the means of securing his success in 
life. 



JOHN PIPER, a prosperous farmer of 
Arborville township, is one of the early 
settlers of York county, Nebraska. He was 
born in Yorkshire, England, February 26, 

1833- 

His parents, John and Elizabeth Piper, 
were natives of England. The father was 
a farmer, and died in England at the age of 
eighty-eight years. He had a family of five 
sons and four daughters. Two of the sons 
came to America, and have since died. 

John Piper was reared and educated in 
England, where he followed farming until 
he was twenty-three years old. He then, 
in 1856, came to America, and located in 
Ivendall county, Illinois. Later he went to 
Grundy county, and then to Livingston 
county in the same state, where he remain- 
ed until the spring of 1882. That year he 
went to Nebraska and purchased a quarter 
section of railroad lands in York county. 
He has since added to his holdings until he 
now owns five hundred and eighty acres, 
which he has converted from a wild, uncul- 
tivated condition to a high state of tillage 
and improvement. He has been a success- 



ful general farmer and stock raiser, and has 
made stock feeding a feature of his business. 
Mr. Piper was married October 26, 
1 8 56, to Susannah Sleezer, whose parents are 
of German extraction, but natives of New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Piper are the parents 
of the following children: Charles W. , now 
deceased; Sarah A.; Henry J.; Wilbur B. ; 
Richard D. ; and Eliza A. In political faith 
Mr. Piper is a Republican. He has never 
sought political honors, though he has been 
called upon to fill some of the local offices. 



WILLIAM F. DOMEIER, a prominent 
and representative farmer of Frank- 
lin township, Fillmore county, residing on 
section 9, was born in Illinois, in 1865, and 
is a son of Anton Domeier, who, at the age 
of sixty-eight years, is now living retired 
with our subject, enjoying a well earned 
rest. He is a native of Germany, and in 
that country received a limited education, 
was confirmed in the Lutheran church, and 
served for three years in the German army. 
In August, 1854, he emigrated to the 
United States and first located in Illinois, 
where he worked as a farm hand for a time. 
There he was united in marriage with Miss 
Louisa Mathias, also a native of Germany, 
whose parents also came to the new world 
and took up their residence in Illinois, 
forty miles northwest of Chicago, where 
they died at a ripe old age. Anton Domeier 
is the only one of his family to cross the 
Atlantic and locate in America. To him 
and his wife were born eight children, 
namely: Anton, Frederick, Henry, Lewis, 
Anna, Ida, Louisa and William. The wife 
and mother was called to her final rest Oc- 
tober 2, 1889, at the age of forty-eight years, 
and was laid to rest in the Lutheran ceme- 
tery of Franklin township. In girlhood she 
united with the Lutheran church, and was 
always a faithful and consistent member of 
the same. The children of the family have 



974 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr 



nearly all adopted Nebraska as their home 
and have been quite successful during their 
residence here. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
was passed in Illinois and Iowa, where he 
attended the common schools, and in 1879 
he came with his parents to Franklin town- 
ship, Fillmore county, Nebraska, where the 
family purchased a half section of wild 
land, to the cultivation and improvement 
of which they at once turned their attention. 
Good buildings of a modern style of archi- 
tecture and conveniently arranged have 
been erected upon the place, and land has 
been placed under a high state of cultiva- 
tion, so that it is now one of the best im- 
proved places of the township. In addition 
to its other charms, there is a beautiful 
grove upon the place. On coming to the 
county the father had in his possession only 
about a thousand dollars, but here he has 
prospered and besides the farm already 
mentioned he owns other valuable land in 
Fillmore county. Our subject now carries 
on the old homestead with most e.xcellent 
success, as he is one of the most skillful 
and thorough agriculturists of the localit}', 
and in connection with general farming he 
is also successfully engaged in stock raising. 

In 1892 was celebrated the marriage of 
William F. Domeier and Emma Heideman, 
who was born in Indiana, in 1866, a daugh- 
ter of William and Mary (Dittmer) Heide- 
man. Her father died in Indiana at the 
age of forty-five years. Her mother was 
first married to Mr. Dittmer, by whom she 
had three children: Henry, Dora and Au- 
gust. By her marriage to William Heideman, 
she became the mother of four children: 
William, Mary, Dena and Emma, the last 
named and youngest being the wife of our 
subject. Mrs. Heideman died in Indiana in 
1892. To Mr. and Mrs. Domeier have 
been born four children, namely: Bertha, 
William and Josie, who are still living; and 
Amanda, who died December 14, 1898, at 



the age of fourteen months and was interred 
in the Lutheran cemetery, Franklin town- 
ship. Our subject and his wife are indus- 
trious, enterprising and highly respected 
citizens of their community, and hold mem- 
bership in the Lutheran church. Politically 
Mr. Domeier is identified with the Demo- 
cratic party, and in all the relations of life 
he has been found true and faithful to every 
trust reposed in him. 



ALBERT WRIGHT RISING is one of 
the earliest settlers of Butler county, 
Nebraska, the date of his settlement being 
April 29, 1 87 1. He located on a farm 
which is the present town site of the city 
which now bears his name. There are few 
more enterprising and progressive men in 
Butler county, and his name is closely iden- 
tified with the history of its growth and 
development. 

Our subject was born in Hillsdale coun- 
ty, Michigan, October 24, 1844, a son of 
Samuel W. Rising, a sketch of whom ap- 
pears on another page of this work. He 
was reared on a farm in his native county 
and was there married, in 1867, to Miss 
Nellie Wright, daughter of Jay Wright. 
Mrs. Rising is a native of Pennsylvania and 
moved from there with her parents to 
Branch count}', Michigan. She was a suc- 
cessful teacher and was thus engaged when 
she met Mr. Rising, and they were married 
in Sturgess, Michigan, May 11, 1867. Two 
years later they went to Iowa, and engaged 
in farming there for two years. It was 
at this time that he prevailed on his 
father to move west, join him to Iowa, and 
the two then drove together across the 
prairie to Butler county, Nebraska. Here 
they homesteaded and purchased a large 
farm and became the first settlers in Read- 
ing township. 

Mr. Rising is public-spirited, broad- 
minded, and has been the leader in the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



975 



work of bringing about the present state of 
growth and prosperity to which Reading 
township has attained. When the Union 
Pacific railroad was first proposed he imme- 
diately interested himself in the matter and 
his intiuence was largely instrumental in 
securing its present location. Upon the 
establishment of the town of Rising City, 
he donated to the new town site, each al- 
ternate lot in forty acres and in many ways 
promoted its best interests, and when the 
time came to name the new village in Read- 
ing township the honor was given to him 
who had been so untiring in his devotion to 
its interest. Rising City has always been 
noted for the purity of its social atmosphere, 
and it is due to the influence exerted by our 
subject and men of the same caliber that no 
saloons have found permanent lodgment in 
the village. During Cleveland's second ad- 
ministration our subject was appointed post- 
master at the village of Rising City, and 
although he operates a large farm also, he 
has added to these interests an agricultural 
implement business which he has conducted 
for several 3-ears. He is also a charter 
member of the Methodist church and as- 
sisted largely in erecting a fine church build- 
ing. Mr. and Mrs. Rising are the parents 
of one son, Uorr Rising, a bright boy of 
seventeen years. 



JOHN BRADY HERRINGTON, a farm- 
er of Butler county, Nebraska, was the 
fortunate owner of a fine tract of farming 
and grazing land, upon which he erected a 
commodious home for himself and his com- 
panion, and this home is conceded the center 
of true and generous hospitality. Mr. Her- 
rington settled on section lo, Reading town- 
ship, on the 7th of May, 1871. He was 
born in Saint Joseph county, Michigan, 
February 16, 1837, a son of Lester and 
Rosa (Brady) Herrington, the former a 
native of Ontario county, New York, and 



the latter a native of Ireland. The father 
moved from New York to Saint Joseph 
county, Michigan, in 1835, and located on 
a farm near Colon. He was a son of 
Thomas Herrington, who was also a native 
of New York state, and was a soldier in the 
war of 181 2, under General Hull. 

Our subject spent his boyhood in Michi- 
gan. September 16, 1861, he enlisted in 
Company G, Second Regiment of Michigan 
Cavalry, and served in that capacity until 
May, 1863, when he was discharged on ac- 
count of disability. After recovering his 
health he re-enlisted, August 7, 1864, and 
served until the close of the war. He par- 
ticipated in many of the hard fought bat- 
tles, but throughout the war did not re- 
ceive a wound. After the close of hostili- 
ties he returned to his home in Michigan 
and devoted his time to farming there 
until the year 1871. He then, in company 
with A. F. Terpening, went to Butler coun- 
ty, Nebraska, where he homesteaded the 
northwest quarter of section 10, township 
14, range i, and still owns a part of this 
quarter section and lives in Rising City vil- 
lage. 

In 1884 Mr. Herrington met at the altar 
of Hymen, Miss Elizabath Barker, who was 
also an early settler and a homesteader in 
Butler county. She was born at Acton, 
Middlesex county, Massachusetts, a daugh- 
ter of Ebenezer Barker, of that town. Her 
grandfather, also Ebenezer Barker, was of 
English parentage. The family located in 
Massachusetts in colonial days. Mrs. Her- 
rington had four brothers in the civil war. 
Three died in the army, one coming the 
same spring to Nebraska and homesteading 
together, but he has since died. After leav- 
ing her home in Massachusetts, she hrst 
went to Hancock county, Illinois, hoping to 
improve her health, and in the spring of 
1 87 1 she moved from there to Butler coun- 
t}-, Nebraska, and, like her husband, be- 
came one of the pioneers of that county. 



976 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



They have a pleasant and comfortable home 
and are valued and respected citizens in the 
community in which they reside. 



ERNST RIPPE. — Among the pioneer 
settlers of Fillmore county no one is 
more worthy of representation in a work of 
this character than the gentleman whose 
name introduces this sketch. He came to 
the county in 1873, and from the unculti- 
vated soil opened up a good farm, and is 
to-day in the enjoyment of a comfortable 
competence. His worthy ambition of build- 
ing up a creditable homestead resulted in 
the thorough cultivation of the soil, the 
erection of substantial buildings, and the 
gathering together of those little conven- 
iences and comforts upon which the happi- 
ness of a household in so great a measure 
depends. As a man and citizen he has 
been honest and upright, and enjoys in a 
marked degree the esteem and confidence 
of his neighbors. His home is on section 
35, Belle Prairie precinct. 

Mr. Rippe was born in Germany De- 
cember 17, 1847, a son of George and Car- 
oline (Pipenbrink) Rippe, also natives of 
that country. The father came to America 
in 1851, and in 1855, when a lad of eight 
years, our subject crossed the Atlantic in 
company with his mother. After a short 
time spent in New York City, the family 
proceeded to Chicago and located on a farm 
in Will county, Illinois, where the father 
had previously purchased two hundred and 
forty acres at seven dollars per acre, it be- 
ing at that time railroad land and entirely 
unimproved. He finally sold the place for 
eighty dollars per acre and came to Belle 
Prairie precinct, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he purchasod a half section for two 
thousand dollars, which he later divided 
and sold to his sons, one quarter for two 
thousand dollars, the other for one thousand 
two hundred dollars. During the last 



few years of his life he lived practically re- 
tired in Ohiowa, but operated a forty-acre 
tract adjoining that village which he pur- 
chased for one thousand si.x hundred 
dollars. George Rippe died March 13, 
1899. He was remarkably successful in 
life and became worth about twenty thou- 
sand dollars, most of which he acquired 
after coming to this state. His wife, who 
was a devoted Christian woman, died March 
7, 1886, at the age of sixty years, and was 
laid to rest in the Ohiowa cemetery. They 
left seven children, namely: Ernest, Henry, 
Lena, Emma, Luie, Mary and Sophia. 

Ernest Rippe was reared to manhood 
in Illinois, and was married at Monee, Will 
county, that state, October i, 1870, to Miss 
Louisa Gewecka, also a native of Germany, 
born July 19, 1852, and a daughter of Fred- 
erick and Sophia (Butterman) Gewecka, 
who emigrated from that country to America 
in 1858, and established a beautiful home 
in Kankakee county, Illinois. Mrs. Gewecka 
died March 13, 1892, and Mr. Gewecka on 
August 13, 1895. Their children are all 
grown and areas follows: Frederick, Henry, 
Chris, August, William, Adolph, Ernst, Ed- 
ward, Charles, Conrad, Sophie, Herman 
and Louisa. Mr. and Mrs. Rippe have eight 
children, namely: Adolph, Minnie, William, 
Anna, Louis, Edward, Louisa and Frieda, 
all at home with the exception of Minnie, 
wife of W'illiam Bauman, who lives on a 
farm in Belle Prairie precinct, Fillmore 
county. 

About two years after his marriage, Mr. 
Rippe came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
and in Belle Prairie precinct secured a home- 
stead of eighty acres, on which he and his 
family began life in true pioneer style in a 
little dugout that was later replaced by a 
sod house and finally by a good frame resi- 
dence. His stock was also sheltered in an- 
other dugout. At that time he had to go to 
either Fairmont, Lincoln or Crete for his 
lumber and groceries, and as early settlers 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



977 



the family had many difficulties with which 
to contend. Although Mr. Rippe landed 
here with only eighty dollars in his possess- 
ion, he is now the owner of a fine farm of 
one hundred and si.xty acres, which he has 
improved in a manner second to none in the 
locality. His amiable and happy wife has 
been of great assistance to him in the ac- 
cumulation of their property and in the 
beautifying of their pleasant home. Both 
have been life-long members of the Lutheran 
church, and they and their family are now 
connected with the church at Bruning. 
Since casting his first presidential ballot for 
U. S. Grant, Mr. Rippe has been an ardent 
Republican in politics. 



DELOS A. HASTINGS, a prominent 
representative of the agricultural inter- 
ests' of Arborville township, York county, 
and an honored veteran of the Civil war, 
was born in Defiance county, Ohio, June 
lo, 1847, and is a worthy representative of 
old Revolutionary stock, his great-grand- 
father having aided the colonies in their suc- 
cessful struggle for independence. His fa- 
ther, Harvey Hastings, was a native of Ver- 
mont, while his mother, who bore the 
maiden name of Sarah Conkey, was a na- 
tive of New York. At an early day they 
became residents of Ohio, and in that state 
they continued to make their home until 
called to the world beyond. 

The subject of this sketch is the fourth 
in order of birth in the family of six sons, 
and during his boyhood and youth attended 
school and aided in the work of the home 
farm. He continued to engage in agricult- 
ural pursuits in Ohio until 1863, when he 
joined the boys in blue, going to the front 
as a member of Company F, One Hundred 
and Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and 
serving until the close of the war. He par- 
ticipated in the Atlanta campaign, and the 
battles of Wilmington, North Carolina, and 



Nashville, Tennessee, but was fortunate)}' 
never wounded. Returning to his home in 
Ohio, he remained in that state until 1S72, 
which year witnessed his arrival in York 
county, Nebraska, where he took up a 
homestead on section 22, Arborville town- 
ship. Upon his place he built a sod house, 
in which he lived for ten years, but now has 
a comfortable and more commodious resi- 
dence, surrounded by good barns and out- 
buildings. Stock raising as well as general 
farming claims his attention, and he has 
met with a fair degree of success in his un- 
dertakings. 

In 1888, Mr. Hastings was united in 
marriage with Miss Laura Fightmaster, a 
native of Illinois, and a daughter of Alex 
and Minerva Fightmaster, who now reside 
in York county, Neb. In his social rela- 
tions, Mr. Hastings is identified with the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and in poli- 
tics affiliates with the People's party. He 
has filled the office of road overseer, but has 
never sought political preferment. Land- 
ing in York county with only five dollars in 
money and a team of horses, the success 
that he has achieved is due entirely to his 
own efforts, and his career has been such as 
to command the respect and admiration 
of all. 

TESSE R. JOHNSON, whose home is on 
<J section 25, precinct N, was one of the 
first to locate in Seward county, having 
taken up his residence here in 1S64 on the 
banks of the West Blue river. He has 
therefore witnessed almost the entire devel- 
opment of this region and has been no un- 
important factor in its upbuilding and pros- 
perity. He was born in Ross county, Ohio, 
in 1822, and is a son of James and Ellen 
(Compton) Johnson, who were married in 
New Jersey and from that state went to 
Kentucky with Daniel Boone in pioneer 
days. Later they removed to Ohio, being 
also numbered among its earliest settlers. 



■978 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



The first twenty-six years of his life 
Jesse R. Johnson passed in his native state, 
but in 1848 he emigrated to La Salle county, 
Illinois, and settled near Magnolia, where 
he was married, November 26, 1848, to 
Miss Rachel L. Chamberlain. She was 
born in Essex county. New York, in Sep- 
tember, 1829, and was ten years old when 
taken to Illinois by her parents, John and 
Betsy (Lobdell) Chamberlain, natives of 
Rhode Island. The children born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Johnson are as follows: (i) Israel 
M. K. married Frances Oliver and has one 
son, Jesse A. (2) William P. wedded Mary 
McCracken and has two children, Lula and 
Earl. (3) Clara B. is now the wife of A. 
C. Smith, of Seward county. 

For sixteen years after his marriage, 
Mr. Johnson continued to engage in farm- 
ing in Illinois, but the year 1864 wit- 
nessed his arrival in Seward county, Ne- 
braska, and to-day is numbered among its 
honored pioneers and most highly esteemed 
citizens. He was the second justice of the 
peace elected in the county and for over a 
third of a century has been prominently 
identified with its public affairs. 



JOHN W. ARCHERD, M. D., a promi- 
nent physician and surgeon, practicing 
his profession in Grafton, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, is a graduate of the Omaha Med- 
ical College, and in his practice, by his de- 
votion to his work and the careful study 
and diagnosis of the various cases that have 
come under his observation, he has been 
unusually successful and has gained quite a 
reputation as a skilled practitioner. 

Dr. Archerd was born in Clairmont 
county, Ohio, September 21, 1857, a son of 
Leonidas H. and Maria (Willis) Archerd, 
also natives of Ohio. The paternal grand- 
father, John Archerd, was born in England, 
July 4, 1776, and came to the United States 
about 1797 or 1798. He first located in 



Kentucky, but later removed to Ohio, where 
his death occurred. He was a farmer by 
occupation, as was also the father of our 
subject, who was a life-long resident of the 
Buckeye state. During the Civil war the 
latter enlisted, in 1862, in the Seventh Ohio 
Cavalry, and was killed in the first skirmish 
near Knoxville, Tennessee, while the regi- 
ment was on its way south. He filled the 
position of regimental bugler. He left three 
children, our subject and two daughters. 
The wife and mother is still living, and now 
makes her home in Illinois. 

Dr. Archard is indebted to the district 
schools of Ohio for his educational advant- 
ages, and on laying aside his text books he 
was married June 10, 1880, to Ada Shaw, a 
native of Ohio, who died December 11, 
1 88 1. He took up the occupation of farm- 
ing, which he followed in his native state 
until 1882, when he came west to Polk 
county, Nebraska. There he obtained a 
position in a drugstore, and while thus em- 
ployed he commenced reading medicine. 
In 1883, he entered the medical college of 
Ohio, at Cincinnati, where he spent one 
year, and the following year was engaged in 
practice in Osceola, Nebraska. In 1885, he 
went to Chadron, this state, where in 
partnership with Dr. G. P. Waller, he fol- 
lowed his profession through that year and 
the year following. Subsequently he en- 
gaged in stock raising in Nebraska for two 
years, and in 1889 resumed practice at 
Litchfield, this state. In 1890, he entered 
the Omaha Medical College, and after his 
graduation the following year, he returned 
to Litchfield, where he remained until com- 
ing to Grafton, in January, 1894. Here he 
has succeeded in building up a large and 
lucrative practice and to-day ranks among 
the ablest physicians of this region. He is 
an honored member of the Fillmore and 
York county medical societies. 

On the 28th of January, 1889, Dr. 
Archard was united in marriage with Miss 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



979 



Louise Pierc}', a native of Nebraska, and to 
them have been born three children: Marie, 
May and Leonidas H. The Doctor and his 
wife both belong to the Congregational 
church, and he is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America and the Loyal Mystic 
Legion of America. Politically he affiliates 
with the Republican party, and he is now 
most efficiently serving as a member of the 
town board of Grafton. 



THOMAS M. DICE, a prominent farmer 
whose home is on section i6, precinct 
L, Seward county, has achieved prosperity 
by his own unaided exertions, and is, in 
fact, a self-made man, starting out in life 
with none of those attributes usually con- 
sidered essential to success. With a de- 
termination to succeed, success was his al- 
most from the start and to-day he is enjoy- 
ing a handsome competence. 

A native of Virginia, Mr. Dice was born 
in Rockingham county, July 26, 1844, and 
is a son of Col. John A. and Ellen (Fulton) 
Dice. The father espoused the cause of 
the Confederacy during the Civil war, and 
was commissioned colonel of a Virginia regi- 
ment and was on duty in that state until his 
death, which occurred in 1862. He had 
four sons who were also in the Confederate 
service and are still living. 

Upon a farm in the Old Dominion, our 
subject grew to manhood and in the schools 
of that state he acquired his education. In 
April, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, 
Tenth Virginia Confederate Volunteers, and 
after joining his regiment at Orange Court 
House, Virginia, he took part in the follow- 
ing engagements: Chancellorsville, the first 
and second battles of Fredericksburg, the 
first and second battles of Winchester, Vir- 
ginia, Spottsylvania, Culpeper, the second 
battle of Bull Run, Mine Run, Rappahan- 
nock, Brandy Station, Harper's Ferry and 
Bealton Station. During the battle of the 



Wilderness he was in a hand to hand fight 
and was wounded in the head by a bayonet. 
He was captured May 12, 1864, and first 
sent to Point Lookout, Maryland, but three 
months later was transferred to Elmira, New 
York, where he was confined until paroled 
June 17, 1865, reaching home on the 5th 
of July, of that year. 

Mr. Dice continued to reside in Virginia 
until 1868, when he removed to Jackson 
county, Iowa, where he worked as a farm 
hand until November 8, 1882. It was on 
that date that he became a resident of Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska, where he has since 
made his home. When he located upon it, 
his farm was all raw prairie land, upon 
which he erected a small frame house that 
was unplastered until the fall of 1883, it 
being 16x24 feet. In 1887 it was com- 
pleted and in 1896 was enlarged and im- 
proved, making a comfortable and com- 
modious home. In 1883 he raised some sod 
corn and also broke sixty acres, and the fol- 
lowing year raised a good crop, since which 
time he has prospered in his new home, hav- 
ing to-day a fine farm of two hundred acres 
under a high state of cultivation and well 
improved with good and substantial build- 
ings, which stand as monuments to his 
thrift and industry. He gives his entire 
time and attention to general farming, rais- 
ing both stock and grain. 

On the 14th of July, 1869, Mr. Dice was 
united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Berry, 
who was born in Rockingham county, Vir- 
ginia, May 23, 1846, a daughter of Benja- 
min F. and Nancy (Blain) Berry, also na- 
tives of that state and farming people. The 
father, who for a short time served in the 
Virginia militia, died in Texas, in 1879, and 
the mother passed away in Virginia, in 1874. 
Mr. and Mrs. Dice have no children of their 
own but have reared three, two boys and 
one girl, namely: William T. White, who 
married Ella Piersall, now deceased, and 
had three children, Jessie, Dean and Ruth; 



980 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Charles Franklin White, who married Ella 
Kesler and has three sons, Henry Dice, 
William Hayden and Lloyd M.; and Mary 
Catharine Black. Mrs. Dice is a consistent 
member of the Methodist Protestant church 
and a most estimable lady. Socially, Mr. 
Dice belongs to the camp of Modern Wood- 
men of America at Utica, Nebraska, and po- 
litically is identified with the Democratic 
party. He has been road supervisor and 
moderator of school district No. 72, for six 
years, and his duties have always been per- 
formed with the utmost promptness and fidel- 
ity. 



FREDERICK BITTINGER is a well- 
known agriculturist residing on section 
8, Morton township, York county. His 
homestead is one of the most noticeable in 
the locality for the air of thrift and comfort 
which surrounds it and the evidence of en- 
terprise, taste and skill. The quarter sec- 
tion of land comprising the farm has been 
brought to a fine state of cultivation, and 
the comfortable and commodious dwelling, 
flanked by barns and outbuildings, makes a 
most attractive pitcure in the landscape of 
that region. 

Mr. Bittinger was born in Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1848, 
a son of John and Rebecca (Kahl) Bittinger, 
also natives of that state, where the grand- 
father, Jacob Bittinger, spent his entire 
life. The father, who was a farmer by 
occupation, removed, with his family, to 
Ohio, in 1852, but after residing in that 
state for two years he emigrated to Clinton 
county, Iowa, where he made his home un- 
til coming to York county, Nebraska, in 
1872. He was then identified with the 
agricultural interest of this region until his 
death, which occurred in i8g6. 

The subject of this sketch is second in 
order of birth in a family of nine children, 
seven sons and two daughters. He received 



a fair common-school education during the 
residence of the family in Iowa, and at an 
early age began to assist his father in the 
labors of the farm, soon acquiring a 
thorough knowledge of all duties which fall 
to the lot of the agriculturist. The occupa- 
tion to which he was reared he has made 
his life work, and on coming to York county 
in 1872 secured a homestead on section 8, 
Morton township, to the developement and 
cultivation of which he has since devoted 
his energies with good results. His first 
home here was a small shanty, which has 
long since been replaced by a comfortable 
frame residence. 

In 1869 Mr. Bittinger married Miss 
Flora Tong, a native of Ohio, and a daugh- 
ter of Jackson and Rebecca (Poorman) 
Tong, who spent their last years in Iowa. 
Our subject and his wife have five children; 
Nellie S., Jay G., Ada M., Fannie A. and 
Arthur G. Socially, Mr. Bittinger affiliates 
with the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men, the Modern Woodmen of America, 
and Nebraska Mutual. In politics he is a 
Populist, and he has served as road over- 
seer and is now serving his fifth term as 
assessor of Morton township, and was re- 
cently nominated for another term. 



SIMEON SAWYER, an honored pioneer 
of Fillmore county, has been prominent- 
ly identified with the agricultutal interests of 
Fairmont township since 1871, and is justly 
regarded as one of its most useful and valua- 
ble citizens, willing to aid every enterprise for 
the public good. He was born in Marshall 
county, Illinois, January 27, 1845, a son of 
Enoch and Elizabeth (Broaddus) Sawyer, 
natives of North Carolina and Virginia, re- 
spectively. The paternal grandfather, Jesse 
Sawyer, was also born in North Corolina, 
and in 1831 removed to Illinois, settling in 
Marshall county. He was one of the "for- 
ty-niners " who went to California during 



COMPEXD/rM OF BIOGRAPJIV. 



98 r 



the gold excitement in that state and died 
while returning to his home. In his native 
state he had engaged in business as a plant- 
er ^nd merchant. Enoch Sawyer, father of 
our subject, was born in 1816, and was one 
of a family of five sons. He grew to man- 
hood in Illinois and there followed farming 
and stock raising as a life work, dying in 
that state in 18S6. His wife passed away 
in 1893. In the family of this worthy cou- 
ple were ten children, eight sons and two 
daughters, of whom two entered the Union 
service during the Rebellion, and one laid 
down his life on the altar of his country. 

Simeon Sawyer passed his boyhood and 
youth in Marshall county, Illinois, and there 
attended both the common and high schools, 
thus acquiring a good practical education, 
which well fitted him for life's responsible 
duties. He began his business career as a 
farmer in his native state, where he con- 
tinued to carry on operations along that 
line for seven years, or until 1874, when he 
became a resident of Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, where in 1871 he had purchased a 
tract of railroad land, three and a half miles 
southeast of Fairmont. This he improved, 
and to its cultivation devoted his energies 
for many \ears. 

In 1874, Mr. Sawyer was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Frances J. Devalon, a 
native of Illinois, and a daughter of Joseph 
E. and Eliza (Satchell) Devalon, the latter 
a native of Ross county, Ohio, the former 
of West Virginia. Her parents removed to 
Illinois in December, 1849, ^^^ '" 1879 
came to Omaha, Nebraska, where they 
spent the remainder of their lives, the 
father dying in 1894, the mother in 1885. 
Seven children have been born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Sawyer, namely: Lucy E., now the 
wife of Leeclair Searles; Fannie E., at home; 
Lyda J., wife of Lewis W. Dumond; Mary 
M., Harlan L. and Russell D., all at home; 
and Jennie G., deceased. 

Politically, Mr. Sawyer was first a Dem- 

56 



ocrat,but is now a Populist, and has assisted 
in the party councils. In 1883 he was 
elected county commissioner of Fillmore 
county, and most acceptably filled that 
office for one term, and during President 
Cleveland's first term was appointed post- 
master of Fairmont, the duties of which 
office he most faithfully and satisfactorily 
performed. Socially, he is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity and the Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen. In his business 
career he has met with a well-deserved suc- 
cess in his adopted state, and as a reliable, 
upright and honorable man, he has gained 
the confidence and high regard of his fellow- 
citizens. 



ABRAHAM TOWNER, familiarly known 
by his many friends as Abe Towner, 
is an honored pioneer, as one of the leading 
and influential citizens of Butler county, 
who has taken an active part in promoting 
its substantial improvement and material 
development. He has the distinction of 
being the first settler of Read township, 
having located there on the 17th of April, 
1866, and he now has a fine farm on the 
northeast quarter of section 14, which he 
has placed under a high state of cultivation 
and improved with good and substantial 
buildings. 

In Polk county, Missouri, Mr. Towner 
was born October 7, 1836, a son of Abra- 
ham and Hester (Bolk) Towner, and grand- 
son of Ezra Towner. The father was a na- 
tive of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and 
in that state was married. At an early day 
he emigrated to Ohio, where he remained 
until 1834, and then removed to Missouri, 
where the birth of our subject occurred. 
When he was eighteen years of age, the 
family came to Cass county, Nebraska, and 
five years later, in company with J. M. 
Palmer, of Butler county, and Moses Pat- 
terson, he started for Pikes Peak, passing 



982 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



through Butler county on the old trail. 
Upon reaching Fort Kearney, they changed 
their minds, however, and continued across 
the plains to the Pacific coast. At Honey 
Lake Valley, the little party separated, 
Messrs. Towner and Patterson going south, 
while Mr. Palmer proceeded north. Our 
subject went to the California mining camps, 
where he engaged in mining with varying 
success until after the outbreak of the Civil 
war. At Stockton, California, he enlisted 
in Company A, Third California Volunteer 
Infantry, serving three years under General 
Sully and General Crooke on the plains, 
fighting Indians. He assisted in building 
Fort Douglas in 1863, and the following 
year he was honorably discharged on the 
^expiration of his term of enlistment. 

After being mustered out, Mr. Towner 
returned home, paying one hundred dollars 
for transportation overland to Nebraska 
City, where he arrived December i, 1864. 
A year later, on the 20th of December, 
1865, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Amanda Williams, who was born in Henry 
•county, Iowa, February 13, 1846, a daugh- 
ter of Benjamin F. Williams, of Cass coun- 
ty, Nebraska. The following spring they 
started for Butler county in a wagon, reach- 
ing their destination April 17, 1866, and 
Mr. Towner located his claim on the north- 
east quarter of section 14, Read township, 
owing to a fine grove of timber, a part of 
which was used to build a cabin. Until it 
could be erected they lived in a tent. The 
nearest neighbor was seven miles away at 
the " Shields place," and for nearly a year 
Mrs. Towner was the only white woman in 
the township. Their home was the first 
house built in the township, and is still 
standing. Three children came to brighten 
the household by their presence — Benjamin 
F. , Addie and Daisy Bell. 

The first crop which Mr. Towner planted 
on his new farm was a failure, and the win- 
ter of 1866-7 was one of privations for the 



early settlers. The next season a fair crop 
was raised and from that time forward pros- 
perity crowned their efforts, though in those 
early days they endured all the hardships 
incident to frontier life. 

Mr. Towner has always taken an active 
interest in public affairs, doing all in his 
power to advance the welfare of his county, 
and was appointed by Governor Butler a 
member of the first election board when the 
county was organized in 1868. The village 
of Ulysses was founded about this time and 
was named by our subject's father. So- 
cially Mr. Towner is an honored member of 
the Masonic fraternity and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. In 1886 he erected 
upon his farm a fine large residence, where 
hospitality now reigns supreme, the many 
friends of the family always being sure of a 
hearty welcome. In politics he is a Demo- 
crat and has served on the school board for 
the past ten years. 



AM. HORNER.— Doubtless the most 
enterprising young men of the older 
states have left the confines of their early 
homes to seek new and wider fields of op- 
eration in the great West. Among these 
was Mr. Horner, now one of the most 
successful and prosperous agriculturists of 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, his home being 
on section 34, Bryant township. Probably 
no one in the community is a better repre- 
sentative of a purely self-made man. He 
owns not a dollar that has not been hon- 
estly acquired by his own industry, energy 
and business tact, and in many respects his 
life is well worthy of emulation. 

Mr. Horner was born in Somerset coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and is a son of 
Michael and Catherine (Forney) Horner, 
who were born, reared and married in Som- 
erset county. The father died at the early 
age of thirty-five years, leaving a widow 
with five children. Later the mother came 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



983 



to Richardson county, Nebraska, where her 
last days were spent. There she died and 
was laid to rest. Both parents were mem- 
bers of the German Baptist church, and 
were held in high regard by all who knew 
them. The children were Peter, who is 
now living in Illinois; Benjamin, a resident 
of Kansas; Susan, a resident of Nebraska; 
Henry, who was killed during his service in 
the Civil war; and A. M., our subject. 

A. M. Horner was only five years old 
when his father died, and, as his mother 
was in rather limited circumstances, his ed- 
ucational privileges were meagre, though he 
attended the common schools of his native 
state to a limited extent. At the age of 
eighteen he removed to Illinois and was 
there married, in 1869, to Miss Anneta Senft 
Wicks, who was born in Huntingdon county, 
Pennsylvania, in 1852, a daughter of John 
and Elizabeth (Dull) Wicks, also natives of 
Pennsylvania. The father was reared and 
educated in his native state and there learned 
the blacksmith's trade, which he followed 
in Pennsylvania until called from this life 
at the age of forty-five years, when Mrs. 
Horner was eight years old. After her hus- 
band's death, Mrs. Wicks came to Nebraska 
and settled in Richardson county, where 
she passed awa\' at the age of fifty-six. In 
their family were eight children, namely: 
Maggie, Joseph, Ninie, Annetta, Stanley and 
John, who are still living; Elwood, who died 
at the age of seventeen years; and Harriet, 
who died in infancy. 

Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Horner left Illinois and removed to Falls 
City, Nebraska, where he purchased eight}' 
acres of land and engaged in farming for 
six years. On selling that place he came 
to Bryant precinct, Fillmore count}, where 
he bought a homestead right to eighty acres 
of wild and unimproved land, for one hun- 
dred and ten dollars. As his financial re- 
sources have increased, he has extended the 
boundaries of his farm from time to time 



until he now has four hundred acres of val- 
uable land, all in Fillmore county, with the 
exception of eighty acres which are in 
Thayer county. This he has placed under 
a high state of cultivation and improved 
with excellent buildings, including a pleas- 
ant residence. 

Mr. and Mrs. Horner have a family of 
eleven children, as follows: Wiley H., who 
married Flora Swalp; John W. , who mar- 
ried Ona Shipley; Lizzie M., who married 
Edgar Snavely; Emma A., who is now at- 
tending McPherson College, in Kansas, pre- 
paring for foreign missionary work; Katie E. : 
Frank S. ; Wilbert J. ; Charles L. ; Harry S. ; 
Ora B. ; and Edna M. The parents have paid 
special attention to the education of their 
children and to their moral training. The 
family are members of the German Baptist 
church and take great comfort in their re- 
ligious faith. Their lives have ever been in 
harmony with their professions and their 
kindness and charity are proverbial. Within 
their hospitable doors the stranger is made 
to feel at home, and their many friends are 
always sure of a hearty welcome. In po- 
litical sentiment, Mr. Horner is a Repub- 
lican, but at local elections votes for the 
man whom he believes best qualified to fill 
the office, regardless of party ties. 



FRANCIS M. AUSTIN, one of the early 
settlers and highly esteemed citizens of 
Seward county, who was a faithful defender 
of the Union during the Civil war, is a na- 
tive of Iowa, born in Jackson county, Octo- 
ber 21, 1846. His parents, Bushnell and 
Ruth (Hadley) Austin, were originally from 
New York and Ohio, respectively, and be- 
came residents of Iowa in 1835, dying there 
in 1887. In their family were three sons. 
The early life of Francis M. Austin was 
passed in his native state, where he followed 
farming until his enlistment, in 1862, in the 
Union army, becoming a member of Com- 



984 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



pany I, Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. 
He remained in the service until January, 
1866, taking part in the battles of Jackson, 
Mississippi, Vicksburg, Nashville, Tupelo 
and many smaller engagements, including 
those of Mobile and Spanish Fort, where 
he was slightly wounded. Returning to his 
Iowa home after receiving an honorable dis- 
charge, he remained there until 186S, when 
he went to Omaha, Nebraska, and accepted 
a position as Indian guard with the Union 
Pacific Railroad, which was then being con- 
structed through the west. In 1869 he first 
came to Seward county, and in 1873 bought 
land here, but did not locate upon his place 
until 1 88 1, since which time he has devoted 
his time and attention to its cultivation and 
improvement with marked success, trans- 
forming it into one of the best and most 
highly cultivated tracts in his township. 

In 1874 Mr. Austin was united in marriage 
with Miss Lucasy Jackson, a native of Ne- 
braska, and to them were born two children, 
Bertha M. and Martha J. The wife and 
mother departed this life in 1884, and in 
1889, Mr. Austin was again married, his 
second union being with Miss Ella Bell, of 
Jackson county, Iowa, by whom he has four 
children: Milton M., Baxter B., Charles 
M. and Bessie B., who are all living. So- 
cially he is an honored member of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity and the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and, politically, is identi- 
fied with the Republican party. Wherever 
known he is held in high regard, and he 
has a host of friends throughout Seward 
county. 



HENRY E. OATES is a well-known and 
prominent agriculturist of Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, whose home is on section 
28, West Blue township. Though born on 
the other side of the Atlantic, he is thor- 
oughly American in thought and feeling, and 
that he is patriotic and sincere in his love 



for the stars and stripes was manifested by 
his three years of service on southern battle 
fields during the Civil war. 

Mr. Oates was born March i, 1839, on 
the Isle of Man, off the coast of England, 
and is a son of Thomas and Catherine 
(Karmode) Oates, also natives of that isl- 
and, where they spent their entire lives as 
farming people. The father died in 1867, 
aged eighty-nine years, the mother in 1892, 
aged ninety-three years, honored and re- 
spected by all who knew them. In their 
family were twelve children. In his native 
land our subject was reared and educated. 
In the spring of 1855 he sailed for America 
and first located in Chicago, Illinois, where 
he learned the carpenter trade, continuing 
to follow that occupation there until i860. 
Going to Colorado in that year, he engaged 
in mining near Central City until the fall of 
1862, when he offered his services to his 
adopted country to assist in putting down 
the rebellion, enlisting in Company I, Sec- 
ond Colorado Volunteer Infantry, which was 
assigned to the Army of the Southwest. He 
saw much hard service in Missouri, Arkan- 
sas and Indian Territory, and at the close of 
the war in 1865, he was honorably dis- 
charged. In 1863 the regiment had been 
mounted. 

After his discharge, Mr. Oates returned 
to Chicago, where he spent two years, and 
then went to Marshall county, Illinois, where 
he followed farming until coming to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, in 1883, since which 
time he has successfully engaged in agricult- 
ural pursuits on section 28, West Blue 
township, and has improved a fine farm. 

In 1872 Mr. Oates led to the marriage 
altar Miss Mary Berma.ster, a native of 
Stark county, Illinois, and to them have 
been born six children, namely: Henry, 
William J., Thomas A., Robert, Oscar and 
Harriet J., all still living. Fraternally Mr. 
Oates is an honored member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, and politically is a 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



985 



stanch supporter of the Repubhcan party 
and its principles, but has never sought nor 
desired official honors. The success that 
he has achieved in life is due entirely to his 
own efforts, as he has been the architect 
and builder of his own fortunes, and he has 
builded wisely and well. He has also gained 
the confidence and esteem of all with whom 
he come in contact either in business or so- 
cial life. 



ALFRED F. TURPENING, a well 
known and highly respected citizen 
of David City, first came to Butler county, 
in the spring of 1871, at which time he 
located on section 10, township 14, range i 
east, Reading township. He was born June 
3, 1863, on the Lundy's Lane battle-ground, 
at Niagara Falls, Canada, within hearing of 
that mighty cataract. His father, Peter F. 
Turpening, was a native of Saratoga 
county. New York, and by occupation was 
a harness maker in early life and later a 
farmer. Going to Ontario, Canada, he 
there married Miss Elizabeth Durham, a 
native of that province and a daughter of 
Edward Durham, who was born in Ireland 
and on crossing the Atlantic took up his 
residence in Ontario, Canada. 

The subject of this sketch was the old- 
est child of the family and until ten years 
of age he made his home in Canada, ac- 
quiring his early education in its public 
schools. He was then taken by his parents 
to their new home in Reading township, 
Hillsdale county, Michigan, where he grew 
to manhood. Feeling that his adopted 
country needed his services during the 
the Civil war, he enlisted in Company F, 
Eleventh Michigan Cavalry, and with the 
Army of the Cumberland was first in battle 
in Kentucky, John Morgan having command 
of the rebel forces. Subsequently Mr. 
Turpening was with Stoneman's Independent 
Cavalry Corps, and when the war was over 



and his services were no longer needed, he 
was honorably discharged and mustered 
out at Knoxville, Tennessee, in June, 1865. 

Returning to Michigan he there engaged 
in farming for some time, and in Hillsdale 
county was married, in 1866, to Miss Mary 
Rising, of that county, who died in Butler 
county, Nebraska, in 1874, leaving one son, 
George, born in Michigan and now living in 
Reading, that state. For his second wife, 
Mr. Turpening married Miss Sarah Rey- 
nolds, formerly of Michigan, and one daugh- 
ter graces this union — Edna. 

Coming to Butler county in the spring 
of 1 87 1, Mr. Turpening located on a farm 
and continued to engage in agricultural pur- 
suits until 1882, when he removed to Rising 
City, which had been laid out on a part of 
his homestead and was becoming a flourish- 
ing village. On selling his farm he built 
a residence in that place, but in 1883 he 
went to Grand Island, Nebraska, and en- 
gaged in the lumber business with the Good- 
man, Bogue & Sherwood Lumber Company 
for three years. At the end of that time 
he took up his residence in David City, be- 
ing appointed deputy county clerk under his 
brother-in-law, D. C. Reynolds. While not 
endorsing fully the acts of the present ad- 
ministration, he is still a Republican in poli- 
tics as he always has been; and socially he 
is identified with A. Lincoln Post No. 10, 
G. A. R. , in which he has served as adju- 
tant. For a quarter of a century he has 
been a resident of Butler county, and as a 
public-spirited and progressive citizen, has 
given his support to all measures for the 
public good. Over his life record their falls 
no shadow of wrong. 



DANIEL TOPHAM. — Sound judgment 
combined with good executive ability, 
industry and enterprise have enabled the 
subject of this sketch, a well-known farmer 
of Seward county, to attain a substantial 



986 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



success in life, thougii he came to this coun- 
try without capital and had no influential 
friends to aid him in securing a start. 

Mr. Topham was born in Huntington- 
shire, England, April 22, 1843, and is a son 
of John and Hannah Tophani, who were 
also natives of the same shire, and there 
spent their entire lives. In his native land 
our subject was reared and educated, and 
for some time he there engaged in farming, 
railroading and various other occupations 
by which he might earn a livelihood. He 
came to the United States in 1867, landing 
on the shores of this country on the i ith of 
November of that year, and he proceeded 
at once to Woodford county, Illinois, where 
he made his honie for seven years. The 
year 1875 witnessed his arrival in Seward 
count)', Nebraska, where he purchased a 
tract of one hundred and sixty acres of rail- 
road land, which he commenced to improve 
in connection with the operation of a rented 
farm. The following year he built a small 
house upon his own place, and to its further 
development and cultivation devoted his en- 
tire time. Acre after acre was soon placed 
under the plow and he now has one of the 
best farms of the locality. The Indians had 
not left this region at the time of his arrival 
and he often saw them. 

In 1869 Mr. Topham was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Sarah A. Boud, also a na- 
tive of England, who was born in the same 
shire as her husband and came to this coun- 
try the year of her marriage. To them 
have been born twelve children, but only 
three are now living: Daniel, Frank J. and 
Emma E. The parents both hold member- 
ship in the Christian church, are widely and 
favorably known and have made many 
friends in their adopted county. In his po- 
litical affiliations Mr. Topham is a Repub- 
lican, but has never aspired to official honors, 
preferring to give his undivided attention to 
his business interests, in which he has met 
with good success. 



DR. O. P. BAKER.— In past ages the 
history of a country was the record 
of wars and conquests; to-day it is the rec- 
ord of commercial activity, and those whose 
names are foremost in its annals are the 
leaders in business circles. The conquests 
now made are those of mind over matter, 
not of man over man, and the victor is he 
who can successfully establish, control and 
operate extensive commercial interests. 
Dr. Baker is unquestionably one of the 
strongest and most influential men whose 
lives have become an essential part in the 
history of Fllmore county. He is not only 
one of the leading dentists of Exeter, but is 
also prominently identified with its business 
interests along various lines, and has prob- 
ably done more toward the building up of 
the county than any other one man. 

The Doctor was born in Windham^ 
Windham county, Vermont, September 13, 
1837, and is a worthy representative of an 
honored old family of the Green Mountain 
state, of which his grandfather, Elijah 
Baker, a farmer by occupation, was also a 
native. In his family were four sons, two 
of whom removed to Illinois, but the others 
spent their entire lives in Vermont. The 
Doctor's parents. Squire and Fanny (Torrey) 
Baker, were life-long residents of that state, 
and upon the old homestead where the 
former was born and reared, he continued 
to reside until called to his final rest in 
1854. He has always followed agricultural 
pursuits. The mother died in 1863. To 
this worthy couple were born three sons, 
two of whom are still engaged in farming in 
Vermont, and one daughter, now living in 
Keene, New Hampshire. 

In early life Dr. Baker attended the 
academies at Chester and East Townsend, 
Vermont, and in 1856 entered Oberlin Col- 
lege, at Oberlin, Ohio, but owing to ill 
health was obliged to give up his studies at 
the end of a year. He taught one term of 
school in his native state and another in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



987 



Ohio, and in 1858 went to Curran, Sanga- 
mon county, Illinois, near Springfield, and 
successfully engaged in teaching in that 
county for eight years. He also taught for 
two years at Loda, Illinois, and from there 
removed toTonica, Illinois, and began prac- 
ticing dentistry there in 1865, from there re- 
moved to Morrison, the same state, in 1870, 
where he opened an office and engaged in 
the practice of his chosen profession, at the 
same time conducting a drug store there for 
ten years. 

Coming to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
in 1873, Dr. Baker purchased a quarter sec- 
tion of land one mile east of Exeter, for 
which he paid eight dollars per acre. In 
the interests of the Burlington & Missouri 
Railroad Company, he brought the first ex- 
cursion from Illinois to this county in 1874, 
and of the two hundred and seventy-five 
persons who came with him quite a number 
purchased land near Exeter. The following 
year he made up an excursion of two hun- 
dred and sixty-five and this time was also 
successful in promoting the interests of the 
state, being the means of bringing many 
thousands here to make their future home. 
Of these two hundred and thirty located 
within a radius of fifteen miles from Exeter. 
In 1880 the Doctor took up his residence 
in that place, where he has engaged in the 
practice of dentistry uninterruptedly with 
the exception of two years. He also owns 
and operates quite a large amount of land 
in this region, and in connection with his 
professional duties he engaged in the jew- 
elry trade for some time when he first came 
to Exeter. The town has since grown quite 
rapidly and is now quite a thriving village. 
In 1884, Dr. Baker assisted in organizing 
the First National Bank, of which he was 
one of the first directors and later presi- 
dent, and in 1886 he was one of the organ- 
izers of the Roller Mill Company, and was 
manager of the same the second year. He 
has also assisted in organizing other com- 



panies and has been most actively and prom- 
inently identified with many of the business 
enterprises of Exeter. 

At Springfield, Illinois, March 28, 1861, 
Dr. Baker was united in marriage with Miss 
Adelia E. Cassidy, a native of New York, 
and a daughter of Henry and Fidelia 
(Dewey) Cassidy, natives of Ireland and 
Vermont, respectively. The Docter and 
his wife are leading members of the Baptist 
church of Exeter, and in social circles oc- 
cupy an enviable position. His political 
support is always given the Republican 
party; he has been an influential member 
of its different conventions; and was once 
its candidate for representative in the Lower 
house of the state legislature. He has 
always taken a deep and commendable in- 
terest in educational affairs, and for nine 
years has most efficiently served as a mem- 
ber of the school board and as a trustee of 
Grand Island College. Socially he is de- 
servedly popular, as he is affable and 
courteous in manner and possesses that es- 
sential c]ualification to success in public life, 
that of making friends readily and strength- 
ening the ties of all friendships as time ad- 
vances. 

AW. PETERSON, a well-to-do and 
highly respected agriculturist living in 
Bryant precinct, Fillmore county, claims 
Sweden as his native land, his birth occur- 
ring there in 1849. His parents were life- 
long residents of that country, where the 
father died at the age of seventy years, the 
mother at the age of seventy-two. Our 
subject has four brothers and three sisters, 
all of whom remained in Sweden with the 
exception of one sister who is now living in 
California. 

In the public schools of his native land 
A. W. Peterson acquired his literary edu- 
cation, and was there confirmed in the 
Swedish Lutheran church. Believing a 
fortune could be more easily secured in the 



988 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



new world, he sailed for America in 1S69, 
and landed on the shores of this continent 
with only a few dollars in his pocket. He 
commenced life here by working on a farm 
in Illinois, and after three years spent in 
that state went to California, where he 
worked in the mines for eight 3'ears. 

Returning to Sweden in 1879, he was 
married to Miss Ida M. Johnson, who was 
born in that country in 1854, was also 
educated in its schools and confirmed in the 
Lutheran church. Her parents were John 
and Mary Johnson, the former of whom 
died at the age of sixty years, but the latter 
is still living in Sweden at the age of sev- 
enty-five years. One brother is now living 
in Bryant precinct, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, but the remainder of the family, one 
brother and three sisters, are still residents 
of Sweden. 

The wedding journey of Mr. and Mrs. 
Peterson was their trip to the United States 
and they at once took up their residence in 
Bryant precinct, Fillmore county, Nebras- 
ka, where our subject purchased one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of raw land for six 
dollars per acre. He immediately erected 
a small frame house and sod stables and 
turned his attention to the improvementand 
cultivation of his land, which he was not 
long in transforming into one of the best 
and most desirable farms of the precinct. 
At first the family had many hardships with 
which to contend; the first summer Mr. 
Peterson lost both of his horses, and later 
his crops were destroyed by the grass- 
hoppers, and drought, but finally success 
came to them and they are now numbered 
among the most substantial and prosperous 
citizens of their community. 

Of the four children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Peterson, two are still living: Fred is 
an accomplished young man of nineteen 
years, who is now preparing for business at 
the Swedish College in Rock Island, Illinois; 
Effie is a lovely little child of four years. 



The family holds membership in the 
Swedish Lutheran church at Stockholm, 
Nebraska, and are true and earnest Chris- 
tian people, who have the confidence and 
high regard of all who know them. Mr. 
Peterson cast his first presidential vote 
for General Grant, and has since been an 
ardent supporter of the men and measures 
of the Republican party. Five years ago 
he returned to Sweden and spent a verj' 
pleasant time in visiting relatives and the 
familiar scenes of his boyhood. He has 
never regretted his emigration to the new 
world, however, for here he has prospered, 
and has secured good a home and comforta- 
ble competence for himself and family. 



DANIEL GRAVES. Honored and re- 
spected by all, there is no man in York 
county who occupies a more enviable posi- 
tion than Mr. Graves in agricultural and 
business circles, not alone on account of the 
brilliant success that he has achieved, but 
also on account of the honorable, straight- 
forward business policy he has ever followed. 
He possesses untiring energy, is quick of 
perception, forms his plans readily and is 
determined in their execution; and his close 
application to his business affairs and his ex- 
cellent management have brought to him the 
high degree of prosperity which is to-day his 
He makes his home in Arborville township, 
where he owns several hundred acres of val- 
uable land. On another page appears a 
view of his present residence. 

Mr. Graves was born in Rutland county, 
Vermont, June 22, 1844, and is a son of 
Daniel and Almira (Rogers) Graves, both 
natives of Vermont and representatives of 
old and prominent families of New England. 
For nine generations the Graves family have 
been residents of the United States, its 
founder being Thomas Graves, a native of 
England, who came to this country about 
1640 and died in 1662. His son, John, was 



> S 
o pj 
S. Q 



•P U 

O S 

g Q 
0) 




COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



991 



killed by the Indians, at Hatfield, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1677, while defending his home. 
The next in direct line was also named John. 
He was born in 1652 and died in 1750. His 
son, John, was born in 1682 and died in 
1 7 16. Nathan, a son of the latter John, 
was born in March, 1716 and died in 1786. 
The next was Daniel Graves, our subject's 
grandfather, who was born either in Massa- 
chusetts or Vermont, September 26, 1769, 
and died October 11, 1833. He was cap- 
tain of a company of militia during the war 
of 1 812; conducted a hotel and tannery for 
some time, and also engaged in the manu- 
facture of potash. Our subject's father was 
a hatter by trade but most of his life fol- 
lowed farming. When a boy about four- 
teen years old, in company with a younger 
brother, he helped to furnish the music dur- 
ing the enlistment and mustering of a regi- 
ment, of which his father was a captain of 
a company. He played the fife, his brother 
the tenor drum. As boys and musicians 
they followed the regiment as far as Crown 
Point, when a battle occurred and they 
were sent to the rear and soon after re- 
turned home against their will, not being 
allowed to enlist on account of their youth- 
ful age. In 1847, the father of our subject 
left the Green Mountain state and removed 
to McHenry county, Illinois, where he en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, 
which occurred July 2, 1869. His wife was 
the daughter of Jedediah Rogers, who was 
also of the ninth generation in America. 
The present representatives of the family 
are of the thirteenth generation and are de- 
scendants of John Rogers, the well-known 
historical character, who was burned at the 
stake. Our subject is the youngest of a 
family of six children, four sons and two 
daughters. The mother departed this life 
in 1 87 1. One of her sons is Bishop Graves, 
of Nebraska, whose official jurisdiction in- 
cludes the west half of this state and the 
northern half of California. 



In Illinois Daniel Graves, of this sketch, 
was reared, and in the common schools of 
that state obtained his education. At an 
early age he began work upon the farm, and 
throughout life has continued to follow ag- 
ricultural pursuits. Although he started 
out for himself at the age of twenty-one 
empty-handed, he soon became the owner 
of a small farm of fifty-six acres in Illinois. 
On selling that place in 1877 he came to 
York county, Nebraska, and purchased four 
hundred acres of railroad land on section 
1 1, Arborville township, and as his financial 
resources increased, he has added to his 
possessions until he now owns one thousand 
and forty acres, which he has transfomred 
from wild prairie into highly cultivated 
fields. His elegant home is one of the best 
in the county; the other buildings are all 
in keeping with the residence, and upon his 
place is fourteen miles of fence. He feeds 
more stock than any other man in the coun- 
ty, having upon his place from two hundred 
and fifty to two hundred and seventy-five 
head of cattle and nearly the same number 
of hogs. 

In 1872 Mr. Graves was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Martha Loomer, a daughter 
of Timothy and Almira Loomer, the for- 
mer a native of Nova Scotia, and the latter 
of Vermont. At an early day her parents 
removed to Illinois. Two of th? children 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Graves are deceased, 
while the living are Almira, Nora M., Dan- 
iel, Jr., Mabel P. and Henry C. The fam- 
ily hold membership in the Episcopal 
church, and in social circles occupy an en- 
viable position. Fraternally Mr. Graves 
belongs to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and politically is identified with 
the Democracy. At one time he was elected 
a member of the board of county commis- 
sioners, and while filling that position was 
a member of the building committee that 
erected the court house, but he never again 



992 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



consented to become a candidate for office, 
preferring to give his entire time and atten- 
tion to his extensive business interests. 



CHARLES A. McCLOUD, senior mem- 
ber of the firm of McCloud & Shreck, 
one of the leading real estate and loan firms 
of York, is an old settler in that locality, 
and has for many years been identified with 
the business interests of that region. He 
has also taken an active interest in all mat- 
ters of a public nature, and has filled vari- 
ous official positions. Mr. McCloud was 
born in Appanoose county, Iowa, May 14, 
1859, a son of William E. and Anna M. 
(Sears) McCloud, natives of West Virginia 
and Ohio. They were married in Iowa, 
and the father was a stock raiser by occu- 
pation. 

Oar subject received his preliminary 
training in the public schools of Iowa, and 
later attended the Wesleyan University at 
Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and then took a full 
course in the Bryant & Stratton Business 
College of Cincinnati. In 1877 the family 
moved to York county, Nebraska, and tor 
two years our subject was engaged in the 
lumber business at Waco. In 18S1 he was 
appointed deputy county treasurer of York 
county, under J. W. Bennett, serving four 
years. In 18S6 he assumed the position of 
assistant cashier of the Citizens State Bank. 
He served as a member of the county board 
from 1889 until 1894, and served as right- 
of-way agent for the Elkhorn railroad dur- 
ing the years 1887-88, his territory being 
from Omaha to Hastings and from Linwood 
to Superior. During this time he also con- 
tinued the real estate business. In 1893 he 
entered into partnership with Mr. Shreck, 
and has since done business under the firm 
name of McCloud & Shreck. From 1893 
until 1896 he was traveling state auditor 
and expert accountant. Politically Mr. Mc- 
Cloud is a Republican, and was a delegate 



to the national convention in 1888. He 
also served on the county central committee 
for seventeen years, and at different times 
has served on the state central committee. 
He is also the vice-president and one of the 
directors, and the largest stock holder of 
the Mutual Building & Loan Association. 

Socially Mr. McCloud is a member of 
the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and also the Masonic fra- 
ternity, holding his membership in the 
commandery and consistory degrees. Mr. 
McCloud has not only been successful in 
his political career, but he has also gained 
an enviable position among the business 
men of York county. Besides his extensive 
general loan and real estate business, in 
which he handles considerable eastern capi- 
tal, he is engaged in buying grain at York, 
Nebraska, and also owns and operates a 
farm of two thousand acres of land. In 
1883 Mr. McCloud was united in marriage 
to Miss Flora S. Bowman, of Mount Pleas- 
ant, Iowa. 



OLIVER PERRY HAGER, one of the 
representative and prominent farmers 
of York county, Nebraska, was born in Fay- 
ette county, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1831, 
a son of Peter and Katie (Romesburg) Ha- 
ger. His paternal grandparents were natives 
of Germany. Reared on the home farm, 
he obtained an excellent knowledge of every 
department of farm work, and remamed 
with his father until he reached the age of 
twenty-four. 

About this time Mr. Hager became ac- 
quainted with Miss Elizabeth A. Show, a 
daughter of William and Juliann (Clement) 
Show, also natives of Pennsylvania, and on 
the 19th of June, 1856, they were married. 
They began housekeeping upon a farm in the 
midst of a forest and before crops could be 
planted the great trees and underbrush had 
to be cleared away, sawed up, rolled into 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



993 



great heaps and burned. The labor of open- 
ing up a farm in the wooded portions of the 
older states is exceedingly laborious, and a 
man is often worn out physically and be- 
comes old and gray before his farm is in a 
good condition for raising the necessaries of 
life. But Mr. Hager and his wife were young 
and full of hope and not easily discouraged 
by the labors which lay before them as both 
had been reared in the arduous duties of 
farm life, and having gone to work with a 
will they soon made their fields to blossom 
with the various products of the soil, after 
building a log house and the usual Pennsyl- 
vania barn. There our subject successfully 
carried on his farming operations for eight 
years or until 1 864. There being great need 
for more troops in the field, he left, as thou- 
sands of others had done, his farm, wife and 
children, to help swell the Union ranks in 
the great war of the Rebellion, enlisting in 
August, 1864, in Company K, Sixth Penn- 
sylvania Heavy Artillery. He remained in 
the service until the war ended by the sur- 
render of Lee at Appomattox, and for seven 
months his regiment guarded the chain 
bridge across the Potomac about seven 
miles from Washington, D. C, at which 
point Fort Ethan Allen was located. He 
remembers being awakened by a great 
clamor of the soldiers on the night of Pres- 
ident Lincolin's assassination, and for a time 
all was confusion until the guards were sta- 
tioned around the sleeping city, but before 
this could be done the murderer had made 
his escape. When the war was over, Mr. 
Hager returned with his regiment to Pitts- 
burg, Pennsylvania, where they were dis- 
charged June 22, 1865. 

He then returned to his home and fam- 
ily in that state, but in November, 1866, 
removed to La Salle county, Illinois, where 
he purchased a farm and engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits for six years. Being some- 
what dissatisfied with the prairies of Illinois, 
he decided to seek a home in the new state 



beyond the Missouri river, and again start- 
ed toward the setting sun, landing in York 
county, Nebraska, in October, 1872. Se- 
curing one hundred and sixty acres of Hayes 
township which had never felt a plow and- 
was entirely destitute of a tree, he unload- 
ed his wagons and immediately commenced 
the erection of a house out of "Nebraska 
brick." This sod dwelling, sixteen by 
thirty feet, with its sod roof and board floor, 
was the home of the family for four years, 
when it was replaced by a more commo- 
dious and substantial frame residence. 

Seven children have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Hager; six are still living and all 
are married with the exception of the young- 
est. In order of birth they are as follows: 
(i) Sadie M. is the wife of W. D. Clark, 
and they have five children: Blanch G., 
now the wife of Thomas Merica, by whom 
she had one son, Glenn; Maud, wife of Dr. 
Gordon, a prominent and successful physi- 
cian of Stockham, Nebraska; Oliver P.; 
Calvin C. ; and Netia F. (2) Calvin C. 
married Mary Pursel and died leaving two 
children: Leila and Mary. (3) William 
P., a farmer of Hayes township, York coun- 
ty, married Hattie Morse and has three liv- 
ing children: John O., Claud C. and Roy, 
while his youngest child, Chauncy B. died 
at the age of thirteen months. (4) Julia S. 
is the wife of Ezra Walters, of Lushton, 
York county, and they have two children: 
Pena Pearl and Denzil B. (5) Albert E., 
a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, graduated 
from a business college of that city August 
9, 1898, and is a successful teacher. He 
married Effie Parsons and has one son, Dar- 
win. (6) Ida M. married Fred Shepherd, 
by whom she has one child, Arlo Guy, and 
they live on the old Hager homestead. (7) 
Katie M. is a graduate of the State Normal 
school at Peru, and since the early age of 
sixteen years has been a very successful and 
popular teacher. 

In 1852 Mr. Hager cast his first presi- 



994 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



dential vote for Winfield Scott, four years 
later supported John C. Fremont, and has 
never failed to cast his ballot for each suc- 
ceeding Republican candidate for the presi- 
dency. He is an honored member of the 
Grand Army Post of York, and his wife be- 
longs to the Woman's Relief Corps. In 
religious faith they are Methodists, and 
have been identified with that church for 
the past thirty-five years, while most of 
their children are also connected with that 
denomination. The parents are spending 
their declining years in retirement in the 
city of York, where they are surrounded by 
a large circle of friends and acquaintances 
who esteem them highly for their sterling 
worth and many excellencies of character. 



JW. OCKEN is one of the capable and 
enterprising young men who has done 
so much to build up Staplehurst, and make 
secure the future of Seward county. He is 
not yet forty years of age, but has de- 
veloped a grasp of the situation in a busi- 
ness way that shows a mind naturally fitted 
to the intricacies of modern commerce. He 
is the proprietor of a boot and shoe store 
in Staplehurst, and by his tact and skill as 
well as by the quality of his goods and the 
honesty of his methods, has won a wide pat- 
ronage from the best people of the county. 

Mr. Ocken is a native of Germany, 
where he was born January iS, 1859, 
and is a son of Lawrence W. and Alena 
(Ernsten) Ocken. They belonged to fam- 
ilies that had been native to the soil of 
Germany for many centuries, and are 
endued with the best spirit of Teutonic 
civilization. The senior Ocken is a painter 
by trade, and emigrated to the United 
States in 1S89, and is now living in this 
county. His wife died in October, 1885. 

J. W. Ocken spent his youth in his na- 
tive land, and was educated in the schools 
of his neighborhood. He learned the shoe- 



maker's trade in the old country, and fol- 
lowed it until 1883. That year he came to 
this country with the laudable ambition of 
improving his condition. He made his way 
directly to Chicago, where he spent one 
year. The following summer he appeared 
for the first time in this county, and opened 
a shoe store in Staplehurst. He has pros- 
pered in his business, and was very soon 
able to put up a business building, and fill 
it with a well-selected stock of footwear. 
On September 9, 1898, Mr. Ocken's store 
was destroyed by fire, causing an entire loss 
of all his stock and household goods. He, 
however, resumed operations again and is 
now doing a good business with an entire 
new stock. He is a popular merchant and 
by his accommodating spirit and honest deal- 
ing has won and holds many friends. 

Mr. Ocken was married in 1891 to Miss 
Wilhelmina Bieberick, whose birthplace 
was in Indiana. She is a lady of genial and 
hospitable characteristics, and is highly re- 
spected throughout the community. They 
have three children: Lenhart, Otto, and 
William. They are all living, and are fine 
bright lads. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ocken be- 
long to the German Lutheran church, and 
are active workers in its behalf. He is a 
Democrat, though in no sense an active 
politician, or office-seeker. He devotes 
himself to his business, and has achieved a 
very considerable success. He reached 
Staplehurst in 1884 without means, and to- 
day owns a fine stock of goods complete in 
every department, and without a dollar of 
encumbrance. It is a creditable record. 



ERASMUS KRUMBACH, a well-known 
farmer residing on the southeast quarter 
of section 4, township 1 3, range i west. Hack- 
berry precinct, Polk county, is one of the 
most prosperous and energetic men of the 
community, who from an humble beginning 
in life has accumulated a handsome property. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



995 



He not only commenced without means, 
but was obliged to battle with the elements 
of a foreign soil and the customs of a strange 
country, as he is a German by birth and 
parentage. He was born December 6, 
1855, m Prussia, where he grew to man- 
hood, securing a good high school education. 
In 1875 he crossed the broad Atlantic, reach- 
ing Polk county, Nebraska, on the 8th of 
March of that year, and for a couple of 
years he made his home with his brother 
John. 

Mr. Krumbach then purchased the 
northeast quarter of section 24, township 13, 
range 2, which at that time was very 
slightly improved, but to the further de- 
velopment and cultivation of his land he at 
once turned his attention, though he con- 
tinued to live with his brother until 1881. 
In September of that year he wedded Miss 
Mary Benda, who was born in Austria, 
December 4, i860, a daughter of Reinhard 
Benda, also a native of Austria, where he 
followed the trade of a weaver until coming 
to America in 1879, when he settled in 
Clear Creek precinct, Polk county, on wild 
land, and has since devoted his energies to 
agricultural pursuits. Mrs. Krumbach is 
the oldest of the family of five children still 
living, the others being Joseph, Theodore, 
Reinhard and Emma. The union of our 
subject and his wife has been blessed with 
two daughters, namely; Anna Elizabeth 
and Mary Helen. 

Mr. and Mrs. Krumbach began their do- 
mestic life upon the farm which he had 
previously purchased, and he soon had two 
hundred acres under a high state of cultiva- 
tion, all fenced, an orchard planted, and a 
good frame residence, barns and other 
buildings erected thereon. In 18S9 he re- 
moved to his present farm, which is also 
improved with substantial buildings, includ- 
ing a pleasant home, which he built with 
the e.xception of the kitchen. Here he 
owns four hundred acres of rich and arable 



land, three hundred and forty of which he 
has placed under a high state of cultivation, 
and is successfully engaged in general farm- 
ing and stock raising, making a specialty of 
Poland-China hogs. In religious faith he is 
a Catholic, holding membership with the 
congregation at Shelby, and in his political 
views is independent, preferring to cast his 
ballot for the man whom he considers best 
qualified to fill the office, regardless of party 
ties. He has served as judge of election 
and a member of the school board of district 
No. 67, being moderator and treasurer of 
the latter. He is a warm friend of the 
cause of education, and has provided his 
children with good school privileges, one 
daughter having attended school at York, 
Nebraska. 



EDWARD A. ARMSTRONG, a popular 
and respected farmer residing in Stan- 
ton precinct, Fillm>ore county, was born in 
Illinois, November 10, 1863. He attended 
the common schools of his district until he 
was fourteen years of age, and that complet- 
ed his education so far as school was con- 
cerned. At thirteen years of age his father 
died, and the responsibility of the family 
cares devolved in a measure on his youthful 
shoulders. In 1881, the widowed mother 
with her children moved to Clay, and took 
a farm there, and after remaining there one 
year, again made a move, and came to 
Stanton precinct, Fillmore county. Here 
they bought a farm of three hundred and 
twenty acres at seven dollars and seven dol- 
lars and a half per acre, paying one-tenth of 
the purchase price in cash, and the balance 
in annual payments. When they first took 
up their abode on the farm they had pur- 
chased, their only buildings were a sod 
house and a sod stable. They lived for 
seven years in this way, when at last they 
were able to afford nice frame buildings. 
Under their careful and industrious manage- 



996 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



ment, they have gotten their farm under a 
high state of cultivation. 

Our subject was the son of Edwin and 
Mrs. Susan (Corey) Armstrong. Edwin 
Armstrong, Sr. , was born in one of the New 
England states, and after his marriage to 
Miss Susan Corey, who was a native of Ver- 
mont, he came west and settled in Illinois, 
where he died in 1S76. The mother came 
west with her son, and lived with him un- 
til her death, which occurred November 14, 
1898. She lived to be sixty-seven years of 
age, and was a devoted Christian mother. 
Her remains were interred in the Geneva 
cemetery. To their marriage were born 
five children: Mrs. Annete Elwell, now 
living in California; Albert E., who married 
Miss Minnie Talkington, and who is living 
in Fillmore county; Mrs. Flora Eugene 
Walker, now living in Denver, Colorado; 
Fannie A. Innman, also living in Colorado; 
and Edwin A. In 1890, at the age of 
twenty-seven, our subject was united in 
marriage to Miss Rhoda Brown, who was 
born in England, March i, 1871, and was 
the daughter of Benjamin and Ann (Land) 
Brown, who were natives of England. 
When she was two years of age, she came 
to America with her parents. On their ar- 
rival in this country, they came at once to 
Lincoln, Nebraska, and after living there 
awhile, the}' came to Fillmore county, and 
purchased eighty acres of land, on which 
lived until 1890, when they bought land in 
York county, and upon which they are now 
residing. They were the parents of five 
children: Mrs. Julia Nahrgany, now living 
in McCool; Walter C, Earnest E. and 
Rhoda, the wife of our subject. To the 
marriage of Mr. Armstrong have been born 
four children: Earl E., who is seven years 
of age; Claud C, five years of age; Hazel 
M., three years of age; and Leone M., nine 
months of age, all of whom are living and 
staying at home. Both he and his wife are 
active Christians, and are greatly interested 



in religious work. Politically he is a strong 
Republican, and is an active worker in any 
measure that will benefit his community, 
and his fidelity to all duties imposed upon 
him has made every one his friend. 



TOHN SHAPLAND, the well-known pro- 
<) prietor of one of the most desirable 
farms of Morton township, York county, 
comes from across the sea, his birth occur- 
ring in Devonshire, England, March 4, 
1832. His parents, John and Mary (How- 
ard) Shapland, natives of the same country, 
emigrated to the United States in 185 1 and 
took up their residence in Genesee county, 
New York. Subsequently they removed to 
Illinois and settled in La Salle county, where 
the mother died, but the father is still liv- 
ing there at the extreme old age of ninety- 
five years, honored and respected by all 
who know him. By occupation he is a 
farmer. 

In the family of ten children, John Shap- 
land is the third in order of birth, and upon 
a farm in his native land he grew to man- 
hood, acquiring an excellent knowledge of 
agricultural pursuits under the able guidance 
of his father. Leaving home in 1849 he 
crossed the Atlantic and first set foot on 
American soil at Quebec, Canada. He 
lived at Batavia and Lockport, New York, 
for two years and then went to Chicago, 
where he entered the employ of the Illinois 
Central railroad, Viforking for that and other 
roads for the following eight years. He 
then removed to La Salle county, Illinois, 
where he engaged in farming until after the 
inauguration of the Civil war. In 1862 he 
manifested his love for his adopted country 
by enlisting in Company D, One Hundred 
and Fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and 
was in the service until the ist of March, 
1865, during which time he participated in 
nearly all the engagements in which his 
regiment took part. At Elk River he was 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



997 



one of ten to storm the stockade, and for 
this gallant service was awarded a medal by 
the government. He was in all the engage- 
ments of the Atlanta campaign, and at the 
battle of Peach Tree Creek was severely 
wounded July 20, 1864, a shot passing 
through his neck and coming out of his 
mouth. He was discharged March i, 1865, 
at Mound City, Illinois, and returned home 
with the rank of corporal. 

In Illinois, Mr. Shapland was married, 
in 1865, to Miss Martha A. Kendall, a native 
of Maine, and a daughter of Thomas and 
Mary Kendall, who were also born in the 
Pine Tree state. Three children bless this 
union: John K., who married Carrie Dickey; 
Mary A., wife of E. O. Jenkins; and Edwin 
S., who married Leota Donaldson. The 
family remained in Illinois until 1884, when 
they came to York county, Nebraska, and 
Mr. Shapland purchased one hundred and 
sixty acres of land in Morton township, 
which he has converted into a fine farm. 
He has since added to his possessions and 
now owns two hundred and twenty acres. 
His political support is always given the 
men and measures of the Prohibition party, 
and religiously he and his family are devoted 
members of the United Brethren church, in 
the work of which they take an active part. 



ISAAC EASTWOOD, a worthy representa- 
tive of one of the prominent and highly 
respected pioneer families of West Blue 
township, Fillmore county, whose home is 
on section 12, was born in Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, December 21, 1855, and is a son of 
Thomas and Fannie (Thorp) Eastwood, 
also natives of Yorkshire. The paternal 
grandfather, • Joseph Eastwood, spent his* 
entire life in England. About 1863, the 
father visited the United States, but did not 
remain long, however, and it was not until 
1 87 1 that he brought his family to the new 
world to make their future home. On land- 



ing in this country they proceeded at once 
to Fillmore county, Nebraska, where the 
father still resides, an honored and highly 
esteemed citizen of his county. Here the 
mother died in 1895. Of the six children 
born to them, four sons and two daughters, 
four died in England, the only survivors be- 
ing our subject and his brother John, both 
residents of Fillmore county. 

Isaac Eastwood was reared and educat- 
ed in his native land and there started to 
learn the machinist's trade, but was forced 
to abandon it on account of failing health. 
In 1 87 1, he accompanied his parents on 
their emigration to America and took up 
his residence in Fillmore county during the 
fall of that year, making his home here con- 
tinuously since. The father homesteaded 
the place where our subject now resides, it 
being the west half of the northwest quarter 
of section 12, West Blue township, which 
at that time was all raw land, and the first 
home of of the family in the new world was 
a sod house, in which they began life in true 
pioneer style. Some years later it was re- 
placed by a good frame residence. After 
living here for about eleven years our sub- 
ject took charge of the home farm, and 
also of an adjoining quarter section, on 
which he lived for some time. He is a 
skillful farmer and has met with most ex- 
cellent success in the operation of his land. 

In 1882, Mr. Eastwood married Miss Inez 
Aldrich, a daughter of P. M. Aldrich, 
whose sketch appears on another page of 
this volume. She died in February, 1884, 
and Mr. Eastwood was again married, 
March 11, 1886, his second union being 
with Miss Nancy F. Chambers, a native of 
Felicity, Ohio. Her parents, John and 
Mary Chambers, were both natives of Ger- 
many, and for some years made their home 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, but are now deceased. 
Mrs. Eastwood is a most estimable lady 
and a consistent member of the Presbyte- 
rian church. 



998 



COMPEXDICM or BIOGRAPIir. 



Our subject gives special attention to 
stock raising, and feeds from three to four 
car loads of cattle annually and two car 
loads of hogs. He is essentialy a self-made 
man, who has accumulated a comfortable 
competence through his own efforts, pa- 
tiently enduring the hardships of a pioneer 
life that he might profit thereby, and the 
result has amply justified the shrewd and 
intelligent foresight of this clear-headed, 
energetic man. Socially he belongs to the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and 
politically is identified with the Republican 
party. He has most acceptably served as 
treasurer of West Blue township for two 
terms. 



FERDINAND ADOLPH OEHME, de- 
ceased. — In the death of the late Fer- 
dinand A. Oehme, Center township, Butler 
county, lost a worthy citizen and excellent 
farmer, as well as one of the early settlers 
of the county. He settled on section 2, of 
this township in September, 1879, and from 
that time until his death, although he had 
formerly been a civil engineer, he devoted 
his time almost e.xclusively to agricultural 
pursuits and left his widow and family an 
excellent, well-improved farm and a cozy 
and commodious home. 

Our subject was born in Chemnitz, 
Saxony, Germany, June 12, 1836. His 
father was a cotton merchant and manufact- 
urer of that city, and Ferdinand, being the 
oldest son, was given the advantage of a 
liberal education, and was well versed in 
engineering and an expert accountant. 
After finishing his education he was placed 
in charge of the manufacturing interests of 
his father and held that position until he 
embarked for America in 1868. He stopped 
for a time in New York but soon went 
west and accepted a position with the Rock 
Island & Peoria Railroad Company as min- 



ing engineer and made his headquarters 
at Moline, Illinois. His wife and family- 
joined him about a year later. After the 
change in the management of the railroad 
our subject resigned his position and accept- 
ed one with the company that was then 
constructing the Rock Island bridge. From 
here he moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, 
where he was engaged in the office of the 
Burlington & Missouri River railroad in 
Nebraska, and, with the exception of one 
j'ear spent in railroad construction in Texas, 
he was engaged in Plattsmouth and in 
Omaha, Nebraska, as an accountant and 
compiling statistics for the Burlington & 
Missouri River railroad in Nebraska until 
1879. Owing to failing health, caused by 
the confinement of his office work, Mr. 
Oehme was then forced to resign his position 
with the railroad and adopt a more active 
line of work. He accordingly moved to 
Butler county and settled on the quarter 
section now occupied by the family, as be- 
fore stated. 

In September, 1862, while in charge of 
his father's business in Chemnitz, Germany, 
our subject was united in marriage to Miss 
Anna Louise Richter, a daughter of Frede- 
rick Richter, a forester. Mr. and Mrs. 
Oehme reared a family of five children, 
three of whom were born in Saxony, one in 
Plattsmouth and one in Omaha, Nebraska, 
and their names in the order of their birth 
are as follows: John D., is living at home; 
Johanna, also at home; Paul is married and 
living at Wichita, Texas; Florence and Per- 
ceval, both living at home. Since the death 
of Mr. Oehme, the farm has been carried on 
by his widow and those of the children that 
are still living at home. Our subject was a 
man of excellent business ability and met 
with success in every line ot work in which 
he engaged, both in his father's factory in 
Germany and the various enterprises in 
which he embarked after migrating to 
America. Although he never aspired a 



COMPEXDnwr of BIOC.RAPJfr. 



oogi 



prominent position in the political world, 
Mr. Oehme was interested in ever3'thing 
that had a tendency to promote the public 
good, and contributed liberally of his time 
and means to all worthy enterprises, and 
represented his precinct in the capacity of 
supervisor, and also held some of the minor 
offices. 



WILLIAM B. FRANCIS is a wide- 
awake, progressive farmer of Seward 
county, Nebraska, who has achieved success 
through his own individual efforts, and is 
now one of its well-to-do as well as high!)' 
esteemed citizens. He was born in 
Oquawka, Henderson count}-, Illinois, No- 
vember 9, 1859, and is a son of James F. 
and Lizzie (Ankrom) Francis, who were 
originally from Loudoun county, Virginia, 
and were pioneers of Illinois. For some 
years the father followed boating on the 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, then engaged 
in the lumber business until 1S71, when his 
entire lumber yard and sawmill were de- 
stroyed by tire, causing a loss of some twenty 
thousand dollars, after which he was en- 
gaged in the dry-goods business until 1880. 
He then went to Colorado and tried mining 
for a year without success and then he came 
to Seward county, Nebraska, and made his 
home here until his death, which occurred 
three years later. In his family were five 
sons, of whom three are now residents of 
Nebraska. The wife and mother departed 
this life on the ist of January, 1890. 

During his boyhood and youth William 
B. Francis pursued his studies in the schools 
of his native state, and when his education 
was completed assisted his father in business 
for some years. He also came to Seward 
county in 1 880 and five years later purchased 
his present farm, comprising a quarter sec- 
tion of rich and fertile land, which he has 
placed under a high state of cultivation and 

improved with good and substantial build- 
57 



ings, so that it is now one of the most de- 
sirable farms of the neighborhood. Al- 
though he came to the state in limited cir- 
cumstances he has steadil\- overcome the 
difficulties and obstacles in his path to suc- 
cess and now has a comfortable competence. 
In 1885 Mr. Francis married Miss Etta 
Ankrom, a native of Hancock county, Illi- 
nois, and a daughter of Jamison Ankrom. 
To them have been born four children, 
namely: Addie M., Minnie A., Cora E. 
and Rhoda G., all living. Although he has 
never aspired to office, Mr. Francis takes a 
deep and commendable interest in public 
affairs, and in his political views is a Popu- 
list. Socially he is an honored member of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
the Modern \\'oodmen of .America. 



REUBEN H. CONANT.— One of the 
most attractive rural homes in Thayer 
township, York county, Nebraska, is that 06 
the gentleman above mentioned. The es- 
tate which he occupies is located on section- 
14, and it is conducted upon modern scien- 
tific principles of agriculture, besides which 
it is adorned with all modern impro\'ements. 
The gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch is a veteran of the late war, and is 
one of the pioneers of Thayer township. 
He is one of the representative farmers of 
York county, and has been a conspicuous 
figure in the extension and development of 
the agricultural interests of the same. He 
was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, Octo- 
ber 15, 1844, and is a son of Richard R. 
and Sallie (McKenziei Conant, who were 
both natives of New York state. 

Richard R. Conant, the father of our 
subject, was a son of John Conant, a shoe- 
maker by occupation. He was a farmer 
and lumber dealer, and followed these oc- 
cupations in Ohio, until 1856, when he lo- 
cated in Warren county, Illinois, where his 
death occurred in 1876. His good wife is 



1000 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



still living near Hopkins, Missouri, being 
nearly one hundred years of age. They 
were the parents of nine children, seven 
sons and two daughters. 

Reuben H. Conant received his educa- 
tion in the schools of Ohio and Illinois. As 
soon as he was old enough he began to work 
on a farm, which occupation he has followed 
ever since, with the exception of twelve 
years, during which time he followed the 
carpenter's trade. He followed the trade 
of a carpenter for three years after he set- 
tled in Nebraska. He took up his residence 
in York county in 1S79, when he purchased 
a farm in Thayer township, on section 14. 
It was railroad land and none of it was im- 
proved, but with the characteristic energy 
that predominates in his life, he set to work 
and erected a small frame house upon the 
land and commenced his task of cultivating 
it. To-day he has as fine appearing a farm 
that one could find anywhere, and he is 
reaping the benefit of his well directed la- 
bors. He has followed general farming and 
stock raising ever since his residence in the 
county, with well-merited success, for the 
many hours of toil he spent on his farm. 

Reuben H. Conant was not slow to re- 
spond to the call for volunteers, during 
that trying period prior to the actual com- 
mencement of hostilities, and accordingly 
on June 12, 1861, he enlisted in Company 
H, Thirty-third Illinois Infantry at Gales- 
burg, Illinois, and served with distinction 
until December, 1865. He was engaged in the 
following battles during his service: Pea 
Ridge and Fredrickstown, Missouri; Fort 
Gibson, Jackson, Bakers Creek, Big Black 
river, Siege of \'icksburg, in Mississippi; 
Posscoville, Te.xas, and Mobile, Alabama. 
He held the rank of sergeant, and in all 
fought in about thirty-six battles and skir- 
mishes through which he passed, and re- 
ceived but one wound, which occurred while 
campaigning in Arkansas. 

Mr. Conant was united in marriage in 



June, 1867, to Miss Orilla Churchill, who 
was a daughter of Calvin and Sallie (Bug- 
bee) Churchill, who came from Ohio and 
settled in Illinois in 1S47. Mr. and Mrs. 
Conant are the parents of two children 
upon whom they have bestowed the follow- 
ing names: Fred S. and Phillip F. Socially 
Mr. Conant is a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, the Degree of Honor 
Modern Woodmen of America, and the 
Home Forum. In his political life he is a 
stanch upholder of the Republican party, 
and a firm believer in its principles, though 
he has never sought any office. He has 
achieved his well earned success solely 
through his own efforts, and enjoys the 
respect and esteem which is accorded to 
him by all who know him, either in business 
or social life. 



JOHN B. KAUFFMAN, an honored 
pioneer and influential citizen of West 
Blue township, Fillimore county, Nebraska, 
was born in Lancaster, Lancaster county, 
Pennsylvania, April 28, 1825, a son of 
John and Eliza (Brubaker) Kauffman, also 
natives of that county. The paternal 
grandfather, Christian Kauffman, was born 
in Pennsylvania, of Dutch parentage, and 
the father died in that state. Our subject's 
mother afterward married a Mr. Bengman, 
Widaman, and removed to Ohio, in 1829, 
settling near Dayton in Montgomery county. 
Her last days, however, were passed in Ne- 
braska, and she died in Boone count}-, this 
state, April i i, 1890, at the ripe old age of 
eighty-three years. 

Our subject accompanied the familj- on 
their removal to Ohio, in 1837, where he 
was reared, his education being acquired in 
the common schools of that state. At the 
age of sixteen he commenced learning the 
blacksmith's trade, which continued to follow 
in Ohio until April, 1870, when he came to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1001 



Fillmore county, Nebraska, and home- 
steaded the land where he now lives. He 
erected a log house upon his land and opened 
the first blacksmith shop in the county. 
In exchange for work in the shop his neigh- 
bors broke his land the first year of his re- 
sidence here, and he has followed black- 
smithing and farming continuously since, 
meeting with marked success. There were 
still some Indians in this region at the time 
of his arrival, but none were hostile. He 
can relate many interesting incidents con- 
nected with his pioneer life, and he has not 
only watched with interest almost the entire 
growth and development of the county but 
has materially aided in the same. 

In Ohio, Mr. Kauff.Tian was married, 
December 31, 1854, to Miss Melissa Whit- 
aker, a native of Middletown, Warren 
county, that state, and of English descent. 
Her parents, William B. and Eliza Whit- 
aker, were natives of Pennsylvania and New 
York, respectively. Four children were 
born to our subject and his wife, all still 
living, namely: Dora F. , now the wife of 
Charles W. Park; Martha I.; Nellie E., 
wife of Clarence Selah; and Lon S. The 
wife and mother, who was a faithful mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church and a most es- 
timable lady, was called to her final rest 
March 8, 1895. 

Religiously Mr. Kauffman is also a Lu- 
theran, and socially was a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and the Improved Order of 
Red Men. In early life he was a Whig 
and cast his first presidential vote for Zach- 
arj' Taylor, but since the organization of 
the Republican party he has been one of its 
stanch supporters and cast his last vote for 
William McKinley. He has not only won 
a substantial success in life but has always 
gained the confidence and respect of his 
fellow citizens, and is held in high regard 
by all who know him on account of his 
many sterling traits of character. 



WILLIAM EWING, whose home is on 
section 27, Center township, has 
been a resident of Butler county since New 
Years day, 1S83, and was for several years 
actively identified with its agricultural inter- 
ests, but is now practically living retired. 
Of excellent business ability and broad re- 
sources, he has attained a prominent place 
among the substantial citizens of his part of 
the county, and his success has been won 
by his own well-directed and energetic ef- 
forts. 

Mr. Ewing was born November 9, 1838, 
in Wayne county, Illinois. His father, 
James Ewing, was a native of the same 
county, and was there reared and married 
about 1835 to Miss Jane Corder, by whom 
he had five children, viz. : Emily, William, 
Robert, Abigail and James. In Wayne 
county the father died in 1844 and the 
mother subsequently wedded William Ed- 
dings. Her death occurred in the same 
county at the age of fifty-six years. 

In the county of his nativity William 
Ewing was reared and educated, continuing 
to make it his home until twenty-two years 
of age, when he went to Logan county, 
Illinois. While there he enlisted in the 
spring of 1864 in Company D, One Hun- 
dred and Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteer In- 
fantry, and served until the close of the 
war. Returning to Logan county, he was 
married there in the fall of 1865 to Miss 
Margaret A. Buraison, a daughter of Will- 
iam Burnison, of that county. Her father 
was a native of England, but came to this 
country with his parents when about five 
years old and lived for many years in or 
near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. There Mrs. 
Ewing was born in 1842 and was the eldest 
daughter of the family, the other children 
being Robert, Samuel, David, William, 
Thomas, Eliza and Lydia. 

From Logan county, Mr. and Mrs. Ew- 
ing removed to Piatt county, Illinois, but 
after residing there four years went to Iro- 



1002 



COMPEXDILWr OF BWGRAPIir. 



quois county, that state, where they made 
their home until coming to Butler county, 
Nebraska, in 1883. Here our subject owns 
one of the finest half sections of land in this 
region, and also has a city residence in Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. Owing to failing eyesight 
he has not been actively engaged in farming 
for several years, his labors of early life 
having secured for him a comfortable com- 
petence which enables him to lay aside 
business cares. He and his wife are active 
and prominent members of the Methodist 
church, have made many warm friends and 
acquaintances in this community, and are 
deserving the high regard in which they are 
uniformly held. ' 

To this worthy couple were born four 
children, as follows: Mary, born in Logan 
county, Illinois, is now the wife of Ellis 
Gelwig, and lives in Oklahoma; James, born 
in Piatt county, Illinois, is a resident of Col- 
orado, where he is largely interested in 
stock raising in the San Luis valley; Eliza, 
also born in Piatt county, married M. M. 
Fenderson, and lives in Oklahoma; Emma, 
born in Iroquois county, Illinois, died in 
Butler county, Nebraska, in 1897. 



PROF. J. E. OWEN, who, under ad- 
verse circumstances during his early 
life, gained for himself an education, which 
has placed him in an enviable position in 
his present home, was born in Kansas, 
April 10, 1876. He is now prominent in 
the educational circles of Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. 

Mr. Owen's parents were W. J. and 
Rebecca Ann Slagley Owen, both natives of 
Indiana. Our subject's grandfather served 
in the Mexican and also the Civil wars and 
is now living near Kearney, Nebraska. Mr. 
Owen's parents moved to Nebraska in 1882 
and located at Davenport where W. J. 
Owen was employed in the lumber trade. 
In 1886 they removed to Shickley, Ne- 



braska, where j'oung Owen assisted his 
father in the lumber business for about si.x 
years. It was while living at Shickley that 
his father began preaching. In 1892 the 
family returned to Davenport and the year 
following they moved to Kearney, Nebraska. 
Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Owen were the parents 
of four children: J. E., Alpha, Audra and 
Creath. The mother died in August, 1887, 
in Shickley, Nebraska, at the age of thirty- 
one years. She was laid to rest in Daven- 
port cemetery, leaving a husband and four 
children to mourn for her. She was a lov- 
ing wife and mother, and a devoted Chris- 
tian, a member of the Church of Christ. 
Our subject was then but eleven years of 
age. W. J. Owen later married Miss 
Minnie Johnson and they are now living in 
Richardson county, where Mr. Owen follows 
farming in addition to his church work. 

For about three years the subject oi our 
sketch worked on a farm in Buffalo county, 
and here devoted his spare time to study, and 
when but eighteen years of age had acquired 
an education which entitled him to a first 
grade teacher's certificate. He taught one 
year in Buffalo county for thirty dollars per 
month and the salary thus earned helped 
support the family during the failure of har- 
vest occasioned by the drouth. He taught 
the following year in the ungraded school at 
Pleasantown, Nebraska. In 1896 he moved 
to Martland, Nebraska, and taught there two 
years. During the summer of i 897 he grad- 
uated from Salina Normal University at 
Salina, Kansas. In 1898 he accepted the 
position of principal of the Strang High 
School. He has proven himself capable in 
every detail and is at present filling the same 
responsible position. 

August 6, 1898, J. E. Owen was married 
to Miss Bertha Boyle, a daughter of Peter 
Boyle and Catherine Mitchell Boyle, natives 
of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. 
Owen's parents are living in Denver, Colo- 
rado, and although her father is seventy- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



1003 



ihree years of age and hermother sixty-five, 
their zeal in the education and the moral 
training of the joung is unabated. Mrs. 
Owen has three brothers and three sisters: 
Mitchell, a traveling salesman; Guy, a teleg- 
rapher: Charles, a lawyer in McCook, Ne- 
braska; Sadie, a teacher; Minnie, a stenog- 
rapher in Denver, and Lillian, a widowed 
sister. Mrs. Owen received a liberal liter- 
ary and musical education, and studied 
music for some time at Central Music Hall, 
Chicago, and in 1898 she graduated from 
the collegiate department of the Academy of 
Music, of Denver. She is an accomplished 
violinist and pianist, and is now an in- 
structor in music. Mr. and Mrs. Owen have 
overcome obstacles that would have de- 
terred many, and have won a high position 
in educational and social circles, numbering 
among their friends and acquaintances those 
eminent in all avocations. They also lend 
their influence to the religious interests of 
the community and are exemplary members 
of the Church of Christ. Mr. Owen is an 
advocate of Republican principles. He is 
a member of the Woodmen of the World. 



JASPER ROBERTS was born March 24, 
vJ 1849, in Fulton county, Illinois. In 
the spring of 1866 his parents moved to Ne- 
braska, and our subject, who was then a 
lad of seventeen, came with them. He 
continued to reside with his parents until 
he became of age, when he took a home- 
stead near the present town of Staplehurst. 
He was married to Miss Mattie E. Davis, 
daughter of Hon. W. R. Davis, in June, 
1 87 1, and five children were born to them, 
two of whom, Claudius and Ralph, are still 
living. In 1880, Mr. Roberts moved to 
Ulysses, and engaged in various business 
pursuits, but devoting his time principally 
to the stock and grain business, and later 
engaged in the grocery business, and in 
which he was engaged at the time of his 



death, which occurred October 15, 1884, 
resulting from a wound which was received 
by the accidental discharge of a re\olver 
which he was examining. He was a suc- 
cessful and popular business man, and his 
less was sorely felt by the community in 
which he lived. He was a prominent mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity. 



JACOB M. LLOYD is one of the repre- 
sentative farmers and stockraisers of 
Lockridge township, York county, Nebras- 
ka, where he has a fine farm on section 10 
of the above named township. He is one 
of the early settlers of the county, and has 
taken an active part in the growth and de- 
velopment of the same. He was born in 
Logan county, Illinois, September 30, 1848. 
His parents, Belfield C. and Elizabeth 
(Meeker) Lloyd, were natives of Virginia 
and New York, respectively. His father 
settled in Logan county, Illinois, in 1835, 
where he resided until 1856, when he re- 
moved to Iowa county, Iowa. He was a 
farmer and stockraiser by occupation, and 
both he and his wife died in Iowa county. 

Jacob M. Lloyd received his education 
in the common schools of Iowa county, 
Iowa, and took up farming when quite 
young. At the age of twenty-two he began 
farming for himself, and in 1876 he located 
in York county. He purchased a home- 
stead in Lockridge township, upon which 
he now resides. He has improved the 
farm himself, and does a general farming 
and stockraising business. 

In 1S69 he was united in marriage to 
Miss Ruth J. Pool, a native of Sciota coun- 
ty, Ohio, whose parents moved to Iowa and 
later to York county, Nebraska. Her fa- 
ther was a physician and practiced some in 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd are the parents 
of six children, of whom we have the fol- 
lowing record: Minnie, born in 1871; Ritta 
M., born in 1873; Bessie, born in 1875; 



1004 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Herman, born in 1880; Ezra, born in 1885, 
and Wallace born in 1890. They are all 
living and the daughters are married and re- 
side in the county. 

Mr. Lloyd is a member of the A. O. U. 
W. and in his politics he is a firm believer 
in the principles of the Democratic party. 
He has never sought any office, but has 
held some of the minor township offices. 
He is a man of strictest integrity, and re- 
tains the confidence and esteem of all who 
know him for his many sterling traits of 
character. 



HARMON JOHNSON.— Mr. Johnson is 
one of the successful farmers of Butler 
county, and has won his honorable standing 
in Nebraska solely by brain and muscle. 
He has never been afraid of hard work, and 
has tried to put intelligence into his every 
labor. He has lived in this county since 
May 5, 1872, at which time he settled upon 
section 4, of Skull Creek township, under 
the homestead laws. Previous to that date, 
however, he had spent a year in Saunders 
county, so that he feels he knows the state 
quite thoroughly. Mr. Johnson is a native 
of Hanover, Germany, where he was born 
in 1838. His father died before he was two 
years old, and when he had reached the age 
of eighteen years he decided to emigrate to 
America. He came to this country alone, 
and made his home near Alton, Illinois. 
He was here at the breaking out of the 
rebellion, and responded to the first call for 
troops, enlisting in Company M, First Mis- 
souri Volunteer Cavalry, and completed a 
full three years' term with the flag. His 
army record is a good one, of which any 
man might well be proud. He participated 
in the battles of Pea Ridge, Helena, Arkan- 
sas, the siege of Vicksburg, Holly Springs 
and Little Rock, and had part in many 
other less important skirmishes and battles. 
He was wounded in the ankle at Pea Ridge, 



and in the arm at Holly Springs, but enjoys 
the distinction of being one of the few 
wounded men who have never applied for a 
pension. 

Mr. Johnson comeback to Illinois at the 
return of peace, and spent several years 
working in the coal mines, where he was 
hurt by the caving in of the mine. He then 
betook himself to St. Louis, where he was 
engaged in the livery business for three 
years. In 1869 he found his wife near 
Alton. She was a daughter of William 
Miners, and a native of Hanover, but came 
to America when twenty-five years old. She 
is the mother of five children, of whom two, 
Hermann and John G., were born in Illinois, 
and the others, William, Annie and Henry, 
are natives of this state. In 1871 Mr. 
Johnson met with a serious disaster, from 
which a less determined man would have 
scarcely rallied. In August of that year, 
while crossing Salt Creek with team and 
effects, the water was very high, and the 
bridge was carried away by the roaring 
flood, and everything he possessed in the 
world was lost. He escaped himself with 
difficulty, but managed to save his wagon. 
He was left without money and no means of 
earning any except by day's work among 
the farmers. He was not discouraged, but 
presently found his footing again, and now 
owns a fine farm. In the meantime he has 
made his impression on the community as a 
man of sterling integrity and sound judg- 
ment, and for many years he has taken a 
prominent part in local affairs. He has 
served as justice of the peace, and is a 
stalwart Republican in politics. He is a 
member of the German Lutheran church, 
with which his wife is also associated. 

It is a pleasure to the historian to sketch 
the career of a man like Mr. Johnson. He 
belongs to a vast body of clear-eyed and 
strong-hearted men who have landed upon 
these shores with no reliance save upon 
their own strength and courage, have carved 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1005 



out homes and honor and fame from the 
strange and unpromising materia! the new 
world offered them. As a boy of eighteen 
walking the unfamiliar streets of Alton the 
heart of Mr. Johnson might well have been 
dismayed. The Missouri cavalry might 
have been a rough school to nurture a Ger- 
man lad in American patriotism, but it found 
a ready pupil. Fie has worked, and waited, 
and struggled and persevered, and now he is 
reaping the reward of a well spent life. 
Let the new generation ponder the story of 
such a man, and the country will be the 
better for it. 



CALVIN S. STOVER, one of the sub- 
stantial business men of Ohiowa, Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, and one who has 
taken an active part in the advancement of 
the town and county, was born in Iowa, 
August, 1866, the son of Henderson and 
Mary E. Bodenaut Stover. 

His parents vvere natives of Iowa, and 
were married in that state. During the 
Civil war his father enlisted in Company B, 
Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, and served 
his country till the close of the war. He 
was well known for his bravery and patriot- 
ism. Upon receiving his honorable dis- 
charge, he returned to his home state and 
learned the miller's trade and engineering. 
From Iowa he moved to Washington and is 
now employed as engineer and manager of 
a sawmill in that state. 

Our subject resided with his parents un- 
til seventeen years of age and then, decid- 
ing to seek a competence farther west, went 
to Franklin township, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. Here he was employed by a 
prominent farmer, Mr. Ralph W. Stowell, 
for three years. At the end of that time he 
engaged in the draying business in the town 
of Ohiowa. In 1891 he changed his bus- 
iness for that of butcher and stock-buyer. 
He has been successful in this undertaking 



and continues in the same business. He 
has accumulated a nice fortune and is 
owner of valuable business and residence 
property in Ohiowa. Mr. Stover has three 
brothers and three sisters: William, in west- 
ern Nebraska; Frank and James, in Spo- 
kane, Washington; Susannah, also in ^^'ash- 
ington; Anna, married Mr. Laplant, a 
ranchman in Montana; and Addie, now 
Mrs. Stephen Beck, living in Huntington, 
Oregon. 

August 16, 1888, Mr. Stover was mar- 
ried to Miss Anna Einhause, a native of 
Germany. Mrs. Stover was born in 1870 
and her parents died while she was still a 
young girl. She emigrated to America and 
settled in Nebraska. She received a good 
education in the public schools of her na- 
tive land and also in Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Stover are the parents of one child, a 
bright, interesting daughter. Hazel. 

Mrs. Stover is a member of the Degree 
of Honor of Ohiowa, and a member of the 
Baptist church. She is an accomplished 
lady and commands the respect of all. Mr. 
Stover is a young man of remarkable busi- 
ness ability, and known in his community 
for his honorable dealings. He is a mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity and also the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 
politics Mr. Stover is an advocate of dem- 
ocratic principles. 



THOMAS PERDUE.— Among the men 
who are gaining a good support by till- 
ing the soil of Seward county and incidental- 
ly laying aside something for a rainy day, 
there is no better representative than the 
gentleman whose name introduces this 
sketch. He owns a fine farm near the vil- 
lage of Beaver Crossing, which has been his 
home for many years, and has it well im- 
proved and in a high state of cultivation and 
he is surrounded with such home comforts 
as make life enjoyable. 



1006 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Thomas Perdue was born in West Vir- 
ginia, in I S3 1, and his wife, Sarah Perdue, 
was born in about 1840. They were mar- 
ried March 6, 1856, in Franklin county, 
Iowa, and about six years later he enlisted 
in Company F, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry, 
in Eldora, Hardin county, Iowa. After or- 
ganizing, the regiment went to Benton Bar- 
racks, and from thence to Cape Girardeau. 
During the war he participated in thirteen 
battles and skirmishes, but throughout his 
three years service he was never Wounded 
nor was in a hospital. He was in the 
skirmish with Marmaduke's forces at Cape 
Girardeau, and was also in the battle on the 
banks of the Red river, which was known 
by some as the battle of De Russe, having 
marched forty miles the day and night 
previous for the purpose of surprising the 
fort and were successful in capturing it. 
The ne.xt battle in which Mr. Perdue j ar- 
ticipated was Pleasant Hill, where Banks' 
force was worsted and the army commenced 
to retreat from there to the mouth of the 
Red river, and there was almost continuous 
skirmishing all the way. From there the 
command, under General A. J. Smith, went 
to Vicksburg, and from there they started 
for Marmaduke, who had been interfering 
with the northern army's transports. Then 
they made their way to Memphis, and from 
thence the\- started for Pontiac, Mississippi. 
Mr. Perdue also participated in the battle of 
Tupelo, on Old Town creek, the two days 
fight at Nashville, Tennessee, and from 
there the\- went into winter quarters at 
Eastport, Mississippi. In the spring they 
made their way down the great river to New 
Orleans, and from there took ship around 
by the gulf to Mobile bay, from whence 
they made their way to Fort Blakels', and 
to Spanish Fort. This ended the battles 
in which Mr. Perdue engaged, but from 
thence he marched with the command to 
Montgomery, Alabama, and soon after re- 
turned to his home in Hardin county, Iowa, 



having been mustered out at Clinton, 
Iowa, August 23, 1865. 

Upon reaching his home, our subject 
purchased a house in Eldora and his family 
lived there while he cultivated a farm near 
that place for six years. He then moved 
with his wife and family of four children, 
conveying their household goods in the 
popular conveyance at that time, a covered 
wagon, to Nebraska, and located a home- 
stead claim two miles east and one and a 
half miles south of Beaver Crossing, in 
Seward county. He at once set about to 
make a home for himself and family by 
constructing a dugout in the side of a ra- 
vine, and then began to cultivate his farm. 
The first season he succeeded in breaking 
twenty-five acres and raised a crop of corn, 
potatoes, onions and other garden \'ege- 
tables. This was the beginning of their 
work of developing a tract of raw, unculti- 
vated prairie into a home, and it has re- 
sulted in the attainment of a fine farm of 
one hundred and sixty acres, supplied with 
a cozy residence and such barns and out- 
buildings as go to make up an estate on 
which a remunerati\'e agricultural business 
can be conducted. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Perdue have been born 
thirteen children, six of whom are now liv- 
ing, and of whom we have the following 
record: Thomas E. ; Clara, wife of George 
P. King; May, wife of Nelson Froman, who 
is living on his farm near Kingfisher, Okla- 
homa; Lula, who is now teaching school in 
Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Curtis, the fifth 
child in the order of their birth, has recently 
been discharged from the ser\ice of the 
Union, having enlisted May to, 1898, in 
Troop K, Third Regiment of United States 
Cavalry, for the war in Cuba, and was dis- 
charged September 8, 1898, at Camp 
Thomas. He is now stopping at home, 
but is making preparations to take a five 
year course in the schools at Fremont, 
Nebraska, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The 



COMPENDIi'^f OF BIOGRAl'fir. 



1007 



youngest child, Alice, is still making her 
home with her parents and is attending the 
public schools. The entire family are mem- 
bers of the Christian church at Beaver 
Crossing. In politics, our subject is an 
old-fashioned Republican, but his two sons 
indorse the policy of free and unlimited 
coinage of silver. 



SWAN LINDSTROM.— Scandinavia, like 
many other parts of Europe, has furn- 
ished many of the most prosperous and in- 
dustrious citizens of York county, and none 
are more prominently identified with its 
agricultural interests than Mr. Lindstrom, 
whose home is on section 21, Stewart town- 
ship. He was born in Jem Koping, Sweden, 
July 23, 1849, a son of Swan and Josepha 
(Johnson) Lindstrom, who spent their en- 
tire lives in that country and are now de- 
ceased. They were consistent members of 
Augustana Lutheran church, and the father 
-was a farmer by occupation. In their fam- 
ily were three children, of whom our sub- 
ject is the youngest, the others being 
Joseph and Mrs. Emma Johnson, who still 
reside in Sweden. 

Mr. Lindstrom, of this review, was reared 
on a farm amid the wild and rugged scenery 
of his native land, and received in that 
country the elements of a fair education. 
With the hopes of improving his condition 
in life, he came to America in 1869, at the 
age of eighteen years, and located at Prince- 
ton, Illinois, where he made his home for 
eleven years, at first working as a farm 
hand, and later operating rented land. He 
also follow^ed the carpenter's trade to some 
e.\tent. In 1S72 he married Miss Hannah 
Swanson, whose birthplace was the same as 
our subject, and they have become the par- 
ents of four children: Swan A., who mar- 
ried Anna Olson, and now resides in Evans- 
ton, Illinois; and John M., Frank W. and 
Albert C. , all at home. 



In 1880, Mr. Lindstrom came to Ne- 
braska, and located upon his present farm 
in Stewart township, York county, which at 
that time was all wild land. He built a 
small frame house, i4.\2ofeet, and broke 
prairie all summer for himself and others. 
He planted a crop in 1881, but it was de- 
stroyed by the hail. After that he pros- 
pered, raising good crops until the drouth 
of 1893 ^nd has become quite well-to-do, 
although his property on his arrival here 
consisted of only a team of horses, a wagon, 
a cow and ninety dollars in money. His 
home place, which is now well improved 
with good and substantial buildings, com- 
prises two hundred acres, of which he has 
placed one hundred and forty-five acres un- 
der the plow, and he also owns a tract of 
eighty acres on section 16, Stewart town- 
ship, all the result of his earnest, persistent 
effort along the line of his chosen calling. 

In religious affiliations Mr. and Mrs. 
Lindstrom adhere to the doctrines of the 
Swedish Methodist church, holding mem- 
bership with that denomination in Gresham, 
and he belongs to the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and the Modern Wood- 
men of America, at the same place. He is 
an advocate of the free coinage of silver, 
and his fellow citizens recognizing his worth 
and abilit}' made him supervisor of Stewart 
township one term, road overseer during his 
entire residence here, director of school 
district No. 35 and treasurer of the same. 



WARREN W'OODARD.— We are now 
permitted to touch briefly upon the 
life history of one who has retained a per- 
sonal association with the affairs of F"ill- 
more county since pioneer days, even before 
its organization, and he has ever bore an 
important part in promoting the public wel- 
fare. He was one of the brave defenders 
of the Union during the Civil war, and is 
thoroughly identified with the growth and 



1008 



COMPENDIUAI OF BIOGRAPHT. 



prosperity of his adopted county and state. 
His life has been one of honest and earnest 
endeavor and due success has not been de- 
nied. He is now a leading attorney of 
E.xeter. 

This honored pioneer was born in Onon- 
daga county, New York, February ii, 1833, 
a son of Jonathan and Deborah (Davids) 
Woodard, also natives of the Empire state. 
The paternal grandfather, Abijah \\'oodard, 
spent his entire life there as a farmer, and 
during the Revolutionary war he aided the 
colonies in achieving their independence as 
a soldier of the Continental army. The 
father was one of the defenders of the 
country in the war of 1812. In 1847 he 
and his family removed to Lapeer county, 
Michigan, where the mother died in 1859. 
Later he went to Illinois, where his last 
days were spent, dying there in 1 881, at the 
advanced age of eighty-eight years. In his 
family were eight children, five sons and 
three daughters, of whom our subject is the 
only one living in Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska. 

Warren Woodard was reared and edu- 
cated in New York, attending first the com- 
mon schools and later the Onondaga Insti- 
tute. He began his business career as a 
boatman on the Erie canal and Hudson 
river, running from Buffalo to New York 
city for three years, and having command 1 
of a boat for a part of the time. In 1S54 
he went to Marengo, Illinois, where he en- 
gaged in clerking in a store for three years, 
and then went to Michigan, where he fol- 
lowed farming until after the opening of the 
Rebellion. In 1S61 he enlisted in Company 
F, Tenth Michigan Infantry, and for four 
long years remained in the service, valiantly 
fighting for the old flag and the cause it rep- 
resented. He took part in the battles of 
Stone River, Resaca, Tunnel Hill, Big 
Shanty, Rome, Kenesaw Mountain, Chatta- 
hoochee River, Ringgold, Chattanooga, 
Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, was 



with Sherman on his memorable march 
to the sea, and in the engagements around 
Atlanta, and also took an active part in the 
Carolina campaign. He participated in the 
grand review at W'ashington, District of Co- 
lumbia, and in August, 1865, was honorably 
discharged. He was a brave soldier, always 
found at his post of duty, and has a war 
record of which he may be justly proud. 

Returning to his home in Michigan, Mr. 
Woodard remained there until the spring of 
1869, and then went to Illinois, but during 
the following year we find him 01 route for 
Nebraska. As a homestead he secured the 
northeast quarter of section 28, Exeter town- 
ship, Fillmore county, and he erected 
thereon the first frame house and bored the 
first well in the township. This wild tract 
he has converted into one of the best im- 
proved farms of the county. For some 
time he continued to engage in agricultural 
pursuits, but in 1876 built a hotel in E.xeter 
and successful!}' conducted the same until 
1S82. He established the old Woodard 
postoffice in 1871, and served as its post- 
master for one year, and for several terms 
most efficiently filled the office of justice of 
the peace. In 1890 he commenced the 
study of law, was admitted to the bar in 
1894, and has since engaged in active prac- 
tice in Exeter. 

Mr. W^oodard was married, in 1859, 
the lady of his choice being Miss Sarah M. 
White, and to them were born four children, 
namely: Eugene W. , May E., Leon E. and 
Arthur W. , all living. The wife and mother 
was called to her final rest in 1882, and he 
was again married, in 1884, his second union 
being with Miss LennieR. Adams, a native 
of New York state. 

Mr. Woodard was one of the first set- 
tlers in this region and was clerk of the 
meeting called to organize Fillmore county. 
He has ever cheerfully given his support to 
those enterprises that tend to public develop- 
ment, and on the rolls of the county's most 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1009 



honored pioneers his name should be 
among the foremost. Socially he affiliates 
with the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
politically is identified with the Republican 
party, of whose principles he is a most ar- 
dent supporter. 



THOMAS C. BRADLEY.— Mr. Bradley 
is a forehanded and enterprising farm- 
er, who has a fine establishment on section 
i6, Waco township, which here claimed from 
the wilderness in 1877. It consists of two 
hundred and forty acres, of which all but 
twenty acres is under a high state of culti- 
vation. With his farming he combines a 
stock business that has proved very lucra- 
tive. 

Mr. Bradley is a son of Robert and E. 
A. (McClellan) Bradley, both of whom were 
natives of Pennsylvania, where they mar- 
ried, removing at a later date to Iowa, 
where they made a home in Appanoose 
county. He was a capable physician and 
practiced his profession in that county until 
the time of his death, in 1861. His widow 
with three children came into Nebraska 
seventeen years later, and made a home for 
themselves on section 17, Waco township, 
which was secured from the railroad com- 
pany. On this tract they erected a little 
frame house, 16x18 feet, and here the 
widowed mother made her home as long as 
she lived. She died full of years and honor, 
June 12, 1893. She was the mother of two 
children that died in infancy, besides three 
other children: Josie, Thomas C. and Will- 
iam H., who remember her as a tender and 
devoted mother, a wise counsellor and a 
saintly soul. 

Mr. Bradley was born in Appanoose 
county, Iowa, May 3, i860, and here the 
earlier years of his life were spent in at- 
tendance upon the public school, and such 
other means of instruction as pioneer times 
afforded. When seventeen years of age he 



visited this section of the state, and picked 
out the tract on which his mother and fam- 
ily located the following spring. He was 
quick and active in the making of the new 
home, and was presently ready for a home 
himself, which he secured upon his marriage 
with Miss Ida Evans, in 1889. The fruits 
of this union were two girls, Lizzie and 
Ruth. Their mother died January 12, 1895, 
and on November 25, 1897, Mr. Bradley 
became a husband for the second time, ex- 
changing matrimonial vows with Miss Lena 
L. Meredith, a daughter of William M. 
Meredith, of Leroy township, in this coun- 
ty. She is a member of the Presbyterian 
church at York, and is highly respected for 
her many good qualities. 

Mr. Bradley is a man of character and 
standing in the community. He is a mem- 
ber of the Protestant Methodist church at 
Waco, and renders it efficient service as a 
member of its board of trustees. In fratern- 
al matters he has a lively interest, and his 
Masonic relations are far reaching. He 
belongs to the blue lodge and chapter at 
York, where he also holds his Knight Temp- 
lar connection. At Lincoln he attends the 
Mystic Shrine, and wherever Masons are 
assembled in the state he would not be un- 
known and unwelcome. He is also asso- 
ciated with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, and devotes much thought to its 
philanthopical propositions. In politics he 
trains with the Democratic party, and takes 
an active interest in its fortunes. 



JAMES HENRY WRIGHT was born 
March 7, I'^jg, in Newark, Licking 
county, Ohio, a son of Samuel and Sarah 
Wright. The latter was a daughter of 
James and Sarah Beeny. All the above 
named ancestors were of English birth, and 
as far back as the family can be traced, they 
all followed the occupation of farming. 

Our subject was reared on a farm in 



1010 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Licking count}-, Ohio, but in 1854, the father 
sold his Ohio property and moved his fam- 
ily to Iowa and settled first in Scott county, 
but soon after moved to Keokuk county, 
bought a farm six miles north of Sigourney, 
and made that his home until his death, 
which occurred in 1857, in his fifty-eighth 
jear. James becoming dissatisfied with his 
home surroundings, as do many boys of his 
age, left the parental roof at the age of six- 
teen, joined a party of emigrants and went 
to Texas. Locating in the cit_\- of Sher- 
man, in the north-eastern part of the state, 
he began business on his own account, buy- 
ing ponies from the Indians, and selling 
them on the market in the city. However, 
this wild life did not prove to be altogether 
pleasant, and in September, 1857, he re- 
turned to his home in Iowa, and remained 
there until his father's death, which oc- 
curred December, of the following year. 

After the death of his father, James 
helped his mother in the management of 
the farm for about a jear and then, at the 
age of eighteen years, he went to Mahaska 
county, rented a tract of land and began 
fanning on his own responsibilit}'. Three 
years later, in response to the call for troops, 
our subject went to Washington, in the ad- 
joining county, to volunteer his service but, 
as he was suffering from a protracted cold, 
he was rejected, so he returned home and 
helped his mother until the following Au- 
gust. He then volunteered in Company H, 
Thirty-third Iowa Infantr}-, under Col. 
Samuel A. Rice. 

Mr. Wright enlisted August 5, 1S62, and 
was mustered in at Oskaloosa, and from 
thence was moved with the command by 
means of marches, railroad, and Mississippi 
steamers to Eddyville; Keokuk, St. Louis, 
Missouri; Columbus, Kentucky; Union City, 
Tennessee; back to Columbus, and from 
thence to Helena, where they remained in 
camp until March, 1863, when the Thirty- 
third regiment was ordered to clear the 



fallen timber from the Yazoo Pass. Thej' 
then returned to Helena to receive their 
salary from the government, and then went, 
by the way of the same pass, to Fort Pem- 
berton and, after threatening the fort for 
several weeks, they were ordered to return 
to Helena, where they remained, doing gar- 
rison duty, nearly all summer. On July 4, 
1863, the garrison was attacked by a force 
of twelve thousand Confederates and, al- 
though they made a fierce attack, they were 
not equal to the Union forces behind the 
breastworks. On the loth of the following 
September, the\- were ordered to Little 
Rock and were stationed at that place until 
the winter of 1S64, scouting and gathering 
provisions from the surrounding country. 
While at Little Rock, the commanding of- 
ficer ordered that two men from each com- 
pany be detailed to guard some boats up 
the Arkansas river to Fort Smith and it fell 
the lot of our subject to be one of the two men 
from company H. As the river was lined 
with Confederate squads intent on stopping 
navigation, the trip was a very dangerous 
one. The boats were finally landed safely, 
however, and their contents were unloaded 
at Fort Smith, but the return trip was not 
so easily made. A cannon had been placed 
at a narrow bend of the river and it played 
great havoc with the boats, destroying some 
of them, and one boat was burned. On the 
7th of December, 1864, the entire company 
of which Mr. Wright was a member, was 
detailed to go about six miles out of Little 
Rock to guard an old tannery. While here, 
the younger of the soldiers, who had no 
wives at home, discovered that that section 
was inhabited by a more fascinating element 
than Rebel scouts, namelj', pretty Rebel 
girls. They also discovered that these 
young ladies, since there were no men of 
their own commonwealth at home, had no 
conscientious scruples about a visitor a social 
dance with the Union soldier boys. On one 
occasion, while our subject and two of his 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir 



1011 



comrades were taking dinner at the home of 
three young ladies, they were surprised by 
the sudden arrival of a Rebel squad which 
claimed them as prisoners of war. They 
were marched down the road but a little 
way, however, until they discovered that 
they had been made the subject of a practi- 
cal joke by a number of their comrades in 
Confederate uniform. About the 23d of 
March, 1864, the regiment was ordered to 
Camden and they had several sharp skirm- 
ishes along the route, among them the one 
at Prairie du Ann. After remaining about 
four weeks at Camden, General Banks, hav- 
ing been defeated, our forces fell back after 
a sharp conflict at Jenkins Ferry, to Little 
Rock. There they remained until the spring 
of 1865, when they were ordered, by boat, 
to New Orleans, Louisiana. From here 
they were sent, by the way of Lake Pon- 
chartrain, to Fort Morgan. On this trip, our 
subject was detailed with a number of his 
comrades to take charge of a boat-load of 
mules. A storm arose and the boat became 
unmanageable so that the captain ordered 
the. mules driven overboard. Before this 
order could be executed the storm changed 
so that the sailors could control the boat, 
and the mules, as well as the crew, were 
saved from a grave in the Gulf of Mexico, 
upon arriving at Fort Morgan, Mr. Wright 
joined his company and started for Spanish 
Fort, which, after a siege of about fourteen 
days, surrendered and the Union forces 
took complete possession of the city of Mo- 
bile. The army was then sent up the 
Tombigbee river after the Rebel General 
Taylor, who surrendered after a few weeks. 
They were next ordered to Texas to take 
charge of the army of the Rebel General 
Morgan, and from there they returned to 
New Orleans to be mustered out, which 
was done July 17, 1S65. Mr. Wright then 
started for his home in Iowa, which he 
reached August 11, 1865. 

Upon reaching home, our subject began 



again to help his mother about the farm. 
About this time, also, he renewed the 
acquaintance of Miss Elnora Fishback, with 
whom he had corresponded for three years 
during the war, and they were married in 
October, 1865. They rented a farm in 
Iveokuk county, Iowa, and made that their 
home until January, 1868, when the wife 
died at the birth of her daughter, Elnora. 
Mr. Wright then left his two children, 
Theodore Parker and Elnora, with his 
mother, who, although far advanced in 
years to be troubled with the care of chil- 
dren, went a long way toward taking the 
place of their mother until October 8, 186S, 
when our subject had enthralled a help- 
mate and again took his children to his own 
home. Mr. Wright's second wife, who bore 
the maiden name of Miss Elizabeth Ann 
Kiester, moved to the neighborhood of Mr. 
Wright's old home in March, 1868, and 
lived on a farm with her father until the 
time of her wedding. In 1870 our subject 
moved with his famih' to Seward county, 
Nebraska, and located near Goehner, where 
they are now living on a fine, well-improved 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and 
are surrounded with such home comforts as 
make life enjoyable. 

To Mr. Wright's second marriage have 
been born eleven children, eight of whom 
are living, and their names in the order of 
their birth is as follows; Lillie May, Charles 
L. , Maud M., George C, Ida B. , James F., 
Joseph H. and Jessie E. Elnora, the 
second child of the first wife, is married to 
Mr. F. Price and is living in Shenandoah, 
Iowa. Lillie May is the wife of Lewis 
Cromwell. They are li\ing on a farm of 
their own and have a bright, interesting 
little family of three children. Earl, Effie 
and Oliver. Mr. Wright's oldest son is not 
married, but is living in Brainard, Nebraska, 
and has charge of the grain elevator at that 
place. Politically our subject has been a 
life-long, stanch Republican, casting his 



1012 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. 
He is not a member of any religious denom- 
ination, but his wife and son, Parker, are 
connected with the Methodist church. 



PETER WEISER, a representative 
farmer of Polk county residing on sec- 
tion 26, township 14, range i, Hackberry 
precinct, was born in Sunbury, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 10, 1833, and is a son of 
George and Barbara Ann (Oswald) Weiser, 
who spent their entire lives in that state. 
They reared a family of eleven children, of 
whom seven are still living. The father was 
a soldier of the war of 1S12, and two of his 
sons, Peter and Jacob, went to the defense 
of their country in the Civil war. 

Peter Weiser remained in his native 
state until twenty-two years of age, and 
there acquired his literary education and 
also learned the molder's trade, at which he 
worked until his emigration to Iowa in 1856. 
In Louisa county he worked as a farm hand 
until after the inauguration of the Civil war. 
There he enlisted in August, 1861, as a pri- 
vate in Company K, Second Iowa Volunteer 
Cavalry, and after the regiment was organ- 
ized at Davenport they were ordered to 
St. Louis. Later they were at Bird's 
Point, New Madrid, Fort Pillow, Pittsburg 
Landing, and were in the advance of Pope's 
division on Corinth, participating in the 
siege at that place. After assisting in cut- 
ting the railroad at Booneville, our subject 
was captured May 30, 1862, was first taken 
to Black Land, then to Mobile, Alabama, 
where he was confined until July 4, 1862, 
and after a few days at Selma, Alabama, 
was held at Macon, Georgia, until October, 
when he was taken to Libby prison, and 
quartered on the second floor of that build- 
ing until about the middle of the month, 
He was then taken to Aiken's Landing and 
paroled, and after a month or six weeks 
spent at Annapolis was ordered to Saint 



Louis, where he was exchanged. At the 
time of his capture he weighed one hundred 
and eighty-five pounds, but on being released 
from those loathsome prison pens of the 
south he weighed less than one hundred 
pounds. On rejoining his regiment at La 
Grange, Tennessee, they operated along the 
Memphis & Charleston railroad, and took 
part in the Grierson raid. At White Station, 
Tennessee, Mr. Weiser was discharged, 
after three years and three months spent in 
the service, and returned to his home with 
an honorable war record. 

Mr. Weiser continued to reside in Louisa 
county, Iowa, until 1871, when he came to 
Nebraska and took up his residence upon 
his present homestead in Polk county. He 
was accompanied by William Fosbender, 
and they made the first claims upon the 
table land in this section of the county. 
They were army comrades, having enlisted 
together, were captured at the same time, 
and were confined in the same prisons. 
Subsequently they married sisters. On lo- 
cating upon his claim, wolves and antelope 
were still quite plentiful in this region, and 
for miles around nothing could be seen but 
rolling prairie, with the exception of one 
tree and a hay stack. The first season he 
built a sod house and raised a small crop of 
sod corn, but acre after acre has been placed 
under the plow until he now has one hun- 
dred and thirty acres of his two hundred 
acre farm under a high state of cultivation 
and well improved with substantial build- 
ings. 

In 1872 Mr. Weiser was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Eveline Metts, a native of 
Indiana, and to them have been born four 
children: George E. ; Minnie Bockoven; 
^lary Catharine; and Eva Maud, deceased. 
The wife and mother is a consistent mem- 
ber of the Methodist church, and Mr. Weiser 
belongs to the Grand Army Post, No. 102, 
of Shelby, in which he has served as com- 
mander and also as quartermaster for two 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1013 



terms, and is now senior-vice. In political 
sentiment he is a pronounced Republican, 
and has always attended the caucuses and 
conventions of his party, taking an active 
interest in its success. In 1875 ^^ was a 
candidate for the office of county clerk of 
Polk county, and has been elected assessor 
and also justice of the peace, but refused 
to qualify. He has, however, been an effi- 
cient school officer since the organization of 
his district, and most faithfully discharges 
his duties of citizenship. As an old soldier, 
honored pioneer and highly respected citi- 
zen of Polk count}', he is certainly deserv- 
ing of representation in a work of this 
character. 



WILLIAM DEREMER belongs to that 
class of honest and hard-working 
farmers who have made the western re- 
gion blossom like a garden. Their story is 
the epic of the nineteenth century, and 
will live in history as the most marvelous 
achievement of this wonder-working age. 
A few years ago, and there was a great 
" American desert " that extended from the 
Missouri river to the Rocky mountains, and 
in the early days a journey from New York to 
Buffalo was fraught with more dangers and 
attended with more excitement than a trip 
round the globe would be to-day. From 
his pleasant home in Beaver township, 
York count}', the gentleman whose name 
introduces this article, can look back over 
half a century, and contemplate a rough 
and rugged way by which he has come up 
to his present ease and comfort. 

William Deremer was born in Bedford 
county, Pennsylvania, January 6, 1S45, and 
is a son of Peter and Rosana (Wentling) 
Deremer. In this county they were born, 
and there she died in 1878. He still sur- 
vives, and resides in Bedford county at a verj' 
great age. He contracted a second mar- 
riage, the fruit of which was one son. 



Harry. By his first wife he was the father 
of a numerous family, ten of whom are now 
living. Their names are Joseph, William, 
Henry, Mary, George, John V., Martha, 
Ida, Terista and Samuel G. The two 
oldest sons, Joseph and William, bore arms 
in the Civil war, and on more than one 
field of danger evinced their loyalty and de- 
votion to the Union. 

It was upon the Bedford county farm 
that the subject of this article grew to man- 
hood. Pennsylvania had good schools and 
he profited by them. In the spring of 1S65 
he also enlisted in the Federal army, and 
was enrolled in Company C, Fifth Maryland 
Volunteer Infantry. The hour was late, but 
he was in time to help in the overthrow of 
the army of Virginia at Appomattox, and 
to see the trailing of the rebel banners in 
the dust. After the fall of the Confederacy 
he was on provost guard duty for several 
months at Richmond, Newport News, 
Fredericksburg, and Centerville, Virginia. 
It was while on duty at Newport News that 
he received a sunstroke. The regiment was 
discharged at Baltimore in September of the 
year of his enlistment. His career as a 
soldier was not prolonged, but covered the 
last days of the war, and is full of valuable 
and instructive memories. 

Mr. Deremer was married in December, 
1866, to Miss Amanda Hardinger, a native 
of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. The old 
Keystone state seemed somewhat overpopu- 
lated for a young farmer to have a fair 
chance, and so our subject and his wife 
crossed the line into Mineral county, ^^"est 
Virginia, in 1876, where he engaged in farm- 
ing, and spent three years in that manner 
with not very satisfactory results. They 
determined to make a far stride, and in 
1879 came into York county, Nebraska. It 
seemed like going to the other side of the 
world to those who had been accustomed 
to the crowded regions of the east. But 
as the eyes of Mr. Deremer and his family 



1014 



COMPENDll'.\r OF BIOGRAPin: 



swept over these flower loaded prairies they 
had a vision of coming towns and factories 
and farms, and were well content to be in 
at the first. He put up a little frame build- 
ing 14 X 16 feet, and raised a crop on the 
newly broken sod. And here he has lived 
to the present day. He owns one hundred 
and sixty acres, and operates eighty acres 
beside. He is a believer in mixed farming, 
has an interest in blooded stock, and makes 
a specialty of Poland China swine. 

Mr. and Mrs. Deremer are the parents 
of seven children; Nora. Lucy, Levi, Rose, 
William, Carrie and Daily D. They are 
members of the Methodist Protestant 
church, and in this religious organization he 
has held official station. He is an enthusi- 
astic Grand Army man, and belongs to 
Winchester Post, No. 139, at Utica, Ne- 
braska. In this body he is a senior vice 
commander. He belongs to Utica organiza- 
tions of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. He is a Republican, and has 
served on the election board, and has been 
a member of the school board in district 
33. He is a man who well deserves the 
good esteem of his neighbors, and this is 
ungrudgingly given him. 



A 11 riLLIAM JOHN BLAIR.— There is 
V V particular satisfaction in reverting to 
the life history of the honored gentleman 
whose name initiates this review, since his 
mind bears impress of the historical annals 
of the state of Nebraska from the earliest 
pioneer days, and from the fact that he has 
attained to a position of prominence in the 
thriving little city of Linwood, Butler coun- 
ty, where he has made his home almost 
constantly since he was two years of age. 
Mr. Blair was born in Venango county, 
Pennsylvania, August 8, 1856, and is a son 
of James and Mary A. (Brown) Blair, the 
former also a native of Pennsylvania, and 



the latter of county Tj'rone, Ireland, where 
she grew to womanhood. The paternal 
grandfather, John Blair, was one of three 
brothers who came to this country from Ire- 
land at an early day, and one located in 
New York, another in New Jersey, and John 
in Pennsylvania. The last named reared 
three sons — Robert, now a ranchman and 
mine owner in Arizona; James, the father of 
our subject; and William who was killed in 
the Civil war. 

In 1857 James Blair, with his family, 
left Pennsylvania intending to go to Kan- 
sas, but on reaching Liberty Landing; Mis- 
souri, he found that the border ruffians 
were making things a little too unpleasant 
in Kansas for peaceably inclined people. 
After staying for a time at Liberty Landing, 
he came up the river to Nebraska City, and 
from there proceeded to the site of the 
present village of Linwood, where he locat- 
ed in 1858, being the oldest settler of But- 
ler county. The family lived in a dug-out 
on the bank of Skull creek, and raised their 
first crop on the squaw patches along that 
stream. The first year of their residence 
here there were five thousand Pawnee In- 
dians camped in the neighborhood, and the 
father had many thrilling experiences with 
the red men. At one time he hired two 
squaws to gather pumpkins, agreeing to pay 
them each four pumpkins They disputed 
among themselves about the division of the 
pay, and when Mr. Blair insisted on a fair 
division this angered the Indians and they 
determined to kill him that night. He 
heard of their intention, however, through 
a friendly Indian, "Little Billy", and so was 
prepared. When they arrived that night 
the big Indian chief told the braves that if 
they killed the white man there would be 
trouble as there were many other white 
men who would come and revenge his 
death. Of a brave and fearless disposition, 
nothing could frighten him, and he finally 
persuaded them to abandon their purpose. 




MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM J. BLAIR AND SON. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArilV 



ini 



They afterwards became very friendly and 
greatly admired his shooting qualities. For 
a year Mr. Blair conducted a ranch north of 
Kearney, on the old Mormon trail, but at 
the end of that time returned to this sec- 
tion of the state and in i S6S leased the 
Shinn ferry, which he operated for two 
years while he made his home on Shnn's 
island. 

Reared in this wild, unsettled region, 
William J. Blair had no opportunity of at- 
tending school until after he was thirteen 
years old. The first school here was taught 
by Mrs. S. D. Shinn, who was a well edu- 
cated woman, whom the settlers hired to 
teach a term of ten weeks in her own home. 
Although his educational advantages were 
very meager, Mr. Blair made the most of 
them and improved every opportunity. 
Soon after he attained his majority he 
entered Doane College, at Crete, Nebraska, 
and for many years afterward successfully 
engaged in teaching during the winter 
months, while he followed farming through 
the summer season. In July, 1887, he was 
appointed manager of the Platte Valley 
Grain & Lumber Co., at Linwood, which 
position he held for two years, when Blair 
& Co. succeeded to the interests of that 
firm, and later sold to the Trans-Mississippi 
Grain Co. He is also manager of the Ed- 
holm elevator and owns a fine farm in Bone 
Creek township. As a business man he is 
notably prompt and reliable, and commands 
the confidence of all with whom he has 
dealings. 

Mr. Blair was married, March 16, 1884, 
to Miss Rhoda M. Perkins, a daughter of E. 
M. Perkins. Prior to her marriage she suc- 
cessfully engaged . in teaching, having ac- 
quired an excellent education in Doane Col- 
lege and the Baptist Seminary at Gibbon. 
One son has been born to this union: Rob- 
ert R. Blair. A group portrait of this in- 
teresting family is presented in connection 
with this sketch. 

68 



Mr. Blair has alwa3'S been prominent in 
political circles, is an ardent Republican, 
and has been a delegate to all of the county 
and district conventions of his party since 
attaining his majority. At one t^me he was 
candidate for county clerk on the Republic- 
an ticket, but was defeated. Fraternally 
he is identified with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, the Woodmen of the 
World, and the Tribe of Ben Hur, while 
religiously he is a member of the Congrega- 
tional church. He was appointed post-- 
master at Linwood, June 16, 1898. 



PROF. CHARLES WILLIAM TAY- 
LOR, one of the most able educators 
in this section of the state, is now principal 
of schools at Ohiovva, and is filling the po- 
sition in a most creditable and satisfactory 
manner. He is devoting his life to labors 
wherein wealth and influence availeth little 
or naught, the measure of success depend- 
ing upon the mentality, intellectual ac- 
quirements and broad culture of the indi- 
vidual. 

Prof. Taylor was born in Red Oak, 
Montgomery county, Iowa, June 3, 1874, 
and is the only child of James Henry and 
Tamar Ann (Ratliff) Taylor, early settlers 
of that county. The father was born in 
JefTerson county, Iowa, November 8, 1839, 
and was provided with good school priv- 
ileges. While attending the Iowa Wesleyan 
University at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, he enlist- 
ed in Company M, Fourth Iowa Cavalr\-, 
for service in the Civil war, and was under 
the command of Colonel Winslow. He par- 
ticipated in a great number of hotly contest- 
ed battles and remained in the service for 
three years and eleven months. On being 
mustered out in 1865, he returned to his na- 
tive state and entered the employ of the 
hospital and asylum at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 
as an attendant. It was there that he met 
Miss Tamar Ann Ratliff, who was employed 



1018 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in the same institution, and on the 8th of 
November, 1870, they were united in mar- 
riage. She is also a native of Iowa, born in 
Henry county, March 4, 1849, is a graduate 
of the Salem high school, and was for two 
years emplo3'ed in the hospital. In 1872, 
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor moved to Montgomery 
county, Iowa, where they purchased one 
hundred and sixty acres of land, and to its 
cultivation and improvement he devoted his 
energies until 1893, when they removed to 
Red Oak and are now living retired, enjoy- 
ing the fruits of their former toil. The pa- 
ternal grandparents of our subject were na- 
tives of Virginia, but all of the family with 
the exception of one uncle were supporters 
of the Union cause during the Rebellion. 
They are all Republicans in politics. The 
Ratliffs were from North Carolina and were 
imembers of the Society of Friends. 

As soon as he had reached a sufficient 
age. Professor Taylor began his education 
in the common schools of Montgomery 
county, Iowa, where he pursued his studies 
until fifteen. He then entered the Red Oak 
high school, where he graduated with hon- 
ors June 2, 1893, completing a four years' 
course of study in three years. As his par- 
ents were living in the country he drove 
eight miles each night and morning while 
.attending school there. The following year 
he successfully engaged in teaching school 
in his home district. In the fall of 1894, 
he became a student in the State University 
of Nebraska, where he pursued a four years' 
course, graduating in June, 1898. He also 
took a special military course and received 
a certificate and life commission signed by 
Governor Holcomb, of Nebraska, as retired 
first lieutenant in the state militia. In ad- 
dition to this, he successfully completed the 
requirements of the university teacher's 
course, consisting of two years of profes- 
sional study; is honored with a life certifi- 
cate granted by the chancellor and the fac- 
ulty of the State University of Nebraska, 



and on his graduation received the degree 
of A. B. He holds a diploma from the 
Everett High School Society, of the Red 
Oak high school, which was obtained dur- 
ing his youth for oratorical ability and 
forceful arguments in debates. For these 
same qualities he was honored by being 
chosen to participate in the Iowa state de- 
clamatory contest, April 19, 1893, and he 
won fourth place. In the university he was 
a member of the Palladian Literary Society. 
H^was also vice-president of the State Ora- 
torical Association; secretary of the Local 
Oratorical Association; secretary of the 
Young Men's Christian Association; and was 
one of the representatives of the university 
in the Nebraska-Missouri debates, held at 
Columbia, Missouri, in May, 1898. For the 
past year Professor Taylor has been princi- 
pal of schools at Ohiowa, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, and fills the position with credit 
to himself, and to the entire satisfaction of 
the trustees, patrons and students of the 
school. Though young in years, he is a 
most able and thorough educator, and is ad- 
mired by all who know him for his frank- 
ness, honorable traits and noble character. 
He worked part of his way through college. 
He is a devoted Christian, and an active 
and prominent member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 



THOMAS MORTON HOWIE.— The ag- 
ricultural element that has been so 
largely instrumental in the upbuilding of 
Butler county is finely represented by this 
gentleman, one of its earliest settlers, who 
has a valuable farm in Bone Creek town- 
ship, of which he is a leading farmer and 
one of the most prominent citizens. 

Mr. Howie was born in Waukesha coun- 
ty, Wisconsin, December 19, 1852, the 
3'oungest of a family of five children born to 
John and Marion Howie. The family can 
trace their lineage back to the Howies of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1019 



Lock Goin, in the time of the persecution 
of the Protestant church in Scotland. The 
following is an extract from the records in 
the parish of Loudon, Scotland: 

"This certificate, given in the parish of 
Loudon, Scotland, April 2, 1841, attests 
that John Howie and Marion Miller, in the 
parish of Loudon, have had their purpose 
of marriage regularly proclaimed, and that 
no objections have been lodged to prevent 
their marriage, is attested by 

"John T. Campbell. 
"Per And. Campbell." 

The foregoing certificate has the follow- 
ing endorsement, in Mickle Byre, parish of 
Loudon, April 2, 1841: " The parties here 
specified were married by me, Jno. Bruce, 
Minister." 

Six weeks after their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. John Howie emigrated to America and 
settled in Livingston county, New York, for 
two years, and then moved to Waukesha 
county, Wisconsin, and located on a farm. 
Their first child, John Howie, was born in 
New York. He died during the Civil war, 
in Memphis, Tennessee. The next son, 
William, is a minister in the United Pres- 
byterian church, at Seattle, Washington. 
James Andrew moved to Butler county, Ne- 
braska, with our subject, Thomas Morton, 
but about the year 1890 he moved to 
Smithville, South Dakota, and engaged in 
the stock business. A sister, Jane, was 
married to George Robinson, of Butler 
county. She died in 1890. 

Thomas Morton Howie, the subject of 
this sketch, was married April 12, 1877, to 
Miss Janet Allen, a daughter of James and 
Janet Allen, both of whom were born in 
Scotland, and the mother emigrated to this 
country in 1840. About two weeks after 
his marriage, our subject started from Wis- 
consin, overland, to Butler county, Ne- 
braska. In 1877 he bought eighty acres of 
land in section i. Bone Creek township, 
which is still his home, and which he has 



increased from time to time by purchase 
until he has an excellent farm of four hun- 
dred acres of well cultivated and well im- 
proved farming land. Mr. and Mrs. Howie 
are both membersof the United Presbyterian 
church, and are the parents of a family of four 
children, upon whom they have bestowed 
the following names: James Allen, May, 
William Morton and Ida Jane. In political 
affairs Mr. Howie affiliates with the Prohi- 
bitionists. 



LYMAN BEACH, a systematic farmer, 
and a business man of more than or- 
dinary capacity, is a prominent representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of Fair- 
mont township, Fillmore county. By 
building up a fine homestead on section 13, 
he is recognized as an important factor in 
preserving the reputation of the township as 
one of the best and most highly developed 
sections of the county. 

Mr. Beach was born in 1825, in Warren 
county. New York, where he grew to man- 
hood. His father, Henry Beach, was a 
native of Connecticut, as was also his grand- 
father, Benjamin Beach. About the close 
of the Revolutionary war, the latter re- 
moved with his family to eastern New York, 
where he followed farming until called from 
this life. Henry Beach, the father, con- 
tinued his residence in Warren county. New 
York, where he died at the advanced age of 
ninety years. He had a family of seven 
sons who reached years of maturity, but our 
subject is the only one living in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska. 

In 1846, L}man Beach migrated to 
Wisconsin and first located in Walworth 
county, but later removed to Columbia 
county, where he took up a tract of govern- 
ment land engaged in farming there until 
1870. That year he moved to Whiteside 
county, Illinois, and in 1879 came to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, where he bought 



1020 



COMPENDIUM op BIOGRAPHY 



railroad land on section 13, Fairmont town- 
ship, and to its cultivation and improve- 
ment has since devoted his energies with 
most gratifying results, having converted 
the wild land into a well improved farm. 

Mr. Beach was married, in 1851, to 
Miss Clarissa D. Green, who was born in 
Orleans county. New York, in 1831, a 
daughter of David and Ruth (Southwick) 
Green, who were natives of Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island, respective, and removed 
to Wisconsin in 1847. There her father 
died, but the mother's death occurred later 
in Illinois. Of the four children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Beach, only one son, Edward 
D., is now living. 

Edward D. Beach, just mentioned, 
was born in Columbia county, Wisconsin, 
December 8, 1865, and in childhood ac- 
companied his parents on their removal to 
Illinois, and later to Nebraska. He ac- 
quired a good practical education in the 
common schools, and upon the home farm 
early gained an excellent knowledge of 
every department of farm work, following 
that pursuit continuously since reaching 
man's estate. In 1883 when eighteen years 
of age, he enlisted and served three years 
in Company G, Nebraska National Guards. 
In 1886 was celebrated his marriage with 
Miss Minnie Fisher, a native of Whiteside 
county, Illinois, and a daughter of Frank 
and Maggie (Fowler) Fisher, who were 
from Michigan. The children born of this 
union are Bessie C. , Verna L., Rena R. 
and Ruey B., all living. 

In their political views, both father and 
son are Republicans, and the latter takes 
quite an active and prominent part in polit- 
ical affairs, having served as a delegate to 
all county and state conventions for several 
years. From 1888 until 1893, he most 
creditably and satisfactorily served as county 
supervisor, and his public and private life 
have been alike above reproach. When 
elected a member of the county board he was 



but twenty-three years old — the youngest 
on a board of nineteen members. After 
serving one year he was elected chairman 
over considerable opposition and retired 
after serving four years, — still the youngest 
member. Socially he is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of 
which he is a past grand, and he is at pres- 
ent venerable consul of Exeter Camp No. 
887, Modern Woodmen of America. He is 
also a member and one of the board of di- 
rectors of the Fillmore County Farmers 
Mutual Insurance Company. Religiously, 
the family are all connected with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. Wherever known 
they are held in high regard, and their ster- 
ling worth has won for them the respect of 
the entire community in which they live. 
Both father and son have pleasant homes 
which are ever open for the reception of 
their many friends. 



JH. RUSHTON.— Prominent among the 
business men of this section of Nebraska 
is the gentleman whose name initiates this- 
review, and who, as president, is now the 
head of the Fairmont Creamery Company. 
He is a man of keen discrimination and 
sound judgment, and his executive ability 
and excellent management have brought to 
the concern with which he is connected a high 
degree of success. Coming to Fairmont in 
moderate circumstances, he has made his 
way to the front rank in business affairs, 
and his success is made more emphatic by 
the broad and generous interest he shows in 
all that concerns good citizenship. 

The Fairmont Creamery was organized 
as a stock company in 1884, but Mr. Rush- 
ton is the only one of the original members 
now connected with it. It was re-organized 
in 1887, with the following officers: Wal- 
lace Wheeler, president; J. H. Rushton, 
secretary and treasurer; N. A. Stuart, vice- 
president, and J. O. and I. V. Chase,. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1021 



directors. The original plant was at Fair- 
mont, and this was operated alone until 
18S9, when the Crete Creamery was pur- 
chased. Later were added the Tobias 
plant, in 1890; the Friend and Geneva 
plants in 1891; the Fairbury, Dewitt and 
Milford plants in 1892, and the Hebron in 
1898. All are equipped with the most 
modern appliances, and besides these, they 
have thirty skimming stations. Mr. Wheeler, 
who was a charter member of the company, 
served as its president until his death, which 
occurred in 1897. Mr. Rushton was then 
elected to that position, while E. F. Howe, 
of Crete, was chosen secretary and treasurer, 
and Mrs. Wallace Wheeler vice-president. 
The product of these plants finds a ready 
sale at the highest market price, and is sold 
all over the United States and also exported 
in large quantities. Besides manufacturing 
about a million and a half pounds of butter 
annually, the company handles one hundred 
and fifty car loads of eggs, and their busi- 
ness has proved of inestimable value to the 
farmers and other citizens of this section of 
the state, as annually they pay out about 
$165,000 for butter, $50,000 for labor, and 
$150,000 for eggs. They have about $100,- 
000 invested in plants, and under the able 
management of our subject and the other 
officials, they do a profitable and highly 
satisfactory business. 

Mr. Rushton was born in Manchester, 
England, in 1849, a son of George and Isa- 
bella (Hoyle) Rushton, also natives of that 
country. The father came to the United 
States in 1849, and settled in Illinois, where 
he followed farming until called from this 
life in 1897. In 1851 he was joined by his 
wife and child, and in Illinois our subject 
was reared and educated. For eight years 
he successfully engaged in teaching school 
in that state, being superintendent of the 
Piano, Illinois, schools six years of the time. 
While teaching, he began the study of law, 
and in 1879 was admitted to the bar in 



Chicago, after which he engaged in practice 
in Aurora, Illinois, for two years. On com- 
ing to Fairmont, Nebraska, in 1881, he 
opened an office here, and in connection 
with the practice of his profession, he was 
for four years engaged in the land and insur- 
ance business, but since then has devoted 
his entire time and attention to the affairs 
of the Fairmont Creamery. 

In Illinois, Mr. Rushton was married, in 
1875, to Miss Minnie Putt, a native of that 
state, and to them have been born five chil- 
dren, namely: Grace, who is now attend- 
ing Nebraska Sta'te University; George H. ; 
Raymond W. ; Arthur L. ; and Alice. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Rushton affiliates with the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen, and politic- 
ally is identified with the Republican party. 
He has never sought official preferment, but 
in 1888 most creditably and satisfactorily 
served as chairman of the county board of 
supervisors of Fillmore county. As a busi- 
ness man and citizen he stands high in the 
community where he makes his home, and 
wherever known is held in high regard. 



GEORGE ENGLEHAUPT is one of 
the prominent agriculturists of precinct 
N, Seward county, who arrived here in time 
to assist in its upbuilding. He has been 
one of the most interested witnesses of its 
progress and development and has been no 
unimportant factor in bringing it to its 
present proud position. As a man. of in- 
fluence, public-spirited and liberal, this 
brief record of his life will be of more than 
ordinary interest to his many friends and 
acquaintances. 

Mr. Englehaupt was born September 2 i, 
1855, in Marshall county, lUfnois, and is a 
son of Samuel and Amanda (Marshall) 
Englehaupt, the former born January 15, 
1827, the latter September 29, 1827. In 
July, 1865, when our subject was only nine 
years old, the family emigrated to Nebraska, 



1022 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



the father securing a homestead of one 
hundred and sixty acres of land on section 
22, precinct N, Seward county, to the culti- 
vation and improvement of which he de- 
voted his energies until called to his final 
rest on the i6th of September, 1885. Be- 
fore his death he willed the place to our 
subject on the condition that he care for his 
mother and pay to the other heirs a certain 
amount. This he has done and upon the 
old homestead still makes his home. He 
grew to manhood amid frontier scenes and 
early became familiar with the arduous task 
of converting wild land into rich and pro- 
puctive fields. He attended the common 
schools of Iowa and Nebraska, but his liter- 
ary education was far more limited than his 
business training. 

On the 8th of April, 1897, Mr. Engle- 
haupt was united in marriage with Miss 
Etta M. Brown, a daughter of Edgar L. 
and Abigail C. (Marshall) Brown, of Chi- 
cago. Her paternal grandparents were Miner 
and Mary Brown, and her maternal grand- 
parents were Nathaniel and Rebecca Mar- 
shall. She was educated in the common 
schools of Will county, Illinois, and for two 
terms successfully engaged in teaching, but 
on the removal of her family to Chicago 
she retired from that profession. She became 
acquainted with her future husband while 
on a visit to her aunt. 

Mr. and Mrs. Englehaupt occupy the 
farm on which almost his entire life has 
been passed, and it is one of the most beau- 
tiful homes in the valley of the West Blue, 
reminding one of the scenes so graphically 
described by Dr. Johnson in "The Happy 
Valley." There are the grassy banks of 
the little river, the white painted walls of 
the cottage, and the great red barn over- 
flowing with wheat, corn, oats and other 
products of the past harvest; the whole sur- 
rounded and shaded by great oak, elm, ash, 
hickory, boxelder, maple and walnut trees, 
some seemingly a century old. When the 



writer visited the place the frost had already 
touched the leaves and they came fluttering 
down like wounded birds, by ones, tens and 
hundreds, red, yellow and brown in color, 
scenting the air and covering the ground 
with a carpet of softened colors. No wonder 
the little woman seemed contented with the 
exchange of a home in the great city for 
this cottage on bonny West Blue. She has 
held membership in the Baptist church, 
takes an active interest in church work, and 
is contemplating joining the Evangelical 
church, which is situated about two and a 
half miles southwest of the farm. Polit- 
ically Mr. Englehaupt is a Republican, cast- 
ing his first vote for Rutherford B. Hayes, 
and his last for William McKinley. 



PHILANDER B. ROYCE, one of Butler 
county's thrifty and well-to-do farmers, 
whose home is situated on section 32, Sa- 
vannah township, was one of the early set- 
tlers of that community. He first located 
on section 22, of that township, April 6, 
1870, homesteading the southwest quarter 
of this section. 

Mr. Royce was born in New Haven 
county, Connecticut, December 23, 1843, 
a son of Bennett B. and Julia Ann (Ben- 
ham) Royce. Bennett B. was a son of 
Welcome Roys, and the name was spelled 
"Roys" until our subject's father changed 
it to " Royce." The record of the family 
can be traced back man}' generations, to 
Nathaniel Roys, who settled in Wallingford, 
Connecticut, in 1692, and some of the mem- 
bers of the family participated in the Revo- 
lutionary war and also in the war of 1812. 

Our subject left Connecticut when sev- 
enteen years of age, went to New York and 
enlisted in Company I, Sixty-first New York 
Infantry, and served nearly four years in 
Companies I, F and D, respectively. He 
participated in the battles of Antietam, 
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Bristow 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1023 



Station, Wilderness, Poe River, Spottsyl- 
vania. Cold Harbor, Petersburg; and many 
other engagements. In fact, he was in all 
of the battles in which the Second Army 
Corps, of the army of the Potomac, partic- 
ipated, except three, and was mustered out 
July 14, 1865, at Arlington Heights. Gen. 
Nelson A. Miles was colonel of his regi- 
ment. 

After the close of the war, Mr. Royce 
served one year on a whaling ship, in the 
Arctic regions. He returned to New York 
in 1868, and was married in Wayne county, 
of that state, to Miss Ellen A. Royce, a 
distant relative. After his marriage he 
lived in New York state and worked on a 
vessel on the lakes. He went to Nebraska 
to visit friends, and although he went with 
no thought of staying, he was so much 
pleased with the country and the advantages 
it offered that he decided to make that his 
home. He is industrious, progressive and 
is endowed with a good capacity for well 
directed labor, and he soon had a productive 
and well improved farm and a commodious 
and comfortable home. In politics he was 
formerly a Democrat but is now identified 
with the Populist party, and on that ticket 
has been elected county commissioner. 
Mr. and Mrs. Royce are the happy parents 
of a family of four bright, interesting chil- 
dren, upon whom they have bestowed the 
following names: Charles B., Alice L., 
Edward W. E. and Winnifred E. 



JOHN M. REEL. — As an enterprising 
and wide-awake citizen of York county, 
and one who, through his own efforts, has 
established himself among the prominent, 
influential and successful men of the com- 
munity, we take pleasure in giving a brief 
biography of the gentleman whose name 
heads this sketch. Throughout his active 
business life his energies have been princi- 
pally devoted to agricultural pursuits, and 



he now owns and successfully operates a 
fine farm on section 7, Baker township. 

Mr. Reel was born in Hardy county. 
West Virginia, August 10, 1843, a son of 
Jacob and Ann (Hogbin) Reel, also natives 
of the Old Dominion, where they were 
reared and married. The father still re- 
sides upon a farm in that state at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-two years. Amid 
rural scenes our subject grew to manhood, 
acquiring and excellent knowledge of farm 
work but a rather limited district school 
education. In August, 1861, he enlisted in 
Company E, Eighteenth Virginia Con- 
federate Volunteer Cavalry, and served un- 
til the close of the war, carrying the flag of 
truce when his company surrendered at 
Lynchburg. He participated in the battle 
a that place and at Gettysburg, Beverly, 
West Virginia, Williamsport, Maryland, 
Bunker Hill, Piedmont and many skirmishes 
and at the battle of Newmarket was 
wounded by a minie ball in the left 
shoulder. 

When the war was over, Mr. Reel re- 
turned home and worked on the farm by 
the month for a couple of years. In May, 
1867, he removed to Logan county, Illinois, 
where he was similarly employed, and 
later operated rented land on his own ac- 
count for several years. Having saved some 
money he came to York county, Nebraska, 
and purchased one hundred and sixty acres 
of land in Baker township, where he now 
lives. Although he bought his farm in 
1880, he did not locate thereon until 18S4, 
in the meantime making a few improve- 
ments, including the erection of a residence 
in 1883. The land is now under a high 
state of cultivation, and the buildings 
thereon are models of convenience and 
comfort, all of which show conclusively 
that he understands his chosen calling most 
thoroughly, and is meeting with well-de- 
served success. 

While a resident of Illinois, Mr. Reel 



1024 



coM^ENDIU^^ of b/oghapht. 



was married April 21, 1870, the lady of 
his choice bein_i; Miss Anna Br3'an, a native 
of Logan county, that state, and a daughter 
of John T. and Phoebe (Huffman) Bryan, 
who were born in Virginia. 

In his political affiliations -Mr. Reel is a 
Populist; is an advocate the of free coinage of 
silver; and is a firm believer in. equal rights 
to all and special privileges to none. He 
takes an active interest in political affairs, 
is a recognized leader in the ranks of his 
party in York county, and has been a dele- 
gate to many county and state conventions. 
He served on the school board for six years 
in the capacity of treasurer, and in all the 
relations of life has been found true and 
faithful to every trust reposed in him, thus 
gaining the confidence and esteem of all 
■with whom he has been brought in contact. 



GEORGE E. TINDALL.— Among the 
leading and influential farmers of Sew- 
ard county who thoroughly understand their 
business and pursue the vocation of their 
chosen calling in a methodical and work- 
manlike manner is the subject of this biog- 
raphy. He now owns and operates a fine 
farm on section 34, I precinct, and the grain 
he raises upon his place he feeds to his own 
stock, being quite extensively engaged in 
raising cattle and hogs. 

Mr. Tindall was born in Bloomington, 
Indiana, July 21, 1847, a son of Easton and 
Elizabeth (Launs) Tindall, who, during the 
childhood of our subject, removed to Illi- 
nois, where both died, the father in 1S82, 
the mother in 1854, and the remains of 
both were interred in Glassford cemetery. 
In their family were ten children, of whom 
George E. is the eighth in order of birth, 
and seven are living at the present writing, 
in 1S98. 

George E. Tindall pursued his studies in 
the common schools of Illinois, and at the 
age of sixteen years offered his services to 



his country during her hour of peril, becom- 
ing a member of Company D, Seventeenth 
Illinois Cavalry, under Captain Jones. He 
saw much hard fighting, was in many 
bloody battles, and when the war closed he 
was honorably discharged, after two 3'ears 
and a half of arduous service. At the age of 
eighteen years he learned the blacksmith's 
trade and followed it for some time, both in 
Illinois and Colorado, but on coming to 
Seward county, in 18S2, he turned his at- 
tention to agricultural pursuits, in which he 
is still interested. He purchased two hun- 
dred and forty acres of land at twenty dol- 
lars per acre and has successfully engaged 
in its cultivation and improvement ever 
since. He has set out many fruit trees 
upon his place and to-day has one of the 
best farms of the locality. Politically, he 
is an ardent Republican, having cast his 
first ballot for President Lincoln while in 
the army, and socially he affiliates with the 
Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the 
Republic. He also carries a policy in the 
Bankers' Life Insurance Company, of Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. 

On the 1 6th of February, 1876, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Tindall and 
Miss Lydia Cunningham, and to them have 
been born four sons, namely: George E., 
James, Elisha and Vernie, all at home as- 
sisting their parents. The wife and mother 
was born November 22, 1853, and was ed- 
ucated in Wisconsin and Nebraska, having 
come to this state when a girl of fourteen 
years with her parents, James and Lucinda 
(Jones) Cunningham. Her father is a native 
of Pennsylvania and in early life went to 
Wisconsin, where he was married at the age 
of twenty-one to Miss Lucinda Jones, who 
was then sixteen. On the 27th of June, 
1895, they celebrated their golden wedding 
and are now living retired in Milford, enjoy- 
ing life to its fullest extent in the midst of a 
large circle of friends and acquaintances. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPJIY 



1025 



who appreciate their sterling worth and 
many excellencies of character. They are 
honored pioneers of Seward county, having 
located here thirty years ago when the 
country was all wild and unimproved. The 
father took up a homestead of eighty acres 
and also bought an adjoining eighty-acre 
tract, upon which he lived for fourteen 
years, but since then has made his home in 
Milford, where he owns some valuable real 
estate, including ten nice residences. He 
is now eighty-two years of age and draws a 
pension in recognition of his services in the 
Black Hawk war. Mrs. Tindall is the fifth 
in order of birth in a family of eight chil- 
dren, of whom four are still living. Mr. 
Cunningham is one of the most promi- 
nent and influential men of his community, 
and has always been a stanch supporter of 
the Republican party since its organization. 



WILLIAM E. SMITH, the present 
supervisor of district 2, Fillmore 
county, is a prominent farmer residing on 
section lo. West Blue township. His op- 
erations here have been marked with uni- 
form success, and, in addition to being a 
thorough and skillful agriculturist, he is a 
business man of more than ordinary ca- 
pacity, wise and judicious in his invest- 
ments, and taking advantage of the facil- 
ities afforded at this day and age by im- 
proved machinery and all other appliances 
required by the modern tiller of the soil. 

Mr. Smith is a native of the far-off 
state of Massachusetts, born in Berkshire 
county, October lo, 1853, and is a son 
of Eli and Mary E. (Chapin) Smith, na- 
tives of Connecticut and Massachusetts, 
respectively. The paternal grandfather, 
who was also born in Connecticut, was a 
farmer and preacher, and died in Massa- 
chusetts. The father also followed agri- 
cultural pursuits as a life work and made 
his home in the old Bay state, where he 



passed away in 1884, honored and respect- 
ed by all who knew him. The mother is 
still living on the old homestead at the age 
of eighty years. To this worthy couple 
were born eight children, six sons and 
two daughters, of whom five sons and one 
daughter are now living. Two sons are 
successful physicians; one has been a deputy 
sheriff in Massachusetts for twenty years, 
and another was a member of the lower 
house of the Massachusetts legislature in 
1895. 

In the county of his nativity, \\'illiam E. 
Smith was reared and educated, attending 
both the district and high schools. During 
his youth he learned the carpenter's trade, 
which he followed during the summer sea- 
son, while the winter months were devoted 
to school teaching in Massachusetts until 
1878. That year witnessed his arrival in 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, and he has since 
resided upon his present farm, where he now 
owns two hundred and forty acres of valua- 
ble land, which he has fenced and placed 
under a high state of cultivation. In con- 
nection with general farming and stock 
raising, he is interested in bee culture and 
has the largest apiary in the county. 

In 1880 Mr. Smith led to the marriage 
altar Miss Carrie Bennett, who was born in 
Windham county, Connecticut. Her pa- 
rents, Frederick C. and Phebe A. (Hadsell) 
Bennett, were natives of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, respectively, and came to Ne- 
braska in 1875, their home being now in 
Fairmont. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a 
family of three children: Harry W. , born 
February i, 1882; Leah M., March 30, 1884; 
and Ethel M., December 28, 1S92. The 
parents hold membership in the Methodist 
Episcopal church in Fairmont, and socially 
Mr. Smith is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. In his political affiliations he is a 
life-long Republican, casting his first presi- 
dential vote for R. B. Hayes, his last for 



1026 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



William McKinley. He most acceptably 
filled the office of justice of the peace for 
seven years, and in 1895 was appointed to 
fill the unexpired term of J. M. Perkins as 
township supervisor, to which position he 
was elected in 1S97, being the present in- 
cumbent. He is chairman of the committee 
on roads and bridges, and is;proving a most 
popular and capable official, one who com- 
mands the respect and confidence of all by 
his straightforwaid and honorable course. 
In 1879 he served one year as township 
assessor. Mrs. Smith, who is a most estima- 
ble lady, is a member of the Ro\al Neigh- 
bors of Fairmont. 



EDWARD C. OPITZ, one of the suc- 
cessful and enterprising farmers of 
York county, residing on section 8, Baker 
township, is numbered among the worthy 
citizens that the fatherland has furnished to 
this state. His life stands in evidence of 
the opportunities which are furnished in the 
new world to young men of energy and 
ambition, for by his own labors he has 
arisen from a humble position to one of 
affluence. 

He was born in Germany, July 24, 
1844, and is a son of Hans M. and Hannah 
(Franke) Opitz, also natives of that coun- 
try. The father was a farmer and spent 
his entire life in the land of his nativity, 
but the mother is now living with our sub- 
ject, and has passed the eightieth milestone 
on life's journey. Iveared on the family 
homestead, Edward C. Opitz is indebted to 
the public schools for the educational privi- 
leges which he enjoyed. At an early age 
he took charge of his father's farm for he 
was the oldest and only son in a family of 
five children. In 1868, in response to the 
urgent solicitation of his uncle he came to 
the United States and made his way from 
New York, where he landed, to Prairie 
City, Illinois, where his uncle was living 



and where Mr. Opitz arrived June 14, 1868. 
He worked for his uncle as a stone cutter 
until he had mastered the English language, 
and afterward followed that pursuit in the 
employ of others forseveral years. He finally 
rented a farm in McDonough county, Illi- 
nois, of James Hamilton, and operated that 
land until his removal to York county, in 
the spring of 1880. Although he had 
reached Prairie City with only twenty-eight 
dollars, he had by his industry and econ- 
omy acquired some capital and in 1875 went 
on an excursion to Nebraska, where he pur- 
chased one hundred and sixty acres of York 
county land of James Moore, an old soldier, 
who had proved up the homestead. It was 
on this farm that Mr. Opitz settled in 1880, 
and it is still his place of residence. A sod 
house and fifteen acres of broken land con- 
stituted the improvements on it at the time; 
the rest of the land was wild prairie and 
there were no trees or well. He lived in 
the sod house for three months 'until he 
could build a frame house, and with char- 
acteristic energy began the development of 
his farm. It is now a valuable place with 
well tilled fields, a modern frame residence, 
fine orchard and all the necessary outbuild- 
ings. By additional purchase the bounda- 
ries of the place were extended and he now 
owns two hundred and fort}- acres, and has 
given eighty acres to his son Otto. 

Mr. Opitz has been twice married. He 
wedded Amelia Rust, a native of Germany, 
and four children were born to them — Otto, 
Ella, Minnie and Setta. The mother died 
in August, 1882, and in 1886 Mr. Opitz was 
again married, his second union being with 
Fredericka Scheela, a native of Germany, 
by whom he has six children — Ida, Charley, 
Emma, Albert, Harry and Nellie, all yet at 
home. 

In his political views Mr. Opitz is a 
free-silver Republican. He belongs to the 
Lutheran church and the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and is esteemed by all 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1027 



who know him for his sterling worth. He 
has never had occasion to regret his emigra- 
tion to America, for in "the land of the 
free" he has found a pleasant home, se- 
cured a comfortable competence and gained 
many warm friends. 



ALBERT A. BOUTON is one of the 
representative farmers and stock rais- 
ers of Butler county, and has been a con- 
spicious figure in the development and ex- 
tension of its great agricultural interests. 
He was one of the earliest settlers of the 
county, locating in section 12, Alexis town- 
ship, in the fall of 1868. He came to 
Nebraska two years prior to this and lo- 
cated in Platte county, in 1866. 

Mr. Bouton was born in Schoharie 
county, New York, in 1837 — October 28 — 
and made that his home until twenty-one 
years of age. His father, Seth Bouton, 
lived and died in the state of New York, 
and his mother, Bettie (Lawton) Bouton, is 
still living in Fulton county, New York. 
Her father served in the war of 1812, and 
her ancestors also participated in the Revo- 
lutionary war. The Bouton family is of 
French descent. Mr. and Mrs. Seth Bouton 
were married in Schoharie county. New 
York. 

Our subject was reared on a farm, and 
in 1858 he moved from the state of his 
nativity and located in Berrien county, 
Michigan, where he made his home until 
he joined the army in 1862, with the ex- 
ception of one season which he spent in a 
trip to Pike's Peak, in 1858. On his return 
from his trip to Pike's Peak, he located a 
Mexican war land warrant for one hundred 
and sixty acres, which he had purchased, in 
Platte county, Nebraska, and this after- 
ward led to the settlement in that state. 
In 1862, Mr. Bouton enlisted in Company 
B, Twelfth Michigan Infantry, and served 
in that capacity for two years, participating 



in the battles of Shiloh, Hatchee River and 
many others. 

After the close of the war Mr. Bouton 
went to Harrington, Cook county, Illinois, 
where he met Miss Alice Stowell Strong, 
who was reared by her uncle, William N. 
Stowell. They were married at Junction 
Citj', Wisconsin, September 16, 1865. In 
1866 they started with a team and emi- 
grant wagon to Nebraska to locate on their 
farm in Platte county, with a cash capital 
of about fifty dollars. Two years later 
they moved to Butler county and settled on 
a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in 
section 12, Alexis township. Eighty acres 
of this farm was afterward homesteaded to- 
gether with an adjoining eighty, and he has 
since added to this by purchase until he now 
has a fine farm of three hundred and 
twenty acres, furnished with a commodious 
and comfortable home and a neat set of 
farm buildings. To Mr. and Mrs. Bouton 
have been born the following family, whose 
names and the places of their birth are as 
follows: William A., born in Platte county, 
Nebraska; Ina J. and Guy A., born in But- 
ler county, Nebraska, and two others, Gil- 
bert A. and James A., both dead. James 
A. was killed b}- a runaway team October 4, 
1889. 

Mr. Bouton is a Republican in politics 
but never sought or filled office. He is also 
interested in the grain firm of Belsle}', 
Allen & Co., of Bellwood, Nebraska. 



JAMES P. SEELEY, a well known and 
prosperous farmer, whose farm is locat- 
ed near Milford, Seward county, Nebraska, 
is a native of Monroe county. New York, 
and was born February 21, 1845. 

His father, Thadeus O. Seeley, was born 
on May 21, 1808, and died in Delaware 
county, Ohio, at the age of seventy-nine 
years. He had been a member of the 
I. O. O. F. fraternity for fifty years. The 



1028 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



grandfather of our subject, Thadeus O. See- 
ley, was born in Orange county, New York, 
November 4, 1772, and was married to Miss 
Susanah Bailey, a native of the same place, 
born May 19, 1769. They were the par- 
ents of the following children: Eliza Ann, 
born January 20, 1799; Theron, born March 
8, 1800; John D., born July 25, 1801; 
Thena, born March 13, 1803; Eugene L., 
born October 4, 1804; Laura, born October 
22, 1806; Thadeus O., father of our subject, 
born May 21, 1808; Saline G., born Febru- 
ary 17, 1810; Cleophus R., born June 9, 
181 1 ; Eliphalet, born March 27, 1813. 

The maiden name of our subject's 
mother was Caroline Bromley. She was 
the daughter of Herrick Bromley, who was 
born in Orange county. New York, March 
16, 1783, and married Miss Mary Roe, who 
was born March 16, 1795, to whom were 
born the following children: Caroline, 
born January 28, 18 14; Jane I\. , born April 
14, 1816; Albert, born July 4, 1818; Will- 
iam, born March 5, 1823; Emily E., born 
June 14, 1825; Herrick, born June 28, 1827; 
Majy, born March 20, 1830; Oriil, born No- 
vember 26, 1832; Harriet, born July 15, 
1835; Martin Van Buren, born July 13, 
1837; Margaret, born April 29, 1840. Her- 
rick Bromley, Sr. , served in the war of 
1812. 

Thadeus O. Seeley, our subject's father, 
was married to Miss Caroline Bromley, Au- 
gust 29, 1833, in Orange county. New York. 
To this union the following children were 
born: Herrick B., born December 18, 
1835; Mary E., September 24, 1837; Josiah 
J., September 23, 1839; Albert T. , Septem- 
ber 3, 1842; James P. (our subject), Feb- 
ruary 21, 1S45; Charles C, January 29, 
1847; Susan J., May 5, 1849; Antoinette, 
July 15, 1852; Thadeus O., August 5, 1857. 

The subject of this sketch was mar ied 
to Miss Margaretta J. Edwards, in Dela- 
ware county, Ohio, December 17, 1865. 
Mrs. Seeley is a daughter of James J. and 



Margarette (Rich) Edwards, to whom were 
born the following children: Margaretta J., 
born February i, 1845, at East Ellington, 
England; Susan A., born December 23, 
1853, in Genesee county. New York; Har- 
riet J., born September 6, 1855, in Genesee 
county. New York; William J., born March 
24, 1857, in Delaware county, Ohio; Carrie 
E., born November 12, 1862, in Franklin 
county, Ohio. Mrs. Seeley came to Amer- 
ica with her parents when she was six years 
old. They made the voyage in a sailing 
vessel which occupied about a month in the 
passage, having lost its course, and, after 
touching at Portuguese and Faroe Islands, 
finally landed at New York city. 

■ Mrs. Seeley's father died at the age of 
forty-three years. Her mother died No- 
vember 25, 1898, at the advanced age of 
eighty years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Seeley have one son, 
W'illiam )., who was born January 27, 1875, 
at Milford, Seward county, Nebraska. He 
was educated at the university at Lincoln, 
the Western Normal, and also graduated 
from the Fremont Commercial and Business 
College, where he afterwards taught. He 
is now principal of the schools at North 
Loup, Nebraska. He married Miss Carrie 
Collins, January 12, 1897. She is a gradu- 
ate of the Fremont Normal and is a teacher 
in the same school with her husband. 

Mr. and Mrs. Seeley tor three years 
after their marriage lived in Ohio, then re- 
moved to Nebraska. Lincoln was but a 
village and most of the trip was made in a 
stage coach. They took up a homestead 
claim of eighty acres in I precinct, Seward 
county, and have made it their home to the 
present time. The first seven years they 
lived in a sod house and here their son was 
born. (His wife also was born in a dugout 
in Valley county.) The settlers for many 
miles around traded at Milford, where there 
was a mill and a store, and where the 
county-seat was first located. A Congrega- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



102(> 



tional church and soon after an M. E. 
church were estabHshed. Mr. Seeley is now 
the owner of one hundred and sixty acres 
of fine farm lands thoroughly improved. 
Although his father was a Democrat, our 
subject is a Republican in political faith. 
He is a member of the M. E. church. 



HON. J. M. PERKINS.— The history 
of Fillmore county would be very in- 
complete and unsatisfactory' without a per- 
sonal and somewhat ejitended mention of 
those whose lives are interwoven so closely 
with its agricultural development. Mr. 
Perkins is a prominent representative of 
this class and during his residence here he 
has been a leader in local politics. He is 
one of the older settlers of West Blue 
township, and there he continues to make 
his home, his time and attention being de- 
voted to agricultural pursuits on section lO. 
Mr. Perkins was born October 3, 1828, 
in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, near the 
town of Everett or Bloody Run, and is a 
son of Joshua and Rebecca (Knowlen) Per- 
kins, the former a native of New Jersej', 
the latter of Pennsylvania, born near Pitts- 
burg. The maternal grand-father, James 
Knowlen, came to this country from Ire- 
land. The paternal grandfather, Abraham 
Perkins, was also born the other side of the 
Atlantic, being a native of England, and 
came to America prior to the Revolutionary 
war, in which struggle he lost a leg while 
helping the colonies to achieve their inde- 
pendence. He lived for some years in 
Pennsylvania, but spent his last days in 
Columbiana county, Ohio. He was a farm- 
er by occupation, as have also been most of 
his descendants. The father of our subject 
remained in the Keystone state, where his 
death occurred. In his family were two 
sons and two daughters, and the brother of 
of our subject was a member of the Eight- 
eenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry dur- 



ing the war of the Rebellion. The father 
was twice married; his first wife was Millie 
Siegler, who bore him two sons and two 
daughters, the two sons serving in Pennsyl- 
vania regiments during the Rebellion. 

In his native state J. M. Perkins was 
reared and educated in much the usual man- 
ner of farmer boys of his day, and at the 
age of twenty began learning engineering, 
which he successfully followed for many 
years in Pennsylvania. On coming west in 
1873 he located in Grundy count}-, Illinois, 
where he purchased a farm and turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits. He made 
his home there until 1882, in which year he 
became a resident of Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and bought the farm in West Blue 
township where he still lives, it comprising 
a half section of valuable land under a high 
state of cultivation and well improved with 
good buildings. Here he follows general 
farming and stock raising and is meeting 
with well-merited success. 

On the 26th of December, Mr. Perkins 
was united in marriage with Miss Mary 
Blake, a native of Huntingdon county, 
Pennsylvania, and a daughter of James and 
Jane (Kluck) Blake, who were born in York 
county, Pennsylvania, and spent their en- 
tire lives in that state. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Perkins were born eleven children, namely: 
George A.; Harvey G., deceased; Charles 
W.; John A.; Edward D. ; Alexander R. ; 
Frank B., and four daughters deceased. 

For over half a century our subject and 
his wife have been consistent and faithful 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
being converted November 20, 1852, and 
now belong to the church in Fairmont, in 
which he has filled all of the offices. He 
has served as an exhorter and local preacher 
and has always taken an active and prom- 
inent part in church work. His parents 
were connected with the same denomina- 
tion. For forty years Mr. Perkins has also 
been a member of the Masonic fraternity 



1080 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and is now a trustee of the lodge in Fair- 
mont. He has been an ardent supporter 
of the Republican party ever since its or- 
ganization in Grundy county, Illinois, and 
as one of the influential citizens of his com- 
munity he has been called upon to fill a 
number of official positions of honor and 
trust, being county commissioner three 
years, justice of the peace three years and 
supervisor two years, resigning the latter 
office on coming west. In 1888 he was 
elected supervisor of West Blue township, 
Fillmore county, and served as such for 
seven years. He was elected to the lower 
house of the state legislature in 1895, and 
filled that position for one term with credit 
to himself and to the entire satisfaction of 
his constituents, during which time he was 
a member of the committee on agriculture, 
cities and villages. It will be of interest to 
state that Mr. Perkins had three uncles in 
the war of 18 12, two serving five years and 
one seven years. 



WILLIAM BELL, deceased, was for 
many years one of the most promi- 
nent, enterprising and reliable citizens of 
Butler county, his home being in Oak creek 
township from the spring of 1870 until 
called to the world beyond. He was a na- 
tive of Indiana, born in Greene county, on 
the 30th of March, 1833, and was a son of 
John Bell, who at an early day removed 
from his old home in Virginia to the Hoosier 
state. 

In the county of his nativity William 
Bell was reared and educated in much the 
same manner of boys of that period in 
frontier settlements. At the age of seven- 
teen he accompanied the family on their re- 
moval to Henderson county, Illinois, where 
he grew to manhood. There he was mar- 
ried in 1863 to Miss Elizabeth Farrell, a 
native of Ogle county, Illinois, and a 
daughter of William Farrell, v/ho had also 



removed to that state from Indiana. Mr. 
and Mrs. Bell became the parents of the 
following children: William and Edgar, 
who were both born in Wapello county, 
Iowa; Lakey, who was born in Fremont 
county, the same state; and Mary G., 
Thomas, Rosa, David and Eva J., who were 
all born in Butler county, Nebraska. 

As early as 1863 Mr. Bell came to Ne- 
braska, and for some time was connected 
with the Pacific railroad, but before coming 
to Butler county, he made his home for a 
time in Fremont county, Iowa. In the 
spring of 1870, however, we find him lo- 
cated on a farm on section 6. Oak Creek 
township, Butler county, and, until life's 
labors were ended, he devoted his energies 
to the cultivation and improvement of his 
place, transforming the wild land into well 
tilled fields. He died on the loth of May, 
1897, and his remains were interred in the 
cemetery at Brainard. He always took 
quite a prominent part in local affairs, was 
one of the most influential and popular citi- 
zens of his community, and for two terms 
ably represented his township on the board 
of supervisors. It is but just and merited 
praise to say of him, that as a citizen he 
was honorable, prompt and true to every 
engagement, and as a man he held the 
honor and esteem of all classes of people. 
Mrs. Bell, who still survives her husband, 
was a true helpmeet to him, sharing his joys 
and sorrows, his successes and his trials. 



JOHN TOWLE, a well known farmer of 
Baker township, York county, is one of 
the honored veterans of the Civil war, who 
through three long years of that sanguinary 
struggle faithfully defended the old flag and 
the cause it represented, and only left the 
front when his wounds, received on the field 
of battle, rendered him unfit for further 
duty. He has always been loyal and true 
to his duties of citizenship and to every 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1031 



trust reposed in him, and enjoys the regard 
of all. 

Mr. Towle was born in Leeds, England, 
April 7, 1838, and is a son of Andrew and 
Mary Ann (Chapman) Towle, the former a 
native of Dublin, Ireland, and the latter of 
Yorkshire, England. The father engaged 
in woolen manufacturing throughout his en- 
tire life and was thoroughly conversant with 
the business in its various departments. In 
England he was superintendent of a large 
woolen factory. About 1838 he came with 
his family to America, locating in Lowell, 
Massachusetts, where he worked at his trade 
for several j'ears, after which he was sim- 
ilarly employed in Troy, New York, and 
Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Later he owned 
and operated a woolen mill in Mena- 
sha, Wisconsin, and in 1868 he removed 
to Cass county, Nebraska, where he 
made his home until his death, which, how- 
ever, occurred August 16, 1894, while he 
was visiting his son in Cohoes, New York. 
His wife had previously passed away, on 
the farm in Cass county. 

During the days of his infancy our sub- 
ject was brought by his parents to America, 
and when only seven years old he began 
work in the woolen mills. He was em- 
ployed in all the various departments of 
such an establishment, in Massachusetts, 
New York and Wisconsin, and became an 
e.xpert workman, receiving as high as five 
dollars per day for his services. When the 
war broke out he was among the first to re- 
spond to the country's call for aid, enlisting 
May 17, 1 86 1, for three-months service as 
a member of Company D, Third Wisconsin 
Infantry. He was mustered in at Fond du 
Lac, Wisconsin, on the 29th of June, for 
three-years service. The regiment went 
immediately to the south, arriving at Har- 
per's Ferry, July 18, 1861, and Mr. Towle 
served in the campaigns in Virginia, Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania for two years, two 
months and sixteen daj's in the Army of 



the Shenandoah under General Banks, the 
Army of Virginia under General Pope, the 
Army of the Potomac under Generals Mc- 
Clellan,Burnsides, Hooker and Meade, and 
was in New York city on military duty dur- 
ing the draft riots of August, 1863, under 
General Colby. He left Bealton Station, 
Virginia, with his regiment October 3, 1863, 
to join the Army of the Cumberland, at 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was mustered 
out at the latter place, July 5, 1S64, on ac- 
count of disability. He participated in the 
following engagements: Bolivar Heights, 
Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Pope's cam- 
paign, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Beverly 
Ford, Gettysburg and the draft riots, and 
was mustered out with the rank of corporal. 
He was shot through the leg at Antietam 
and had both ear drums bursted, which has 
destroyed his hearing. He was also wounded 
at Beverly Ford, an exploded shell strik- 
ing him in the leg. On account of his 
wounds and loss of hearing, he has ex- 
perienced ill health for years, and is one of 
the honorable pensioners of the govern- 
ment. 

Mr. Towle is numbered among the pio- 
neers of York county, having taken up a 
soldier's homestead claim of one hundred 
and sixty acres on section 30, township 10, 
range 3, in the fall of 1871. He afterward 
went to Cass county, Nebraska, spending 
the winter with his parents, who lived on a 
farm near Weeping Water, and in the early 
spring of 1872, he went to Plattsmouth, 
where he bought some lumber. At Weep- 
ing Water he constructed the frames for a 
house, and with the assistance of his neigh- 
bors, hauled them with ox teams to York 
county, where he erected a frame house 
18x20 feet, with a fourteen foot ceiling. 
This was the first frame structure in all the 
country round about, the other settlers liv- 
ing in sod houses and dugouts. Mr. Towle 
at once began to break his land, and the 
first year planted twelve acres of sod corn. 



1082 



COMPJSNjDIi/M OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



raising a good crop. This was his first ex- 
perience at farming. In 1873 he sowed five 
acres of wheat, and from it sold one hun- 
dred and five bushels, at ninet_v-three and a 
half cents per bushel. In the fall he also 
sold his yoke of cattle, with which he had 
cultivated the farm, for ninety-five dollars. 
Owing to ill health he then went to Wis- 
consin, where he was employed as boss 
spinner and carder in woolen mills for a 
number of years, and in July, 1884, he re- 
turned to his homestead, which he had 
rented in the interim. Previous to his de- 
parture he had sold his house and now 
builded a new one. He has today one of 
the best improved and most valuable farms 
in Baker township, which represents years 
of hard toil, and is a merited reward of his 
labor. 

Mr. Towle was married December 25, 
1866, to Sarah Barlow, who was born in 
Staffordshire, England September 4, 1847, 
and is a daughter of John \V. and Eliza 
(Downs) Barlow, also natives of the same 
country. They came to America during the 
infancy of Mrs. Towle, locating in Wiscon- 
sin, making the journey with a colony of 
one hundred English families. Mr. Barlow 
purchased a farm, upon which a portion of 
the city of Portage, Wisconsin, is now lo- 
cated, but after a short time sold out and 
went to Menasha; Wisconsin, where he now 
resides, at the age of eighty-two. His wife 
died December 2, 1883. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Towle have bean born nine children: 
Arthur J., William C, Sadie E., Samuel 
D., Effie E. , Howard G., Gordon P. B. and 
Ralph R. , at home; and Gilbert G., now 
deceased. Mr. Towle is one of the honored 
citizens of York county, for his life has been 
a useful and upright one, in which loyalty 
to duty has ever been a marked character- 
istic. The same fidelity which he manifest- 
ed when following the stars and stripes on 
southern battle fields, has been shown in 
business and social life, and his earnest 



effort, great energy and keen discrimination 
have brought deserved success. 

The following interesting story is told of 
Mr. Towle's childhood. When he was 
eight years of age he was living with his 
parents in Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, 
while that region was yet a territory, the 
country heavily timbered, and infested 
with wolves and other wild animals. One 
day our subject, accompanied by his baby 
sister, then but one year old, went out in 
search for wild plums. The boy lost his 
bearings, and they wandered farther and 
farther into the forest. The little girl, who 
was sickly and weak, became tired and 
hungry, and cried for her parents and home. 
The boy held out bravely and took the 
little one up and carried her, but he at 
last grew discouraged and weary and began 
to cry also. He found some wild blackber- 
ries and gave most of them to his sister to 
keep her from crying. It was early morn- 
ing when they left home. Noon came, and 
the parents grew uneasy at their long ab- 
sence. In the meantime our subject's grand- 
parents and two uncles had come to visit 
the family. They became alarmed at the 
continued absence of the children, and all 
turned out to search for them. There were 
no roads, so that the task was a difficult 
one. After several hours of unsuccessful 
wanderings, as the shadows of evening be- 
gan to deepen, knowing that the children 
would be devoured by wolves if not found 
before the morning, the neighbors were 
called out to join in the hunt. Each man 
carried a gun, and the understanding was 
that the one finding the children should 
fire a gun, and each one hearing the 
report should fire in turn, and this 
to be the signal for all to return home. 
No report came, and when the darkness 
had made travel in the forest impossible, 
they all returned to the house with discour- 
agement and alarm for the fate of the help- 
less children. The father and two uncles 



CO^/PENDIU^f OF BIOGRAPIir. 



103;^ 



determined to return to the quest, while the 
others insisted that they should not risk 
their lives also in a vain endeavor to save 
the lives of the children, who were, they be- 
lieved, already the victims of wild beasts. 
At that moment one of the searching!; party 
was returning home, and a few roJs from 
the house encountered a party of five In- 
dians, mounted on ponies, coming along an 
old trail, and he enquired of them if they 
had seen or heard of the "two white pa- 
pooses." They said yes, and that it was a 
long (big, big) way back in the forest. He 
tried to persuade them to go back and get 
the children, but they refused, saying "Big 
dark, big dark." But the sight and clink of 
two silver dollars overcame their disinclina- 
tion, and two of the Indians turned back 
into the depths of the forest, and after some 
time had elapsed, during which hope and 
fear struggled for mastery in the parents' 
hearts, brought the children safely to their 
home. Our subject remembers the details 
of that experience with great vividness, but 
did not realize as he does now the great 
danger he and his baby sister were in. 



FRED C. PATTERSON, who occupies 
an influential and prominent position 
among the agricultural population of Fair- 
mont township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
has his homestead on section 17, where he 
owns one hundred and sixty acres of fine 
farming land. Upon this place he has made 
many excellent improvements which add 
greatly to its value and attractive appear- 
ance, and here he lives, surrounded by a 
fair share of the comforts of life. 

Mr. Patterson was born in Stark county, 
Illinois, February 15, i860, a son of Robert 
and Mariah (Frazier) Patterson, natives of 
Pennsylvania, who removed to Illinois in 
1S55, and there the father engaged in farm- 
ing, which he made his life work. In 1883 

he came ttj Fillmore co nt}', Nebraska, 
59 



where he died two years later. The mother 
had passed away in 1877. In their family 
were three children who reached years of 
maturity, one son and two daughters, but 
one daughter is now deceased. The other 
is still a resident of Illinois. The paternal 
grandparents of our subject were Charles 
and Hannah (Townsend) Patterson, also 
natives of Pennsylvania, the latter's birth- 
place being near Pittsburg. 

In the county of his nativity, Fred C. 
Patterson was reared and educated in much' 
the usual manner of farmer boys, and he 
engaged in agricultural pursuits there until 
he and his father came to Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, in 1883. Here he purchased 
eighty acres of unimproved land, to the 
development and cultivation of which he 
has since devoted his attention with marked 
success, and to the original purchase he has 
added another eighty-acre tract. In con- 
nection with general farming he is also 
engaged in stock raising, and has met with 
more than ordinary success in both enter- 
prises. 

In 1890, Mr. Patterson led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss N'aleria Baldwin, a native 
of Iowa and a daughter of Thomas and 
Nancy (Emery) Baldwin, natives of Indiana 
and New Jersey, respectively. In 1848 her 
father removed to Iowa and two years later 
crossed the plains with an ox team to Cali- 
fornia, where he spent three years. Re- 
turning east, he again located in Iowa, and 
he and his wife are still living in Jasper 
county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson 
have two sons: George R. , born in 1892; 
and Carroll V., born in 1895. The parents 
are both members of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church of Fairmont, and Mr. Patterson 
is also connected with the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. Politically he is an ar- 
dent Republican and is one of the leaders 
of the party in his community. Coming to 
the state in rather limited circumstances, he 
has gained for himself a comfortable compe- 



1034 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



tence, and also won the confidence and es- 
teem of all with whom he has come in con- 
tact by his upright, honorable life. 



ELISHA KINNEY, one of the most pro- 
gressive and successful agriculturists of 
Seward county, is the owner of a beautiful 
farm on section 29, precinct P. His meth- 
ods of farm management show deep scien- 
tific knowledge combined with sound prac- 
tical judgment and the results show that 
"high class" farming, as an occupation, can 
be made profitable as well as pleasant. 

Mr. Kinney was born in Belmont coun- 
ty, Ohio, February 24, 1840, and is a son 
of William E. Kinney, who came to this 
country from County Armagh, Ireland, about 
1826, when a lad of eight years. Soon 
after, about 1830, his great-grandparents, 
Thomas and Margaret (Carr) Kinney, from 
whom many of the Kinneys in America are 
descended, also came to this country. 
Thomas had a brother, Henry M., who 
settled at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 
the family of Thomas and Margaret Kinney 
were five sons and two daughters, namely: 
William, John, James, Thomas, Henry, 
Deborah, and Jane. The fourth son, John 
Kinney, was the grandfather of our subject, 
and was married to Miss Erwin, and two 
sons were born to them: Thomas Erwin and 
William E., the father of Elisha. William 
Erwin Kinney grew to manhood in Belmont 
county, Ohio, and there his marriage was 
celebrated in 1838, Miss Sarah Kinney (a 
second cousin) becoming his wife. Seven 
of the children born to them reached years 
of maturity and three were married, our 
subject being the eldest of the family. The 
names of the seven were: Elisha, Erwin C, 
John, Robert E., Ira, Mary Jane, and Me- 
lissa D. Melissa D. married George Gregg, 
and died in 1883, leaving three children: 
Roy, Frederick and Clara. 

Upon a farm in the county of his 



nativity, Elisha Kinney spent his boyhood 
and youth, and, although provided with 
limited educational advantages, he made 
good use of his time and prepared himself 
for teaching, a profession which he success- 
fully followed for ten terms, two of these in 
Nebraska. Early in the spring of 1872 he 
decided to come west, and proceeded to 
Lincoln. He finally decided to locate in 
Seward count}', on the Big Blue river, where 
he now lives — a decision he has never had 
occasion to regret, for here he has pros- 
pered, securing a good home and comfort- 
able competence for himself and family. 
He now has one of the best and most high- 
ly cultivated farms of the locality. 

At Barnesville, Ohio, in 1866, Mr. Kin- 
' ney was united in marriage with Miss Nar- 
' cissa McKirahan, and to them have been 
I born five children: Emma O. , now the 
wife of T. F. Tompson; William S., who 
married Flora Bromwell, has two children, 
1 Neal H. and Beulah Grace, and was first 
lieutenant in Troop K, Third United States 
Cavalr}', with Captain Culver; Alva R. , who 
married Grace C. Barrager, daughter of the 
late Captain Barrager, of Crete, Nebraska; 
and Melissa D., married J. E. Brong; and 
Alice Pearl, who is teaching school at Cam- 
den. The children have been provided with 
liberal educations, Alva Raymond being a 
graduate of Doane College; his wife being 
also a graduate of Doane. 

In early life Mr. Kinney was a supporter 
of the Democratic party, but at present is 
an ardent Populist. His fellow citizens 
recognizing his worth and ability, have 
called him to public positions of honor and 
trust, and for twenty 3'ears he has been 
justice of the peace of his district, notary 
public now, and a member of the county 
board from precinct P. He was also ap- 
pointed postmaster at Camden under Presi- 
dent Arthur, and still retains that position. 
Socially he is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1035 



GEORGE W. DAVIS, a well known 
resident of Lushton aud an early set- 
tler in York county, Nebraska, was born in 
Ashtabula county, Ohio, March 13, 1833. 

The parents of our subject were Samuel 
Nurse and Abigail (Pettis) Davis. His 
grandfather Davis settled in New York in a 
very early day, and located on the lands 
where the city of Cuyahoga now stands. 
Here Samuel Nurse Davis, the father of our 
subject was born April 4, 1796. The family 
moved to Ohio near Cleveland when he was 
a child and he there met Abigail Pettis, to 
whom he was married June 12, 1823. He 
had two brothers and a sister, all of whom 
lived in Ohio and were married there. 
Abigail (Pettis) Davis was the daughter of 
Benjamin Pettis, a veteran of the Revolu- 
tionary war. He was among the first to 
volunteer in Connecticut, leaving a wife and 
three children at home. He was transferred 
to the Carolinas, and at the end of the war, 
after an absence of seven years, upon re- 
ceiving his discharge he made his was back 
to Connecticut, only to find, at the end of 
many weary months of travel, that his fam- 
ily had disappeared and could not be found. 
After many years search he way compelled 
to abandon the quest, and it is not known 
what became of his wife and children. 
After several years he remarried, and the 
subject of this sketch is the grandson of 
this second marriage. Samuel Nurse and 
Abigail (Pettis) Davis were the parents of 
three children, namely: Emily Ann, Rosella, 
and George W. Emily Ann married John 
Allen, and Rosella married George Shafer. 
The mother died in Ohio, and the family 
removed to Illinois, in 1846, where the 
father died on his farm near Bernadotte in 
1851. 

George W. Davis grew to manhood in Illi- 
nois, working on his father's farm and at- 
tending the public schools. He remained 
at home until his father died, in 185 1, 
when he was left alone in the world, the 



mother having died in February, 1846, in 
Ohio. In 1856 he was married and in 1858 
he removed to Missouri. The war broke 
out a few years later, and he returned to 
Illinois, and enlisted in the Twenty-eighth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel 
Ritter, and later Colonel Rhodes, his com- 
pany being Company K, under Captain 
John W. Stokes. His first actual military 
duty was at Mobile, April 6, 1865. He 
was at Mobile at the time of the great ex- 
plosion, when half the city was destroved 
by the igniting of thirty tons of gunpowder. 
He remained at Mobile until July 2, 1865, 
when his regiment was sent to Brazos 
island on the coast of Texas, and after 
camping about Clarkesville until August i, 
1865, they went to Brownsville, where his 
regiment was mustered out March 16, 1866. 
They reached Camp Butler, Springfield, 
Illinois, on the fourth day of the following 
month. 

For twelve years after the close of the 
war George W. Davis conducted a farm 
near Bernadotte, Illinois. In 1878 he sold 
his farm and went to York county, Nebras- 
ka, and purchased the southwest quarter of 
section 23, in Henderson township, having 
first arrived in that township October 22, 
1878. This land was unimproved, and it 
required much hard work and patience to 
make it 3ield the first crops. He contin- 
ued to live upon that farm, putting many 
improvements and conveniences upon it un- 
til 1890, when feeling himself unable to 
longer continue such arduous labors, he 
erected a residence in Lushton, where he 
has since lived in practical retirement. 

On August 14, 1856, George W. Davis 
and Miss Rebecca Greathouse were united 
in marriage in Illinois. Mrs. Davis remem- 
bers her grandfather Greathouse, and her 
grandmother. May (Ryan) Greathouse, 
whose marriage occurred in what is now 
West Virginia, their residence being near 
the line between Virginia and Ohio. The 



103G 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIIT. 



grandfather served through the Black Hawk 
Indian war. The family removed to Ohio, 
and finally to White county, Indiana, where 
the grandfather and mother died. Mrs. 
Davis' father and mother were married in 
Licking county, Ohio, where they lived 
about five years. From White county, 
Indiana, they removed to southwest Missouri. 
After about two years they went to Fulton 
county, Illinois, and it was there that Mr. 
and Mrs. Davis were married. They are 
the parents of seven children, four of whom 
are now living, named as follows: Eliza 
Jane, Akira F. , EJza E., and Teressa 
Rosella. Eliza Jane married Harvey L. 
Walters; Alzira F. married Sherman L. 
Knox; Elza E. married Emma Runnels, and 
Teressa Rossella married Louis Labart. 
All the children are engaged in farming ex- 
cept Sherman L. Knox, who is a miller. 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis are members of the 
Christian church at Lushton, and were 
among its first active organizers. Mr. 
Davis is a member of C. W\ Hayes Post, G. 
A. R., No. 306. 

The parents of Mrs. Davis died in Ful- 
ton county, Illinois, — the father in 1868 
aged sixty-four and the mother in 1870 aged 
sixty-six years. 



SHELLY STINES.— Prominent among 
the progressive, enterprising and suc- 
cessful agriculturists of Fillmore county, is 
the subject of this sketch, whose home is 
on section 15, West Blue township. His 
life history happily illustrates what may be 
attained by faithful and continued effort in 
carrying out an honest purpose. Integrity, 
activity and energy have been the crowning 
points of his success, and the enterprises 
with which he has been connected have 
been of decided advantage to the communi- 
ty, promoting its material welfare in no 
uncertain manner. 

Mr. Stines was born in Niagara county. 



New York, August 8, 1855, and is a son of 
Henry and Pyra (Harris) Stines, natives of 
Vermont and New York, respectively. The 
paternal grand father, Stines, was born in No- 
va Scotia, and died in the Empire state. The 
maternal grand father, Benjamin Harris was 
a native of Vermont, and on coming west in 
1864, located in Leavenworth county, Kan- 
sas, where he died about 1876. He was a 
farmer by occupation. The father of our 
subject was quite a prominent and influential 
man in his community, and while a resident 
of Niagara county served as postmaster of 
Youngstown and as sheriff of the county, 
filling the former office for many years. At 
one time he edited a paper in Albanj', New 
York, and filled the position of assistant 
librarian in the state library at that place 
for some little time. He also worked at 
the mason's trade in New York for some 
years, and was a man honored and respect- 
ed by all who knew him. He died in 1864, 
and his wife passed away January i, 1899. 
In their family were three sons and three 
daughters who are still living, namely: Hal 
P., a farmer of Fillmore county, Nebraska; 
Fletcher, a resident of Fairmont, the same 
county; Shelly, our subject; Mrs. D. 
Billick, of Boyd county, Nebraska; Mrs. I. 
G. Heckman, of York county, this state; 
and Mrs. J. Foster, of Fairmont. 

Reared in New York, Shelly Stines was 
educated in the common schools of that 
state and later engaged in farming there for 
two years as a renter. In 1866 he went to 
Poweshiek county, Iowa, where he followed 
the same occupation until 1880, and then 
came to Nebraska. After spending one year 
in York county, he came to Fillmore county, 
in 1 88 1, and has since resided upon his 
present farm in West Blue township, where 
he now owns four hundred and eighty acres 
of valuable land, three hundred and fifty of 
which have been placed under the plow. 
He has given special attention to stock rais- 
ing and feeding, and each year ships from 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



1037 



•eight to ten car loads of stock which ha^'e 
been cared for on his home farm, besides 
large numbers which he buys and sells. In 
1898, he erected upon his place, at a cost of 
two thousand five hundred dollars, one of 
the best homes in the county, and the other 
buildings upon the farm are in perfect har- 
mony therewith, so that he has one of the 
most attractive and desirable places in the 
township. 

In 1884, Mr. Stines married Miss Sarah 
A. Bennett, a daughter of Frederick C. 
Bennett, whose sketch appears elsewhere 
in this work. The children born of this 
union are Le Roy, Archie, Amie and Helen, 
all living. Socially, Mr. Stines affiliates 
with the Modern Woodmen of America, and 
politically is identified with the Republican 
party, but has never sought official honors, 
preferring to give his undivided attention to 
his business interests. On his arrival in the 
count}' he had but two teams and four hun- 
dred dollars in money, and the valuable 
property he has since accumulated has beeh 
acquired through his own well-directed ef- 
forts. His spacious home is the abode of 
hospitality, for there the many friends of 
the family are always sure of a hearty wel- 
ccme. In 1896 Mr. Stines met with a 
serious accident while shelling corn, by 
which he lost his left hand. He neverthe- 
less accomplishes much work, notwith- 
standing that loss. 



SA. AND J. A. REICHENBACH, com- 
prising the well-known firm of Reichen- 
bach Brothers, are among the most success- 
ful business ' men of Rising City. Their^ 
career illustrates most forcibly the possibil- 
ities that are open to young men who 
possess sterling business qualifications. It 
proves that neither wealth nor social posi- 
tion, nor the assistance of influential friends 
at the outset of one's career are necessary 
to place him on the road to success. It 



also proves that ambition, perseverance and 
steadfast purpose and indefatigable industry, 
combined with sound business principles 
will be rewarded, and that true success fol- 
lows individual effort only. 

The Reichenbach family was originally 
from Germany, but during the Thirty 
Years' war they were driven from that 
country and took refuge in Switzerland. 
They were Protestants in religious faith. 
The father of our subject, Benedict Reichen- 
bach, was born in Switzerland, October 15, 
1809, and is still living, hale and hearty, at 
the age of eighty-nine years. In early life 
he was an artilleryman in the Swiss army 
and was a messmate of Louis Napoleon 
during the latter's exile. By trade Bene- 
dict Reichenbach was a tanner, and oper- 
ated extensive tanneries in both France and 
Russia, but lost his property in the latter 
country during Kossuth's revolution, which 
led him to come to America in 1852. He 
located in Ashland county, Ohio, where he 
continued to engage in the tanning business 
until the panic of 1873 closed operations. 
His eldest son. Major E. C. Reichenbach, 
was major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volun- 
teer Infantry during the Civil war — the 
same regiment of which William McKinley 
was afterward brevet major. Subsequently 
Major Reichenbach was quartermaster of 
the Army of the Potomac, with headquarters 
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, resigning that 
position in 1867. He died in Texas in 1871. 

S. A. Reichenbach, of this review, was 
born in Switzerland, February 15, 1850, 
but was only two years old when the family 
crossed the Atlantic and became residents 
of Ohio, in which state J. A. Reichenbach 
first opened his eyes to the light February 
18, 1854. The brothers were reared and 
educated in Ohio, where they remained 
until 1877, which year witnessed their 
arrival in Nebraska. Locating first in 
Saunders count}', they engaged in farming 
there for two years, and for the following 



1038 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



three years were interested in the lumber 
business, but since September, 18S2, they 
have made their home in Rising City, But- 
ler county, where they established the 
Rising City Bank. In 1888 they opened 
the Bank of Pittsburg at Pittsburg, Boone 
county, Nebraska, and in i S97 also organiz- 
ed the Reichenbach Land & Trust Company, 
with a paid up capital of $50,000. This 
company owns large tracts of land in Butler 
and Polk counties and is one of the most 
reliable concerns of the kind in the state. 
The brothers are both enterprisng, energetic 
and progressive business men, as well as 
able financiers, and their success in life is 
worthily achieved. 

S. A. Reichenbach was married in But- 
ler county, in 1889, to Miss Carrie Horton, 
while J. A. Reichenbach was married, in 
1890,10 Miss Mabel Newcomb, and now has 
a little daughter — Marie. In social as well 
as business circles the family rank high. 



PROF. J. ELLIS MAXWELL, vice- 
president of York College and professor 
of natural science of that institution, was 
born January i, 1867, at Lexington, Illi- 
nois. His parents were Harrison A. and 
Lavinia R. (Fleming) Maxwell, the former 
born in Fulton county, Illinois, March 2, 
1829, and the latter born in Mercer county, 
Kentucky, April 9, 1833. His grandpar- 
ents, Alexander and Mary (Ellis) Maxwell, 
settled in Fulton county, Illinois, at a very 
early day, and died there in 1892. 

To trace the ancestry of our subject, 
however, it will be necessary to go back 
into some of the most interesting periods of 
history. After the death of the famous 
Oliver Cromwell, Richard Fleming, Earl of 
Wigton in Scotland, having no hope of re- 
conciliation with Charles II of England, 
abandoned his title of Earl of Wigton, 
and emigrated to the then young but vigor- 
ous colony of Virginia. Here as a mer- 



chant he acquired a large fortune. His 
second son, Tarleton Fleming, was equally 
successful in the same calling and locality. 
Tartleton Fleming married Mary Randolph, 
daughter of Colonel Thomas M. Randolph, 
of Virginia. Her sister, Elizabeth, was the 
wife of Peter Jefferson, and mother of 
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the 
United States. William Randolph Fleming, 
first son of Tarleton and Mary Randolph 
Fleming, , inherited a large plantation and 
two hundred slaves, but preferring the law, 
he early turned his attention to that profes- 
sion. He practiced successfully in the 
courts of Virginia, served fifteen years as a 
member of the state legislature, one term 
as member of congress from Virginia, and 
was a candidate lor senator when his death 
occurred at Richmond, October 5, 1S14, in 
the forty-third year of his age. His death 
resulted from a gun-shot wound accident- 
ally inflicted by his cousin, Archibald Ran- 
dolph, while they were out hunting. Will- 
iam R. Fleming was married to Anna Webb, 
daughter of John Seymore Webb, a de- 
scendant of the Seymore house of England, 
his great-great-grandmother, being one of 
the wives of Henry VIII, of England. 

John Tarleton Fleming, first son of Will- 
iam R. and Anna Webb Fleming, was born 
on the 14th day of December, 1794, at the 
country-seat of his parents in Goochland 
county, Virginia. Although heir to the 
Wigton estate in Scotland and a large for- 
tune in Virginia, he placed his life upon the 
altar of his country, and enlisted at the age 
of nineteen years as a soldier in the war of 
18 1 2. Through the great hardships and 
exposures of the war he contracted neural- 
gia of the optic nerves, which rendered him 
almost blind for the rest of his long life. 
After the war he removed to Mercer coun- 
ty, Kentucky, where on the 25th day of 
February, 1830, he was married to Miss 
Sarah Turner, daughter of Starling Turner, 
of Mercer county. In 1834 he removed to 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



1039 



Fulton county, Illinois. Here until the 
freedom of the slaves was accomplished he 
continued to agitate the slavery question, 
and to vote the Abolitionist ticket. Al- 
though the son of a slave-holder, and inher- 
iting a large number of slaves, he had re- 
fused to receive them as property, declar- 
ing that he was born an abolitionist. After 
the war he removed to Page county, Iowa, 
and a few years later to San Francisco, 
California, where he died February 9, 1883, 
at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. 
His wife, Sarah, survived him ten years, 
dying December 24, 1893, at the age of 
eighty-two years. Lavinia R. Fleming, 
daughter of John Tarleton and Sarah 
(Turner) Fleming, and mother of our sub- 
ject, was married to Harrison A. Maxwell 
September 13, 1855, in Fulton county, Illi- 
nois. His parents were Alexander and 
Mary (Ellis) Maxwell, the former born in 
Tennessee in 1804. He died at Canton, 
Illinois, in March, 1892. Mary (Ellis) 
Maxwell was born near Vandalia, Illinois, 
in the year 1808, and died at Canton, Illi- 
nois, December 17, 1892, in the eighty- 
fourth year of her age. 

The subject of this sketch, J. Ellis Max- 
well, from the age of five to the age of sev- 
enteen 3'ears, lived on a farm in Page 
county, Iowa, to which state his parents 
had moved from Illinois. He attended the 
public schools of Page county, and worked 
on the farm, and his opportunities for an 
education during that time were limited. 
At the age of seventeen years he accom- 
panied his father to Jefferson county, Ne- 
braska, where his father purchased a farm, 
and young Maxwell worked for him until 
the age of twenty-three years had been at- 
tained. He then left the parental roof and 
struck out for himself. He attended the 
Nebraska Wesleyan University at Lincoln, 
from which institution he graduated in 1894; 
but his thirst for learning was not by any 
means satisfied, and he decided to take the 



post-praduate course, and at the end of the 
year the University conferred upon him the 
master's degree. (1895.) 

Before the completion of his post-gradu- 
ate year the board of trustees of York Col- 
lege tendered to him the chair of natural 
sciences, the full board concurring in the 
invitation. He has performed the duties of 
that position for three consecutive years, 
with great honor and satisfaction, and has 
again been chosen to the same position for 
the fourth year, and to show their apprecia- 
tion of his valuable services and his marked 
ability, the board of trustees in 1897 elected 
him vice-president of the college, re-elect- 
ing him to the same important place in 
1898. 

The most important step in his career, 
however, was taken in August, 1898. On 
the 24th day of that month, he was united in 
the bonds of wedlock with Miss Ella M. 
Smith, daughter of Herman C. and Jennie 
(Willis) Smith, of York, Nebraska. With 
deep acquirements in knowledge and cult- 
ure, an enviable position, sincere esteem of 
his fellow men, and a happy domestic life, 
it would appear that none of the comple- 
ments of a successful career are wantin , 
and surely the star of Prof. Maxwell is in 
the ascendant. 



CHARLES ALDRICH, deceased, was 
president of the Farmers State Bank 
of Fairmont at the time of his death and 
was one of the most successful agriculturists 
of Fillmore county. He had a wide reputa- 
tion as a most capable financier, and occu- 
pied a position of no little prominence in 
business circles. His life demonstrated 
what may be accomplished through energy, 
careful management, keen foresight and the 
utilization of powers with which nature has 
endowed one, and the opportunities with 
which the times surround him. 

Mr. Aldrich was a native of Rhode I-I- 



1040 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and, born in Cumberland, August 27, 1823, 
and was a son of Thomas A. and Mariah 
(Gaskill) Aldrich, also natives of that state, 
where they spent their entire lives with the 
exception of twelve years when residents of 
Worcester, Massachusetts. The father was 
a farmer and followed that occupation 
throughout life, but besides his farming land 
he owned bank stock and other property 
and was quite well-to-do. After a long and 
happy married life of sixty-five years, both 
he and his wife died in 1 886, within three 
days of each other. He was born in 1796 — 
she in 1801. To this worthy couple were 
born eleven children, four sons and seven 
daughters, but all are now deceased with 
the exception of Sarah, who is now living 
in East Northfield, Massachusetts. Our 
subject's grandfather, Thomas Aldrich, was 
born in Rhode Island of English parentage. 
The family was founded in this country 
early in the seventeenth century, and the 
old homestead in Rhode Island is still in the 
possession of the family. 

Reared on the home farm, Charles Al- 
drich acquired his literary education in the 
schools of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 
and when quite young began farming in his 
native state, where he remained until 1852. 
He spent one year in Michigan and then 
went to Bureau county, Illinois, where he 
followed the same occupation with a brother 
until the latter died in 1S56. He continued 
to make his home there, however, until 1864, 
when he removed to Missouri, but not being 
pleased with that state he returned to Illi- 
nois a few months later. In 1SS2 he came 
to Fillmore count}', Nebraska, and located 
at Fairmont, purchasing a farm adjoining the 
town site. He gave his attention to agricult- 
ural pursuits until his death, and in 1 886 also 
became interested in the Farmers State 
Bank of Fairmont, of which he was chosen 
president. In his business enterprises he 
had met with remarkable success and at the 
time of his death owned a large amount of 



valuable land. He never took an active 
part in political affairs nor sought office, 
though he twice served as township assessor 
and always faithfully discharged his duties 
of citizenship. Although not a member of 
any religious denomination, he was a believ- 
er in Christianity and led an honorable, 
upright life, which gained for him the con- 
fidence and esteem of all with whom he 
came in contact. He passed away October 
14, 1892, and his death was mourned by 
many friends as well as his immediate family. 
On the 19th of September, 1861, Mr. 
Aldrich was united in marriage with Miss 
Margaret Buterbaugh, a native of Pennsj'l- 
\ania. Her great-grandfather came to this 
country as a Hessian soldier during the Re- 
volutionarj- war, but he soon deserted the 
British forces and assisted the colonies in 
achieving their independence as a member 
of the Continental army. Her parents, 
Jacob and Susanna (Young) Buterbaugh, 
were also natives of the Keystone state, and 
in 1853 removed to Illinois, where they 
died in 1893 and 1890, respectively. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich were born four chil- 
dren, of which three reached years of ma- 
turity and are still living, namely: Emeline 
A., now Mrs. Berson, of Maywood, Nebras- 
ka; George E., president of the Farmers 
State Bank of Fairmont; Bertise E., who is 
vice-president of the same institution and 
resides at home. Willie is deceased. 



M 



ORACE F. SMITH, whose home 
is on section 25, township 13, range 
4, is one of the most extensive stock dealers 
of Polk county. Greater fortunes have 
been accumulated in this section of the 
state, but few lives furnish so striking an 
example of the wise application of sound 
principles and safe conservatism as does 
his. The stor\' of his success is short and 
simple, containing no exciting chapters, but 
in it lies one of the most valuable secrets 




MR. AND MRS. M. F. SMITH. 



COMPENDIU^^ OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1043 



of the prosperity which it records, and his 
business and private life are pregnant with 
interest and incentive, no matter how lack- 
ing in dramatic action, — the record of a 
noble life, consistent with itself and its 
possibilities in every particular. 

Mr. Smith was born in the town of 
Groton, Tompkins county. New York, June 
4, 1854, and of that county, his parents, 
Theodore and Adelia Ann (Francis) Smith, 
were also natives. His grandfathers, Anson 
Smith and Patterson Francis, were also 
born in New York, and were farmers by oc- 
cupation. The mother of our subject died 
in the county of her birth, in 1857, but the 
father, who was born December 25, 1834, 
still resides there. Throughout his active 
business life he has been interested in 
agricultural pursuits. Our subject is one of 
a famil\- of three children and is the only 
survivor, his brother having died at the age 
of five years and his sister at the age of 
three months. 

Mr. Smith, of this review, completed 
his literary studies in the State Normal 
School of Cortland, New York, where he 
graduated with the class of 1883, and he 
later engaged in teaching and also studied 
law for a time. Since 1S87, however, he 
has been interested in the stock business. 
Coming west in the winter of 1883, he locat- 
ed in Glendive, Montana, where he worked 
on a stock range for two years. In the fall 
of 1885 he came to Polk county, Nebraska, 
and purchased his present farm, on which 
he located in the following spring, and 
which at that time was practically in a wild 
state. The same year he built his present 
comfortable dwelling and later erected good 
barns and other outbuildings as they were 
needed. Although he was very successful 
both in the practice of law and in teaching, 
he could not resist the inherited taste for 
agricultural pursuits, his ancestors having 
all been farmers and drovers. For two 
years he engaged in teaching in Polk county, 



but the second year he began dealing in cat- 
tle upon a small scale. Since 1894 it has 
been his aim to keep between three and 
four hundred head of cattle upon his place 
and at the present time has three hundred 
and eighty-five head. In connection with 
two other parties, he is also engaged in 
shipping cattle from the Montana ranges to 
the Nebraska corn belt. He owns four 
hundred acres of land in Polk county, of 
which one hundred and forty acres is de- 
voted to clover, one hundred and eighty to 
grass and forty to wild grass. 

In 1883 Mr. Smith was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Libbie Leonard, who was 
born in Delaware county, New York, Sep- 
tember 12, 1862, and was also educated in 
the Cortland State Normal and Training 
School, graduating in the same class with 
her husband. She successfully engaged in 
teaching for a time in the high school of 
Clyde, New York. Her parents, Asa D. 
and Adeline (Mackey) Leonard, were both 
natives of Delaware county. New York, and 
were prominent farming people. During 
his youth her father attended school with 
Jay Gould. He is still a resident of Broome 
county, New York, but the mother is now 
deceased. They had only two children — 
Mrs. Smith, and Wilson V., of New York. 
Mrs. Smith's paternal grandfather was 
Henry Leonard, a native of New York, who 
had three sons who served with distinction 
as surgeons in the Civil war. Her mater- 
nal grandfather, Levi Mackey, was also 
born in the Empire state. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four children: 
Leonard, born in 1884; Delia, in 1887; 
Ruth, in 1895; and Mildred in 1897. The 
parents are consistent members of the 
Christian church. Socially Mr. Smith be- 
longs to Arborville Camp, No. 1499, Modern 
Woodmen of America, and politically is 
connected with the Republican party, 
though he is rather conservative in politics. 
He has been a delegate to the state Repub- 



1044 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



lican convention, at Lincoln, and long 
served as a member ot the local school 
board. Although quiet and unassuming in 
manner, he makes many warm friends, and 
has the confidence and respect of all with 
whom he comes in contact, either in busi- 
ness or private life. In connection with this 
sketch is shown a portrait of Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith. 



GEORGE ROSITER, a pioneer of York 
county, whose home is situated near 
the city of York, was born in Herkimer 
county. New York, March i8, 1843, a son 
of Thomas and Mary (Duress) Rositer, the 
former a native of Vermont and of French 
descent, and the latter a native of Virginia, 
but also of French descent. Thomas Rosi- 
ter moved to Virginia when a young man, 
and from there to Herkimer county. New 
York, and thence to Oneida county. New 
York, where he spent the remainder of his 
life. His father, John Rositer, was also a 
native of Vermont, and a soldier in the Re- 
volutionary war. 

Our subject was but about one year of 
age when the family moved to Oneida coun- 
ty. New York, where he was reared and 
educated. During the early part of his life 
he was a molder by trade, and followed 
that vocation until the breaking out of the 
Civil war. He enlisted, in April, 1861, in 
Company H, Seventh Illinois Infantry, 
from Logan county, Illinois, whence he had 
moved in 1S60. He was mustered in at 
Springfield, April 22, 1861, and was then 
sent to Saint Louis. From there he went 
into camp and drilled for three months. He 
then participated in the engagements at 
Fort Holt, Tennessee, Fort Henry, Fort 
Donelson and Shiloh. At the last named 
battle he was wounded in the right foot and 
was discharged for disability in June, 1862. 
He then returned to his home in Illinois, 
but his patriotism soon asserted itself, and 



August 22, 1862, he became a member of 
Company C, One Hundred and Si.xth Illinois 
regiment. With this command he went to 
Columbus, Kentucky, Jackson, Tennessee, 
and then the company was stationed along 
the Mobile & Ohio railroad, guarding trestle 
work and bridges. In June, 1863, he par- 
ticipated in the siege of Vicksburg, after 
which he did scout duty until the close of 
the war. While in the detached service, 
near Meridian, Mississippi, he was taken 
prisoner by Forrest's cavalry, but escaped 
within four weeks, and returned to the 
Union lines. After the close of hostilities, 
he returned to Logan county, Illinois, and 
worked for several years on a farm. In 
1869 he paid a visit of several months to his 
New York home. In 1870 he moved from 
Illinois to York county, Nebraska, and 
made his home for a short time with Peter 
Heller, who had settled on the Blue river, 
near the Seward county line. 

Mr. Rositer then pre-empted an entire 
section of land for eastern parties, and in 
the spring of 1871, returned to Illinois to 
accompany the settlers to their new homes. 
Upon arrival, however, they decided not to 
locate in Fillmore county and the company 
scattered and went to different parts of the 
state. Being unmarried, Mr. Rositer made 
his home for a time with James A. Taylor. 
In September, 1S74, he filed a soldier's 
homestead claim to the northwest quarter 
of section 30, Leroy township, and then 
went to Illinois to file a claim to the lady 
who has since presided over his household. 
Her name at that time was Miss Colista 
Rinehart. She was born in McLean county, 
Illinois, January 19, 1849, a daughter of 
Peter and Comfort (Hammitt) Rinehart, 
the formier a native of Germany, who came 
to America with his parents in 1832. 

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. 
Rositer came to York county, Nebraska, in 
the spring of 1875, and began housekeeping 
in a sod house, on their homestead, in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



1045 



Leroy township. Although they experienced 
many of the hardships to which the Ne- 
braska pioneers were subject, they have 
persevered and prospered, and are one of the 
prominent and well-to-do families of the 
township. The farm is not only supplied 
with all necessary improvements, but is 
supplied with some of the lu.xuries of life, 
such as an orchard of two acres of bearing 
apple trees, and also a two-acre orchard of 
young peach trees. In politics, our subject 
is an ardent supporter of the Republican 
party, but has never sought or held a public 
office. He takes an active interest in 
educational matters and has been a member 
of the school board for five or six years. 
He is a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, Robert Anderson post. No. 32, at 
York, and has served that post in the 
capacity of senior vice commander. Mrs. 
Rositer is a member of the Methodist 
church. To Mr. and Mrs. Rositer have been 
born a famil)' of five children, viz. : Row- 
land, Mary, Fannie, Warren and Vernon. 



TAMES D. CUNNINGHAM.— Among the 
<J citizens of mark in Seward county, no 
one is more worthy of consideration than 
the gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this sketch. He is a man of wide 
and varied experience, and since taking up 
his residence in the county, in 1868, has 
exerted a beneficial influence in promoting 
its prosperity and development. 

He was born in Fayette county, Penn- 
sylvania, September i, 18 16, and is a son 
of Thomas and Catherine (Cook) Cunning- 
ham, the former a native of Virginia, the 
latter of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. 
The father, however, was reared in Penn- 
sylvania, and was there married at the age 
of twenty-eight years, while his wife was 
sixteen. For fourteen years they continued 
to make their home in that state and then 
emigrated to Wisconsin, where both died, 



the father at the age of sixty, and the mother 
at the age of seventy years. Our subject 
was the oldest of their thirteen children, of 
whom only four, two sons and two daugh- 
ters, are now living. 

As there were no public schools during 
the boyhood and youth of our subject, he 
received no educational advantages what- 
ever. He was twelve years of age at the 
time of the removal of the family to Wis- 
consin, which state at that time was very 
sparsely settled and wild animals and game 
of all kinds were plentiful. When sixteen 
he killed eight deer in one day. The family 
made their home on the Little Platte river 
in Grant county, and our subject aided in 
the arduous task of converting the wild 
land into rich and productive fields. He 
was also employed from 1831 until 1833 by 
the government to survey certain portions 
of the southern part of the state. In 1832, 
at the age of sixteen years, he entered the 
Black Hawk war, which was a hard and 
bloody struggle between the early settlers 
and the Indians, lasting from April until 
September of that year. His father was a 
comnn'ssary sergeant in the same war, while 
his father-in-law, George Washington Jones, 
and two brothers, Joseph and William Cun- 
ningham, were privates, and fortunately 
none were killed. 

In 1844, Mr. Cunningham was united in 
marriage with Miss Lucinda Jones, a daugh- 
ter of George W. and Sarah (Thompson) 
Jones, who were married in Kentucky, Jan- 
uary 30, 1825. Her father was born April 
7, 1804, in South Carolina, of Welsh ances- 
try, and her mother March 16, 1807, in 
Christian county, Kentucky. In their fam- 
ily were fourteen children whose names and 
dates of birth are as follows: Elizabeth 
Jane, February 22, 1826; Lucinda, Decem- 
ber 25, 1827; Eliza Jane, March 4, 1830; 
Sarah Ann, January 18, 1832; George L. , 
January 26, 1834; John E., July 15, 1836; 
Araminta M., August i, 1838; Harrison C, 



1046 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



November 23, 1840; David T., January i, 
1 843 ; Josephine C. , April 4, 1 845 ; Sophrona 
Ellen, April 27, 1847; Melissa E., May 13, 
1849; James T., February 11, 1852; and 
William S., April 16, 1854. Only four of 
this family are living at the present writing, 
in 1898. Eight children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham, namely: Mel- 
vina C. is now the wife of Norman Hill, of 
Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin; Warren 
David makes his home in Milford, Seward 
county, Nebraska; Lydia N. is the wife of 
George E. Tindall, a farmer of Seward 
county; James D. is living in Oklahoma, 
where he has served one term as county 
treasurer and has been renominated by his 
partj'; Sarah married Ira Pool and lived in 
Wisconsin, where she died at the age of 
twenty-nine years, leaving a husband and 
three children; Lucinda E. married Elisha 
Courtright and died at the age of thirty- 
four years, leaving a husband and two chil- 
dren; Charles Perry was born in Jo Daviess 
count}', Illinois, May 12, 1845, and died at 
the age of twenty-two years while in the 
service of his country during the Civil war; 
and George T., who vvas born in Lafayette 
county, Wisconsin, and died when only six 
weeks old. 

In 1868 Mr. Cunningham and his family 
started for Nebraska with five horses draw- 
ing a wagon and buggies, and on their ar- 
rival in Seward county he secured a home- 
stead of eighty acres in I precinct, and also 
bought another eighty-acre tract, for which 
he paid $1,000. Upon this farm he made 
his home for fifteen years and e.xperienced 
all of the hardships and trials incident to 
life on the frontier, their first home being a 
small frame house with a dugout kitchen 
and cellar or cave. As there were no rail- 
roads at that time, traveling was difficult 
and they were compelled to go to Platts- 
mouth to market, a distance of seventy-five 
miles. Lincoln at that time was a mere 
hamlet, and gave little promise of becoming 



the thriving city which we to-day see. In 
1883 Mr. Cunningham removed to the town 
of Milford, where he purchased real estate, 
and still owns twelve good residences. He 
has prospered in his new home and has 
never had occasion to regret his coming to 
Nebraska. He has won his way to the re- 
gards of the people with whom he has come 
in contact, either in business or social life, 
and has many warm friends throughout 
Seward county. 



JAMES A. KEEGAN, who for the past 
eleven years has most acceptably 
served as assessor of Fairmont township, is 
a man whose success in life is due entirely to 
his own well directed efforts, for he started 
out in life for himself empty-handed. He 
is a native of Maine, his birth occurring 
near the city of Bangor, October 8, 1846. 
His parents, John and Sarah (McCue) Kee- 
gan, were both natives of the Emerald Isle 
and emigrated to the United States when 
about twelve years of age, the former com- 
ing with an uncle in 1798, the latter with 
her brother in 18 ii. They grew to man 
and womanhood in Maine and were there 
married about 1834. The father was a 
lumberman and followed that occupation in 
connection with surveying, assisting in 
establishing the line between Canada and 
the United States in 1842. On coming 
west in 1849, he settled in Jackson county, 
Iowa, where he engaged in farming and 
stock raising until his death, which occurred 
in 1888. He lacked only four months of 
being a centenarian. He was noted for his 
charity, and was well known and highly 
respected by all. His wife died in 1889. In 
their family were nine children, three sons 
and six daughters. 

James A. Keegan was reared in Iowa 
and educated in the schools of Bellville, 
that state. He remained under the pa- 
rental roof until twentj'-five 3'ears of age 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1047 



and continued his residence in Iowa until 
March i, 1878, when he came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, and rented a homestead 
here for twenty-one years. In connection 
with its cultivation, he also operates land 
of his own and is successfully engaged in 
general farming and stock raising, giving 
special attention to thoroughbred horses, 
for which he finds a ready sale at the high- 
est market prices. He now owns a well- 
known horse, Senella, to-day the fastest 
horse in Nebraska. 

On the 5th of April, 1869, Mr. Keegan 
married Miss Sarah J. McLees, a native of 
Maryland, and a daughter of Daniel C. and 
Agnes (McKillup) McLees. They were na- 
tives of Scotland, who came to the United 
States in 1834, and located at Mt. Savage, 
Maryland, where they were married and in 
1847 they located in Iowa, where the father 
died in 1873. The mother later moved to 
Davenport, Nebraska, where she died Au- 
gust 7, 1895. O'-T subject and his wife 
have eight children, namely: John; Mary 
J., wife of M. Shrader, of Zwingle, Jack- 
son county, Iowa; Aggie, who is engaged 
in teaching school in Nebraska; Nathaniel 
C. , Frank, Sadie, William E. and Emma, 
all at home. 

The Republican party has always found 
in Mr. Keegan a stanch supporter of its 
principles, and in local politics he takes 
quite an active and influential part, having 
served as a delegate to state, county and 
congressional conventions. He is widely 
and favorably known throughout the county 
and has a host of warm friends who esteem 
him highly for his genuine worth. 



JAMES D. HOUSTON, one of the pio- 
neers of New York township, York 
county, was born in Perthshire, Scotland, 
June 20, 1 84 1, a son of Andrew and Em- 
ily (Ritchie) Houston, both natives of Scot- 
land. The father was a farmer and fol- 



lowed that occupation in Scotland until 
1870, when he migrated to the United 
States, settled in Wisconsin, and moved 
from there to \'ork county, Nebraska, 
where he and his wife both died in the 
year 1880. 

Our subject is the only son and the 
only child now living of a family of three 
children. He was educated in Scotland 
and was engaged in farming in that country 
until he came to America in 1869. He first 
located in Wisconsin, but only lived there 
one year-and then moved to York county, 
Nebraska. He filed a homestead claim to 
a farm of one hundred and si.xty acres on 
section 8, New York township. He built a 
frame house, hauling the lumber from Lin- 
coln, Nebraska, and soon developed the 
raw, unbroken stretch of prairie that com- 
prised his homestead into a cozy home and 
profitable farin. 

Mr. Houston was married in England, 
in 1867, to Miss Mary Lidington, a native 
of Buckinghamshire, England, and to this 
union have been born si.\ sons and one 
daughter, whose names are as follows: 
James, William B., Andrew, Kate L., 
Ritchie, George and John E. Of this fam- 
ily George is now dead. The entire family 
are members of the Episcopal church, Mr. 
Houston has served for seven jears as a 
member of the board of supervisors, and 
two years as township assessor. Politically 
he is a Republican. 



CHARLES W. DERBY enjoys the well- 
earned distinction of being what the 
public calls "a self-made man," and in 
Butler county he ranks not only among the 
successful business men, but is regarded as 
one of the leading and prominent citizens 
who in all the relations of life is true to the 
trust and duties reposed in him. His uni- 
form courtesy, his genial manner, his reli- 
ability in all trade transactions and his 



1048 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



faithfulness in public office have made him 
a popular citizen and one well worthy of 
mention in this volume. 

Now a resident of David City, he was 
born in Henry county, Illinois, October 27, 
1851, and is a son of Benjamin and L. J. 
(Pinkney) Derby. His father was a native 
New York and about 1844 emigrated to Illi- 
nois, becoming one of the pioneer settlers 
of Henry county. During the war of the 
Rebellion he enlisted in the One Hundred 
and Twelfth Volunteer Infantry, but after 
serving for a year was honorably discharged 
on account of disability, and six months 
later died from disease contracted in the 
service. He was of English descent. His 
wife, also a native of the Empire state and 
of English lineage, is now living in Lincoln, 
Nebraska, at the- age of sixty-nine years. 
By her first marriage she had a family of 
four sons and four daughters. After the 
death of Mr. Derby she was again married, 
and by the second union three children were 
born. 

Our subject was the eldest son and third 
child of the first marriage, and was reared 
in Henry county, Illinois, where, at the 
early age of eleven years he started out to 
make his own way in the world. Whatever 
success he has achieved is due entirely to his 
own efforts, and his industry and enterprise 
in the affairs of life has been most com- 
mendable. He first worked by the month 
as a farm hand, receiving six dollars per 
month in compensation for his services. In 
the fall of 1870 he came to Butler county, 
where he opened up and cultivated a half 
section of wild land for J. D. Bell. Upon 
that land the town of Bellwood is now situ- 
ated. For seven years Mr. Derby contin- 
ued to develop and improve that property, 
and then located on an adjoining farm 
which he purchased of Benjamin Rochen. 
Until 1880 he continued to devote his en- 
ergies to general farming and then sold his 
property, after which he took charge of the 



stock farm of R. H. Henry, there engaging 
in the raising, purchase and sale of live 
stock for twelve years. In 1893 he was 
elected sheriff of Butler county and re- 
moved to David City, where the following 
year he embarked in the livery business, 
which he has since followed with good suc- 
cess. He also purchased the old Commer- 
cial Hotel, which he is now fitting up for 
general use. His stable is equipped with a 
large line of fine carriages, and he keeps on 
hand good horses, being thus well prepared 
to attend to the wants of his many patrons. 
His readiness to please his customers and 
his honesty in all trade transactions has 
brought to him a good business and he de- 
rives therefrom a substantial income. 

In the discharge of his official duties 
Mr. Derby has been very prompt, looking 
after the best interests of the community by 
protecting the public from the lawless ele- 
ment which would threaten the destruction 
of life and property. He was re-elected in 
1S95, serving for a second term, and was 
then defeated in 1897 by fifty-three votes, 
although the fusion ticket of Democrats and 
Populists had a usual majority of ten hun- 
dred and fifty. The many Democratic 
votes which Mr. Derby, the Republican 
candidate, received was certainly a tribute 
to his personal worth and an indication of 
his personal popularity and the confidence 
reposed in him by his fellow citizens. He 
has long been a recognized leader in Repub- 
lican ranks, and has been chairman of the 
county central committee since 1896. 

In the fall of 1873 was celebrated the 
marriage of Mr. Derby and Miss Ida War- 
ren, a daughter of Captain Miles Warren, 
of Savannah, Nebraska, one of the honored 
pioneers of Butler county, identified with 
its interests since 1869. Nine childern have 
been born of this union, as follows: Nellie, 
wife of High McGriffin, editor of the 
" Gresham Gazette," of York county, Ne- 
braska; Ethel, Arthur Roy, George, Harry, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1049 



Ida, Benjamin H. and Mary, all at home. 
All were born in Butler county and the 
family circle yet remains unbroken by the 
hand of death. 

Mr. Derby is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, Bellwood Lodge, 
No. 2 1, also of Bellwood Camp, No. 288, 
M. W. A., and is a charter member of the 
Woodmen of the ^^'orld. Such is the life 
record of one who has contributed largely 
to the development and advancement of 
Butler county, to the promotion of its busi- 
ness interests and to its public life by his 
faithful service in office. 



JAMES D. WHITE.— The officials of 
York county are probably as popular 
and highly thought of as those of any coun- 
ty in the state. Therefore, when one avers 
that Mr. James D. White, who holds the 
offices of clerk and register, is quite as well 
known and esteemed as any of his neighbors 
in the county building, he has said a good 
deal, but has exaggerated not a whit. Mr. 
White is popular, he is competent, and he 
has handled his public charge in a business- 
like manner, hence he has been very unan- 
imously accounted a success. He was born 
in Pike county, Indiana, December 14, 
1850, and is the son of James M. and Eliz- 
abeth (Gourley) White, natives respectively 
of Canada and South Carolina. James M. 
White was born in 181 1, and was but eight 
years old when his parents came to this 
country and settled in Indiana. He was a 
shoemaker b}' trade and carried on business 
for many years in the Hoosier state, where 
he died in 1872. There was but one child, 
our subject. He was educated in the 
schools of Gibson county, Indiana, and at 
the age of twenty-two went to Nebraska, 
where he carried on farming near Lincoln 
for about one year. He then removed to 
York county and secured a farm, which he 
cultivated for the succeeding nine years. 



Following this he went to York and en- 
gaged in the grocery business for the next 
four and a half years, and then accepted a 
position with the State Bank, which he held 
about four years. From that time until 
1S95, when he was elected county clerk and 
register, he was in the real-estate and in- 
surance business. He was re-elected to the 
office of clerk in 1897, and still occupies 
that office. Mr. White was for two years a 
member of the county board, and five years 
city treasurer of York, and has also been a 
justice of the peace. He is a member of 
the I. O. O. F. and the M. W. of A. 

In 1870 Mr. White married Miss Sirena 
Broadwell, a native of Indiana and a daugh- 
ter of David and Catherine (Welty) Broad- 
well. Mr. and Mrs. White are the parents 
of eight children, two of whom are de- 
ceased. Those living are: Clarence M., 
Elsie A., James D., Etta P., Horace R. 
and John F. 



THOMAS J. BENDER occupies a posi- 
tion in the front rank among the lead- 
ing and successful agriculturists of West 
Blue township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he owns and operates a fine and well 
improved farm of one hundred and sixty 
acres on section 27. He was born in Som- 
erset county, Pennsylvania, December 3, 
1846, a son of Benjamin F. and Sarah 
(Youngs) Bender, the former a native of 
Ohio, the latter of Pennsylvania. In early 
life the father followed the occupation of a 
farmer and tanner, but later became inter- 
ested in the lumber trade. He made his 
home in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, 
where the greater part of his life was passed, 
and there he died March 4, 1897, honored 
and respected by all who knew him. The 
wife and mother is still living in that county. 
To them were born four sons, namely: 
Peter A., Francis T., John S. and Thomas 
J. Our subject's paternal grandfather, 



1050 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHT. 



Peter Bender, removed from Pennsylvania 
to Richland county, Wisconsin, where he 
engaged in farming until his death. In his 
family were seventeen children, twelve sons 
and five daughters. The maternal grand- 
father, Casper Youngs, was also a farmer 
by occupation, and spent his entire life in 
the Keystone state. 

The early life of Thomas J. Bender was 
spent like that of most farmer's sons, in a 
comparatively uneventful manner until six- 
teen years of age, attending the common 
schools and assisting in the labors of the 
farm. Although quite young, he enlisted in 
1 864, in Company G, One Hundred and Sec- 
ond Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and 
wasin the service until hostilitiesceased, being 
honorably discharged in 1865. He partici- 
pated in the battles of Winchester and Fish- 
ers Hill, and at the famous engagement at 
Cedar Creek was wounded in the left leg. 
He was then confined in the hospital until 
the following spring, and on rejoining his 
regiment was engaged in guard duty until 
mustered out at the close of the war. 

Mr. Bender returned to his home in 
Pennsylvania and remained in that state un- 
til coming to Nebraska in the spring of 
1872. Here he first located in Dawson 
county, where he took up a homestead, 
and to its cultivation and improve- 
ment devoted his energies for six years. In 
1878 he traded that place for one hundred 
and sixty acres of land on section 27, West 
Blue township, Fillmore county, where he 
has since resided. Forty-eight acres had 
previously been broken, and under his able 
management the entire tract was soon 
placed under the plow. The farm in all its 
appointments indicates the thorough and 
progressive agriculturist, who has availed 
himself of the best and most improved meth- 
ods of tilling the soil and carrying on the 
various other interests appertaining to the 
country homestead. 

In 1869 Mr. Bender was united in mar- 



riage with Miss Mary J. Rouser, who was 
born in Pennsylvania, of which state her 
parents, Joseph and Mary (Rogers) Rouser, 
were also natives. The children born to 
this union were as follows: Joseph T. ; Iza 
D., now the wife of L. M. Farrar; Letitia, 
wife of G. B. Rothwell; Elwood, Erbanus, 
Naomi, Alda, Dwight, Hubert and Harvey, 
who was drowned in the Blue river in 1893. 
The wife and mother, who was a most 
estimable lady and a consistent member of 
the Klethodist Episcopal church, departed 
this life in May, 1893. Mr. Bender also 
holds membership in that church, and so- 
cially is connected with the Grand Army of 
the Republic, the Modern Woodmen of 
America and the Loyal Mystic Legion. In 
political sentiment he is an ardent Repub- 
lican, but has never been an aspirant for 
official honors. By his straightforward and 
honorable course in life he has gained the 
confidence of all with whom he has come in 
contact, and is justly deserving the high re- 
gard in which he is held. 



HONORABLE CHARLES DEPUTY 
CASPER, one of the most prominent 
citizens of David City, Butler county, was 
born December 10, near. Red Lion, New- 
castle county, Delaware. His father, Rich- 
ard Casper, was of Scandinavian descent, 
and came of Revolutionary stock. His 
mother, Margaret Reed Casper, was a de- 
scendant of George Reed, one of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence. He 
was also a native of Delaware. 

Our subject's early education was limit- 
ed to eighteen months in the county schools, 
and at the age of sixteen he enlisted as 
bugler in Company B, 1st Delaware Cavalry, 
serving until July 4, 1865, when he was dis- 
charged. For a time he drove mules on the 
Susquehannacanal and mined coal in Ohio, 
and in July, 1866, he enlisted again in the 
Second Battallion, Thirteenth I'rftantry, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1051 



afterward the Twenty-second Infantry. He 
rendezvoused three months at Governor's 
Island during the cholera quarantine of 
1866. He served on the plains of North 
and South Dakota till July, 1869. After 
this time he worked on a farm in Iowa till 
the year 1872 when he entered a printing 
office at Victor, Iowa, and learned the 
printer's trade. Being of an earnest, 
naturally intelligent disposition, he had been 
during all of this time improving his spare 
moments in the cultivation of his mind and 
had succeeded so well that in September, 
1873, he helped to found the Butler County 
Press, and became one of its first proprietors. 

He served in the lower house of the 
state legislature during the winter of 1885, 
and was in the state senate in 1S87 and in 
the lower house in '93 and again in '95. 
In 1895 he was appointed member of the 
visiting and examining board of the 
soldiers' homes of Nebraska, and is secre- 
tary of the board; was also a member of the 
state commission and secretary of the state 
board of the Trans-Mississippi International 
Exposition. 

He has always been active in the councils 
of the Democratic party, was chairman of 
the first Democratic committee and now 
holds this position. He is the oldest per- 
manent resident of David City, a man of un- 
usual ability, and as a politician, soldier and 
statesman, ranks among the most prominent 
men of Nebraska. 



TAMES N. PLUMB, M. D.— Among 
V.J those who devote their time and ener- 
gies to the practice of medicine and surgery 
and have gained a leading place in the 
ranks of the profession is Dr. Plumb, of 
Fairmont, Fillmore county, Nebraska. His 
skill and ability is attested by the liberal 
patronage he enjoys. He is a general prac- 
titioner, but his specialty is the diseases of 
the eye, ear and throat, and he is consid- 

60 



ered one of the best representatives of that 
branch of the profession in this section of 
the state. 

Dr. Plumb is proud to claim Nebraska 
as his native state, his birth occurring in 
Richardson county, January 19, 1868. His 
parents, Lewis E. and Mary (Shaff) Plumb, 
were both natives of Ohio. The father is 
a carpenter by trade and followed his chosen 
calling until the breaking out of the Civil 
war, when he enlisted in the Fifty-first Ohio' 
Volunteer Infantry and served as clerk in 
the provost marshal's office at Camp Chase, 
Licking county, Ohio, having control of the 
rebel prisoners there, while his wife had 
control of the cooking department of that 
camp. At the close of the war, in 1865, 
they came to Nebraska and located in Rich- 
ardson county, where they still reside, the 
father being engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits until 1880, since which time he has 
been engaged in the lumber trade. They 
are numbered among the honored pioneers 
of the county, and are held in the highest 
respect and esteem by all who know them. 
In their family are two sons: Perry E., 
also a practicing physician of Nebraska; and 
James N., our subject. 

The primary education of Dr. James N. 
Plumb was acquired in the common schools 
of this state, and was supplemented by a 
four years course in York College, and two 
years in the State University. Leaving the 
latter institution in 1S89, he commenced 
the study of medicine, and at once entered 
the medical department of the State Uni- 
versity of Iowa, where he spent one year. 
In the early part of 1890 he read in the 
office of Dr. Farley, of York, and in 
the fall of that year matriculated at Rush 
Medical College, Chicago, where he was 
graduated in 1891. Purchasing^the practice 
of Dr. Johnson, he opened an office in Fair- 
mount, where he has since successfully 
prosecuted his chosen profession. In 1895 
he took a post graduate course at the Poly- 



1052 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



clinic College, of Chicago, and another 
course at the same institution in 1898. In 
this way he has kept well posted on the 
advances made in the science of medicine 
and surgery, and is to-day numbered among 
the most progressive, as well as one of the 
most successful, physicians in this region. 
He assisted in organizing the Fillmore 
County Medical Association, of which he 
was elected the first president. He also 
belongs to the State Medical League and 
the International Association of Railway 
Surgeons, having filled the position of local 
surgeon of the St. Joe & Grand Island rail- 
road. He holds membership in the Modern 
Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, the Royal Highlanders 
and the Loyal Mystic Legion, and is local 
medical examiner for each. 

In October, 1892, Dr. Plumb was united 
in marriage with Miss Ella E. Graves, of 
York, Nebraska, a native of Illinois, and to 
them have been born two daughters, Helen 
M. and Florence P. Mrs. Plumb was for 
some years one of the leading teachers of 
York county, and she also spent one year 
in the Woman's Medical College, of Chicago. 
She and the Doctor are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and in the best 
social circles of their community occupy an 
enviable position. In his political affilia- 
tions he is a Republican, but has never 
sought nor desired public office. Wherever 
he goes he wins friends, and has the happy 
faculty of being able to retain them, and 
this, combined with his skill and ability in 
his chosen calling, has brought to him a 
well-merited success. 



SAMUEL CLINE, a well-known and 
highly respected farmer of York county, 
has been identified with the interests of 
his locality since pioneer days, with the 
exception of five years spent in South Da- 
kota. Most of his life has been passed 



amid frontier scenes, for he was born in 
Iowa when that state was still a territory, 
his birth occurring in Bowens Prairie, Jones 
county, April 2, 1845. 

His father, Philip Cline, was born in 
Martinsburg, West Virginia, October 15, 
1807, a son of Philip and Elizabeth (New- 
man) Cline, who were both natives of Penn- 
sj-lvania and died in Ohio at an advanced 
age, the latter being ninety >ears old at the 
time of her death. At the age of fifteen 
3 ears Philip Cline, Jr., accompanied his 
parents on their removal from West Vir- 
ginia to Ohio, and on reaching man's estate 
was married there, on the 31st of Januar3% 
1828, to Miss Rebecca Murphy, a native of 
Hampshire county, Virginia, born Decem- 
ber 4, 1805. In 1829, with his wife and 
one child, he emigrated to McLean county, 
Illinois, where he made his home on a farm 
until 1844, which year witnessed their ar- 
rival in Jones county, Iowa. After our sub- 
ject came to York county, Nebraska, the 
parents also moved here in the fall of 1872, 
making this county their home until called 
to the world beyond, the mother dying in 
1 89 1, when past the age of eighty-five 
years, and the father in 1892, at the age of 
eighty-five. They enjoyed the respect and 
esteem of all who knew them. 

Until he was twenty-four years of age 
Samuel Cline remained under the parental 
roof, and on leaving home went to Lancas- 
ter county, Nebraska, but in 1871 we find 
him a resident of York county, where he 
made a selection of an eighty-acre tract of 
land in the northwest part of the county. 
On the 2nd of April, 1873, he was united in 
marriage with Miss Adelaide Manchester, a 
daughter of Thomas W. and Rachel G. 
(Flandreau) Manchester. Her lather was 
born about 1825, at Barnett. Caledonia 
county, Vermont, and was twice married, 
having by his first union four children, of 
whom she is the oldest, the others being 
Ella, Frank and Rachel G., the latter dying 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1053 



in infancy. The mother died in California 
at the age of thirty-one years. Mr. Man- 
chester was later married in New York 
state, in 1867, to Mrs. F. E. VanDusen, 
and they removed to Hamilton county, Ne- 
braska, in the spring of 1872. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cline have a family of six children, who ac- 
cording to age are as follows: Minnie R., 
Frances R. , Philip Jay, Jr., Wilmer S., La- 
fayette F. and Mary G. Only three of the 
number are now living and are attending 
the public schools of York county. 

After his marriage Mr. Cline resided on 
his homestead until 1872, when, becoming 
restless, he sold his farm and moved to 
South Dakota, where the following five 
years were passed. At the end of that time, 
however, he returned to York county, 
where he is now engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. In his younger years he was a 
Democrat in politics, but now votes with 
the Populist party, and is a firm and un- 
compromising advocate of the free and un- 
limited coinage of silver. For over thirty 
years he has affiliated with the Masonic fra- 
ternity, is also a member of tne Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen, and with his wife 
and son Wilmer, belongs to the Degree of 
Honor. Mr. and Mrs. Cline are both earn- 
est and consistent members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church, take an active part in 
its work, and are held in high regard by all 
who have the pleasure of their acquaint- 
ance. 



JOSEPH W. TALMAGE, ex-county treas- 
urer of Fillmore county, and one of the 
leading and prominent business men of Fair- 
mont, is to-day enjoying the reward of his 
painstaking and conscientious work, having 
by his energy, perseverance and fine busi- 
ness ability, secured a comfortably compe- 
tence. Systematic and methodical, his sa- 
gacity, keen discrimination and sound judg- 
ment have made him one of the prosperous 



merchants of the place, as a dealer in farm 
machinery. 

Mr. Talmage was born in La Grange 
county, Indiana, January 20, 1841, and is 
a son of Elisha and Lucy (Williams) Tal- 
mage, both natives of New York. The 
paternal grandfather, Enos Talmage, was 
also a native of the Empire state, who 
entered land in La Grange county, Indiana, 
at an early day, but lived and died in On- 
ondago county. New York. He was a 
farmer by occupation. In his family were 
eight children, six sons and two daughters, 
of whom one son and the two daughters are 
still living. Elisha Talmage, our subject's 
father, was born near Albany, New York, 
in 181 3, and in that state was reared and 
educated. Learning the carpenter's trade 
during his youth, he followed it in New 
York until 1836, when he moved to La 
Grange county, Indiana, and took up a 
farm in Springfield township, to the cultiva- 
tion and improvement of which he devoted 
his energies until called from this life in 
1 89 1. He was married in 1840, to Miss 
Lucy Williams, a daughter of Joseph and 
Lucy Williams, who spent their entire lives 
in New York. Five children were born to 
this union, two sons and three daughters. 
The mother died in April, 1849, after which 
the father was again married, his second 
union being with Miss Jane A. Griffin, by 
whom he had ten children, and who is still 
living in La Grange county, Indiana. 

In the county of his nativity, Joseph W. 
Talmage was reared and educated, and by 
assisting his father in the labors of the home 
farm he acquired an excellent knowledge of 
agricultural pursuits. In 1861 he laid aside 
all personal interests to aid his country in her 
struggle to perserve the Union, enlisting in 
the first company to start from La Grange 
county, it being Company A, Twenty-first 
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, u-nder command 
of Captain William Roy. He participated 
in the battle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 



1054 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



August, 1862, and at the engagement at Port 
Hudson, in May, 1863, was under fire for 
over thirty days. In 1863 he was transfered 
to the artillery service. Prior to being trans- 
ferred he saw much hard fighting with the 
bushwhackers in Mississippi, Louisiana and 
other southern states, but fortunately es- 
caped being wounded. For almost five 
years he was in the service, being honorably 
discharged with the rank of sergeant in Jan- 
uary, 1866. 

After being mustered out, Mr. Talmage 
returned to Indiana, but in 1868 went to 
New York state, and the following year 
went by way of the Soo canal to the Lake 
Superior region, where he remained until 
1 87 1. He then returned to La Grange 
county, Indiana, but in 1872 we find him 
en route for Nebraska. Arriving in Butler 
county, he homesteaded a claim near Sur- 
prise, but did not locate thereon until in 
1875, the intervening time being spent in 
Minneapolis and St. Paul. He successfully 
engaged in farming in Butler county until 
1883, when he came to Fairmont and em- 
barked in business as a dealer in agricultural 
implements, in which he is still interested. 
In the fall of 1885 he was elected county 
treasurer of Fillmore county, and on retir- 
ing from office at the end of one term, he 
resumed business in Fairmont. 

In 1875, Mr. Talmage was united in 
marriage with Miss Alice Nichols, a daugh- 
ter of Philo Nichols, a pioneer of La Grange 
county, Indiana, and to them has been 
born one child, Mary N. Religiously Mr. 
and Mrs. Talmage hold membership in the 
Congregational church, and socially he is 
connected with the Masonic fraternity and 
the Grand Army of the Republic. In poli- 
tics he is prominently identified with the 
Republican party, and has been an active fac- 
tor in insuring its success in his community. 
Besides the office of county treasurer, he 
has filled other official positions of honor 
and trust, serving as a member of the town 



board and as city treasurer to the entire 
satisfaction of all concerned. He enjoys a 
large acquaintance in this section of the 
state and is held in universal respect. 



CARL KOCH is the fortunate owner of 
one of Seward county's finest farms, and 
it is situated in section 24, H precinct, near 
the village of Malcom. Mr. Koch is a son 
of Carl and Caroline (Kulke) Koch, both of 
whom are natives of Germany and spent 
their lives in the vicinity of their birth. 

The subject of our sketch was born in 
Germany, February 7, 1842, the third of a 
family of seven children, six of whom are 
still living, and is the only one of the family 
who came to America. He was educated 
in the common schools of Germany be- 
tween the ages of si.\ and fourteen, and at 
fourteen years of age was also confirmed in 
the Evangelical Lutheran church. Subse- 
quently he served three months in the Ger- 
man army. He began to learn the trade of 
manufacturing cigars at the age of fourteen 
and served three years and soon became 
very skilled in this line of work. At the 
age of twenty-seven he migrated to America, 
landed at New York, and from there he 
went to Missouri where he started a cigar 
factory. 

March 4, 1868, Mr. Koch was united in 
marriage to Miss Wilhelmina Schaberg, and 
in the spring of the following year they 
came to Seward county, Nebraska, and 
took a homestead claim of eighty acres. 
On this farm their first residence was a dug- 
out, but later they built a sod house, which 
was their home for several years. He then 
built a frame house, but unfortunately a fire 
soon after swept everything and left Mr. 
Koch and his family without shelter, cloth- 
ing or food. Subsequently he built another 
sod house into which he moved his family, 
but in 1886 he built the beautiful residence 
which is still his home. Mr. and Mrs. Koch. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1055 



are parents of seven children, six of whom 
are now living, and their names in the order 
of their birth are as follows: Charles E., 
Edward H., Margaretta, Adolph A. H., 
Arthur and Minnie. Edward H. is a very 
successful teacher, as are also Arthur and 
Margaretta. These obtained their prelim- 
inary training in the public schools of Sew- 
ard county, where only the best teachers 
are employed. Mr. Ivoch always took a 
great interest in the education of his chil- 
dren, and when they completed the course 
in the common school, he sent them to the 
high schools of Lincoln, and finally to the 
university, which stands second to none in 
the state. The rest of the children men- 
tioned are still living with their parents. 

Mrs. Koch is a daughter of Adolph and 
Catherine (Rethwilm) Schaberg. Her fa- 
ther was but eighteen years of age when he 
came to America and settled in Missouri, 
where he was married. To this union were 
born five daughters, three of whom are liv- 
ing, and of whom Mrs. Koch is the oldest. 
The names of her sisters are Lizzie and 
Sophia. The first is married to Larken 
• Boehmer and lives in Montgomery county, 
Missouri, and the latter is the wife of Ernest 
Fenewald, and lives in St. Joseph, Missouri. 
Their father died in Missouri at the age of 
forty-five years and their mother at the age 
of twenty-six years. They were earnest 
Christians and devoted much time to the 
moral training of theirdaughters while they 
lived; but both passed away in the prime of 
life. To this early training is due much of 
Mrs. Koch's firmness of character and strict 
Christian integrity. She is a model house- 
wife, wrapped up in the affairs of her house- 
hold, and the kindest of mothers. Mr. Koch 
also is a man of the verj' best character, 
thorough and systematic as a farmer, pleas- 
ant to meet, and is held in high esteem by 
all with whom he comes in contact. He 
has served his fellowmen in the capacity of 
several of the local public offices and also 



some of the county offices; and in every in- 
stance he faithfully discharged every duty 
that came in his way to the satisfaction of 
his constituents and with credit and honor 
to himself. 



GEORGE DOUBLEDAY is one of the 
older citizens of Bradshaw township, 
and brought to the work of pioneering in 
York county a wealth of experience that 
has made it all the easier for him to take a 
front place in the workers of the county. 
He is upright and fair, and means to do 
what is right and honest, and it is the work 
of such men as he has proved himself to be, 
that has made Nebraska the garden and the 
pride of the west. 

Mr. Doubleday was born April 24, 1838, 
in Onondaga county. New York. His 
father was Harvey Doubleday, and all his 
life was comprised within the limits of the 
state of New York. His grandfather was 
Daniel Doubleday, who died in the northern 
part of the state when he was about seventy- 
five years old. His mother was Marcia 
Loomis, who was born in Connecticut, near 
Hartford, in November, 18 13. She is still 
alive, and lives on the same farm that her 
father opened out of a heavily timbered 
country long ago. She is a lady of venera- 
ble appearance and has attained the age of 
eighty-five. She is a daughter of Aaron 
and Lydia (Pierce) Loomis, who were mar- 
ried in Connecticut, and moved to Broome 
county. New York, about the year 1825. 

George Doubleday was the second child 
in the family. His father died when he was 
not two years old, and he made his home 
with his mother until he reached the age of 
sixteen. He struck out at that early age 
and began working for himself. When he 
was twenty-five he was married to a daugh- 
ter of John and Sarah Meeker, whose 
ancestors had come to the American colonies 
before the Revolution. They were of 



1056 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Scottish birth, and possessed many of the 
best traits of their native land. His mar- 
riage occurred November 17, 1863, and he re- 
mained in his wife's native county for two 
years, when he came to Dekalb county, 
Illinois, where he bought a farm of eighty 
acres. His wife died in 1875, and he still 
continued to work the farm, and keep his 
family together. He was married Septem- 
ber 17, 1876, to Miss Emma Smith, a 
daughter of Charles and Polly Smith. They 
lived on the Illinois farm for ten years, when 
they sold it and re-located in Bradshaw 
township on the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 27, township II, range 4 west. He 
built a frame house, and proceeded to im- 
prove the land and set out trees. He has 
over one hundred apple trees and his 
orchard shows apricots, cherries and small 
fruits in abundance. 

Mr. Doubleday's daughters. May and 
Delia, are both married. May is the wife 
of Eugene Walrod, and has her home on 
one of her father's farms. Delia is Mrs. 
Garner, and lives in Bradshaw. Her 
father is a Republican, and he and his wife 
are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. When they came to this state and 
selected their farm three-fourths of a mile 
from the laid-out site of Bradshaw, they 
saw nothing before them but what seemed 
an interminable sea of unbroken prairie. 
The tall blue-stemmed sunflower and the 
golden rod waved in the breeze, but now 
there are great fields of ripening grain and 
the acres upon acres of corn are waving and 
flashing in the sunlight. 



OLIVER P. FISHER, one of the hon- 
ored pioneers and prosperous citizens 
of Fillmore county, is now retired from the 
active labors of life and occupies a comfort- 
able home in the town of Fairmont. His 
has been a long and busy career, with little 
time for idleness along the thoroughfare of 



life, where he has left his mark and may 
truly feel that he has not lived in vain. The 
object of respect by young and old, his 
familiar figure is greeted with affection and 
esteem, and in his declining years he is en- 
joying the reward of a well-ordered life and 
one in which he has exerted himself to do 
good to those around him. 

Mr. Fisher was born June 14, 1823, in 
the town of Orwell, Rutland county, Ver- 
mont, now Addison county, and is a worthy 
representative of an old and honored New 
England family which is of English descent. 
His great-grandfather was William Fisher, 
a native of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 
whose family were the following children: 
Ephraim, born January 27, 1751; James, 
January 26, 1754; Jemima, September 12, 
1755; William, February 28, 1758; Abra- 
ham, May 22, 1760; Isaac, May 10, 1761; 
and Phebe, August 11, 1765. Of this fam- 
ly, Ephraim Fisher, the eldest, was the 
grandfather of our subject. He was born at 
Dartmouth, near Bedford, Massachusetts, 
and was the father of five sons, whose names 
and dates of birth were as follows: James, 
December i, 1780; Gardner, October 23, 
1782; Freeman, November 21, 1784; Will- 
iam, June 4, 1788; and Isaac, January 15, 
1798. In the family were also six daugh- 
ters: Esther, Huldah, Abigail, Phebe, Betsy 
and Matilda. The family removed from 
Massachusetts to Vermont about 1786 or 
1787, and were among the earliest settlers 
of Orwell, Addison county. Ephraim Fisher, 
who was a farmer by occupation, acquired a 
good property and died there. 

Jsaac Fisher, the father of our subject, 
was born after the removal of the family to 
the Green Mountain state, and on his 
father's death inherited the old homestead, 
on which he engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits throughout life, dying there in 1865. 
In early manhood he married Miss Mehit- 
able Persons, a native of Massachusetts, 
who died several years prior to his death. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPIir. 



1057 



Their children were Ira, born December 1 1, 
1820; Oliver P., our subject; Mason I., 
born October 10, 1825; William H., born 
December 25, 1827; and Phebe E., born 
August 17, 1 83 1. Ira was the only one of 
the sons who remained at Orwell, Vermont. 

Oliver P. Fisher pursued his studies in 
the district schools near his boyhood home, 
and assisted his father in the operation of 
the farm until 1844, when he removed to 
Kendall count}', Illinois, and purchased 
land in Little Rock township, where he de- 
veloped and improved a fine farm, making 
his home thereon for twenty-three years. 
He then removed to the town of Piano, the 
same county, and resided there until com- 
ing to Fillmore county, Nebraska, in 1876. 
The year previous he had visited this region 
and selected a location, and after locating 
here devoted his attention to general farm- 
ing for some years, but is now living re- 
tired in the town of Fairmont, though he 
still owns a section of valuable farming land 
which he rents. 

Before leaving Vermont Mr. Fisher was 
married in 1843, to Miss Marietta Royce, 
also a native of Addison county, and a 
daughter of Levi and Philomela (Bascom) 
Royce, who were among the pioneer fami- 
lies of that state. They had removed 
from Massachusetts on horseback, taking 
with them all of their effects on one 
horse. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher became the 
parents of three children, all born in Illi- 
nois. George R., the oldest, married 
Louise A. Hibbard and they have three 
children: Maude A., now Mrs. Neesley, 
lives at Grand Rapids, Michigan; Alice and 
Earle. They still reside in Kendall county, 
Illinois. May A. is the wife of I. \V. Al- 
len, of Sandwich, DeKalb county, Illinois. 
Carrie E. is the wife of F. M. Chapin, of 
Fairmont, Nebraska. They have three 
children, Harriett, Mason J., and Guy. 
The parents both hold membership in the 
Baptist church, and have the respect and 



esteem of all who know them. In politics 
Mr. Fisher is a Prohibitionist, and while a 
resident of Illinois capably filled a number 
of local offices, but has taken no active 
part in public affairs since coming to this 
state. 



MR. HENRY RUNYON CRAIG, a pop- 
ular and highly respected citizen of 
Ulysses township, Butler county, was one 
of the early settlers of that community, lo- 
cating on section 34 of the above-named 
township January 28, 1876. He was born 
in Warren county, Ohio, August 30, 1839, 
a son of Joseph Craig, who was also born in 
Ohio. Our subject's grandfather, Eli 
Craig, migrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio 
early in this century. His great-grand- 
father was an Irish boy and was kidnapped 
by British soldiers and brought to this 
country. Our subject's mother bore the 
maiden name of Felitha Runyon, and her 
father was a soldier in the war of 18 12. 

Henry R. Craig, the subject of this 
sketch, was the second son in the order of 
birth of his father's family. He was reared 
on a farm and when about eighteen years 
of age he started the battle of life on his 
own responsibility. When the family 
moved from Ohio to Illinois he remained in 
Ohio and worked at farming, railroading 
and stationary engineering. In 1862 he 
enlisted in Company E, Seventh Ohio Cav- 
alry, and served in that capacity until the 
close of the war. At the time of his enlist- 
ment he was in Georgetown, General Grant's 
native home, and was acquainted with the 
Grant family, and had leather tanned at 
Jesse Grant's tannery at Georgetown. Mr. 
Craig's war record is a very eventful one, as 
he participated in over thirty engagements, 
many of them the historic events of the 
war. The following is a list of the most 
of the important battles and skirmishes in 
which he participated: Brookville, Ken- 



1058 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHl' 



tucky, September 20, 1862; Mt. Sterling, 
Kentucky, February 22 and 23, 1863; Hazel 
Green, Kentucky, March 5; Monticello, 
Kentucky, April 30 and May i. In the 
Tennessee raid, Wadsburg, June 18, 1863; 
Crossing Clinch River, June 19, 1863; 
Kingston, June 20; Knoxville, June 21; 
Strawberry Plains, June 22; and the cap- 
ture of General Frazer at Cumberland Gap, 
September 19; Jonesboro, September 28; 
Blue Springs, October 10, and at this place 
he had a gun shot from his hands; Rhea- 
town, October 11; Blountville, October 14; 
Rogersville, November 6; Morristown, De- 
cember 12; Russelville, December 14; Rut- 
ledge, December 18. Dandridge, December 
24; Mossy Creek, December 27-28; second 
Dandridge, January 17-18, 1864; Fair Gar- 
den, February i. During this time our 
subject was engaged most of the time in 
irregular service, in the independent cav- 
alry. July 4, 1864, he started to Atlanta, 
and at Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 
he took part in one of the hottest battles of 
the war, in which General Cleybourn and 
all his staff were killed. He also partici- 
pated in the Saunders raid in eastern Ten- 
nessee and Wilson's raid through Alabama 
and Georgia, and it was during this time 
that he first heard of Lee's surrender. The 
most severe fighting in which Mr. Craig 
took part was at Nashville, where his com- 
pany made five charges. At Rogersville he 
was injured by the falling of his horse and 
was wounded in battle at Monticello and at 
Blue Springs. At Monticello he was wound- 
ed by a machete in the hands of a stalwart 
Texan. 

After the close of the war, Mr. Craig 
returned to his home, and afcer following 
the occupation of a farmer for a time, he 
engaged in the clothing and furnishing goods 
business at Georgetown, Ohio. When he 
discontinued this business he intended to 
go to Tennessee, but he first went to But- 
ler county, Nebraska, to visit his brother. 



took a fancy to the country and decided to 
locate there. In Nebraska he began the 
occupation of farming and now has a fine 
farm and pleasant home just outside of the 
limits of the village of Ulysses and is one of 
the substantial and leading men of the 
vicinity. He has served the people of But- 
ler county in the capacity of county com- 
missioner, has been township assessor and 
justice of the peace. Politically he was 
formerly a Democrat but is now a supporter 
of the cause of free silver. Mr. Craig was 
married in 1859 to Miss Mary Stump, 
daughter of John B. Stump, of Virginia, 
and before he enlisted in the army his only 
son, John B. Craig, was born. 



HON. JOHN D. JENKINS, deceased, 
of whom a portrait appears on the 
opposite page, was for many years one of 
the most highly esteemed and valued citi- 
zens of Fillmore county. In his life span 
of fifty years he accomplished much, and 
left behind him an honorable record well 
worthy of perpetuation. He was born in 
Worcestershire, England, November 15, 
1846, and was a son of George and Sarah 
(Gibson) Jenkins, also natives of that coun- 
try. The grandfather, John Jenkins, was a 
large land owner and spent his entire life in 
England. The father, as a surgeon in the 
English army, passed the greater part of 
his life in India, but died in his native land. 
In his family were eleven children, two sons 
and nine daughters, of whom our subject 
was the second son; five daughters are still 
living, being residents of England. 

John D. Jenkins, of this review, was 
educated in some of the best schools of his 
native land, among which were those in 
Danby, Sedgeley Park, Staffordshire, Rad- 
cliffe Downside and Somersetshire, the 
oldest Benedictine school in England. At 
the age of sixteen he went to Australia, 
landing on the west coast, where he en- 




HON. JOHN D. JENKINS, Deceased, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY 



1061 



gaged in mining in the employ of the gov- 
ernment as civil engineer. He was also 
with General Cameron as a member of the 
colonial forces in the Maori campaign for 
some months and remained in that country 
and in New Zealand for seven years, being 
one of the first prospectors on the west 
coast of New Zealand. Returning to Eng- 
land he made his home in London while 
engaged in settling up his father's estate. 
In December, 1872, he crossed the Atlantic 
to the United States and first located in 
Lincoln, Nebraska, where he remained for 
one year. The following three years were 
spent at Seward, this state, and in 1876 he 
came to Fairmont, Fillmore county, and 
purchased a farm in Blue Valley township, 
which he broke and improved, but later 
sold. Later he bought and improved sev- 
eral places until 1879, when he purchased 
the home in Fairmont township, where his 
widow still resides. It was all wild prairie 
land, but under his able management and 
by his untiring labor he soon converted it 
into one of the best and most desirable 
farms of the county. In 1874 he visited 
California and Oregon, but soon returned 
to Nebraska, and here successfully engaged 
in general farming and stock raising, giving 
special attention to the breeding of Cotts- 
wold sheep. He also bought and sold 
county paper, and in business affairs met 
with excellent success. 

In 1878 Mr. Jenkins was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Lottie Bock, a native of 
Michigan and a daughter of William H. and 
Catherine (Cavanaugh) Bock, who were 
natives of Pennsylvania and Ireland, respect- 
ively. The father died in Michigan in 1866, 
and in 1872 the mother, with her family, 
came to Fairmont, Nebraska. Prior to her 
marriage, Mrs. Jenkins successfully engaged 
in teaching school for some years. To our 
subject and his wife were born four children, 
all of whom are still living, namely: George 
S., John D., William G. and Charlotte L. 



Mr. Jenkins was a recognized leader in 
the Republican party in his community, 
taking a very active and prominent part in 
political affairs, and in 1879 was elected to 
the lower house of the state legislature, 
where he most capably and satisfactorily 
represented his district for two years. In 
religious faith he was a Catholic, and in his 
social relations was a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen. He was noted 
for his sterling integrity, his honor in busi- 
ness and his fidelity to all the duties of pub- 
lic and private life. He was widely and 
favorably known and had many friends 
throughout the state. His death, which 
occurred May 14, 1897, was deeply regretted 
by all who knew him, and Fillmore county 
thereby lost one of its most valued and 
useful citizens. 



WILLIAM CRISTOPH KASTNER is 
not a man to whine about hard times 
or the good luck that waits on other men. 
He has been altogether too busy in making 
a fortune for himself out of hard fate and 
unfavorable conditions. He has a produc- 
tive farm near Bradshaw, Nebraska, which 
he has converted from the wild prairie, 
where he lives with all the peace and free- 
dom of a king. Such men as he are the 
pride of the American republic, men who 
rise from the abysmal depths of poverty and 
destitution, and rear numerous families to 
honor, intelligence and industry. 

Mr. Kastner was born in Sa.xe-Weimar, 
Germany, July 18, 1848, and was a son of 
Henry A. and Anstena C. (Shict) Kastner. 
They were Saxon farmers, but when young 
William was only three years old they emi- 
grated to America, coming via New York to 
Milwaukee. They remained in the Cream 
City of Wisconsin for about a year, when 
the senior Kastner moved out into the 
country and bought a farm in Dodge county. 
It was entirely unimproved and was covered 



1062 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT 



with timber. A vast amount of surface 
stone was in tfie way of profitable cultiva- 
tion and the labor of removing stone and 
timber was immense. Fences were con- 
structed that apparently will last until the 
crack of doom, and the trees were burned 
and the ashes sold to asheries not far away. 
By this slow and painful process ten to 
twenty acres would be cleared and secured 
for cultivation each year, and gradually the 
farm would take shape and character. 
When William was about si.xteen years of 
age his father lost his eyesight, and hence- 
forth much of the labor of the place fell on his 
young shoulders. In 1864 he volunteered, 
and entered the Union army as a member 
of Company D, Seventh Wisconsin Vol- 
unteer Infantry. It was late in the war, but 
he was in time to participate in some severe 
fighting. At Hatcher's Run he received a 
ball in his shoulder which has never been 
extracted, and was taken prisoner, and 
thrown into the rebel hospital at Peters- 
burg. The wound which he received early 
in the morning, was not dressed until ten 
o'clock at night. He spent some time in 
Libby prison at Richmond, and was finally 
discharged from the military service at the 
general hospital in Milwaukee. When he 
entered the army he received a bounty of 
three hundred dollars, which he immediate- 
ly paid over to his father, and his accumu- 
lation of pay which amounted to a very re- 
spectable sum at the close of the war went 
to the same destination. He lived with his 
father until the day of his wedding, Decem- 
ber 10, 1868. At that time Miss Fredereka 
Bower became his wife, and in every possi- 
ble way has proved herself a most helpful 
companion and wife to her honorable and 
industrious husband. They rented the home 
farm for a year, when they determined to 
come to Nebraska for the sake of the larger 
opportunity it offered for themselves and 
their children, and in March, 1872 they 
made their first appearajTce in the state. 



Mr. Kastner made a homestead entry 
on the southeast quarter of section 34, 
township 10, range 4 west, where he 
still resides. He has a good frame barn, 
and other buildings belonging to a well ap- 
pointed farm. He began with the raw 
prairie, and now has over one hundred 
acres under cultivation. The antelope and 
the bison have vanished forever, and their 
ranges are white for the harvest. He has 
always been a hard-working man, and is 
seldom found idle. He has earned every 
dollar he ever had, and is the maker as well 
as the owner of a well improved and at- 
tractive farm of two hundred acres of as 
fine land as may be found in the state. It 
may be said of him, " that he looks the 
whole world in the face, and owes no man 
a dollar." 

Mr. and Mrs. Kastner are the parents 
of ten children, all of whom with one ex- 
ception are still living. They are Anna 
Mary, Lydia Annie, Lena, Frederick, Hen- 
ry, William, Minnie, Ella and Selma. The 
oldest daughter is married to Louis Snyder, 
who owns a farm a mile and a half from the 
orphan's home at Jamestown, North Dako- 
ta. The other children are all at home, 
and are doing their part in the farm and 
house work. The father, mother and the 
three oldest children are members of the 
Evangelical church, and are people of stand- 
ing and character in the community. He 
is a Republican and cast his first vote for 
General Grant. 



GEORGE F. MARSH, whose home is 
on section 20, West Blue township, is 
not only one of the useful and valuable citi- 
zens of Fillmore county in days of peace, 
but, when the nation was in peril during the 
dark days of the Rebellion, he was one of 
the men who fought most valiantly for the 
old flag and the cause it represented. 

His paternal grandparents were David 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1068 



and Susan Marsh, natives of Pennsylvania, 
but removed to Oiiio with their parents at 
an early day. The grandfather served his 
country in the war of 1812 under General 
Harrison. The grandmother was left a 
widow with three small children, two 
daughters and one son, John. Being a re- 
markably energetic woman, she reared her 
children to manhood and womanhood, and 
in 1840 accompanied them to Illinois, riding 
the entire distance on horseback. Later 
she made a visit to Ohio and returned also 
on horseback. Upon the death of one of 
her daughters she took the care of her three 
grandchildren whom she raised to near man's 
and woman's estate. She was then called 
to Iowa by the death of her second daugh- 
ter, who left a family of motherless children 
whom she cared for until 1857, when she 
returned to Illinois, and made her home 
with one of her granddaughters, whom she 
accompanied to Miami county, Kansas, 
where she died March 13. 1883, at the ripe 
old age of eighty-eight years. 

His parents were John and Ann E. 
Marsh. The latter was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, August 10, 1 81 3, and emigrated to 
Ohio in an early day. Her maiden name 
was Foresman. 

The former a native of Ohio was born 
in Pickaway county, August 23, 1814, and 
grew to manhood in his native state. In 
1 840 he migrated to Illinois, and in DeWitt 
county entered a tract of wild land, which 
he converted into one of the most desirable 
farms in that locality. His entire life being 
devoted to agricultural pursuits. He was 
one of the prominent and influential citizens 
of his community, and was elected to the 
office of supervisor. He remained and oper- 
ated his farm in DeWitt county until 1881, 
when he sold his farm and removed to 
Franklin county, Kansas, where he bought 
and operated a farm until his death, which 
occurred January 16, 1892. In his native 
state he was married to Mrs. Ann E. Kagan, 



ncc Foresman, and they became the par- 
ents of sixteen children, ten of whom reached 
the age of maturity, five sons and five 
daughters. Three daughters and the sub- 
ject of this sketch are now living in Ne- 
braska. The mother died in DeWitt coun- 
ty, Illinois, November 9, 1872. Like her 
husband, she was respected and esteemed 
by all who knew her. 

George F. Marsh was born in DeWitt 
county, Illinois, October 19, 1840, and 
obtained his education in the public 
schools of the same county. He early 
became familiar with every department 
of farm work, which he continued to follow 
there until the opening of the Civil war. 
Responding to his country's call for aid, he 
enlisted July 10, 1861, in Company E, 
Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for 
three years, and on the expiration of that 
time veteranized, remaining in the service 
until hostilities ceased, and being honorably 
discharged July 16, 1865. He took part in 
the battles of Frederickstown, Missouri, Oc- 
tober 21, 1861; Britten's Lane, Tennessee, 
September i, 1862; Port Gibson, Mississippi, 
May I, 1863; Raymond, May 12; Jackson, 
May 13; Champion Hills, May 16; and 
Vicksburg, from May 19 to 22, 1863. At 
the last-named engagement he was wounded 
in the right elbow and a few minutes later 
in the right leg, and was sent to the hos- 
pital, first at Memphis, Tennessee, and 
later by hospital boat to Quincy, Illinois. 
The following December he re-joined his 
regiment at Black River, Mississippi, and 
his next engagement was at Chunkey Sta- 
tioh, Mississippi, February 19, 1864, fol- 
lowed by the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, 
Georgia, June 27, 1864, and Atlanta, July 2 r 
and 22, 1864. Here he was again wounded 
in the right arm and was confined in the 
hospital until the loth of November, when 
he reported for duty at Chattanooga, Ten- 
nessee. Although he was not a commis- 
sioned officer, he was given command of a 



10G4 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



company of recruits at Chattanooga, Ten- 
nessee, and as such took part in the battles 
of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864, 
and at Decatur, Alabama, December 27, 
1864. With his company, he then pro- 
ceeded by rail and water to North Carolina, 
and after participating in the battle of 
I\ingston, March 10, 1865, rejoined his 
regiment at Goldsboro, North Carolina. 
With his regiment, he then went to Raleigh 
and on to Washington, District of Columbia, 
where he took part in the grand review. May 
22 and 23, 1865. Soon afterward he was 
mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and 
returned to his Illinois home. 

In the fall of 1865 Mr. Marsh went to 
Ivansas and returned in 1866, when he re- 
sumed his occupation as a farmer. In 1873 
he came to Nebraska and became a resident 
of Fillmore county, locating on the farm 
where he now resides. The wild, unculti- 
vated tract he has transformed into one of 
the best and most attractive farms in the 
county, having placed it under a high state 
of cultivation and improved it with good 
and substantial buildings. On coming to 
this state, he drove across the country with 
a four-horse team, being twenty-si.x days in 
making the trip. 

In McLean county, Illinois, December 
30, 1868, Mr. Marsh married Miss Eleanor 
C. Bosserman, a native of Ohio, born April 
13, 1845, s sister of W. H. Bosserman, a 
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this 
work. To them have been born nine 
children, namelv: Charlie; John, deceased; 
Mary E. ; Georgiana; Samuel B.; Edward 
D. ; May B.; Julia M. ; and Eleanor B. 
Fraternally Mr. Marsh is a member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and has been 
connected with the Masonic order for thirty- 
seven years. Politically he is identified 
with the Republican party and has most 
creditably and acceptably filled several 
township offices, including those of treas- 
urer, collector and justice of the peace. As 



an agriculturist, he has been fairly success- 
ful and his upright, honorable course in 
life commends him to the confidence and 
esteem of all with whom he has come in 
contact. 

Samuel B. Marsh, son of the subject 
of this sketch, was a member of the First 
Nebraska National Guards, and when the 
call was made for volunteers for the Spanish- 
American war, he enlisted in Company G, 
First Nebraska United States Volunteers, 
May 8, 1898. He participated in the cap- 
ture of Manila, Philippine Islands, and all 
subsequent battles up to date. 



JOHN BECKMAN, an old settler of H 
U precinct, Seward county, is one of the 
men whose names are connected with the 
history of the growth and development of the 
community in which he lives. He owns a 
large and well improved farm, is influential 
in matter of local politics and a consistent 
member of the Evangelical Lutheran church. 

Mr. Beckman was born in the province 
of Hanover, Germany, May 6, 185 i, a son 
of John Beckman. The father was also a 
native of the Fatherland and migrated from 
thence to America in 1871, where he died 
about four years later. His companion, 
who in her girlhood bore the name of Miss 
Elizabeth Goecke, died in Germany. They 
were the parents of a family of six children, 
five sons and one daughter. One of these 
sons died in H precinct, Seward county, 
Nebraska, at the age of fifty-five years, and 
one son and the daughter are now living in this 
precinct, besides the subject of our sketch. 

Our subject was educated in the com- 
mon schools of Gertnany and also in Ameri- 
ca, and was confirmed in the Evangelical 
Lutheran church at the age of fourteen years. 
He left the land of his birth in 1868, em- 
barking at Bremen, May 6, and landed in 
New York on the 23d of the same month. 
From there he proceeded to Clayton county, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



106^ 



Iowa, where he worked on a farm for two 
years and a half. He then moved to Lincoln, 
Nebraska, and for two years followed the 
mason's trade. In the fall of 1S72, he came 
to H precinct and filed a homestead claim to 
an eighty-acre tract of land which now forms 
a part of his present estate. He began im- 
proving his new farm by constructing a dug- 
out which housed him during the first year 
of his life in the far west. During this 
time he boarded with his brother. In the 
spring of 1874, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Bertha Hanich, a resident of Lancas- 
ter county, Nebraska, about a mile and a 
half east of Mr. Beckman's homestead. 
They at once began housekeeping on the 
farm which is still their home. The origi- 
nal eighty acres, however, is now only a part 
of a fine large farm of four hundred acres, 
all of which is improved and tillable. 

Mrs. Beckman was born in Germany, 
December 29, 1852, was educated and con- 
firmed in the vicinity of her birthplace, and 
came to America with her parents in 1872. 
They then proceeded to Lancaster county, 
Nebraska, and at the age of twenty-one 
years, she became the wife of our subject. 
To this congenial union have been born a 
family of nine children, upon whom they 
have seen fit to bestow the following names: 
Minnie, Emma, August, Robert, Adolph, Ru- 
dolph, Bertha, Aberthena and Anna. Minnie 
and Emma are married, and August is em- 
ployed in a general merchandise store at Ger- 
mantown. All of the children were baptized, 
and all who have arrived at the age of four- 
teen years have been confirmed in the 
Evangelical Lutheran church. Our subject 
has become one of the best known and most 
widely rtty art ed citizens of H precinct. He 
is thrifty, industrious and at once generous 
and economical in his financial affairs. He 
has accumulated considerable means and is 
now enjoying the results of an active and 
successful career. Politically he is a stanch 
Republican. 



MARTIN V. SAMPLE, M. D.— Butler 
county has lew more energetic or 
wide-awake men among the younger mem- 
bers of its population than this gentleman. 
His name will be readily recognized by the 
citizens of Bellwood and vicinity as one of 
its most popular and efficient physicians. 

Dr. Sample first came to Nebraska in 
1885, locating at that time in Milford, Sew- 
ard county, and did not locate in Bellwood 
until October, 1897. He was born in Mor- 
gan county, Illinois, and his father, John 
Sample, was a brick and tile manufacturer, 
of Jacksonville, Illinois. Our subject was 
educated at the Lincoln Medical College, 
from which he graduated with the class of 
1894. He was married in 1896 to Miss 
Dora Schaaf, of Milford, Nebraska, and in 
October of the following year he moved to 
Bellwood, Butler county, and began the 
practice of his profession in that city. A 
man of progressive ideas, studious and pains- 
taking in all his professional work, although 
he is still a young man and the latest acces- 
sion to the medical profession in Bellwood, 
the subject of this sketch has already built 
up a large and lucrative practice and has 
established himself firmly in the good-will 
and esteem of his medical brethren. As a 
citizen he is loyal in his adherence -to the 
principles of right government, and as a 
friend and benefactor he has gained an en- 
viable reputation. 

He is a member of the State Eclectic 
Medical Society, also the Modern Woodmen 
of America, Home Forum Benefits, Tribe 
of Ben Hur, Royal Neighbors, and is med- 
ical examiner for all of these. In politics 
he is a free-silver Democrat. 



FF. ROBBINS, one of the brave defend- 
ers of the Union during the dark days 
of the Civil war, and a prominent repre- 
sentative of the agricultural interests of 
Fillmore county, has his homestead on sec- 



1066 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



tion 34, West Blue township. His record 
is that of a man who by his own unaided ef- 
forts has worked his way upward to a posi- 
tion of affluence. His Hfe has been one of 
industry and perseverance, and the sys- 
tematic and honorable business methods he 
has pursued have won him the support and 
confidence of many. 

Mr. Robbins is a native of New York, 
his birth occurring in Genesee county, Octo- 
ber 2", 1840, and is a son of Frederick and 
Louisa (Logan) Robbins, also natives of 
that state, and the latter a representative of 
the same family to which General John A- 
Logan belonged. The paternal grand- 
father, Levi A. Robbins, was born in Mas- 
sachusetts, and about 1792 removed to'New 
York, his death occurring in Genesee coun- 
ty, that state. He engaged in farming and 
also followed blacksmithing and wagon 
making. The maternal grandfather Logan 
was a native of New York. The parents of 
our subject continued to reside in the Em- 
pire state throughout life, the father, a farm- 
er and butcher by occupation, dying in 
1842, the mother in 1861. Their only 
daughter is also deceased. 

F. F. Robbins, the only son of this 
worth}' couple, was educated in the com- 
mon schools of his native state, and later 
followed farming there after the outbreak of 
the Rebellion. In response to the presi- 
dent's call for more volunteers, he enlisted 
in 1862, in Company G, One Hundred and 
Twenty-ninth New York Volunteer Infantry, 
and the following year re-enlisted and was 
transferred to the Eighth New York Heavy 
Artillery. He was first engaged in skirmish- 
ing throughout West Virginia, and later 
took part in the seven days' fight in the 
Wilderness, and the battles of Spottsylva- 
nia; Cold Harbor, Virginia, where the regi- 
ment lost 639 in killed, wounded and miss- 
ing; North Ann river; Monkey river; and 
Turkey Bend on the James river. There 
were two engagements at the last named 



place. Mr. Robbins also took part in the 
engagements in front of Petersburg, assisted 
in tearing up the Weldon railroad, and was 
in the battle of Ream's Station. At that 
place he was captured while serving as act- 
ing sergeant, and for si.x months was held a 
prisoner. During his captivity he was 
changed from one prison to another several 
times, being confined in Libby prison, Rich- 
mond, Virginia, Belle Isle, Salisbury, North 
Carolina, and other places. Shortly after 
his exchange in 1865 he was mustered out. 
He was slightly wounded at the battle of 
Cold Harbor, and was hit by a piece of shell 
at North Ann river, but was never seriously 
wounded, and only once was he confined in 
the hospital for a short time. 

After the war, Mr. Robbins remained in 
New York until 1868, when he removed to 
Shiawassee county, Michigan, and engaged 
in farming there for six years. In 1873 he 
came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
homesteaded the farm where he now lives. 
The same spring the family located on the 
farm, where a small dugout, 10x12 feet, 
had been made, and twenty-five acres of the 
land broken. Although his crops have been 
at times destroyed by grasshoppers and 
droughts, he has prospered in his adopted 
state, and is now the owner of one of the 
best improved farms in the county. His 
lawn is one of the most beautiful in this 
region, it being ornamented with evergreen 
trees trimmed in an artistic manner. The 
home is a model of neatness and comfort, 
and everything about the place indicates the 
supervision of a careful and painstaking 
owner. 

In March, 1867, Mr. Robbins wedded 
Miss Mary A. Taber, who was also born in 
Genesee county. New York. Her parents, 
Clark and Rebecca (Peck) Taber, were 
natives of New York, and for many years 
lived upon the place in that state, where the 
mother died, but the father's death occurred 
in Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Robbins have 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1067 



two children: Ora A., and Carrie E.,- wife 
of S. W. Avery, of Fillmore county. 

Mr. Robbins is a member of the Regula- 
tors, an organization formed in 1890 to pro- 
tect the farmers from horse thieves and 
criminals, and he has served as secretary 
from the start. He was also one of the 
organizers of the Republican party in the 
county and state, and he filled the office of 
town clerk in Michigan for six years and 
here for two years in a most creditable and 
satisfactory manner. He has also served 
seventeen years on the school board of the 
district he now lives in. 



EDGAR FOX, an honored veteran of the 
Civil war and a thorough and skillful 
farmer residing on section 6, Union town- 
ship, Butler count}', was born in Genesee 
county, New York, January 21, 1839. His 
father, Elisha Fox, was also a native of 
New York, and of English descent. Upon 
a farm in Genesee county he was reared in 
much the usual manner of farmer boys, and 
on attaining to man's estate he married 
Miss Eveline Kelsey. Of the children born 
of this union there are now living: Ed- 
win, a resident of Minnesota; Eleanor, of 
Iowa; Ezra, of Floyd county, Iowa; Eve- 
line, of Henry county, Illinois; and E. 
O., who makes his home near Bellwood, 
Butler county, Nebraska; and Edgar, of 
this sketch. Egbert, who died in this 
county, in 1897, was one of the early set- 
tlers of this region. When the family left 
Genesee county. New York, in the spring of 
1844, they moved to McHenry county, Illi- 
nois, settling on a farm near Crystal lake, 
where our subject grew to manhood and 
learned the carpenter's trade. 

In 1859 Edgar Fox emigrated to Saline 
county, Missouri, where he was married to 
Miss Mary Amelia Berrey, whose father, 
John Berrey, had moved with his family to 
that county from AfcHenry county, Mrs. 



Fox being reared in the same neighborhood 
as her husband. When the Civil war broke 
out Saline county, Missouri, proved a very 
uncomfortable home for Union men, and 
Mr. Fox and his wife returned to McHenry 
county, Illinois, where he enlisted in August, 
1862, in Company F, Ninety-fifth Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry. He was first in McCarty's 
Division, Seventh Army Corps, and his first 
engagement was at Tal,lhosse, Mississippi. 
Returning to Memphis, the regiment went 
by boat to Milliken's Bend and Lake Provi- 
dence, after which they went into winter 
quarters. In the spring of 1863 they start- 
ed for Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they 
arrived on the 19th of May, and Mr. Fox 
participated in the first and second charge 
on that stronghold, his command being the 
first of the troops to enter the fort on its 
evacuation on that memorable Fdurth of 
July. He took part in the Red River ex- 
pedition under A. J. Smith, and was also in 
the Guntown expedition, where his brother 
Ezra was captured and sent to Anderson- 
ville prison. During his three years service, 
our subject was in many engagements 
throughout different sections of the south, 
assisting in the capture of General Price in 
Missouri, and also took part in the battle of 
Nashville, in 1864, and Mobile and Spanish 
Fort in 1865. At the end of his term of 
enlistment he was honorably discharged. 
Returning to McHenry county, Illinois, he 
remained there until the spring of 1866, 
when he and his oldest brother went to 
Bremer county, Iowa, living there until 
coming to Butler county, Nebraska, in 
June, 1 87 1. With the agricultural interests of 
Union township he has since been identi- 
fied and from the unbroken prairie has 
developed a fine farm, which stands as a 
monument to his thrift and industry. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Fox have been born 
four daughters: Olive, Cora, Armina and 
Susan, and they also have an adopted son, 
Lester. A public-spirited, progressive citi- 



1068 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRArHT. 



zen, Mr. Fox has always taken an active 
part in local political affairs, and he has been 
called upon to serve as justice of the 
peace seven years and school treasurer for 
the long period of twenty years. His fidel- 
ity to duty is among his chief character- 
istics and has been manifested in both 
public and private life. The success that 
has crowned his efforts is due entirely to his 
enterprise, industry and good management, 
and he may be justly numbered among the 
self-made men of the community. 



PETER KRON, deceased, was for many 
years one of the leading and highly re- 
spected citizens of West Blue township, 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, where he suc- 
cessfully carried on operations as a general 
farmer. He was born in Sweden, about 
182:, and was there reared to agricultural 
pursuits. About 1848 he crossed the broad 
Atlantic and took up his residence in Brook- 
lyn, New York, where he worked in the 
navy j^ard until after the opening of the 
Rebellion. He manifested his love for his 
adopted country by enlisting in Company 
A, Forty-eighth New York Volunteer In- 
fantry, which was assigned to the Army of 
the Potomac. During his three years' serv- 
ice, he participated in many battles and 
skirtnishes, and though he fortunately es- 
caped unwounded, his health was badly 
shattered by his arduous service. 

After the war, Mr. Kron continued his 
residence in Brooklyn until 1870, when he 
came to Lincoln, Nebraska. In the spring 
of that year he took up a homestead of one 
hundred and si.xty acres of wild land in 
West Blue township, Fillmore county, 
where his family still continue to reside. 
He constructed a dugout upon his place, in 
which the family lived until their present 
comfortable residence was erected. They 
began life here empty-handed and by work- 
ing for others, he and his wife managed to 



buy an ox team, with which he broke and 
began the cultivation of his land. As years 
passed by, many comforts were added to 
their home, and he continued to success- 
fully engage in agricultural pursuits until 
his death, which occurred in January, 1S86. 

In Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Kron was 
married, in i860, to Miss Sophia Moody, 
also a native of Sweden, who came to 
America when twenty-six years of age and 
worked in that city until her marriage. To 
them were born four children, namely: 
Victoria and Frank, both deceased: Joseph- 
ine, wife of Elof Lindgrem, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this volume; and 
Charles A. 

In political sentiment Mr. Kron was a 
Republican. With his family, he attended 
the Methodist Episcopal church, and by his 
upright, honorable life, he gained the con- 
fidence and respect of all who knew them. 



JOHN LINDGREM, deceased, was one 
of the honored early settlers of Fillmore 
county, and was prominently identified with 
its agricultural interests for many years, 
owning and operating a good farm in West 
Blue township. He was one of the worthy 
citizens that Sweden has furnished to the 
new world, and he possessed many of the 
admirable qualities of the people of his 
native land, being honest, industrious, en- 
terprising and energetic. 

Mr. Lindgrem was born in Sweden, in 
I 81 5, a son of Carl Johnson, who spent his 
entire life in that country. There our sub- 
ject was reared, and on reaching manhood 
married Miss Christina Swanson, by whom 
he had five children, but only two are now 
living: Elof, who is now living on the home 
farm in West Blue township; and a daugh- 
ter who still resides in Sweden. In his 
native land Mr. Lindgrem continued to 
carry on farming until 1868, when with his 
family he sailed for the United States, land- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1069 



ing in New York city. After about six 
months spent in Harlem, New Yori<, he re- 
moved to Princeton, Illinois, where he lived 
until 1870, and then came to Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, taking up a homestead on sec- 
tion 4, West Blue township. After con- 
structing a dugout for the accommodation of 
his family, he began to break and improve 
his farm, but at the end of seven years 
traded it for one hundred and twenty acres 
in the same township, upon which he made 
his home until called from this life in Janu- 
ary 26, 1893. He placed the land under 
cultivation and made many excellent im- 
provements thereon in the way of good and 
substantial buildings. His wife departed 
this life February 26, 1898. Both were 
faithful members of the Lutheran church, 
and were revered and honored by all who 
had the pleasure of their acquaintance. In 
politics Mr. Lindgrem was first a Repub- 
lican, but later voted independent of party 
ties. 

Elof Lindgrem, the only son, now owns 
and operates the homestead. He was born 
in Sweden, November 23, 1854, was reared 
and educated there, and accompanied his 
parents on their emigration to the United 
States in 1868, remaining with them during 
life. While in Princeton, Illinois, he at- 
tended school, and also pursued his studies 
for a short time in a log school-house after 
coming to Fillmore county. On the 24th 
of November, 1887, he was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Josephine A. Kron, a sketch 
of whose parents appears elsewhere in this 
work. Mr. Lindgrem early began to assist 
his father in the labors of the farm, and 
throughout life has successfully engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, now owning a valuable 
farm of a half section, all improved and 
under cultivation. It is his intention to 
soon retire from active labor as he has al- 
ready secured a comfortable competence 
which will enable him to spend the remain- 
der of his life in ease. He will probably 

61 



visit his native land and then make his home 
in Grafton, Fillmore county. He, too, is 
independent in politics, and socially affili- 
ates with the Masonic fraternity and the 
Modern Woodmen of America, being a 
charter member of the Woodmen camp at 
Grafton. He is one of the highly esteemed 
citizens of his community, and has a host 
of warm friends. 



NOAH M. THOMPSON, deceased, was 
one of the honored early settlers of 
Fairmont township, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and during his residence here as- 
sisted greatly in its development and pros- 
perity. He was by nature liberal and public 
spirited, and wherever he took up his abode 
maintained an interest in the people round 
him, and contributed of his means and abil- 
ity to their improvement socially, morally 
and financially. No man is more worthy 
of representation in a work of this kind, 
and there is none whose name is held in 
more grateful remembrance. 

Mr. Thompson was born in Mercer 
county, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1839, 
a son of John S. and Nancy (Osburn) 
Thompson, and a brother of Cyrus Thomp- 
son, whose sketch appears on another page 
of this volume. In his native county our 
subject was reared and educated, and re- 
mained on the home farm until after the 
breaking out of the Civil war. On the 8th 
of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company 
A, One Hundred and Forty-second Penn- 
sylvania Volunteer Infantry. He partici- 
pated in several battles, and was with 
Burnsides on the famous march in the mud 
through \'irginia. Bemg taken ill he was 
sent to Carver Hospital, Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia, where he remained until 
honorably discharged, June 20, 1862. Re- 
turning to his home in Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Thompson remained there for some time, 
and then went with his brother Cyrus to 



1070 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHy-. 



Iowa, where he Hved until coming to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, in iS/r. He 
homesteaded the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 14, Fairmont township, and after 
erecting a small frame house thereon, 
began to break and cultivate his land. He 
experienced all the hardships and privations 
of frontier life having his crops destroyed 
by grasshoppers and drouth; but he steadily 
overcame all difficulties in the path to pros- 
perity, and at his death was quite well-to-do. 
He continued the operation of his farm here 
until 1885, when, on account of failing 
health, he removed to Thomas county, I\an- 
sas, where he pre-empted a homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres and also a 
timber claim, which his widow has since 
disposed of. There he made his home 
until called from this life September 9, 
1892, leaving many friends as well as his 
family to mourn his loss. 

On the 1st of May, 1873, Mr. Thomp- 
son married Miss Elda L. Gleason, a native 
of Wisconsin and a daughter of Alonzo and 
Betsy (Lewis) Gleason, who were both born 
in Ashtabula county. Ohio, and representa- 
tives of old Connecticut families. Her 
parents came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
August 5, 1 87 1, and pre-empted a quarter 
section of land in Madison township, to the 
cultivation and improvement of which the 
father devoted his energies for some years. 
He is still a resident of the county, but the 
mother is now deceased. Two children 
were born to our subject and his estimable 
wife, namely: Frank M., a native of Fill- 
more county, married Ella Reel, a daughter 
of Henry H. Reel, and now operates the 
home farm in Fairmont township; and Anna 
L. lives at home with her mother in the 
same township. The family is quite promi- 
nent socially. 

Mr. Thompson was a faithful and ear- 
nest member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and also held membership in the 
Grand Army of the Republic. Although 



he never aspired to office, he took a lively 
interest in political affairs, and was a stanch 
supporter of the Republican party. He was 
a man universally respected, and one whose 
word was considered as good as his bond, 
and in his death the community lost one of 
its most honored and useful citizens. 



LAFAYETTE SOWERS.— Among the 
leading and representative agriculturists 
of Butler county, there is none who stands 
a more prominent figure than the gentleman 
whose name introduces this sketch. Since 
the fall of 1S72 he has been a resident of 
the county, making his home on section 10, 
Center township, where he first purchased 
eighty acres. As his financial resources 
have increased, however, he has extended 
the boundaries of his land from time to time 
until he is now the owner of three hundred 
and sixty acres of some of the finest farming 
land to be found in this section of the state. 
Being a thorough and systematie farmer, 
prosperity has crowned his efforts, and the 
success that he has achieved is certainly 
well deserved. 

Mr. Sowers was born in Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, January 19. 1824, 
and is a grandson of a Hessian soldier who 
was hired by the British during the lievolu- 
tionary war. At the end of that struggle he 
located in this country, where his descend- 
ants have since made their home. Our 
subject's father, George Sowers, a farmer 
and trader by occupation, was born in Win- 
chester county, Virginia, about 1783, and 
died in Greene county, Pennsylvania, at the 
age of eighty-two years. When seventeen 
years old he removed to Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, where he subsequently mar- 
ried Miss Anna Home, a daughter of John 
Home, and they became the parents of 
eleven children, of whom our subject is the 
sixth child and third son. His oldest 
brother, John, lives in Douglas county, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1071 



Illinois, at the age of eighty-five years; 
George W. emigrated to Marion county, 
Missouri, and died there; A. J. makes his 
home in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and 
William Henry Harrison lives in Clark 
county, Missouri. 

The subject of this sketch passed his 
boyhood and youth in the county of his na- 
tivity, and in Greene county, Pennsylvania, 
he was married, February 17, 1849, to Miss 
Nancy Chess, daughter of Peter Chess. In 
that state three children were born to them, 
namely: Sarah, now the wife of John Buck- 
ler, of Douglas county, Illinois; George, a 
resident of St. Louis, Missouri; and Peter. 
After the removal of the family to Illinois 
four others came to bless their union: John, 
of Butler county, Nebraska; Rosa, wife ot 
William Fenderson, of David City; Lemuel 
E., of Omaha; and Delia, wife of Charles 
Evans, of Greene county, Pennsylvania. 

From Pennsylvania, Mr. Sowers emi- 
grated to Illinois in the fall of President 
Buchanan's election, crossing the Ohio river 
twelve miles below Wheeling, West Vir- 
ginia, on election day. For seventeen years 
he resided in Douglas county, Illinois, and 
then come to Butler county, Nebraska, 
where he has since found a pleasant home, 
being now surrounded by a large circle of 
friends and acquaintances who appreciate 
his sterling worth and many excellencies of 
character. Politically Mr. Sowers was for- 
merly a Whig, and is now an ardent Re- 
publican. 

The father, George Sowers, was twice 
married, his first wife being Christina Gard- 
ner. She had one son, but died giving 
birth to him. 

Our subject's wife died January 28, 
1898. She was a member of the Mission- 
ary Baptist church for over forty years, and 
for many years belonged at David City. 
She died of heart disease, and was found 
dead in her bed. She was an excellent 
Christian woman and highly respected. 



WILLIAM M. BABCOCK.— Deeds of 
valor and of heroism have been 
the theme of song and story since the 
earliest ages, yet no more inspiring stories 
are told than of the American heroes, who 
in every war in which the country has been 
engaged have shown their loyalty and 
bravery to be equal to that of any race that 
the world has known. Mr. Babcock, of this 
review, is one of the faithful boys in blue 
who went forth to the defense of the Union 
in the Civil war and of his army record he 
has every reason to be proud. He is alike 
true to his country in days of peace, and 
now is numbered among the valued resi- 
dents of York county, Nebraska. 

A native of Ohio, he was born in New- 
burg, November 18, 1837, a son of John M. 
and Catharine (Miller) Babcock, and a 
grandson of George and Margaret (Baker) 
Babcock, farming people and all natives of 
America. The Miller family is of Irish 
origin, but little is known concerning the 
early history of the Babcocks. William 
Babcock lost his father when he was only 
eleven years of age. The family re- 
moved to Wisconsin in 1845, locating on a 
farm fourteen miles northwest of Madison. 
That was in the territorial days of the 
Badger state, and the father was elected to 
the first constitutional convention, where he 
acceptably served, being regarded as one of 
the leading orators of that assemblage. He 
died in 1848 and his wife died about eleven 
years later, of consumption. 

William M. Babcock having (received 
deeds from the entire family for the land 
comprising the old homestead, sold the prop- 
erty in 1860, and the following year, when 
twenty-three \'ears of age, joined the Union 
army as a member of Company G, First 
Regiment of United States Volunteer Sharp- 
shooters. The following winter they were 
stationed in Washington, D. C, and in 
March, 1862, went to Fortress Monroe, par- 
ticipating in the battle of Yorktown, April 



1072 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



5, 1862. This was followed by the siege of 
Yorktown, his regiment being one of the 
first to enter the city after its surrender. 
With his cominand Mr. Babcock then took 
part in the pursuit of McGreider toward 
Richmond, and on the 27th of May, with 
the Fifth Army Corps, was sent to that city 
to destroy the railroad communications, 
which was accomplished after the battle 
known as Hanover Courthouse. Mr. Bab- 
cock was also in the battle of Mechanics- 
ville, and the Fifth Army Corps, under Fitz 
John Porter, held the field until almost dark 
when the forces were withdrawn to Gaines 
Mill, where another stand was made June 
27, 1862. In this battle Companies C and 
G,of the First, rested on rising ground near 
the bridge and in the afternoon took a posi- 
tion one-half mile in front, crossing the 
bridge at night and camping on the other 
side of Bottam's bridge. On the 20th of 
June the sharpshooters were in the battle of 
Glen Dale, where they were twice exposed 
to a hot cross-fire of the enemy, and lost 
sixteen of their number, which was a heavy 
loss owing to the already depleted ranks. 
Next came the battle of Malvern Hill where 
Mr. Babcock's company was held in reserve, 
followed by the second battle of Bull Run, 
where he was struck on the leg by a broken 
shell but did not go the hospital. At the 
battle of Antietam his regiment was held in 
reserve but was brought to the front when 
Lee's army crossed the Potomac. Then 
came Chancellorsville, where our subject 
was struck on the hip by a spent ball, laming 
him for about two weeks, but he did not go 
to the hospital. Then came the battles of 
Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, the sharp- 
shooters arriving on the second day of the 
battle, and on the 23d of July, 1863, the en- 
gagement at Waping Heights, where Mr. 
Babcock had his left eye knocked out, the 
ball sinking in the bones of the face. Un- 
able to rise, he was carried from the field on 
a blanket, taken to the hospital at Washing- 



ton and when he had sufficiently recovered was 
transferred to Company One Hundred and 
Thirteen, of the Second Battalion, Veteran 
Reserve Corps, with which he continued 
until the expiration of his term of enlist- 
ment brought him an honorable discharge, 
at Elmira, New York, November 3, 1864. 

Mr. Babcock then returned to his Wis- 
consin home, and on the i8th of January, 
1865, married Agnes Clark. They began 
their domestic life on a farm there, making 
it their home until the autumn of 1870, 
when they started by wagon for York county, 
Nebraska, arriving at their destination Oc- 
tober 13, 1870. Here he secured a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixty acres on sec- 
tion 26, Henderson township, York county, 
and has since devoted his time and energies 
to farming. Much of his land is now under 
a high state of cultivation and he has made 
many excellent improvements on the place 
which are as monuments to his thrift and 
enterprise. 

Mr. and Mrs. Babcock have eight chil- 
dren: Mary May, who was married Octo- 
ber 14, 1883, to George, son of O. P. and 
Catharine Stoninger, and now has four chil- 
dren: — lona M., Alton G., Vertie and Vic- 
tor H. ; Myrtle C. ; Maud Ida, who was mar- 
ried April 27, 1888, to E. L. Wagner, son 
of S. J. and Mollie Wagner, and now has 
four children: Leota Mable, Inez M., Attie 
M. and Erby; Mable A., who is the wife of 
Garret Thomas, son of W. A. and Margaret 
Thomas, and has three children, Guy W., 
Fay G. and Eunice I.; William A., Norma 
A., Clark O. and Eva I., all at home. The 
married children all reside near the parents. 

Mr. Babcock was formerly a Democrat, 
but says he will now vote for any party 
which pledges itself to the free and unlim- 
ited coinage of silver and will restore it to 
its old place as one of basic metals. The 
parents and five of their children are mem- 
bers of the United Brethren church of Lush- 
ton. All have high musical ability and can. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1073 



play on some instrument, so that the home 
is often brightened by the popular, classic 
and sacred music. Mr. Babcock is a mem- 
ber of C. W. Hays Post, No. 336, G. A. 
R., and through this connection renews his 
relationship with his old army comrades 
with whom he aided in the defense of the 
starry banner that now floats so proudly 
over the united nation and has recently 
been unfurled in victory above some of the 
islands of the sea. 



WILLIAM G. HAINEY.one of the best 
known citizens of Fillmore county, 
is one of the earliest settlers of this state 
and the pioneer merchant of Grafton. A 
country has but one chief ruler, be he king, 
emperor or president. Comparatively few 
men can attain to the highest offices in civil 
and military life, but commerce offers a 
broad and almost limitless field in which 
one may exercise his powers unrestrained 
and gain a leadership in business affairs. 
Drawing the lessons which we do from the 
life of Mr. Hainey, we learn that the quali- 
ties necessary for success are a high ambi- 
tion and a resolute, honorable purpose to 
reach the exalted standard that has been 
set up. From an early age he has been 
dependent upon his own resources and 
through his own efforts he has become one 
of the most prosperous and substantial citi- 
zens of Fillmore county. 

A native of Ohio, Mr. Hainey was born 
March 15, 1840, on the site of the present 
city of Cleveland. His parents, Robert and 
Margaret (Higgins) Hainey, were born, 
reared and married in County Longford, 
Ireland, and in 1839 they emigrated to 
America. After a short time spent in New 
York city they went to Cleveland, Ohio, 
where the father engaged in farming and 
stock raising for some years, and in 1848 re- 
moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was 
in the employ of the American Fur Com- 



pany for three years, being engaged in as- 
sorting hides and furs. Later he engaged 
in business in that city for himself until 
called from this life in 1865. The wife and 
mother had passed away in 1854. In their 
family were five children, three sons and 
two daughters, of whom Walter was a 
member of the Twelfth Missouri Volunteer 
Infantry during theCivil war, and died from 
the effect of wounds received at the siege of 
Vicksburg, Mississippi; Major died in in- 
fancy; and the one daughter now living, 
Mrs. Sarah Ellis, is a resident of Detroit, 
Michigan. The paternal grandfather of our 
subject, James Hainey, was a farmer in 
Ireland, and was quite extensively engaged 
in stock buying and shipping. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
was passed in St. Louis, Missouri, where he 
attended schools and received a good busi- 
ness training by clerking in a store for some 
years. In 1859 he went to Pikes Peak, 
where he spent some time in mining, and 
later was given a position in the quarter- 
master's department of the regular army 
stationed on the frontier, in which capacity 
he served until 1863, traveling over Colo- 
rado and New Mexico. He then entered 
the employ of the Overland Mail Company, 
and on the south line drove a stage from 
Fort Lyon to Santa Fe, then to Fort Union 
and Fort Craig, and from there to Parajo, 
New Mexico, and made one trip over Death's 
Valley. Although the Indians were very 
troublesome at that time, he fortunately es- 
caped an attack. In December, 1864, he 
resigned his position and came to Nebraska 
City, and the follpwing spring began freight- 
ing across the plains to Denver, being thus 
engaged for three years, during which time 
he had three narrow escapes from the In- 
dians. Mr. Hainey next located at Green 
River City where he made his home for a 
short time, but in 1869 returned to Ne- 
braska City, where he remained until 1873, 
finding employment as a clerk for different 



1074 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



people. In 1873 he opened a general store 
in Dunbar, Nebraska, which he operated 
for two years, and on the ist of October, 
1875, came to Grafton, where he opened 
the first stock of general merchandise in the 
place. He is now the oldest merchant in 
years of continuous business in Fillmore 
county, and from the beginning his trade 
has constantly increased until it has assumed 
extensive proportions. He has not confined 
his attention wholly to mercantile pursuits, 
however, but has become interested in other 
lines of business, and served as president 
of the bank of Grafton for a short time. 
He owns an interest in the creamery at that 
place, and also owns and operates over one 
thousand acres of land in the county. 

In 1870, in Nebraska City, Mr. Hainey 
wedded Miss Mary B. Condon, a native of 
St. Louis and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
John Condon. Six children blessed this 
union, namely: Walter, now a resident of 
Brooklyn, New York; Blanche, wife of F. 
E. Hand, of Hoboken, New Jersey; and 
Margaret, William R. and Lloyd, all at 
home. Forrest is deceased. The family 
are members of the Episcopal church, and 
socially Mr. Hainey is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity and the Independent 
Order of Odd fellows. Politically he is 
identified with the Democracy, and he has 
* filled some minor offices, but cares nothing 
for political honors, preferring to devote 
his time to his business affairs. Thorough- 
ness and persistency have characterized 
his entire business career, and have been 
supplemented by careful attention to details 
and by honorable, straightforward effort, 
that has gained him a most excellent and 
enviable reputation. 



GEORGE E. DIMICK.— The subject 
of this notice is certainly entitled to be 
considered not only one of the enterprising 
farmers of Polk county, but one of its re- 



spected and honored citizens, and a man of 
more than ordinary ability. His residence 
is pleasantly situated on section 35, towns- 
ship 15, range 4. He is a native of Henry 
county, Illinois, born September 26, i860, 
and a son of Chauncey S. and Sarah A. 
(Lambert) Dimick. The birth of the father 
occurred in Ohio, August 26, 1836, and he 
was a son of Lucius Dimick, who had one 
son — Leurtis Dimick — who was captain of 
a company in an Illinois regiment during 
the Civil war. 

In Scott county, Iowa, Chauncey S. 
Dimick was married, October 29, 1857, to 
Miss Sarah A. Lambert, who was born in 
New Jersey, March 12, 1835, and they be- 
gan their domestic life upon a farm near 
Orion, in Henry county, Illinois. About 
ten or twelve years later they removed to 
Cambridge, the same state, and later they 
came to Polk county, Nebraska, where the 
father broke three hundred and twenty 
acres of land the first year. He then re- 
turned to Illinois, and brought to this state 
two car loads of horses and one of lumber. 
He erected his residence and the next year 
raised a crop of wheat. He made all the 
improvements upon his place, set out eight 
acres in walnut trees and fenced four hun- 
dred acres. Dealing extensively in real 
estate, he became the owner of eight 
hundred acres of valuable and well improved 
land, and continued to make his home in 
Polk county until his death, which occurred 
at Osceola, August 21, 1889. His wife 
passed away July 16, 1897, while on a visit 
to her daughter in Fargo, North Dakota. 
They were widely and favorably known 
throughout the county, attended church, 
and she contributed to the erection of the 
Methodist Episcopal church in Osceola. 
Politically the father was a straight Re- 
publican. The children of the family were 
Lucius D., who was born August 19, 1858, 
and died February 21, i860; George E., of 
this sketch; and Alice T. , who was born 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1075 



October 7, 1862, and is now the wife of 
William C. Resser, an attorney at Fargo, 
North Dakota, by whom she has three 
children — Duane C. , Helen and Willie. 

Reared in Henry county, Illinois, George 
E. Dimick obtained a good practical educa- 
tion in the schools of Cambridge, that state, 
and of Scott county, Iowa, and he also 
gained an excellent knowledge of agricultural 
pursuits upon the home farm. On starting 
out in life for himself he located upon a 
farm on section 3, township 15, range 4, 
Polk county, Nebraska, and is now the 
owner of a valuable tract of four hundred 
and eighty acres, a half of which is under 
cultivation and well improved. In addition 
to general farming he is interested in stock 
raising, making a specialty of Hereford 
cattle. 

On the 14th of November, 1882, Mr. 
Dimick led to the marriage altar Miss Mary 
L. Rose, who was born in Mercer county, 
Illinois, December 20, i860. Her parents 
John and Anna C. (Johnson) Rose, were 
both natives of Sweden, the former born 
September 30, 1821, the latter October 26, 
1 83 1, but in early life they emigrated to the 
New World, and have now made their home 
in Mercer county, Illinois, for the past forty 
years. By trade the father is a tailor, but 
is now living retired. He is a stanch Re- 
publican in politics, and he and his wife are 
worthy members of the Methodist church. 
Of their twelve children, six reached man 
and womanhood, namely: Theodore, now 
a resident of Hamilton, Montana; Matilda, 
wife of David Mace; Mrs. Dimick; Emma, 
wife of John Shank; Laura, wife of Ernest 
Stroburg, of Worth county, Missouri; and 
Emil. 

Socially Mr. Dimick belongs to the 
Knights of Pythias lodge and the Modern 
Woodmen Camp, No. 1220, both of Clarks, 
Nebraska. The Republican party has al- 
ways found in him a stanch supporter, and 
during the campaign of 1896 he rendered 



effective service in its interest as secretary 
of the McKinley Club, while his wife was 
president of the Woman's McKinley Club. 
She is an earnest member of the Methodist 
church at Fairview, and presides with gra- 
cious dignity over their pleasant home, which 
is the center of a cultured society circle. 



JOHN MARTIN, Jr., a systematic and 
progressive farmer successfully carry- 
ing on operations on section 22, West Blue 
township, Fillmore county, Nebraska, was 
born on the 24th of September, 1855, in 
Dane county, W'isconsin. His parents, 
John A. and Mary J. (Larmer) Martin, 
were both natives of Ireland and on their 
emigration to America, in 1848, located 
in Dane county, Wisconsin, where they 
continued to make their home until 1873. 
The year previous the father, who was also 
a farmer by occupation, came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, and took up a home- 
stead of one hundred and sixty acres, it being 
the southeast quarter of section 20, ^^'est 
Blue township. To the improvement and 
cultivation of his land he devoted his time 
and attention for many years, but is now 
living retired in Grafton, enjoying a well- 
earned rest surrounded by many comforts 
secured by his former toil. During the 
Civil war he served for ten months, in 1S65, 
as a member of Company I, Fifth Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, and under all circum- 
stances has ever been found loyal to the 
interests of his adopted country. His es- 
timable wife died in 1892. To them were 
born nine children, six sons and three 
daughters. 

The boyhood and youth of our subject 
were passed in Wisconsin, where he attend- 
ed the common schools, and upon the home 
farm acquired an excellent knowledge of all 
the duties which fall to the lot of the agri- 
culturist. He accompanied the famils' on 
their removal to Nebraska, and assi-t^d in 



1076 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



opening up and cultivating the home farm. 
Later he engaged in the meat business in 
Grafton for a time, and then returned to 
the farm, which for the past twenty years 
he has so successfully operated. Prosperity 
has come to him in his undertakings, and 
he is now the owner of a quarter section of 
as fine farming land as is to be found in the 
county. 

On the 19th of May, 1878, Mr. Martin 
led to the marriage altar Miss Missouri 
Johnson, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah 
(Eckley) Johnson, natives of Ohio, where 
the father died. Later the mother came to 
Nebraska. Nine children have been born 
to Mr. and Mrs. Martin, as follows: Mabel 
E. ; Thomas L., deceased; Clara B. ; Dora 
A. ; Clarence L. ; Hattie E. ; Allen E. ; 
James H. ; and one who died in infancy. 
Mr. Martin is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and is an ardent 
supporter of the Populist party. He has 
been called upon to fill the offices of justice 
of the peace and road overseer, and his 
duties, both public and private, have always 
been most faithfully and conscientiously dis- 
charged. 



REVEREND ALOIS J. KLEIN.— This 
is the name of the pious and scholarly 
pastor of Holy Trinity church at Brainard, 
who is widely known and much revered 
throughout this part of the state, not 
only for his learning and eloquence, but for 
his devout spirit and broad sympathies. 
His linguistic acquirements — besides the 
knowledge of Latin and Greek he speaks 
English, Bohemian, German and some 
French — make him an efficient worker in 
the arduous field of missionary life. He is 
still a young man, but his experience has 
given him the gravity of years, and there is 
a power in his speech that comes not only 
from the study of books, but also from a 
knowledge of men. A native of Bohemia, 



and devoted to the faith of the Roman 
Catholic church, he has chosen the life of a 
missionary priest among his people in the 
new world, and upon their hearts his name 
is ineffaceably written. His main work has 
thus far been found in the upbuilding of the 
Bohemian church of the Holy Trinity at 
Brainard, but he has rendered valuable serv- 
ice in other and minor mission movements. 
The Brainard church deserves careful treat- 
ment as illustrating not only the wisdom and 
solicitude of this pastor, but the loyal spirit 
of its people. 

The first Bohemian settlers, Matthias 
Slavik and F. Maixner located in the vicin- 
ity of Brainard in 1875. During the next 
two grasshopper years they were followed by 
Matthias Kabourek, Frank Novacek, Joseph 
Semin, Sr. , Joseph Jakub and F. Dvorak. 
A more vigorous tide of immigration ensued 
in and after the year 1878, when the 
Stromsburg branch of the Union Pacific 
railroad was built through these parts. 

In 1883 there had already been a talk of 
a church in Brainard, and the first meeting 
was held at the Rejda public school-house, 
district No. 8, February 2, 1884, to con- 
sider its possibilities, which was attended by 
eighteen friends of the proposition. There 
could have been little thought of the pre- 
sent commodious structure devoted to their 
faith in later years. They were a feeble 
folk, but the spirit was strong, and the 
eighteen resolved to build. An organization 
was effected with Frank Dvorak, Mr. 
Kabourek and Louis J. Kavalec as trustees. 
Meanwhile F. Novacek offered ten acres of 
land on section 10 in Oak creek for that 
purpose, but it was decided in the meeting, 
held on October 12, 1884, to build in the 
village. On November 18, 1884, two lots 
were purchased by the new trustees, Mr. 
Kabourek, \'aclav Polivka and Frank 
Bures, in order to secure a place for the 
proposed church. 

Father Vaclav Kocarnik, O. S. B., now 




REY. ALOIS J, KLEIN. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1079 



prior at Chicago, came from Plasi, Saunders 
county, to tiie house of Michael Flynn, two 
miles north and two miles east of Brainard, 
in November, 1884, to celebrate mass at his 
request, and this was the first time this holy 
service was held in this district belonging to 
the Holy Trinity parish. The land where 
the church now stands was deeded January 
15, 1885, and consists of lots 11 and 12, 
block 7, first addition to Brainard, costing 
the modest sum of sixty-two dollars and 
fifty cents. 

In 1885, Ign. Dvorak, M. Kabourek and 
J.J. Smrz being trustees, two acres of land 
were purchased for a cemetery on April 25. 
The absence of a leading head in the person 
of a priest caused the necessity of very fre- 
quent meetings, and M. I\abourek was dep- 
utized to issue circular letters which were 
passed from family to family, inviting them 
to these meetings. In 1886, Vaclav Hlavac, 
Thomas Rehovsky and Joseph Coufal were 
chosen trustees. They succeeded in having 
a suitable fence erected around the ceme- 
tery, and on December 28, 1886, was or- 
ganized a branch of the Bohemian Catholic 
Central Union, a benefit association. No. 
130, which proved to be an important fac- 
tor in the various financial, social and re- 
ligious functions of the congregation. 

Services were held for the first time 
among the Catholics in the town of Brain- 
ard on Sunday, May i, 1887, by the Rev. 
Jordan Stutz, who came over from Plasi to 
say mass in the public schoolhouse and 
baptized several children. He was called 
by the trustees, L. J. Lavalec, John Hot- 
ovy and Philip Novak, and later on visited 
Brainard, August 7 and November 6, in 
the same year. In the meeting of Novem- 
ber 1, 1877, a congregation of thirty-two 
assembled and finally decided to erect a 
church. The building was begun Novem- 
ber 6, 1887. From various causes, how- 
ever, the original congregation of thirty- 
two who had determined to build, had 



dwindled to eighteen, but they went ahead 
and success crowned their labors. Joseph 
Semin, Sr. , Th. Rehovsky and Anton 
Kucera, the building committee in 1888, 
exerted every possible effort to bring the 
matter to a successful conclusion. The 
church was completed in the spring of 1888 
and was a tasty frame structure, 60 x 36 
feet, and eighteen feet in height. It was 
constructed by the members of the church 
and is a lasting monument to their zeal and 
loyalty. The plans were drawn by Ign. 
Dvorak; he and F. Fiala, Sr. , had charge 
of the carpenter work, while Charles Suchy 
was superintending the masonry. 

One year later from his first appearance 
Father Stutz said the first mass in the new 
church on Sunday, June 10, 1888. The 
worship thus begun has been maintained 
with regularity to the present time, and the 
large results of the formerly humble begin- 
ning attests its sincerity. The congre- 
gation received the services of Father M. 
Bor, of Wahoo, in March, 1889, who vis- 
ited Brainard once a month for eight 
months. He then retired and on Novem- 
ber 3, 1889, gave place to the present pas- 
tor, under whose administration the church 
had been greatly blessed. 

The zeal and generosity of the members 
did not stop at the moment the new church 
building was finished. Many benefactors 
arose who, besides the regular payments, 
furnished necessary church articles individ- 
ually at their own expense. 

The mission of Brainard prospering 
greatly. Father Klein then located at Crete, 
determined to make a parish of it, and on 
February 21, 1893, he secured a handsome 
building for a new parsonage, which has 
been elaborately furnished and the grounds 
beautified. The original investment was 
one thousand six hundred dollars for two 
lots and building, but much more has since 
been expended, making it one of the most 
complete homes of the priesthood in Ne- 



1080 



COMPENDIUM OF BTOGRAPHT. 



braska. The church had richly been orna- 
mented and is now pronounced one of the 
pleasantest and most attractive, though not 
the largest in Butler county, and is free 
from debts. Its ecclesiastical precincts in- 
clude the mission at Weston, where since 
September 5, 1893, regular services are 
held twice a month. 

Within the membership of the church 
are organized the following societies: (i) 
The Ladies' Rosary Society, founded in 
1889, with eighteen members. (2) A branch 
of the Bohemian Catholic Central Union, 
No. 130, with a membership of twenty-four; 
it now bears the name The Western Bo- 
hemian Catholic Union, branch No. 11, 
and (3) St. Ivan's branch of the Catholic 
Workman, No. 16, organized January 6, 
1896; it has a membership of thirty-five. 
The Western Union and the Catholic Work- 
man societies have now resolved to erect a 
special hall for the purpose of holding their 
meetings and locating a library there. 

The church organization has greatly 
grown in the past few years and enrolls 
sixty-five families and its average congrega- 
tion exceeds one hundred. Its financial 
standing being excellent. Father Klein is 
now planning the establishment of a paro- 
chial school. 

Father Alois J. Klein is a native of 
the village of Frauenthal, near the famous 
town of Prachatic, Bohemia, where he was 
born February 6, 1866. He was a son of 
Bohemian parents, his father being the pro- 
prietor of a linseed oil factor}', flour mill 
and shingle mill. They gave him a good 
education in the German public school of 
his birthplace and in the German school at 
Prachatic, where he was thoroughly trained 
in the German language and common 
branches, and then manifesting marked 
ability, he was sent to the Bohemian Gym- 
nasium at Budweis. He entered this famous 
school in September, 1878, and for eight 
years attended its instruction, holding first 



place in his class during nearly all that 
time. 

In 1 886 he became a student at the 
clerical seminary in the same place, where 
he spent one year in the special study of 
theology. From here he passed to the 
German University at Prague, where he 
devoted leisure hours to the study of French 
and English. And it was at Prague that 
he formed the determination to devote his 
life to missionary work among his com- 
patriots in the new world, where his parents 
had emigrated alre'ady in 1881. With the 
consent of Bishop Bonacum, of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, he left in 188S for Klagenfurt, 
Carinthia, where he finished his studies for 
the ministry and was promoted to the 
priesthood June 15, 1889, a special dispen- 
sation being necessary on account of his 
youth. 

The young priest spent three months in 
the village of Vitejic, Bohemia, and then 
came to America, first touching these shores 
October 31, 18S9. He immediately report- 
ed for dut}- in Nebraska, and was at once 
appointed rector of St. Wenceslaus' church, 
in Wahoo, where in two years he paid off 
the last farthing of indebtedness on the 
parsonage and erected an elegant new 



church building. 



He had charge of mis- 



sions at Weston and Brainard, visiting each 
once a month. December 10, 1891, he was 
transferred to the St. Ludmila parish, of 
Crete, but he retained the charge of Holy 
Trinity and of the Weston mission, and oc- 
casionally attended the mission of Wilber. 
He extricated the Crete congregation from 
its embarrassing situation by paying off a 
considerable portion of its outstanding debts. 
September 5, 1893, he came to Brainard as 
its first resident pastor. His labors at Weston 
may briefly be enumerated thus: In 1891 
he enlarged the church building, at the same 
time furnishing and adorning the inside of 
it; two years later secured valuable additions 
to the church property there, started 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1081 



St. Mark's branch of the Catholic Workman 
in 1896. and completed the organization of 
the congregation. 

After five years' stay in America he 
undertook a trip across the ocean to visit 
the Bohemian Ethnological exposition, 
which was held at Prague, Bohemia, in 
1895. Upon his return he organized four 
branches of the Catholic Workman, viz.: 
At Brainard, Weston, Dwight and Touhy, 
and in 1898 was elected state chaplain to 
this fraternal and benevolent association. 

His ecclesiastical standing is illustrated 
by the fact that, in the Diocesan Synod, 
held at Lincoln, Nebraska, February 17, 
1898, from names proposed b}' election of 
the clergy he was selected by the bishop as 
a member of the bishop's council and as 
synodal e.xaminer of the junior clergy. 

Father Klein is a hardworking and faith- 
ful clergyman, but he has found time to de- 
vote to the muses, and is favorably known 
in literary circles, both in this country and 
in Europe, by the contribution of poems 
and prose articles to the leading periodicals 
of the day, which have been recognized as 
full of artistic feeling, melting melody and 
classical language. He has translated a 
number of the works of Washington Irving 
and Charles Lamb into Bohemian, and also 
from the German of Dr. Carl May. He is 
a welcome contributor to the " Ottuv Slov- 
nik Naucny. " This work is the largest Bo- 
hemian encyclopedia and is published at 
Prague, Bohemia, since 1887. The work, 
when completed, will consist of about thirty 
volumes. His friends anticipate a brilliant 
future for him. 



JOHN STOLLAR, one of York county's 
earliest settlers, and an old soldier with 
an enviable war record, has his home on 
section 22, Henderson township. 

John Stollar was born in Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, May 17, 1840. His 



father was William Stollar, and his grand- 
father was Andrew Stollar, who came of 
Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage, and his oc- 
cupation was that of a farmer. William 
Stollar, the father of our subject, was born 
in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and re- 
moved to Washington county, of that state, 
about the year 1826. The mother of our 
subject bore the maiden name of Ann 
Rockefeller, daughterof Nathan Rockefeller, 
who came of Irish lineage, and of a family 
who were millers and fullers by trade. 

John Stollar worked on his father's farm 
in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and 
grew to manhood with but little opportunity 
for education, .as the farm on which they 
lived had been little less than s forest, 
which had to be cleared and put in condi- 
tion for cultivation. This required all the 
time and attention of every member of the 
family during his boyhood, so that his train- 
ing was in the line of hard work and patient 
and untiring effort to overcome the most 
stubborn obstacles, and this training un- 
doubtedly influenced his after life. When 
he was twenty-one years of age, John Stol- 
lar went to work for his grandfather Rocke- 
feller, continuing thus employed until 1861, 
when on the 16th of August, of that year, 
at his country's call, he enlisted in Com- 
pany B, First West \'irginia Volunteer 
Cavalry. They were stationed near Wheel- 
ing, on an island in the Ohio river, but 
were shortly after sent to Clarksburg, Vir- 
ginia, where many weeks were occupied in 
drilhng and military discipline. His regi- 
ment was employed in scouting and picket 
duty until the second battle of Bull Run, 
which was the first great battle in which 
his regiment participated. In this engage- 
ment his horse was shot under him, and he 
was left on foot amid the awful confusion, until 
chance gave him another horse which had 
lost its rider. At one time he was with a 
portion of his regiment on picket duty at 
Washington Junction, when they were at- 



1082 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGBAPHT. 



tacked b}- a squad of Mosby's men, and 
after a sharp fight were captured, but their 
captors being in turn attacked b}' the Sixth 
New York, were driven off and the prisoners 
released. At another time while his regi- 
ment were doing rear-guard duty near 
Brandy Station, they were cut off from the 
main army by a body of Confederates. 
General Custer, who was with the regiment 
at the time, seeing the state of affairs, 
quickly formed the regiment, and placing 
himself at its head, cut through the enemy's 
lines, e.xtricating themselves without the 
loss of a man. With the exception of the 
battle of Cedar Creek, which was fought 
while he was on a thirty-day sick leave, 
John Stollar was with his regiment in every 
raid and march and battle in which it was 
engaged from the time of his enlistment till 
the close of the war — at Appomattox. Mr. 
Stollar still has an officer's sword, taken by 
him from a Confederate officer a few days 
before the surrender of General Lee. 

About one year after his return to his 
home in Pennsylvania, John Stollar removed 
to Iowa, locating in Appanoose county, 
near Centerville. There he remained about 
four years, when he sold his farm, and in 
March, 1871, located in York county, Ne- 
braska, filing a homestead claim to the 
southeast quarter of section 22, in Hender- 
son township. At that time there were but 
few families scattered along the banks of 
the West Blue, while to the north and the 
south for many miles there was only un- 
broken prairie. The lumber of their build- 
ings they hauled over sixty miles in wagons, 
bringing it from Lincoln. But our subject 
was young, and trained to arduous toil, and 
he found his farm duties, clearing and plow- 
ing the prairie lands and planting trees and 
crops more pleasant than playing hide and 
seek with death on southern battlefields 
and the lonely watch of the picket. His 
cheerful industry and patient labor have 
born rich fruit. He is now the owner of 



two hundred and forty acres of fine and fer- 
tile lands, well improved and stocked, and 
his well-filled bins and granaries, his stacks 
of yellow grain, and his waving fields tell to 
the evening winds a tale of peace and satis- 
faction grateful to the ear of him to whose 
toils this homestead owes existence. 

Through all his trials and hardships, his 
difficulties and triumphs, one has been by 
his side who has ever been his faithful help- 
meet and counsellor. On November 2, 
1865, John Stollar was married to Miss 
Rachel Riggs, daughter of James and Su- 
sanna (Earnest) Riggs. They were mar- 
ried in Penns3'lvania about one year before 
they began their western journeyings. Mrs. 
Stollar's parents are still living and reside 
in Greene county, Pennsylvania, the father 
at the age of eighty-six and the mother se\- 
enty-nine years of age. They were the 
parents of sixteen children, fifteen of whom 
grew to maturit}-. Eleven of these children 
were boys and four of these sons enlisted in 
the Union army. Two of them, twins, en- 
listed in the Eighth Pennsylvania \'olunteer 
Infantry, one of them being killed at the 
battle of Fredericksburg. Two of the sons 
enlisted in the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania 
Volunteer Infantry. One of them came 
home on account of sickness, but the other 
two sons served to the end of the war and 
returned home at its close. Mr. and Mrs. 
Stollar are the parents of nine children, 
seven of whom are now living. Their 
names are as follows in the order of their 
birth: J. William, H. Sheridan, Ida May, 
Alethia Delia, C. Herbert, Bertha Maud 
and Zelma Fern. Alethia Delia is now the 
wife of Henr}' F. Hecht, the son of William 
and Mary Hecht, their wedding day being 
March i, 1893. They have one daughter, 
Freda Carrol, now nearly four years old. 
They are farmers and live in York count}-, 
not far from the old homestead. Mr. and 
Mrs. Stollar are both consistent Christians 
and hold membership in the United Breth- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1083-. 



ren church at Lushton. Mr. Stollar is a 
member of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, Hayes Post, No. 306, at Lushton, where 
his long and heroic services are commemo- 
rated. He is a RepubHcan, having cast his 
first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has 
stood faithfully by that party ever since, 
casting his last presidential vote for William 
McKinley. Mr. and Mrs. Stollar firmly be- 
lieve in the future of the great state of Ne- 
braska, and their e.xperience and knowledge 
of that state make a solid foundation on 
which to base hopes for coming generations- 



ANTON BRECHTEL, a well-known and 
successful farmer residing on section 
22, Leroy township, York county, was 
born in Germany, February 3, 1836, and 
is a son of Mathias and Helen (Sauer) 
Brechtel, also natives of Germany, where 
they spent their entire lives. The father 
was a successful farmer of that country 
and our subject soon became quite famil- 
iar with all the labors and duties which 
fall to the lot of the agriculturist. At the 
age of twenty years he became a mem- 
ber of the regular German army, in which 
he served for two years, and later worked 
on a farm for several years in his native 
land. 

In February, 1861, Mr. Brechtel was 
united in marriage with Miss Theresa 
Hauser, also a native of the fatherland, 
born April 15, 1841. This union has been 
blessed with twelve children, namely: 
Christina; Caroline; Charley; Frank, de- 
ceased; Helen; Anna; Theresa; William 
W. ; Emma; George, Maud and Susie. 

After the death of his father, Mr. Brech- 
tel came into possession of the old home- 
stead, which he operated for a time. Being 
dissatisfied with the old country and hear- 
ing of the wonderful opportunities afforded 
in the United States, he decided to emigrate 
to America, and in the fall of 1872, with 



his wife and si.x children, he crossed the At- 
lantic, having first sold his farm in Ger- 
many. He located in Stephenson county, 
Illinois, where he bought si.xty acres of land, 
and upon that place engaged in agricultural 
pursuits for seventeen years. In the spring 
of 1889 he sold his Illinois farm and came 
to York county, Nebraska, purchasing one 
hundred and sixty acres in Leroy township, 
where he has since lived. He has made 
many excellent improvements upon the 
place which add greatly to its value and at- 
tractive appearance, and now has a fine 
farm under a high state of cultivation and 
equipped with good buildings. In political 
sentiment he is a Democrat. His honor 
and integrity are unimpeachable, and he 
merits and receives the esteem and respect 
of the entire community. 



GEORGE THEOBALD, one of the 
most prosperous and successful farm- 
ers of Franklin township, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska, has made his home upon his 
present fine farm on section 32 since 1887. 
He is a man of great energy and persever- 
ance and has effected many improvements 
upon the place since taking possession. He 
was at once recognized as a valued addition 
to the community, a man possessing excel- 
lent judgment, and giving his support and 
encouragement to those enterprises calcu- 
lated for the general we fare. 

Mr. Theobald was born in Ohio, Octo- 
ber 30, 1859, a son of William and Elizabeth 
(Hauser) Theobald, natives of Germany, 
who in early life emigrated to Pike county, 
Ohio. They were married in Germany. 
They came to this country with the hope of 
securing a competence and were very suc- 
cessful in carving out a fortune for them- 
selves and family. They died not only rich 
in this world's goods, but also in the honor 
and high regard in which they were uniform- 
ly held. The father passed away at the age 



1084 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



of sixty-one, the mother at the age of fifty- 
nine, leaving a host of friends as well as 
their immediate family to mourn their loss. 
Their remains were interred in the cemetery 
at St. Joseph, Illinois. They were faithful 
members of the German Methodist church, 
with which they united in their youth. In 
their family were the following children: 
Conrad, George, Henry, Philip, William, 
Isaac, John, Kate, Maggie and Barbara. 

During his boyhood and youth George 
Theobald pursued his studies in the common 
schools, and when his education was com- 
pleted he turned his attention to agricultural 
pursuits which he has made his life work. 
On the 1 0th of February, 1889, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Dora Walter, 
who was born in Germany, December 19, 
1 86 1, and was educated in the public schools 
of Illinois. Her parents, Henry and Eliza- 
beth (Tidka) Walter, were also natives of 
Germany and after their marriage emigrated 
to the new world, locating in Mason county, 
Illinois, where the father engaged in farm- 
ing throughout the greater part of his life. 
Later he removed to Havana, Illinois, and 
spent his last days in retirement from active 
labor. Like our best German-American 
citizens, he was thrifty, industrious and 
honorable in all his dealings and was ever 
true to his duties of citizenship. Both he 
and his wife were life-long members of the 
Lutheran church, and had the respect of all 
who knew them. Their children were 
William, Frederick, Minnie, Louisa and 
Dora. The father died in Illinois at the 
age of fifiy-nine years, the mother at the 
age of thirty-eight. Mr. and Mrs. Theo- 
bald have two children: Pearl, now ten 
years old; and Goldey, five years. 

Soon after their marriage our subject 
and his wife came to Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, and in Franklin township pur- 
chased an improved farm of two hundred 
and forty acres, upon which they have since 
resided, his time and attention being de- 



voted to its cultivation and further improve- 
ment. Prosperity has crowned his efforts, 
and although still a comparatively young 
man, he has already gained a comfortable 
competence as well as the confidence and 
respect of all who know him. 



FOSTER MARTIN REYNOLDS, de- 
ceased. — In the death of Mr. Reynolds, 
of Center township, Butler county lost a 
worthy citizen and excellent farmer, as well 
as one of the early settlers of the county. 
The estate upon which he had been living 
since 1868 is situated in section 35, of the 
above named township, and bears a full 
line of improvements, including every con- 
venient arrangement in the way of buildings 
and adornments with which persons of good 
taste surround themselves. 

Mr. Reynolds was born in Pennsylvania, 
in November, 1847, and was reared there. 
He first moved to Butler county, Nebras- 
ka, a single man, but in 1868 he returned 
to Pennsylvania and was united in marriage 
to Miss Charlotte E. Reed, a native of that 
state and a daughter of John Reed. Re- 
turning to Nebraska, he lived for one year 
in Otoe county, where Edgar C. Rey- 
nolds, their first son, was born. Edgar C. 
was reared in Butler county and there re- 
ceived a common-school education which 
he supplemented with a course at the David 
City High School, and finished at the Wes- 
leyan University, at Lincoln, Nebraska. He 
was married, in 1896, to Miss Minnie I. Mc- 
Gee, who moved to that county from West 
Virginia, as a teacher. She is a daughter 
of William McGee, of West Virginia. To 
this union has been born one son, upon 
whom they have bestowed the name of Fos- 
ter, after his grandfather. Edgar C. Rey- 
nolds is following his father's plan of life 
and is quite extensively engaged in farming 
and stock raising. He is a man of good 
education and a practical knowledge of 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1085 



farming and will doubtless soon be recog- 
nized as one of the substantial and leading 
agriculturists of Butler county. 

Three children were born to our sub- 
ject's first marriage, viz.: Edgar C. , Bur- 
dette M. and Scott. Burdette M. was pre- 
pared for a teacher at the Wesleyan Univer- 
sity and the Lincoln Normal School, and is 
now engaged in teaching. Scott is living 
on the old homestead. Mrs. Charlotte E. 
Reynolds, our subject's first wife, died in 
1876, and he was subsequently married to 
Mary E. Crumley, of Nebraska City, who, 
with the six children born to this union, 
Roy, Winnie, Mabel, Izetta, Carl and 
Sarah, survive him. Throughout his ca- 
reer in Butler county, Foster Reynolds, the 
subject of this sketch, was loyal to the 
principles of Christianity, and showed him- 
self to be a man in whom all might place 
the highest confidence. In business mat- 
ters he was quite successful and accumu- 
lated considerable means and made a pleas- 
ant and comfortable home. He was a loyal 
citizen and an earnest and enthusiastic sup- 
porter of everything which tends to develop 
and bring prosperity to the locality in which 
he lived. In addition to his farming inter- 
ests he was a leader in the Prohibition party 
and was a member of the state central com- 
mittee. He was a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and also of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen. Mr. Reynolds 
died in Butler county, Nebraska, and is 
buried in the Ware cemetery. 



WILLIAM S. McCOY. — Among the 
prominent men now living in David 
City who have won an honorable name as 
citizens of that thriving town, none is bet- 
ter deserving of representation in a volume 
of this nature than William S. McCoy. He 
is still in the prime of vigorous manhood, 
but has already risen to a position of con- 
siderable prominence, and has done so by 



dint of his own efforts, backed by the in- 
domitable will and powers of mind which 
ha\'e come to him as a heritage from indus- 
trious and thrifty ancestors. 

Mr. McCoy was born in Montgomery 
county, Indiana, November 6, 1856, a son 
of Rev. Lindsey McCoy. The father was 
also born in Indiana, and by occupation was 
a farmer and a minister of the gospel. He 
died January i, 1888. His father, Stephen 
McCoy, was a native of Kentucky and 
moved from thence to Indiana in about the 
year 1820, located on a farm and there 
spent the remaining years of his life. He 
was of Scotch and Irish descent. Our sub- 
ject's mother, Sarah J. Cowan, was also a 
native of Indiana and died in her native 
state in July, 1896. Her father, William 
H. Cowan, was a native of the state of 
Ohio, and moved to Indiana in an early 
day. He was also a farmer by occupation. 

Rev. and Mrs. Lindsey McCoy were the 
parents of a family of six children, all of 
whom grew to maturity, and of whom our 
subject is the oldest. He was reared in 
the county of his nativity, and attended the 
public school of the district in which his 
boyhood was spent. He afterward took a 
course in the Valparaiso State Normal 
School, leaving there in 1876. Two years 
later he went to Butler county, Nebraska, 
and spent two years on a farm with his 
uncle, J. F. McCoy. He then went to 
Rising City, Butler county, Nebraska, and 
was there engaged in the general merchan- 
dise business until 1888. During that year 
he began the practice of law in that city 
and followed the practice of that profession 
at that place until March, 1894. He then 
moved to David City and opened a law 
office there, and has since made that his 
base of operations. He was appointed city 
attorney in 1896, and the following year he 
was elected city clerk. 

November 4, 1880, Mr. McCoy was 
united in marriage to Miss Lucinda C. 



1086 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHr. 



Jones, a native of the state of Illinois and a 
daughter of A. H. and Elizabeth (Ritchey) 
Jones, and to this union have been born 
two children: May, and one who died in 
infancy. Mr. McCoy has been a lifelong 
stanch Republican, and cast his first presi- 
dential vote for James A. Garfield in 1880. 
He was the nominee on the Republican 
ticket for county judge, but was defeated by 
a small majority. He and his wife are 
both members of the Christian church. 



WILLIAM P. HAGER is a prosperous 
representative of the agricultural in- 
terests of Nebraska, and has a well kept 
farm on section 7, Hays township. He is 
still a young man, counts his age still in the 
thirties, and is brimful of ambition and en- 
ergy. He came to York county with his 
parents, Oliver P. and Elizabeth A. (Show) 
Hager, who were among the earlier settlers 
of this region. His father filed a soldier's 
homestead claim to the southwest quarter of 
section 8, Hays township, in spring of 1871, 
and located his wife and family there in the 
fall of the following year. He and his wife 
were natives of Pennsylvania, and came from 
that state into Illinois, where they spent six 
years in LaSalle and Marshall counties be- 
fore their appearance in this state. They 
are now living in retirement in the city of 
York. 

Mr. Hager was born in Fayette county, 
Pennsylvania, June '5, 1861, and was four 
years old when his parents went to Illinois 
to live, and about ten when they entered 
York county to spend the balance of their 
days. He grew to manhood on their York 
county homestead, receiving such schooling 
as the neighborhood afforded, and taking a 
practical common sense view of life. In 
1880 he went to farming on his own ac- 
count, and for three years tilled a rented 
farm. He then bought eighty acres, which 
constituted the nucleus of his present farm. 



He has added to this first tract enough from 
sections 17 and 7 to increase his acreage to 
a half section, which has become under his 
unflagging industry a highly improved and 
finely cultivated farm. He has a reservoir 
near his residence which is stocked with 
edible fish. From this he draws water to 
irrigate his garden securing an abundance of 
summer vegetables. He has an extensive 
ice house, putting up every winter crystal 
comfort for the the summer. He is enter- 
prising, pushing, and unusually successful. 

Mr. Hager was married in November, 
1883, to Miss H. E. Morss. She was born 
in Ripley county, Indiana, and is a daughter 
of John M. and Ann (Purdue) Morss. Her 
father now lives in York county. She came 
to this county with her mother in 1881. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hager are the parents of four 
children, three of whom are now living. 
Their names are John, Claude, Roy and 
Chauncey B., who died April 7, 1898, aged 
thirteen months. Mr. Hager is a member of 
the Ancient Order of the United Workmen, 
and takes a thoroughly independent course 
in all political and other affairs. He believes 
in honesty, independence and truth, and is 
not willing that any convention or party 
should dictate his vote to him. He stands 
well among his neighbors, and is regarded 
as a man whose future is promising. He 
has since purchased the old homestead of 
one hundred and sixty acres. 



THOMAS A. MOORE, one of the most 
extensive and successful stock raisers 
and feeders of Polk county, his home being 
on section 4, township 15, range 3, Platte 
precinct, was born on the 10th of June, 
1842, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, a 
son of Andrew and Hannah (Whitson) 
Moore, also natives of Pennsylvania, and 
members of the Society of Friends. In the 
family were four children, three sons and 
one daughter, and the former were all 



COMPEXDIL.U OF BlOGRAPHr. 



1087 



numbered among the boys in blue during 
the Civil war. Joseph was a member of 
the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and 
was in battles of the Army of the Potomac 
for four years; Jeremiah, now a resident of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an orderly 
sergeant in the same regiment. The sister. 
Dr. Rebecca Moore, is a graduate of the 
Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, 
and is a well-known physician of that city. 
As his parents died when he was very 
young, Thomas A. Moore was reared by a 
maternal uncle, who was a farmer and mill- 
er of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and 
our subject, before he attained his majority, 
had acquired an excellent knowledge of 
both lines of business, while his literary 
education was obtained in the schools of 
Maple Grove. On the iith of June, 1863, 
he enlisted in Company C, Fiftieth Penn- 
sylvania Militia, as corporal, and after do- 
ing guard duty on the Susquehanna river 
for a time, he proceeded with his company 
to the state capital and later to the Poto- 
mac. About a week after the battle of Get- 
tysburg he assisted in capturing seventeen 
notorious guerillas at Peach Bottom, surpris- 
ing them while at supper, and all surren- 
dered at once although their captors were 
mere boys. Later the regiment operated 
along the Potomac, was in a three hours' 
fight under General Couch at Hagerstown, 
did guard duty at Williamsport, Falling 
Waters and Clear Springs. On the expira- 
tion of his term of enlistment, Mr. Moore 
was honorably discharged at Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, and returned home. In Feb- 
ruary, 1864, he wentto Ypsilanti, Michigan, 
where he engaged in farming for a time, 
but subsequently enlisted as a private in 
Company A, Twenty-fourth Michigan Vol- 
unteer Infantry, which was ordered to 
Springfield, Illinois, to guard prisoners. 
They also acted as military escort at the 
burial of President Lincoln. The war hav- 
ing ended and his services being no longer 



needed, Mr. Moore was mustered out July 
3, 1865, and returned to Ypsilanti, Michi- 
gan, where he engaged in farming, dairying 
and stock raising. 

On the 1 2th of March, 1867, he was 
united in marriage with Miss Eliza A. Kel- 
ley, a native of Ypsilanti, and a daughter of 
Christian and Sarah Ann (Steers) Kelley, 
who were honored pioneer settlers of Michi- 
gan. Her grandfather Steers was a pilot 
for Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, and 
was drowned about a year after the memor- 
able naval conflict at that place. Mrs. 
Moore was born September 28, 1846, and 
was educated at Ypsilanti. By her mar- 
riage to our subject she has become the 
mother of four children: Arthur K., who 
married Ella Gardner; Ella Gertrude, wife 
of A. B. Campbell, by whom she has two 
children, Mary M. and Lillian; Clinton T. , 
at home; and Charles Starr, deceased. 

Mr. Moore came to Polk county, Ne- 
braska, October 13, 1887, and has since 
resided upon his present fine farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres, giving his entire 
time and attention to the stock business. 
He owns a fine gasoline engine which oper- 
ates a pump, supplying water through a two- 
thousand foot pipe to a large number of 
horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. It is also 
used in grinding cornmeal, etc. Mr. Moore 
is thoroughly up to date in his methods of 
carrying on his ranch, being one of the most 
enterprising and progressive business men 
of his community, and the success that has 
crowned his efforts is certainly well deserved. 
By birthright he is a member of the Society 
of Friends. Fraternally he belongs to the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, and 
Ellsworth Post, No. 29, G. A. R., of Silver 
Creek, in which he served as commander 
for two years, and for the same length of 
time he was also commander of the district, 
now known as the Platte Valley District 
Reunion. Since casting his first vote for 
Abraham Lincoln, he has been unswerving 



1088 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



in his allegiance to the Republican party, 
but has never cared for the honors or emol- 
uments of public office, only serving as a 
member of the school board of his district. 
As a citizen, friend and neighbor, he is true 
to every duty and justly merits the esteem 
in which he is held. 



GEORGE W. SWARTS, an agricultur- 
ist of energy and ability, who is resid- 
ing on section 6, West Blue township, 
Fillmore county, Nebraska, is a native of 
Canada, his birth occurring in Brant county, 
November 9, 1842. His parents, William 
and Sarah (Edmunds) Swarts, were natives 
of New York and Pennsylvania, respective- 
ly, but the greater part of their lives was 
passed in Canada, where their deaths oc- 
curred. 

Reared in his native land, George W. 
Swarts was educated in its public schools, 
and there received his business training 
upon the home farm. In 1864, he re- 
moved to Livingston county, Illinois, where 
he bought land and made his home for nine- 
teen years, during which time he met with 
excellent success in his farming operations. 
The year 1883 witnessed his arrival in Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, and here he pur- 
chased two hundred and twenty-five acres 
of rich and fertile land, besides a tract of 
•one hundred and sixty acres in York county. 
This property was practically unimproved, 
but with characteristic energy he set to 
work to make it one of the best farms in 
this region, and his efforts have been 
crowned with success, for the land is now 
under excellent cultivation and supplied 
with all conveniences and accessories found 
upon a model farm of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. 

On the 27th of March, 1872, in Living- 
ston county, Illinois, Mr. Swarts was united 
in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Rook, a 
native of Delaware and a daughter of Will- 



iam and Mary (Beckett) Rook, who in an 
early day removed to Illinois, where his 
father is still living. The children born of 
this union are as follows: Emma S., now 
the wife of L. A. Frederick, who lives near 
the Swarts homestead; William, Harvey 
J., Clara B., and Olive L., allat home. 

In his social relations Mr. Swarts is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, and in political sentiment is a stalwart 
Republican, being one of the leaders of the 
party in his community. He has served as 
a delegate to county conventions, but has 
never sought nor desired official honors. 
As a business man he has been remarkably 
successful and his course in life has ever 
been such as to commend him to the con- 
fidence and esteem of all with whom he has 
come in contact either in business or pri- 
vate life. He is a public-spirited and enter- 
prising citizen, who is thoroughly interested 
in whatever tends to promote the moral, 
intellectual and material welfare of his com- 
munity, and gives a liberal support to all 
objects for the public good. 



BENJAMIN A. JOHNSON, deceased, 
was one of the honored pioneers of 
York county, and was highly respected by 
all who knew him. He was born in Wa- 
pello county, Iowa, May 25, 1849, a son of 
Nicholas Johnson, a native of Indiana, who 
removed with his family to Iowa at an early 
day, being among the first settlers of Wa- 
pello county. As his mother died when he 
was only two years old, our subject was 
reared by an elder sister, and grew to man- 
hood upon a farm in his native state. He 
then operated his father's farm until the 
latter's death, when he decided to try his 
fortune in Nebraska. 

In July, 1872, accompanied by his wife 
and daughter, Emma J., Mr. Johnson came 
to York county, and bought a homestead 
right to eighty acres of land on section 20, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1089 



McFadden township. He immediately 
built a sod-house, 14 x 22 feet on the inside, 
with two foot walls, a dirt floor and dirt 
roof, into which he moved his family. While 
to the present generation it might appear to 
be a very crude abode, it nevertheless 
proved to be a comfortable home and was 
expremely warm in winter and correspond- 
ing cool in summer. The following year a 
pine floor was added to the dwelling which 
was many times referred to by the house- 
wife with a pardonable degree of pride, as 
it was one of the first in the neighborhood. 
Mr. Johnson was fortunate in having bought 
a homestead right to a place on which had 
already been planted wheat and corn, as he 
arrived late in the season and had some- 
thing to live on the first winter. He went 
to work with a will to establish a home for 
his family, but before he was able to make 
many improvements, he was taken ill with 
lung fever and after a brief illness died June 
15, 1876. His death was deeply mourned 
by the early settlers, for wherever known he 
was held in high regard and had already 
made many friends in this community. 

In Iowa Mr. Johnson was married, Au- 
gust 3, 1870, to Miss Ann Howell, who was 
born in England, March 18, 1847, and 
came to America in the fall of i860, with 
her parents, Matthew and Jane (Watkins) 
Howell, mention of whom will be made on 
another page of this volume in connection 
with the sketch of Matthew Howell. Three 
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, 
namely: Emma J., now the wife of Joseph 
Cudaback, a farmer of Hays township, 
York county; William H., who died Septem- 
ber 24, 1874, at the age of ten months; and 
Frank D., who was born May 31, 1875, and 
resides with his mother, having charge of 
the farming operations. 

Considering the fact that Mrs. Johnson 
was left a widow with two children to care 
for at a time when the country was prac- 
tically unsettled and undeveloped, and with 



no other improvements upon the homestead 
than a sod house, she deserves much credit 
for the manner in which she has conducted 
her business affairs by herself, as well as 
rearing and educating her children. The 
farm is now under a high state of cultiva- 
tion and supplied with modern improve- 
ments. America's youth owe their success- 
ful traits of character to mothers of such 
mettle. In addition to the original home- 
stead and its many improvements, Mrs. 
Johnson has bought and paid for forty acres, 
and she still continues to personally super- 
vise and successfully manage her own busi- 
ness affairs. She is one of the original 
members of the Pleasant Ridge United 
Brethren church, and contributed liberally 
to the fund for the construction of the pres- 
ent house of worship. In an early day 
meetings were held in the sod houses of the 
settlers, later in school houses and finally in 
their own church edifice. 



ORRICK BUNTING.— Among the pros- 
perous farmers and extensive stock- 
raisers of Butler county, Nebraska, the 
record of whose lives fills an important 
place in this volume, it gives us pleasure to 
commemorate the name of this gentleman, 
whose home is on section 34, Franklin 
township. He was born in Mercer county, 
Illinois, May 17, 1855, and is the youngest 
in a family of nine children. A sketch of 
his parents is given on another page of this 
work in connection with that of his brother, 
William M. Bunting. 

The first seventeen years of his life 
Orrick Bunting spent in the county of his 
nativity, aiding in the labors of the home 
farm and attending the district schools of 
the locality. On coming to Butler county, 
Nebraska, in 1873, he took up his residence 
upon the farm where he still continues to 
reside, and at once turned his attention to 
the improvement and cultivation of his land. 



1090 



COMPEXDUrM or BIOGRAPHY. 



He was married, December 19, 1874, to 
Miss Susan Wolfe, a native of Hancock 
county, Illinois, who, when a girl of fourteen 
years, came to Butler county with her 
parents, Henry and Mary (Fielder) Wolfe. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bunting began housekeeping 
upon the farm which he had previously 
secured, and there they have made their 
home continuously since, with the exception 
of one year spent in Missouri. All the im- 
provements made upon the place has been 
the work of his hands, the fields are well 
tilled, and the place, comprising one hun- 
dred and sixty acres, is one of the most 
desirable farms of its size in the county. 
Mr. Bunting has given special attention to 
stock-raising, and now has a fine herd of 
two hundred and five head of cattle upon 
the place. He does all his own shipping, 
thus saving the commission usually required, 
and in this branch of his business has met 
with marked success, being to-day one of 
the well-to-do citizens of his community. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have the follow- 
ing living children, all born in Butler county, 
namely: Ora, now the wife of Ed. Won- 
derlech, a resident of David City; Walter, 
Arthur, Ernest, Vera and Leona, all at 
home. Mr. Bunting is one of the most 
energetic and progressive citizens of Frank- 
lin township, and is actively identified with 
all its interests. In politics, he is a stanch 
Populist, and is a warm supporter of the 
principles and beliefs of that party. 



SAMUEL BARLEAN.— The subject of 
this personal history is a well-known 
resident of Olive township, Butler county, 
living on section 34, and is highly esteemed 
as a man of industry and enterprise, besides 
being a worthy citizen and having to his 
credit an unblemished war record. 

Mr. Barlean was born September 24, 
1838, in Ashland county, Ohio, which at 
that time formed a part of Richland county. 



His father, Michael Barlean, had settled in 
that state at an early day, having removed 
there from Pennsylvania, where his ances- 
tors had made their home for four or 
five generations. Reared on a farm in his 
native state our subject acquired his educa- 
tion in the public schools of the neighbor- 
hood, and early became familiar with farm 
work in its various departments. At the 
age of nineteen years he removed to Knox 
county, Illinois, where he remained for one 
year, going overland to Mahaska county, 
Iowa, in 1858, and making his home there 
until coming to Butler county, Nebraska, on 
the 3rd of April, 1871, when he took pos- 
session of his present farm of one hundred 
and sixty acres on section 34, Olive town- 
ship. The place is now under excellent 
cultivation and well improved with good 
farm buildings, which stand as monuments 
to his thrift and industry. The farm is also 
well stocked. 

Feeling that his country needed his serv- 
ices during the dark days of the Civil war, 
Mr. Barlean enlisted in 1862 in Company 
C, Thirty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry. 
The following year he was with the com- 
mand that met Kirby Smith and his forces 
at Helena, Arkansas, and after the engage- 
ment at that place proceeded to Little Rock, 
thence to New Orleans and Mobile Point, 
Alabama, where the army was re-organized. 
When the war was over and his services 
were no longer needed Mr. Barlean was 
honorably discharged and returned to his 
home in Mahaska county, Iowa, to resume 
farming, quite willing that the sword should 
be be beaten into ploughshares. 

In 1868, Mr. Barlean was married in 
Mahaska county, to Miss Sarah Cecil, a 
daughter of Andrew Cecil, a native of Ken- 
tucky, and they have become the parents of 
nine children who are still living, namely; 
Cora Abby, who was born in Iowa, and is 
now the wife of George McLaughlin; Clara- 
belle, now Mrs. John Pinney, of Butler 



COMPENDir.^r OF niOGRAPHT. 



1091 



county, Nebraska; Edward C. ; James Otis; 
Eva May; George A. ; Effie E. ; Elva A. and 
Ella. The entire family are now residents 
of Butler county and are widely and favor- 
ably known. Politically, Mr. Barlean is 
identified with the Republican party; social- 
ly belongs to A. Lincoln Post, No. lo, G. 
A. R., and religiously is a faithful member 
of the Methodist church. 



JOE TALBOTT, who spent his early 
*J manhood in active business, and mainly 
in agricultural pursuits, is now practically 
living retired at his pleasant home in Bene- 
dict surrounded by all the comforts of life. 
By the exercise of industry, perseverance 
and good management, he has secured a 
competence, which enables him to lay aside 
business cares and enjoy a well earned rest. 
A native of Jefferson county, Ohio, Mr. 
Talbott was born June 24, 1840, and is a 
son of Richard and Margaret (Humphreys) 
Talbott, who were also born in that county, 
where they spent the greater part of their 
lives engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 
1 87 1, however, the father emigrated to Ne- 
braska and took up a homestead in York 
county, on which he made his home until 
his death, which occurred in 18S0. In his 
family were ten children, four sons and six 
daughters. 

In the county of his nativity, Joe Tal- 
bott grew to manhood and acquired his 
literary education there, as well as a thor- 
ough knowledge of farming. In 1858 he 
went to Des Moines county, Iowa, where he 
continued to engage in agricultural pursuits 
until after the Civil war broke out. In 
1862 he enlisted in Company K, Twenty- 
fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which 
he served for three years, participating in 
the sieges of Vicksburg and Atlanta, the 
battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, 
Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, 
and many engagements of lesser impor- 



tance. During the battle of Atlanta he had 
a finger broken by a ball striking his gun, 
but aside from this he was never wounded. 
At the close of the war Mr. Talbott went to 
Fulton county, Illinois, where he made his 
home until 1871, which year witnessed his 
arrival in York county, Nebraska. Secur- 
ing a homestead on section 26, Morton 
township, he erected a story and a half sod- 
house upon it by building a frame and cover- 
ing it with sod, and on the completion of 
his residence he turned his attention to the 
improvement and cultivation of his land, 
which he successfully operated until his re- 
moval to Benedict, in 1893. 

In 1880 Mr. Talbott led to the marriage 
altar Miss Allie Gregory, a native of Jeffer- 
son county, Iowa, and a daughter of Abra- 
ham G. and Elizabeth Gregory, who came 
to York county in 1874. One child graces 
this union — Richard G. Mr. and Mrs. Tal- 
bott both hold membership in the Episcopal 
church, and he is also identified with the 
Knights of the Maccabees. In politics he 
is a Populist, and he has served his fellow- 
citizens as a member of the school board 
for fifteen years, and as treasurer of his 
township since January, 1898. He is widely 
and favorably known, and has a host of 
warm personal friends throughout York 
county. 



SWAN A. JOHNSON, an industrious, 
energetic and progressive farmer resid- 
ing on section 15, Bryant precinct. Fill-- 
more county, Nebraska, was born in Swe- 
den, December 10, 1863, and is the youngest 
son of John and Mary (Johnson) Johnson. 
In the family were six children, all of whom 
remained in Sweden with the exception of 
our subject and his sister, Mrs. A. W. Peter- 
son, now a resident of Bryant precinct. 

During his boyhood and youth, Mr. 
Johnson pursued his studies in the public 
schools of his native land, and was there 



1092 



COMPENDIUM OF, BIOGRAPHT. 



confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran church. 
With the hope of bettering his financial 
condition, he came to America at the age of 
twenty years, and immediately after land- 
ing proceeded to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
where he purchased eighty acres of wild 
prairie land for seven hundred and twenty 
dollars. This he subsequently sold for a 
good price and bought the eighty-acre tract 
in Bryant township on which he still re- 
sides. It is now a well-improved and 
highly cultivated farm, and is conveniently 
located two miles and a half from Shickley. 
At the age of twenty-five years, Mr. 
Johnson was united in marriage with Miss 
Mary Larson, also a native of Sweden, who 
was born December i, 1864, was educated 
there, and confirmed in the Swedish Luth- 
eran church. Her parents were Lars and 
Magareta Johnson. She lost her mother 
during her infancy and her father when 
she was seventeen years old. There were 
five children in the family, but she is the 
only one that came to the United States. 
She crossed the Atlantic at the age of nine- 
teen and earned her own living in Nebraska 
until her marriage. Neither she nor her 
husband have had occasion to regret their 
emigration to this country, for here they 
have prospered, and are now the owners of 
a cozy little home and a well improved 
farm. Thus their thrift, frugality and in- 
dustry have been well rewarded, and by 
their upright, honorable lives they have 
gained the confidence and respect of all 
with whom they have come in contact. In 
his political affiliations Mr. Johnson is a 
pronounced Republican. In 1896 they 
made an extended visit in Sweden and 
other eastern countries, spending two years 
in a most enjoyable manner. 



JUDGE DAVID TRUAX MOORE.— 
Among the old settlers and worthy citi- 
zens of York county none is more deserving 



mention in its history than the subject of 
this biography. His influence has extended 
beyond the county limits, and he has been 
a factor in shaping the destiny and funda- 
mental policy of the state. He was York 
county's first attorney, first probate judge, 
and was a member of the second constitu- 
tional convention of the state. 

Judge Moore is of Scotch extraction. 
John McMoore came from Scotland before 
the Revolutionary war, and having had 
some military training, joined the American 
army at the beginning of the war, and 
served until its close. On enlisting he 
dropped the "Mc" from his name as a use- 
less appendage. He married a Miss Mc- 
Nair, also from Scotland, by whom he had 
two daughters and also a posthumous son, 
who was given the name of John Moore. 
He was a volunteer in the American army 
in the war of 181 2. The father of our sub- 
ject was twice married, his second wife be- 
ing Miss Sarah Snowden, of Virginia. Her 
parents were from New Jersey, and prob- 
ably of Scotch origin. By this marriage 
eleven children were born, two of whom 
were with Sherman on his march to the sea. 

David Truax Moore was the eighth child, 
and was born in Waynesburg, Ohio, Sep- 
tember 23, 1 83 1. When about six years 
old he was left fatherless, and was sent to 
the home of a cousin, John Miller, in 
Holmes county, Ohio, where he attended 
the district schools and worked on the farm 
until he was sixteen years old, when he 
taught his first school. He then entered 
Hayesville Institute, at Hayesville, Ohio, 
and later a college at Athens, Ohio, con- 
ducted by the Associated Presbyterians. 
Here he pursued his studies until the mid- 
dle of the senior year, when he went to St. 
Clairsville, Ohio, to teach. At that place he 
was superintendent of the union schools for 
several years, and studied law under Judge 
Peck. He was alternate delegate to the 
Philadelphia convention which nominated 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1093 



John C. Fremont for the presidency, and in 
the fall of the same year made a tour of the 
southern states on account of ill health. 
He finally located at Taylorville, Illinois, 
completed his law studies, and was admitted 
to practice by Judge David Davis, and 
opened a law office in Taylorville. His 
health required a more active life, however, 
and he took a position as traveling agent for 
an insurance company. In Pike's Peak in 
i860 he learned of the nomination of Lin- 
coln by the Republicans, and returned 
home to aid in his election, and cast his first 
presidential vote. He opened a law office, 
but ill health compelled him to give it up, 
and selling his law library, he again took 
up the insurance business. 

On January 19, 1864, our subject mar- 
ried Miss Sarah Shumway, daughter of 
Judge Shumway, and a graduate of the Illi- 
nois College for Females. They set out 
for the west, and landed in Nebraska, in 
the unorganized county of York. He took 
up a homestead and pre-emption claim, 
opened a law office on his farm, but after 
seven years moved to York, the county 
seat, where he still resides. They have 
three children, two sons and one daughter. 
The older son graduated from the medical 
department of the State University at Lin- 
coln, and took a post-graduate lecture 
course in New York city, and is now super- 
intendent of the hospital for the insane at 
Jamestown, North Dakota. The younger 
son took a course in a medical school at 
Toronto, Canada, and a year's course in 
scientific nursing in the asylum, and is now 
a member of the hospital corps of the regu- 
lar army and is acting as steward at Camp 
Barrat, at Guanajay, Cuba. The daughter 
is bookkeeper for the "Times" office, 
York, Nebraska. 

Judge Moore was the first attorney to 
locate in York county. He was unanimously 
elected as its first probate judge, and he 
represented several of the western counties 



in the second constitutional convention. 
Since that time he has never sought polit- 
ical honors. He was a Republican from 
the organization of the party, and assisted 
to perfect the party organization in York 
county. Since its adoption of the "gold 
standard " he has abandoned the organiza- 
tion, though still an old-time Republican. 
Judge and Mrs. Moore are worthy members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, at York, 
and Mrs. Moore is an active worker in the 
cause of foreign missions and of the W. C. 
T. U. The Judge belongs to the A. F. & 
A. M. fraternity, being admitted as a mem- 
ber of the Chapter and Council, in Iowa. 
His membership is now at York. 



NJ. DIXON, a worthy representative of 
the agricultural interests of West Blue 
township, Fillmore county, was the first 
man to locate in this section of the state, 
and has since been prominently identified 
with its interests. He was born in Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1841, and 
is a son of James and Lucy (Springer) 
Dixon, the former a native of New Jersey, 
the latter of Pennsylvania. The mother 
died during the infancy of our subject and 
the father subsequently married again. He 
had eight children, two sons and six daugh- 
ters. He was a country merchant and 
farmer of Fayette county, where he contin- 
ued to make his home until called from this 
life in 1876. The paternal grandfather of 
our subject was James Dixon, a native of 
Ireland, v,'ho came to the United States 
when a young man, and in this country fol- 
lowed agricultural pursuits. His death also 
occurred in Pennsylvania. In his family 
were three sons. 

Mr. Dixon, of this review, is indebted to 
the common schools of Pennsylvania for his 
educational advantages. At the age of six- 
teen he started out to make his own way in 
the world by working at farm labor, and on 



1094 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY, 



attaining his majority went to Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania. In 1864 lie removed to 
Putnam county, Illinois, but two years later 
sought a home still farther west and landed 
in York county, Nebraska, in 1866. From 
a map he located his present homestead and 
the following spring took up his residence 
thereon, his nearest neighbor at that time 
being five miles away. Upon his land he 
constructed a dugout, later lived in a log 
house, and in 1884 erected his present com- 
fortable and commodious home. He at 
once turned his attention to the improve- 
ment and cultivation of his land and turned 
the first sod in this section. Indians were 
still quite numerous in this region, but the\' 
never molested him, although two thousand 
seven hundred of them were at one time 
encamped near his claim. 

In February, 1867, Mr. Dixon was 
united in marriage with Miss Lydia Gill- 
more, a native of Pennsylvania and a 
daughter of Elias and Hulda (Rush) Gill- 
more, who were also born in that state, and 
in 1859 removed to Livingston county, Illi- 
nois. In 1866 they also migrated to York, 
Nebraska, and both died in York count}-. 
Our subject and his wife have eight children 
living and one deceased, namely: Arthur 
J., now a resident of York county; Olvin A., 
of Iowa; Walter, of North Dakota; Emma 
M. and Calvin H., both at home; Minnie 
L., who is now teaching in York county; 
and John and Lloyd, both at home. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Dixon are members 
of the United Brethren church of Lushton, 
and their lives have ever been in harmony 
with their professions. Politically, he is 
identified with the Republican part}', and 
has served as treasurer of school district No. 
I since its organization. Though elected to 
other positions, he has refused to qualify, 
preferring to give his entire time and atten- 
tion to his farming interests. As a repre- 
sentative man of the county and an honored 
pioneer, he stands pre-eminent, and is num- 



bered among the valued citizens who have 
been devoted to the public welfare. His 
sterling qualities command the respect and 
confidence of all, and have secured for him 
the high regard of a large circle of friends 
and acquaintances. 



WALLACE WHEELER, deceased, 
was for several years one of the 
leading and representative citizens of Fair- 
mont, Nebraska, and did much to promote 
the commercial activity, advance the gen- 
eral welfare and secure the material devel- 
opment of the town and county. As a 
business man he was enterprising, energetic 
and always abreast of the times, and his 
well directed labors were rewarded with a 
comfortable competence. A portrait of 
Mr. Wheeler is presented on another page 
of this volume. 

Mr. Wheeler was born in Brandon, 
Vermont, March 4, 1840, and was a son of 
William P. and Mary A. (Ambler) Wheeler, 
the former also a native of the Green 
Mountain state, the latter of New York. 
The father was a carpenter and wheel- 
wright by trade, and for some time operated 
a sash, door and blind factory and also a 
sawmill in the east. In 1852, he removed 
to Illinois, where he engaged in farming 
until his death, which occurred in March, 
1895. His wife passed away December 6, 
1897. They had a family of five children, 
three sons and two daughters, of whom 
two sons and one daughter are still living. 

Wallace Wheeler, the second son, was 
educated in the schools of Illinois. Reared 
upon the home farm, he continued to en- 
gage in agricultural pursuits in that state 
until 1868, when he accepted a position as 
salesman for farm machinery. The follow- 
ing year he came to Nebraska City, Ne- 
braska, where he organized the firm of 
W^heeler & Tucker, which existed for three 
years, and later located in L ncoln. For 







WALLACK WHEELER, Deceased. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1097 



some years he was the western agent of the 
Marsh Harvester Company, remaining with 
that firm until their failure in 1884. In 
that year he came to Fairmont and assisted 
in organizing the Fairmont Creamery Com- 
pany, of which he was made president. On 
the re-organization of the company, he was 
again chosen president and continued to fill 
that position most creditably and acceptably 
until his death, which occurred February 
7, 1897. He was also interested in other 
business enterprises, including the farm im- 
plement trade, and was a business man of 
more than ordinary ability, being possessed 
of keen perception, of great sagacity and 
unbounded enterprise. 

On the 1st of January, 1863, Mr. 
Wheeler was united in marriage with Miss 
Elmira Rogers, a native of Canada and a 
daughter of Joel and Mary (Richardson) 
Rogers, who were also born in Canada of 
English parentage. Her paternal grand- 
father was a large land owner, and a farmer 
by occupation, as were most of her ances- 
tors. Her maternal grandfather was a cap- 
tain in the English army. To our subject 
and his wife were born two children, name- 
ly: Stella A., who died in Illinois in 1865; 
and Susie E., who died in Nebraska City in 
1872. Mrs. Wheeler is an estimable lady 
of many sterling qualities, and has a large 
circle of friends in this community. 

While a resident of Illinois, Mr. Wheeler 
held membership in the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. He was a leading and in- 
fluential member of the Republican party 
in his community and twice filled the office 
of mayor in Fairmont. As the founder of 
what has become one of the most important 
lines of business in this section of the state, 
he deserves special credit. His success was 
the result of honest, persistent effort in the 
line of honorable and manly dealing. His 
aims were always to attain the best, and he 
carried forward to successful completion 
whatever he undertook. 



ELIZABETH WILLIAMS SENFF. — 
The West has alwaj's shown greater 
favor to women than has been granted her 
by the more conservative East, and Nebras- 
ka stands well to the front in the number 
and prominence of its business and profes- 
sional women. Among them may well be 
mentioned her whose name heads this 
article. She has made a pronounced suc- 
cess of the business of agriculture, a follow- 
ing, perhaps, least inviting to the gentle 
se.x. Her home, on section 26, township 
10, range 4 west, near Bradshaw, presents 
a picture of rural comfort, thrift and pros- 
perity not surpassed by any in York county. 

Mrs. Senff is a native of Wales, born 
January 22, 1863. Her parents died in 
Wales, while she was yet but a young girl, 
and she determined to venture across the 
broad Atlantic, and seek a home and com- 
petence in the new world, where her uncle 
and aunt had preceded her. 

Our subject was married in York coun- 
ty, Nebraska, February 22, 1881, to August 
Senff. Mr. Senff had previously home- 
steaded the west half of the northwest quar- 
ter of section 27, township 10, range 4 west, 
which they still hold and at present also 
own the east half of the northeast quarter 
of section 27, same township and range. 
Their first home was a sod-house and in it 
they lived seven years. They then erected 
a comfortable house and substantial barn, 
cribs, and necessary buildings for enjoying 
the comforts of farm life. In the winter 
of 1893 Mr. Senff was taken ill with lagrippe, 
which affected his mind. As he did not re- 
cover he was placed in the hospital, but has 
shown little evidence of regaining his health. 
Still Mrs. Senff is hopeful and is keeping 
the farm free from any incumbrance and 
purchasing additional land, waiting her hus- 
band's return. Mr. and Mrs. Senff are the 
parents of five children: Frederick, Will- 
iam, Bertha, Louisa, August and Fernam. 
Three of the children are living. The son, 



109S 



CO.\fjP£JCDIL'.lf OJF BIOGRAPB2-. 



fonrteen years of age, and the daaghter, 
ihirteen, are doing much to liit tbe heavy 
bnrden from their mother, who alone has 
the management of the farm, comprising 
one hnndred and sixtj acres. 

Although, on acconnt of her edacation 
having been neglected in her native country, 
Mrs. Senfi did not learn to read or write, 
s.be speaks finently three langaages and is 
well posted on tbe topics of the day. Mis. 
Senfi was a C-ongregationalist in her native 
conntrv, b«t there being no church of her 
faith near her new home she worships with 
the Lntherans Mrs. Senfi is strictly hon- 
est in all her dealings and has never found 
it necessary to sign a note or mortgage. 
She says her motto is • ■ Pay as yon go " — asd 
she is at present contemplating the pra-- 
chase of an additional eighty acres of land, 
but is waiting tiD her savings are enough to 
purchase for cash. Mrs. Senffs earnest 
application to her duties and her honestx^ 
have won her financial success and her 
kindly interest for those aronnd her has 
won her the esteem of all who are f ortTinite 
enDugh to be among her acquaintances. 

Mr. SenS was a soldier in the Germ=n 
army, before coming to America, but was 
naturalized in this country and has since 
voted the Republican ticket. 



HZXRY I_ BADGER, a worthy ir,c 
honored representative of the pioneers 
of Fillmore county, Nebraska, is a true type 
of the energetic, hard}" and courageous men 
who actively assisted in the development of 
this wonderful region. For many years he 
eSciently served as surveyor of the coanty, 
'r:3t is now living in Fairmont.^ 

Mr. Badger was bom in East Granby, 
Connecticut, May 26, 1 829, a son of Lewis 
and Mary L. . Carter 1 Badger, also natives 
of that state. The father was a prominent 
physician and surgeon, who successfully fol- 
I'wed his profession for many years in Con- 



necticut, and held the position of physician 
at the Xew Gate Prison in that state. In 
iS54he removed to Delaware county, Ohio, 
where he engaged in practice until 1S65, 
and then went to Odell, Livingston county, 
HHnois, where he continued to reside until 
called from this life in 1S72. He had a 
family of four sons, of whom our subject 
was the only one to come to Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska. 

Heruy L. Badger was reared and edu- 
cated in Ohio, attending the university at 
Westerville, that state, and after laying 
aside his tesrt books he engaged in farming 
in that state until 1S5S, when he went to 
Ston- county, Iowa, and resided there for 

; two years. He next made his home upon a 
farm in Livin^oo connty, Illinois, until 
1S6S, which year witnessed his arrival in 
Nebraska. In Fillmore connty, he pre- 
empted a claim on section 2, West Bine 
township, and the foUowing year took up 
an adjoining homestead, which he improved 
and cultivated for some time. He was the 
eighth settler in the connty and assisted in 
its organization, at which time he was ap>- 
pointed county clerk and also county sur- 
veyor, having previously done some work 
along that line. He held both positions 
nntil the foDowing year, when he was elect- 
ed connty surveyor at the first election ever 
held in the county. -After serving in that 
office for sevei^ years, he went to Front- 
ier county, Nebraska, in 1SS4, being en- 
gaged in surveying and locating settlers 
there until the following year, when he re- 
moved to Weld connty, Colorado. On the 
organization of Washington county, that 
state, he was appointed connty snrve3or, 
and remained there until 1S90, when he re- 
turned to Fillmore connty, where he has 

j since made his home uninterruptedly. He 
is a jJTononnced Republican in politics, and 
has tbe respect and esteem of all who know 
him. 

At Fort Wayne, Indiana, in December, 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1099 



1854, Mr. Badger was united in 
with Miss Mary A. Phelps, a native of Ohio 
and a daughter of William Phelps, and to 
them were born two children: Lewis H., a 
leading farmer of West Blue township, who 
is represented on another page of this work; 
and Jeanie, wife of E. M. Forbes, of Fair- 
mont, Nebraska. The wife and mother, 
who was a most estimable lady, departed 
this life January 11, 1894. 



WILLIAM BENJAMIN ROCHAN, a 
prominent and substantial fanner of 
Butler county, Nebraska, has contributed 
much to the prosperity and advancement of 
his adopted county. His home is located 
on section 20, Savannah township, in the 
outskirts of the village of Bellwood. 

Mr. Rochan was born in Montreal, Can- 
ada, July 25, 1848. His grandfather, John 
Rochan, was a native of Bulong, France, 
came with his parents to America, and took 
part in the Rebellion in Canada in 1836. 
He was a farmer by occupation. Our sub- 
ject's father, Eli Rochan, was a lawyer in 
Montreal. He was married January, 1841, 
to Sophia Ouimett. 

Our subject was the fourth child and 
third son. He received his education in 
Canada in the common schools and at 
Goodland College, Montreal. At fifteen years 
of age he went to Bay City, Michigan, and 
engaged in the saw mill and lumber busi- 
ness. At the age of twenty-one he accom- 
panied his cousin, John Ouimett, to North 
Platte, Nebraska. Here he engaged in gov- 
ernment work and later was engineer on the 
Union Pacific railroad. He selected section 
20, Savannah township, in Butler county, 
for his home and entered his homestead 
claim July 4, 1871. After perfecting his 
claim, in 1875, he went to Columbus, Ne- 
braska, and engaged in the grain business 
in company with J. C. Morrisey. After 
eight years, partnership, Mr. Rochan pur- 



chased Mr. Morrisey's interest and contin- 
ued the business for three years. In 1836 
he moved to Bellwood and ran an elevator. 
At the end of two years he purchased an 
elevator and lumber yard at Octavia. re- 
maining there until, in 1893. he returned to 
Bellwood and was appointed postmaster 
during Cleveland's second administration. 

Mr. Rochan married Miss Ahce Smith in 
Platte county, Nebraska, in 1869. Mrs. 
Rochan died in Bellwood in 1894. To 
this union were born five children as fol- 
lows: Frank, Oscar, Daniel, Clarence and 
William. 

Mr. Rochan and Carrie McCulley were 
married in 1895. They have a fine resi- 
dence and live in comfort, surrounded by 
conveniences found only in the best rural 
homes. 

Mr. Rochan has always been prominent 
in political circles, both county and state, 
standing stanchly for the Democratic ticket. 
He is an honored member of several secret 
orders, the Modern Woodmen of America, 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
the Degree of Honor. 



LEWIS H. BADGER, a progressive and 
prominent agriculturist residing on sec- 
tion 2, West Blue township, is a worthy 
representative of one of the oldest and most 
highly respected families of Fillmore coun- 
ty, — one that has borne an important part 
in its upbuilding and development. He was 
born in Miami county, Ohio, October 5, 
1856, asonof Henry L. and Mar}- A. (Phelps) 
Badger, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere 
in this volume. 

When quite small our subject accom- 
panied his parents on their removal to Iowa 
and later to Illinois, and in 1868 came with 
them to Fillmore county, Nebraska, where 
he grew to manhood amid scenes quite 
familiar to frontier life. During his youth 
he assisted his father in breaking prairie 



1100 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



and transforming the wild land into highly 
cultivated fields, and at an early age was 
given the entire management of the place. 
He now owns the old homestead on section 
2, West Blue township, where he has lived 
continuously since coming to Nebraska, and 
is successfully engaged in general farming 
and stock-raising. 

In 1885 Mr. Badger married Miss Minnie 
E. Wies, a native of Ohio and a daughter 
of Charles and Mary (Scott) Wies, who now 
reside in McLean county, Illinois. One 
child graces this union: Mary B., born in 
June, 1889. Socially, Mr. Badger is a mem- 
ber of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men and the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and both he and his wife belong to 
the Degree of Honor. He uses his right of 
franchise in support of the Republican party 
and its principles, but has never cared for 
political preferment, the only public office 
he has filled being that of school director. 
He is a leading and representative man of 
his township and merits and receives the 
warmest confidence and esteem of his fel- 
low-citizens. 



HAL P. STINES, a leading and influen- 
tial member of the agricultural com- 
munity, of West Blue township, Fillmore 
county, resides on section 16, where he owns 
two hundred and forty acres of fine farming 
land under a high state of cultivation. All 
of the improvements are the work of his 
own hands, and reflect great credit upon 
him. 

A native of New York, Mr. Stines was 
born in Esse.x county, July 2, 1848, and is 
a son of Henry and Pyra (Harris) Stines, 
also natives of that state, the former born 
in Orange county, November 3, 1824, the 
latter in Essex county, July 9, 1824. They 
were married December 25, 1846, and be- 
came the parents of three sons, all of whom 
are now residents of Fillmore county, Ne- 



braska. The father followed various occu- 
pations throughout life and died in New 
York in 1 864. More extended mention is 
made of him in connection with the sketch 
of Shelby Stines on another page of this vol- 
ume. In 1866, the mother removed with 
her family to Iowa, and in 1882 came to 
Nebraska, where she departed this life on 
the 1st of January, 1899. She was quite 
well known and had a host of friends in 
Fillmore county. Our subject's paternal 
grandfather, John Stines, was a native of 
Nova Scotia, and about 1817 or 18 18 emi- 
grated to the United States, locating first in 
New York state. His last days were passed 
in Iowa, and in Poweshiek county, that 
state, he died. On the loth of May, 1823. 
he married Elizabeth Swaney. 

Hal P. Stines grew to manhood in his 
native state and pursued his studies in its 
public schools. At the age of sixteen he 
began the battle of life for himself and has 
followed farming continuously since. He 
accompanied his mother on her removal to 
Iowa, and remained with her in that state 
until 1878, assisting in the operation of the 
home farm. He then came to Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, and secured one hundred 
and sixty acres of school land on section 
16, West Blue township, which at that 
time was all raw and unimproved. After 
building thereon a small frame residence, he 
began to break his land and now has it all 
under a high state of cultivation and im- 
proved with good and substantial buildings. 
He has also extended the boundaries of his 
farm until they now contain two hundred 
and forty acres of rich and fertile land. 

In 1879, Mr. Stines was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Clara Rose, a native of Illi- 
nois, where the marriage was celebrated. 
Her parents, Josiah and Malinda (Bly) Rose, 
were both native of New York state, and in 
1857 moved to Carroll county, Illinois, 
where the father died in 1881, but the 
mother is still living and now makes her 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAmT. 



1101 



home in North Dakota. In their family 
were six children, four sons and two daugh- 
ters, of whom one son is now a resident of 
Fairmont, Fillmore county, but none of the 
others are living in the county with the ex- 
ception of Mrs. Stines. Her maternal 
grandfather, Reuben Bly, a native of Wales, 
came to America at the age of sixteen years 
and settled in New York, but later in life 
removed to Grundy county, Iowa, where his 
death occurred in 1893. The children born 
to our subject and his wife are Clara R. , 
Fletcher H., Hilda A., Ruth A. and Hal 
P., Jr., all still living. In his social rela- 
tions Mr. Stines is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and in politics 
is a stalwart Republican, but has never 
sought nor desired political honors. In 
business affairs he has been very successful, 
and in all the relations of life his career 
has been such as to win for him the con- 
fidence and esteem of all with whom he has 
come in contact. 



BENJAMIN HUNKINS.— Nebraska may 
well count among her influential citi- 
zens the gentleman whose name heads these 
few paragraphs. He has been a man of 
untiring energy and since the early days 
has helped in upbuilding the better interests 
of the western states. He is now living in 
retirement in his home on section 6, M pre- 
cinct, near Beaver Crossing. Mr. Hunkins' 
birthplace was Charleston, Vermont, and 
the date of his nativity, 1810. His grand- 
father, Robert Hunkins, was born in Con- 
necticut in 1730. He settled at Newbury, 
Vermont, and during the Revolution formed 
a company of minute men and went with 
General Stark to join General Gates at 
Bennington. He was with Stark on the 
occasion of his memorable speech to his 
men: " There are the Red Coats. To-day 
we whip them or to-night Mollie Stark is a 
widow." Robert Hunkins died about 1820. 



He left six sons, of whom our subject's fa- 
ther, Robert H. Hunkins, was the third. 
He was born in Newbury, Orange county, 
Vermont, in 1774. He was a fanner and 
followed his occupation in his native state, 
afterward going to Hampstead, New Hamp- 
shire, where he married Hannah Emerson, 
a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. To 
this union were born five sons: Sargeant, 
Robert, Benjamin, James and Hazen. 

In 1840 our subject moved with his fa- 
ther's family to Wisconsin and settled in 
what is now Waukesha county. He was 
then thirty years of age and he took a farm 
in the heavily timbered country for himself 
and worked earnestly to clear it for cultiva- 
tion. His intellectual abilities gained him 
an enviable reputation and he was twice 
called upon to serve in the territorial leg- 
islature of Wisconsin. He was also a mem- 
ber of the first constitutional convention of 
Wisconsin and served in the state legisla- 
ture in i860, with A. W. Randall, who was 
afterward governor of that state. Mr. Ran- 
dall and Mr. Hunkins were personal friends. 
After settling in Nebraska, Mr. Hunkins 
closely identified himself with the growth 
and development of Seward county. He 
was active in directing the course of the 
Elkhorn railroad through this county, at 
the time of its projection, and in recogni- 
tion of his service the town of Hunkins was. 
named for him. It has since been changed 
to Cordova on account of the postoffice 
name. Mr. Hunkins, at the age of eighty- 
eight, retains his mental vigor and occupies 
a high place in the estimation of his large 
circle of friends in Seward county. 



J A. SWARTS, whose home is in West 
Blue township, is one of the most suc- 
cessful agriculturists of Fillmore county. 
Tireless energy, keen perception, honesty 
of purpose, genius for devising and execu- 
ting the right thing at the right time, joined 



1102 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



to every-day common sense, guided by re- 
sistless will power, are the chief character- 
istics of the man and have been the means 
of bringing to him his prosperity. 

Mr. Swarts was born in Ontario, Brant 
county, Canada, May 3, 185 i, and is a son 
of William and Lucretia (Crary) Swarts, the 
former born in Pennsylvania, of Pennsyl- 
vania-Dutch stock, the latter born in New 
York state. They were married in Canada, 
and there their children were born. Their 
father was reared in that country and there 
followed farming for many years, being 
called to his final rest in 1883. He had 
eight children, live sons and three daugh- 
ters. The mother of our subject, who was 
his second wife, is still living in Canada. 

Our subject is indebted to the public 
schools of the Dominion for his educational 
advantages, and his business training was 
obtained upon the home farm. In 1868 he 
came to the United States and first settled 
in Livingston county, Illinois, near Chats- 
worth, where he worked as a farm hand for 
three years. He then rented land there 
and engaged in farming on his own account 
until the spring of 1878, when he came to 
Fairmont, Fillmore county, Nebraska. 
After renting land here for a year, he pur- 
chased a farm on section 5, West Blue 
township, for six dollars per acre. It was 
all under cultivation and the first year he 
raised two thousand dollars' worth of wheat, 
which more than paid for his farm, but the 
following year he was forced to spend in 
travel on account of his health, and at the 
end of that time had to begin again. He 
raised a good crop worth over two thousand 
dollars, and in 1882 purchased the farm 
where he now lives, it being at that time all 
wild and unimproved land, but he has since 
placed it under a high state of cultivation 
and erected good and substantial buildings 
thereon. He raised excellent crops up to 
1890. That year he increased his farm by 
the purchase of two hundred and forty acres 



for six thousand dollars, and the following 
year raised ten thousand bushels of oats and 
ten thousand bushels of corn on two hun- 
dred acres devoted to each. In 1892 he 
planted one hundred and sixty acres of 
wheat and raised forty-five bushels to the 
acre, but the following year his crops were 
poor, and in 1894 and 1895 they were also 
light. In 1896, two hundred acres devoted 
to wheat yielded thirty-five bushels to the 
acre; the following year the same amount 
yielded thirty bushels; and in 1898 he har- 
vested nearly eight thousand bushels from 
two hundred and fifty acres. He has also 
given considerable attention to stock-raising, 
making a specialty of cattle and hogs, and 
in 1883 sold three thousand seven hundred 
dollars worth of hogs. Although he has met 
with some losses, he has mainly prospered 
and now owns five hundred and sixty acres in 
his home farm, and has four hundred and 
fifty acres elsewhere in this state and in 
Colorado, all under a high state of cultiva- 
tion. 

In Illinois, in December, 1875, was cel- 
ebrated the marriage of Mr. Swarts and 
Miss Sarah A. Pearson, a native of Peoria 
county, Illinois, born in 1855, and a daugh- 
ter of Hattie and Bennett Pearson, who 
came from England to this country in 1850 
and settled in Illinois, where the father 
died. Our subject and his wife have a fam- 
ily of seven children as follows: Carrie L., 
Ernest, Nellie, Lillie, Carl, Roy and Jessie. 

Socially Mr. Swarts belongs to the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America; and politically he has been identi- 
fied with the Republican party since casting 
his first vote, and assisted in organizing the 
party in Fillmore county, but has never 
sought office. His upright, honorable life 
commends him to the confidence and respect 
of the entire community in which he lives, 
and he is widely and favorably known 
throughout the county. 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1103 



VICTOR E. VIFQUAIN, Jr., one of the 
prosperous farmers of Seward county, 
Nebraska, who has added to his possessions 
by his hard work and honest deaHngs, was 
born in Saline county, Nebraska, October 
21, 1859. His present home is near Crete, 
on section 31, of P precinct. 

Mr. Vifquain's father. Colonel Victor 
Vifquain, was a native of Brussels, and came 
to America at the age of eighteen years. He 
was married in Tipton, Missouri, in 1857, 
to Caroline Veulmans, a native of Louisana. 
Mrs. Vifquain traces her ancestry to Bel- 
gium. In September, 1857, they settled 
near Camden, Nebraska, at the confluence 
of the Big Blue and the West Blue rivers. 
They were the first white settlers in that 
portion of the state, and during the early 
days of Nebraska's history Colonel Vifquain 
was one of the leaders and did much to fur- 
ther the interests of the state. At the out- 
break of the Civil war he enlisted, and, hav- 
ing had previous military training, he rapidly 
rose in rank, gaining the title of colonel. 
He is again serving his adopted country, and 
is at present lieuteannt-colonel of the Third 
Regiment of Nebraska Volunteers. 

Victor E. Vifquain, Jr., is the oldest 
child, and has four brothers and one sister. 
The Nebraska frontier at the time of his 
early life afforded little opportunity for ed- 
ucation, and he was nine years of age be- 
fore any schooling was offered him. He 
had instruction under private tutors, and 
afterward entered the public school. His 
desire for further knowledge led him to se- 
lect Doane College, and it was here he com- 
pleted his education. 

Our subject was married in California, 
Missouri, to Jennie McFadden, a daughter 
of George McFadden. Four children have 
come to bless their home: George Victor, 
Charles Fordyke, Sylvester E. and William 
Jennings. They are an interesting group of 
boys, and with their parents form a pleas- 
ant family circle. 



Mr. Vifquain moved to his present home 
in 1885. He owns the one hundred and 
sixty acres on which the home is situated, 
and his surroundings indicate his thrift and 
the attention he is giving to his pursuits. 



ROBERT J. DOBSON, deceased, a pio- 
neer of Seward county, Nebraska, and 
a gentleman who labored for the interests 
of his adopted land with more than usual 
zeal, was born in county Lathrom, Ireland, 
October 4, 1848. 

Mr. Dobson's parents, Parke and Ellen 
(Dobson) Dobson, were natives of Ireland 
and emigrated to the United States in 1861, 
settling in Rock Bluffs, Nebraska. They 
later moved to Ulysses, Nebraska, and en- 
gaged in farming. Their death occurred in 
the latter place. They were the parents of 
five sons and seven daughters. One son is 
now living at Ulysses, Nebraska; one at 
Thayer, Nebraska, and one in Cherry 
county, Nebraska. 

Our subject received his education in his 
native country and emigrated to the new 
world with his parents. He filled the posi- 
tion of fireman on the Union Pacific R. R. 
for three years and it was the wages thus 
earned which helped the family in their new 
western home. He was always ready to 
lend his influence toward the upbuildingof the 
western states. He assisted in driving the 
last spike in the great Union Pacific railroad 
system. He settled in Seward county, near 
the present village of Staplehurst, taking a 
preemption on the farm where he resided 
until his death and where the family are 
now living. Their first home on the claim 
was a dugout. In those early days when 
he began breaking the land, they were con- 
stantly on the watch for Indians and many^ 
times were forced to go into hiding to avoid 
them. During the first year ten acres were 
put under cultivation. Hard work doubled 
this the second year and thus the work was 



1104 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



started toward the three hundred and twenty 
acres which he was operating^ at the time 
of his death. 

Mr. Dobson's marriage to Miss Anna 
Dowers occurred March 9, 1872. Mrs. 
Dobson was a native of Vermilion county, 
Ilhnois, and a daughter of Jacob and Kes- 
zar Dowers. Her father was a native of 
Ohio and her mother of Indiana. Mr. and 
Mrs. Dobson were the parents of five chil- 
dren; Victor E. ; Helena, now Mrs. Charles 
Feary; Robert L., Elmer and Ira. 

Mr. Dobson died October 2, 1897. He 
started life with limited resources, but hard 
work and honesty brought him rich reward. 
He had a pleasant home and many friends 
among the prominent citizens of the com- 
munity. Although he never took an active 
part in politics Mr. Dobson cast his vote 
with the Republicans. 



WILLIAM FIELD, whose home is in 
section 34, precinct D, Seward coun- 
ty, belongs to that large and growing class 
of intelligent and enterprising farmers who 
have written their names deep on the face 
of the fertile soil of Nebraska. Their 
homes are centers of social and mental com- 
fort and development, and their work in 
improving and redeeming the wilderness is 
a credit to themselves and to the commun- 
ity. His estate is adorned by a substantial 
residence, ample farm buildings and is 
thickest with trees and other adornments 
that make it a beautiful prairie home. 

Mr. Field was born in Scott county, 
Illinois, September 14, 1S44, 3-nd is a son 
of John L. and Ellen (Nelson) Field. They 
were both of English origin, and were early 
settlers of Pike count)'. Later on they 
moved to Scott county, and still later to Lo- 
gan county, where the husband and father 
died. The widow is still living, and is an 
inmate of the home of the subject of this 
article. She has reached her seventy-eighth 



3'ear and is still active and interested in the 
world around her. She was the mother of 
two children, William and a daughter, 
Sophia Jane, the wife of J. J. Hubbell, of 
Glenwood, Iowa. William grew up in Illi- 
nois, and as his father died when he was 
quite young, there was but little opportunity 
for schooling. There was much work to be 
done, and he early bent his shoulders to the 
burden. He was reared a farmer, and 
when he was fourteen years old worked as 
a hired hand on an Illinois farm. When he 
was twenty he rented land, and managed a 
farm for himself. He was married Septem- 
ber 3, 1865. to Miss Eliza Jackman, a 
daughter of William and Sarah (Wilson) 
Jackman, and settled in Illinois until locat- 
ing on his present farm April 14, 1869. It 
was then all wild, and there were but a 
few settlers along Lincoln creek. The 
nearest railroad station was Nebraska City, 
and Seward was only a foreshadow of what it 
has since become. It had a store, a postoffice, 
and a blacksmith shop. Indians passed 
through the country freely, and it was open 
wilderness abounding in every sort of wild 
game ever found in the range. The Fields 
lived in a log house with a dirt roof, and 
shared in the delights and discomforts of 
pioneer life. Mr. Field broke eighty acres 
and put in a little over half of it the first 
year to sod corn. He had twenty-five 
bushels to the acre, and sold what he could 
spare at a dollar a bushel. The same year 
he put up a hewed-log house, i6.\20, fin- 
ished like a frame building. In 1870 he 
had a wheat harvest, but secured only 
seven bushels to the acres. He has lived 
on this place to the present time, and while 
he has known all the ups and downs of a 
settler's career, taking all things together 
he has made a steady progress. He brought 
two good teams with him and about seven 
hundred dollars in money, and to-day owns 
seven hundred and twenty acres, highly im- 
proved and fitted with, all the modern ma- 



> 

d 



5 




COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



11U7 



chinery for doing the best work at the least 
expense. He also owns two hundred acres 
in LaMar county, Texas, half of which is in 
cultivation, and the other half in timber. 
He regards farming as a profession, and de- 
votes all his thought and energy to it. He 
has made all the improvements on his home 
farm, and, takes a justifiable pride in its fine 
appearance. 

Mr. and Mrs. Field are the parents of 
five children, of whom the oldest, Sarah 
Ellen, is the wife of Albert Campbell, of 
Tamora, Nebraska, and is herself the mother 
of three children. Myrtle, Myron and George. 
Their second daughter, Annie E., Mrs. J. 
E. Larkin, lives at Long Branch, Washing- 
ton, and is the mother of three children, 
William, Roscoe and Olive. A son, Will- 
iam T., was married to Miss Flora Miner, 
and lives in Gilroy, California. George N. 
and Charlie, the two younger sons, are still 
at home. Mr. Fields is not very actively 
interested in politics, taking mostly an in- 
dependent position. He was treasurer of 
district 44 for seven years, and is a popular 
man at home. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. 
Field will be found on another page of this 
work. 



CHARLES SMRHA, the present efficient 
postmaster of Milligan, Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, has been a resident of the 
county for the past sixteen years, having 
located in the village of Exeter immediately 
upon his arrival in this country. 

Mr. Smrha is a native of Bohemia, and 
was born November 19, 1849. His par- 
ents, Albert and Barbara (Vorisek) Smrha, 
were natives of Bohemia, as were also their 
twelve children, eight of whom are now liv- 
ing. The subject of this sketch is the only 
one of this family that ventured to the new 
world. 

Charles Smrha was reared and educated 
in his native land, where he learned the 

63 



trade of harness making. He was united 
in the bonds of wedlock with Miss Cath- 
erine Stulik, in November, 1873. Mrs. 
Smrha is a Bohemian by birth, and to this 
marriage six children have been born, as 
follows: Paulina, Charles, Jr., Benjamin, 
Anna, Mary, and Albert. Paulina graduated 
from the Geneva high school and has since 
been teaching in the Milligan public school. 
Charles, Jr., attended the schools in Exeter 
and Geneva and also the Lincoln Normal. 
He taught school two terms, and in 1898 
was appointed deputy of County Judge 
Skepton, which office he held three months, 
then enlisted in the First Nebraska Volun- 
teer Infantry, now in Manila, where he is 
at the present time (April, 1899) working at 
the headquarters of General McArthur. 
Benjamin attended school in Exeter and 
Geneva and has taught school two terms. 
Anna graduated from the Milligan high 
school and has also taught two terms. 
Mary has attended the Institute for the 
Deaf and Dumb at Omaha for eight years. 
Four children in this intelligent family are 
teachers by profession. 

When our subject first came to America 
in 1883, he located in Exeter, Nebraska, 
and established an extensive harness, mak- 
ing business, which he conducted with 
profit. He succeeded in educating his 
children to a high degree, and placing then;i 
in position to provide for themselves should 
it be necessary at any time in life to rely 
upon it. Mr. Smrha has always taken a 
great interest in the advancement of higher 
education in his adopted county, and has 
always given his support by word and act 
to enterprises and undertakings of this 
nature. 

In 1899 he was appointed postmaster of 
Milligan, which position he fills with effi- 
ciency and satisfaction to the people. He 
is a member in good standing of the A. O. U. 
W. and Z. C. B. J., also a member of the 
order of Turners of Milligan. No man in 



1108 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Fillmore county, is more highly respected, 
nor more deserving of the confidence and 
esteem of his fellow citizens. 



CAPTAIN FREDERICK C. BENNETT, 
a well-known and highly respected citi- 
zen of Fairmont, Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, was born in Windham county, 
Connecticut, May 23, 1832, a son of 
Ephraim and Artil M. (Morgan) Bennett, 
also natives of the Nutmeg state. The 
paternal grandfather, Stephen Bennett, a 
native of England, came to America about 
1775 and located at Stonington, Connecti- 
cut. During the Revolutionary war he en- 
tered the Colonial army, and was in the 
service for seven years. He was with the 
troops during the memorable winter at Val- 
ley Forge, and participated in many of the 
important battles of the war, but fortu- 
. nately escaped with only a slight flesh 
wound across the breast. He married 
Louisa Johnson, a native of Connecticut, 
and to them were born five sons, namely: 
Grafton, Stephen, John, Ephraim and Dan- 
iel, all of whom lived and died in Con- 
necticut, and were agriculturists by occupa- 
tion, as was also their father. Ephraim, the 
father of our subject, died in 185 1, the 
mother in 1873. In their family were five 
children, three sons and two daughters. 

Frederick C. Bennett was reared and 
educated in his native state and for some 
years followed various occupations, princi- 
pally manufacturing and farming. On leav- 
ing Connecticut in 1875, he came to Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, and bought a tract 
of railroad land in West Blue township, to 
the improvement and cultivation of which 
he devoted his energies for some years with 
marked success. Later he followed thresh- 
ing throughout the county for some years. 

In Berkshire county, Massachusetts, Mr. 
Bennett was married, in 1852, to Miss 
Phebe A. Hadsell, a native of that state 



and a daughter of Moses and Elvira (Taft) 
Hadsell. Her father was born in Con- 
necticut in 1 801, her mother in Massachu- 
setts in 1802, and their entire married life 
was passed as farming people in Massachu- 
setts. To Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have been 
born eleven children, namely: Carrie A., 
wife of W. E. Smith; Moses H. ; Frank J.; 
Fannie M., wife of E. Curtiss; Sarah A., 
wife of S. Stines; Frederick A.; Ella L. , 
wife of J. H. Waring; Vira L. , at home; 
May T., wife of E. L. Brewer; Robert L. ; 
and Lottie E. All of the daughters have 
been teachers in the schools of this state, 
and were very successful. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett are earnest and faithful members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, and so- 
cially he is a Mason. In politics he is in- 
dependent, voting for the men whom he 
believes are best qualified to fill the office 
regardless of party ties. 



JC. KINGSLEY, deceased, who, dur- 
ing all of his residence in York county, 
contributed much to its financial interests, 
was born in Indiana in 1839, the son of a 
farmer. His parents settled in that state 
during the pioneer days, when agricultural 
success was attained only through struggles 
of which the present generation knows 
little. They made for themselves a com- 
fortable home and remained in Indiana dur- 
ing their life. 

Mr. Kingsley was reared a farmer and 
while yet a young man moved to Illinois and 
engaged in that pursuit in Marshall county. 
He soon became prominent in his com- 
munity and was elected clerk of the county. 
He successfully filled this office and was 
continued in the same capacity for nine suc- 
cessive years. From Marshall county he 
moved to Peoria, Illinois, and for a short 
time engaged in the marble trade. Having 
decided to again turn his attention to farm- 
ing, he purchased a large tract of land in 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



1109 



York county, Nebraska, and in 1883 estab- 
lished his home. He became interested in 
the First National Bank of York and was 
its vice-president at the time of his death. 
He extended his financial interests and en- 
gaged to some extent in the real estate and 
loan business. 

At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. 
Kingsley responded to his country's call and 
in 1 861 enlisted in a company of Illinois 
Volunteers. He was in many battles dur- 
ing his four years' service and accompanied 
Sherman on his famous march to the sea. 
During his army life he received a sunstroke. 
Although he enlisted a private soldier his 
faithful attention to his military duties 
raised him in rank, and when mustered out 
of the service he was captain of his com- 
pany. 

Mr. Kingsley was united in marriage in 
i860, with Mary Bell, a resident of Illinois, 
To this union were born seven children, 
four of whom are now living. 

Mr. Kingsley's second marriage was in 
1885 to Fannie Leavett, a daughter of 
Anthony Leavett, a native of Massachusetts. 
Mrs. Kingsley, at the time of her marriage, 
was a resident of Henry county, Illinois. 
One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Kings- 
ley, a daughter, upon whom they bestowed 
the name of Helen L. 

Mr. Kingsley was an honored member 
of the Masonic fraternity, also the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows, and an exemp- 
lary member of the Presbyterian church. He 
was a prominent political worker and ad- 
vocated Republican principles. His success 
was due to his energy, his natural ability 
and his integrity. 



HON. JOHN B. STEWARD, a citizen 
of York county, Nebraska, and one 
closely identified with the interests of his 
communit} from its early days, was born in 
York county, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1850. 



His present home is in Morton township, 
near Benedict. 

Mr. Steward's parents were Isaac and 
Hannah (Urey) Steward, natives of Penn- 
sylvania. His grandfather Steward was 
English by birth. His grandfather Urey 
emigrated from Germany. Isaac Steward 
is a carpenter and cabinetmaker and fol- 
lowed this occupation in Pennsylvania until 
1870, when he moved to Iowa. In 1873 
he located in York county, Nebraska, and 
in 1896 removed to California, where, at the 
age of eighty-three, he follows his trade. 
He is an ex-soldier of the Civil war, enlist- 
ing in Pennsylvania in 1864. Hannah 
Steward, the mother, died in California. 

Our subject was one of five children and 
has one brother and two sisters still living. 
He received his education in Pennsylvania, 
and for a short time followed farming in 
that state. In 1869 he started west, intend- 
ing to homestead land in Iowa, but upon 
reaching there was employed on a farm. 
In the spring of 1873 he again started west- 
ward, and, March 8; entered a homestead 
claim on section 2, Morton township, in 
York county, Nebraska. He went over- 
land from Iowa to his new home, crossing 
the Missouri river on the ice. His first 
house was a sod house, which afterward 
burned and was replaced by a model frame 
dwelling. Mr. Steward followed general 
farming and stock raising and is now the 
owner of one hundred and eighty acres of 
highly improved land. He was awarded a 
medal at the Columbian Exposition for the 
best wheat raised in Nebraska, one of six 
medals awarded in the state. Our subject 
is a free-silver Republican and a prominent 
man in political circles. He represented 
his district in the general assembly of 1891 
and was a member of the world's fair 
commission from Nebraska. He has been 
elected to several county offices and is at 
present town clerk. Mr. Steward is one of 
the public-spirited men of his adopted state 



1110 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



and has great faith in the future of Nebraska 
and York county. 

In 1869 our subject was married to Miss 
Mary Meads. Mrs. Steward died in 1877. 
She was the mother of three children: 
Eva, Clyde and Laura. The son is the 
only one now living. Mr. Steward's second 
marriage was in 1878, to Mrs. Maggie Call 
Babo, a resident of Iowa, although Indiana 
was her native home. Four children have 
blessed this union: Bertha E., now Mrs. 
Henry Segmore; Dora P.; Etta; and Mor- 
ris E. They family are members of the 
United Brethren church. 

Mr. Steward is an honored member of 
the Masonic fraternity and also the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen. 



WILLIAM H. BOSSERMAN, the well- 
known and efficient postmaster of 
Grafton, and an honored veteran of the 
Civil war, has been an important factor in 
the business affairs of the place for several 
years and since 1886 has conducted a fur- 
niture store. He has made good use of his 
opportunities in life, has conducted all busi- 
ness matters carefully and systematically, 
and in all his acts displays an aptitude for 
successful management. 

Mr. Bosserman was born in Licking 
county, Ohio, November 19, 1842, a son of 
Samuel and Paulina (Ewing) Bosserman, 
the former a native of Pennsylvania, the 
latter of Ohio. The paternal grandfather, 
Michael Bosserman, a Pennsylvania Dun- 
kard, removed to Ohio at an early day, and 
died in Perry county, that state. The father 
continued a resident of Ohio until 1852, 
when he removed to De Witt county, Illi- 
nois, and there spent the remainder of his 
life. He was a tanner by trade, and fol- 
lowed that occupation in connection with 
farming, and he also served as postmaster 
at De Witt, Illinois, for some time. In his 
family were eight children, four sons and 



four daughters, of whom our subject and 
one sister are living in Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. The father died in 18 — , the 
mother in 1863, honored and respected by 
all who knew them. 

The education of our subject was mostly 
acquired in the public schools of Illinois, in 
which state he grew to manhood. He was 
about to enter the Normal University at 
Bloomington, Illinois, when the Civil war 
broke out, but feeling that his country 
needed his services he laid aside all personal 
interests and enlisted, August 15, 1862, in 
Company B, One Hundred and Seventh 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, at Clinton, De- 
witt county, Illinois. The first engagement 
in which he participated was with Morgan 
in Kentucky, and after some time spent in- 
that state, crossed the line into Tennessee. 
After taking part in the siege of Knoxville, 
his command joined Sherman's army, and 
were later in the fights at Buzzard's Roost, 
Resaca, Burnt Hickory, Big Shanty, Kene- 
saw Mountain and Peach Tree Creek. 
Then followed a number of engagements 
around Atlanta, the siege of that city, and 
the battle of Jonesboro, after which the 
army returned to Tennessee and participated 
in the battles of Columbia, Franklin and 
Nashville, Tennessee. They were then sent 
via Cincinnati to Washington, District of 
Columbia, and on to Fort Fisher, North 
Carolina. They took part in the engage- 
ment at Fort Saunders, assisted in the cap^ 
ture of Wilmington, North Carolina, Kings- 
ton, and then marched across the state,' 
meeting Sherman's army at Goldsboro, 
where the armies of Sherman and Schofield 
passed in review before General Grant. 
After almost three years of arduous service, 
Mr. Bosserman was mustered out at Salis- 
bury, North Carolina, June 22, 1865, and 
returned to his home in De Witt county, 
Illinois, where he remained until 1868. 

That year Mr. Bosserman removed to- 
McLean county, Illinois, where the follow- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



nil 



ing two years were passed, and for the same 
length of time he made his home in Taze- 
well county, that state. It was in 1871 
that he came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
and homesteaded the northwest quarter of 
section 20, West Blue township. Upon 
this wild tract he erected a' small frame 
house, the lumber for which he bought in 
Crete, and then turned his attention to 
breaking and cultivating the land, which he 
soon transformed into productive and fertile 
fields. After six years spent upon his farm, 
he removed to Grafton, which was just 
starting, and for about four years he worked 
at th6 carpenter's trade. During the fol- 
lowing ten years he was principally en- 
gaged in buying and shipping grain, and 
was later interested in the lumber trade un- 
til 1897, when he was appointed postmaster 
by President McKinley, and that office he 
still continues to fill to the entire satisfac- 
tion of all concerned. Since 1886 he has 
also conducted a furniture and undertaking 
store, and by fair and honorable dealing has 
built up an excellent trade in that line. 

On the 20th of February, 1868, Mr. 
Bosserman married Miss Lettie M. Marsh, a 
native of Illinois, and a daughter of John 
and Elizabeth (Forseman) Marsh. Four sons 
have been born of this union: Charles C, 
who is now engaged in teaching school in 
Fillmore county; John A., who is engaged 
in the undertaking business with his father; 
William E., a druggist of Grafton; and 
Harry E., who is still attending school. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bosserman both hold mem- 
bership in the Congregational church, and 
he is also a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity and James Shields Post, No. 33, 
Grand Army of the Republic. His political 
support is always given the men and meas- 
ures of the Republican party, and he as- 
sisted in its organization in the county. He 
has filled the office of justice of the peace 
for four years, has been township treasurer 
two terms, and his public and private life 



are alike above reproach. His various offi- 
cial duties have been discharged with a 
promptness and fidelity worthy of all com- 
mendation. He is emphatically a man of 
enterprise, positive character, indomitable 
energy, strict integrity and liberal views, 
and is thoroughly identified in feeling with 
the growth and prosperity of the county. 



ISAAC J. FARLEY, deceased, a man of 
man of whom it might well be said "He 
prospered, because of his industry, supple- 
mented by his genuine integrity," was born 
in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, August 
14, 1847. His home was in Thayer town- 
ship, in York county, near the village of 
Thayer, Nebraska. 

Our subject's parents, John and Emily 
(Reader) Farley, were natives of Pennsyl- 
vania. They contented themselves in their 
rural home in that state and never moved 
to any other portion of the country. They 
were the parents of eight children, six 
daughters and two sons. Our subject was 
the youngest child. 

Mr. Farley received a liberal education 
in Pennsylvania and for some years followed 
school-teaching. He also turned his atten- 
tion to agriculture and finding his inclina- 
tions favored the latter pursuit, decided to 
move westward and settle on a farm. He 
purchased eighty acres of unimproved rail- 
road land in York county and on it erected 
a small frame house. A larger residence 
has taken the place of the original house 
and is a comfortable home in every particu- 
lar. Mr. Farley added a quarter-section to 
his first purchase and the entire tract was 
under cultivation and highly improved at 
the time of his death. 

Our subject was united in marriage Oc- 
tober, 1875, with Miss Anna C. Sidler, a 
daughter of John and Catherine Sidler, na- 
tives of Pennsylvania. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Farley were born six children: Catherine 



1112 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



L. ; Samuel J., deceased; Christian C. ; 
Hattie E. ; Edgar and Isaac W. 

The family united with the Lutheran 
church, and Mr. Farley died February, 
1895, an exemplary member of that denom- 
ination. He was a man of honor and com- 
manded the respect of the community in 
which he lived. Mr. Farley's political views 
were Democratic. 



JB. CORY, an enterprising and prosper- 
ous agriculturist, residing on section 
18, West Blue township, has been promi- 
nently identified with the farming interests 
of Fillmore county since pioneer days, and 
is one of those men who, while promoting 
his own individual interests, has not been 
unmindful of those round about him and 
has done all in his power to advance the 
public welfare. 

Mr. Cory was born in Wyoming county. 
New York, August 11, 1839, and is a son 
of Sanford and Ruth (Butler) Cory, also 
natives of the Empire state. The former, 
who was left fatherless during his child- 
hood, was reared in New York, and there 
followed farming until accidentally killed by 
a falling tree when about forty years of age. 
The mother's death occurred in Crete, Ne- 
braska. To this worthy couple were born 
four sons and five daughters. Two of the 
family are now residents of this state. 

J. B. Cory is indebted to the public 
schools of New York state for his educational 
privileges, and early in life he became fa- 
miliar with all the duties which fall to the 
lot of the agriculturist, so that he is now 
one of the most thorough and competent 
farmers of his community. In his native 
state he followed his chosen calling until 
the fall of 1 86 1, when he offered his 
services to the government to assist in put- 
ting down the rebellion, enlisting in Com- 
pany G, Ninth New York Cavalry. He was 
in the service for three years and nine j 



months and participated in the battles of 
Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cedar Creek, 
Sperryville, Second Bull Run, Cedar Mount- 
ain, Brandy Station, Five Forks, Appo- 
mattox Court House, besides a number of 
other engagements and skirmishes in the 
Shenandoah valley. Near Old Church, Vir- 
ginia, he was wounded in the side, and also 
received a slight wound on the head. At 
the close of the war he was mustered out 
at Alexandria, Virginia, and returned to 
his home in New York with a war record in 
which he may take a just pride. 

On leaving the east in 1866, Mr. Cory 
removed to Benton county, Iowa, where he 
made his home for six years, and in 1872 
came to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and 
took up a homestead and also a timber 
claim. After the erection of a small frame 
house, into which he moved, he turned his 
attention to the cultivation of his land. 
Soon acre after acre was placed under the 
plow, and he now has an excellent farm of 
two hundred and forty acres, improved with 
good and substantial buildings. In 1874 
the grasshoppers destroyed all his crops 
with the exception of the wheat, and al- 
though he has had other hardships with 
which to contend, he has, through his in- 
dustry, perseverance and good management, 
become quite well-to-do. 

In York county, Nebraska, in 1881, 
Mr. Cory wedded Miss Nancy Sloniger, who 
was born in Ohio, and is one of a family of 
eleven children born to Oliver and Cather- 
ine (Norton) Sloniger, who were natives of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. Two 
children have blessed the marriage of Mr. 
and Mrs. Cory, viz: Clara, born April 30, 
1882, died in 1893; and Perry N., born 
August 13, 1884. Mrs. Cory is a member 
of the Congregational church of Grafton, 
and our subject is connected with the Grand 
Army post at that place. He casts his bal- 
lot with the Republican party, but has nev- 
er sought nor desired the honors or emolu- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1113 



ments of public office. He is a man of 
strong and earnest convictions, is honorable 
and upright in the daily walks of life, and 
fully deserves the reputation he has won of 
being in every respect a good citizen. 



JOSEPH SMITH CHAMBERLAIN, a 
prominent farmer and early settler of 
Butler county, Nebraska, was born in 
Northampton county, Pennsylvania, July 
30, 1849. His home is located on section 
24, Union township, near the village of Gar- 
rison, Nebraska. 

Christopher K. Chamberlain, the father 
of our subject, was born in Hunterdon 
county, New Jersey, December, 18 16. Dur- 
ing his early life he was engaged in the wire 
mills in South Easton, Pennsylvania, where 
he helped make the first Atlantic cable. 
Christopher K.'s father, Samuel Chamber- 
lain, came from Scotland in the early days 
with his two brothers, and settled in New 
Jersey. Our subject's mother, Jemima 
Smith, was a daughter of Joseph and Eliza- 
beth Smith, of New Jersey. Christopher K. 
Chamberlain and Jemima Smith were mar- 
ried in New Jersey in 1837. They have 
three sons and five daughters now living: 
Samuel and Daniel in South Easton, Penn- 
sylvania; Joseph, in Butler county, Ne- 
braska; Emeline in Hayes Center, Nebraska; 
and Sarah, Anna, Alice and Irene, in El 
Reno, Oklahoma Territory. Our subject's 
father moved with his family in March, 
1869, to Muscatine, Iowa, where they re- 
mained fourteen months. They then re- 
moved to Butler county, Nebraska, reaching 
Schuyler by rail, thence overland to their 
new home. Their first residence was the 
sod house of O. J. Hillman, Emeline's hus- 
band, who had located there the spring be- 
fore. 

Our subject homesteaded the north half 
of the northeast quarter of section 24 and 
on it, in conformity with the homestead 



laws, soon after built him a house. It was 
a sod house and was afterwards used for a 
school house and in it the first school in this 
district was taught. Our subject's father 
homesteaded the south half of the same 
quarter-section. 

In October, 1880, Mr. Chamberlain was 
married to Nancy R. Spurgin, of Iowa, a 
daughter of Abraham and Hannah (Hobson) 
Spurgin. Abraham Spurgin was a native 
of Tennessee and his father was a merchant, 
formerly from North Carolina. Hannah 
Hobson was born in Indiana and married 
Abraham Spurgin in Henry county, Iowa. 
Her husband engaged in farming in Henry 
county, and later in Hardin county, and it 
was in the latter county Mrs. Chamberlain 
was born. She received her education in 
her native state, afterward going to Ne- 
braska as a teacher in the district of which 
Mr. Chamberlain's father was one of the 
school directors. Her sister, Minerva E. 
Spurgin, is also a teacher and i^ at present 
engaged in Schuyler, Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Chamberlain are the parents of two 
children, Winifred H. and Lawrence S. 

Their present home, built on the site of 
the original sod house, is one of comfort 
and refinement. Both our subject and his 
wife are prominent in educational and liter- 
ary circles and are members of the Garrifon 
High School Library Board. They are con- 
stant readers of the best literature of the 
day and earnest workers in the interest of 
social reforms. They are faithful members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. 
Chamberlain was one of the organizers of 
the Garrison Cemetery Association and is 
its treasurer. He is also a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



JOSEPH CARNEY is a prosperous and 
honored citizen of Fillmore county, Ne- 
braska, who has for over a quarter of a 
century successfully engaged in agricultural 



1114 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



pursuits on section 32, West Blue township. 
He commenced life for himself in limited 
circumstances, but being a man of sound 
judgment and good business ability, he has 
met with well-deserved success, and is now 
the possessor of a fine farm and comfortable 
competence. 

Mr. Carney was born in Bedford county, 
Pennsylvania, November 7, 1832, and is a 
son of Samuel and Susan (Stuckey) Carney, 
also natives of that state. The paternal 
grandfather, Joseph Carney, was also born 
in Pennsylvania, where he spent his entire 
life, but the maternal grandfather, Simon 
Stuckey, was a native of Virginia, though he 
became a resident of the Keystone state and 
there died. The parents of our subject also 
departed this life in Pennsylvania, the father 
dying in 1885, the mother in 1882. The 
former was a blacksmith by trade but during 
the greater part of his life engaged in farm- 
ing. He had eight children, seven sons and 
one daughter, of whom four sons are now 
living in Nebraska, and all are following 
farming with the exception of one, who is 
engaged in the hardware business in Sutton. 

During his boyhood and youth, Joseph 
Carney obtained an excellent knowledge of 
all the duties which fall to the lot of the 
agriculturist and also received a fair public- 
school education. On starting out in life 
for himself, he chose the occupation to 
which he had been reared. During the Civil 
war, he enlisted in July, 1863, in the Penn- 
sylvania State Militia, for three months, 
but saw no active service. In December of 
that year he removed to Knox county, Illi- 
nois, where he made his home for nine years, 
and in March, 1872, came to Fillmore coun- 
ty, Nebraska, taking up a homestead on 
section 32, West Blue township. His first 
home here was a small frame house, in 
which he and his family lived while he con- 
verted the wild land into highly cultivated 
fields. By subsequent purchase he has add- 
ed to his farm until now he has four hun- 



dred acres of valuable land, making it one of 
the best and most desirable places of the 
township. In connection with general farm- 
ing he is also engaged in stock raising, and 
so successful has he been that he has never 
had occasion to regret his removal to this 
state. 

In Knox county, Illinois, Mr. Carney 
was married, in 1869, to Miss Mary Mills, 
a native of Maryland, and a daughter 
of William and Mary Mills, and of this 
this union four children have born, namely: 
William L. , Margaret V., Mary A. and 
Susie M., all li\ing. Mr. Carney and his 
family hold membership in the Congrega- 
tional church in Grafton and occupy an 
enviable position in the best social cir- 
cles of their community. Socially he 
affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and 
politically is identified with the Populist 
party. Upright, reliable and honorable, 
his strict adherence to principle commands 
the respect of all. 



FERDINAND FREDERICK FRANZ 
PLAMBECK, one of Milligan, Ne- 
braska's, prominent business men, is a na- 
tive of Germany, having been born in Eck- 
ernfoerde, Schleswig, Holstein, Germany, 
December 5, 1865. He was the son of 
Claus Joachim and Christina (Couscherung) 
Plambeck. His father is a man of wealth 
living in retirement in Germany, aged 
eighty-two years. Mr. Plambeck's brother, 
Chris, is a very wealthy dry-goods merchant 
of Germany and his sister married a very 
prominent business man, who belongs to 
one of the aristocratic German families. 
Our subject's mother died many years ago 
in her native land. Our subject is the only 
one of the family who ventured to America. 
Mr. Plambeck was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of his native land and also com- 
pleted a gymnasium course at the age of 
sixteen years. He made a tour of the 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1115 



European countries and held high positions 
in his own land, working part of the time 
for his father. In 1890 he emigrated to 
America and landed May ist. He came to 
this country in company with a family whom 
he aided financially, and immediately upon 
his arrival he was compelled to seek em- 
ployment. He proceeded to Iowa and from 
Crawford county he removed to West Point, 
Nebraska, and was employed as a helper in 
a butcher shop. Later a friend from his 
native country used his influence in estab- 
lishing him with a wholesale house in Om- 
aha, Nebraska, and he was their repre- 
sentative for some time. His honest deal- 
ings won him the respect of business men 
and he is now established in a hotel in Mil- 
ligan and is one of the substantial business 
men of his county. 

In 1888 Mr. Plambeck was married to 
Miss Anna Vurhring, who was born in 
Freidrichstadt in 1869. She died in 1889 
and it was on account of his bereavement 
that Mr. Plambeck decided to come to the 
United States. Mr. Plambeck was married 
a second time, October 24, 1894, this time 
to Miss Mamie Chase, a daughter of Welch 
and Sarah (McLaughlin) Chase, who moved 
from Ohio and took a homestead in Saline 
county, upon which they are now living. 
Mrs. Plambeck is an ardent worker for the 
cause of temperance. She has two sisters 
living in Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Plam- 
beck are the parents of two children, Ev- 
erett and Frank. 

Mr. Plambeck is a stanch Republican 
and is a member of the Modern Woodmen 
of America. 



RICHARD J. COOK, one of the early 
settlers and a widely known and hon- 
ored citizen of Butler county, Nebraska, 
was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, Novem- 
ber 18, 1827. His present home is on sec- 
tion 32, in Center township, near Garrison. 



Our subject's grandfather was a native 
of Maryland, but in an early day settled in 
Ohio, where John Cook, the father of our 
subject, was born. The son followed his 
father's occupation, that of farming, and 
was married to Hattie Halloway, a daugh- 
ter of Armel Showell Halloway, of Mary- 
land. 

Richard J. Cook was the oldest child and 
had three brothers and four sisters. One 
brother, Armel Cook, lived and died in 
Knox county, Illinois; one brother is now 
living at Hillsdale, Illinois; of the sisters, 
Ann Meredith married Jefferson Wright and 
settled in Oregon; Sarah Ellen married 
Harvey Onderkirk and lives in Knox coun- 
ty, Illinois, as does also the sister, Nancy J. 
Potts; Derinda E. Elwell lives near Ottawa, 
Kansas. 

Our subject was reared in his native 
state and county, and during his twenty-first 
year moved with his parents to Illinois, 
settling in Knox county, about fifteen miles 
southeast of Galesburg. Here Mr. Cook 
was married in 1852, to Nancy Godfrey, a 
daughter of Enoch Godfrey, a native of 
Maryland, who emigrated to Ohio when a 
young boy, afterward going to Knox county, 
Illinois, in 1833. Mrs. Cook has two sisters 
and one brother, all of whom are living in 
Nebraska; John W. Godfrey, living in Syra- 
cuse; Caroline Sharp, in Boyd county, and 
Elizabeth Simpkins, in Butler county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Cook are the parents of nine chil- 
dren, born in Illinois, and are named as fol- 
lows: Benjamin A., Mary Elizabeth, 
RufusB., Charles M., Hattie M., Rhoda 
B., Owen D., Thomas M. and Hettie. 
Benjamin A. Cook lives in Illinois and has 
a son, Fred A., and a daughter, Kittie. 
Mary Elizabeth Henderson lives in Polk 
county, Nebraska, and has four children, 
Lula, Frank, Albert and Elsie. Rufus B. 
Cook is in Garrison, Nebraska, and has five 
children, Effie, Myrl, Clyde, Nina and 
Laura. Charles M. Cook is in David City, 



1116 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHT. 



Nebraska, and has two children, Clem K. 
and Fay. Hattie M. Roberts is living in 
Butler county, and is the mother of three 
children, Charles A., Katie and Jackson G. 
Rhoda B. Beeson has settled m Indian Ter- 
ritory and is the mother of six children, 
Florence, Francis, Rufus, Arnold, Frank 
and Katie. Three children remain with 
their parents at home, Owen D., Thomas 
M. and Hettie. 

Mr. Cook is a man of sterling qualities 
and highly esteemed in the county in which 
he lives. He is well informed and strong 
in his political convictions, and, although 
formerly a Democrat, he now affiliates with 
the Populists. 



HENRY C. LANGHORST, a pioneer 
settler of Fillmore county, Nebraska, 
and a representative citizen of his state and 
county, from the early days, was a German 
by birth. He was born March 30, 1845, i" 
Furstentown, Scharmer of Libba, Germany. 
His present home is on section i, of Frank- 
lin township, near Ohiowa, Fillmore county, 
Nebraska. 

Mr. Langhorst's parents were Christo- 
pher and Mary (Wilkoenig) Langhorst, both 
of Germany and died in their native coun- 
try. They were the parents of four chil- 
dred: Hans, Cindleman, Marie and Henry C. 

Mr. Langhorst received his education in 
the public schools in Germany. He en- 
gaged in farming for a time in his native 
land. August 3, 1861, he started to seek 
his fortune and the New World was his 
choice. He arrived in New York city, Oc- 
tober 12, 1 86 1. He started west, stopping 
in Chicago, where he was employed as a 
laborer and machinist. In February, 1870, 
he started for Nebraska and entered his 
homestead claim of one hundred and sixty 
acres, in Franklin township, Fillmore coun- 
ty, March 17, 1870. His first home on 
the Nebraska frontier was a sod-house, and 



a yoke of oxen served him in cultivating his. 
land. He was employed most of three 
years in the railroad shops in Nebraska City, 
and thus provided for his family, who re- 
mained on the farm, during the perfecting 
of the homestead claim. He now owns 
three hundred and twenty acres in Franklin 
township and his home is nicely located on 
the half-section in the northeast corner of 
the township. His finely improved farm of 
the present day shows little evidence of the 
struggles of those early days and affords un- 
usual comforts for a country home. It is 
attractive in every particular and Mr. Lang- 
horst has given his personal attention to the 
arrangement of its groves, orchards, vine- 
yards and all improvements. In the early 
days their trading post was at Beatrice, 
Nebraska, forty miles from his homestead, 
and Lincoln was the nearest railroad sta- 
tion. Mr. Langhorst has always been a 
strong advocate of Republican principles 
and has held several responsible public 
offices in the state and county. In 1895 he 
was elected to represent the thirty-seventh 
district of Nebraska in the twenty-fourth 
general assembly. His creditable public 
record won him the esteem of the entire 
community. 

Mr. Langhorst was married in Chicaga 
to Miss Angel Marie Sassan, a native of 
Germany, and a daughter of Fred and An- 
gel Marie Sassan. Mrs. Langhorst was edu- 
cated in her native land and emigrated to 
America with her parents and located in 
Chicago. She was confirmed in the Lu- 
theran church in Germany, as was also Mr. 
Langhorst. To them have been born seven 
children: Henry, Minnie, Caroline, John, 
William, Albert and Martha, all of whom 
are living in Fillmore county, Nebraska. 
Mrs. Langhorst died after a brief illness, 
July 12, 1884. Her remains rest in the 
Franklin county Lutheran cemetery. She 
is missed by all as a loving, devoted wife 
and mother, and a Christian lady. 



COMPENDIUM OF BJOGRAPHT. 



1117 



Mr. Langhorst is a highly esteemed citi- 
zen of his county and state and is contented 
with his home in the west. He came to 
the new world a poor boy, but his integrity 
and business capabilities have won him suc- 
cess, as a financier and a public-spirited 
citizen. 



THOMAS STEWARD, the first white 
settler in Thayer county, Nebraska, 
and an ex-soldier, was born in Ireland in 
1822. His present home is on section i, in 
township 4, range 3, near Bruning, Ne- 
braska. 

Our subject's father, Robert Steward, 
died in Ireland, aged ninety-nine years. 
Thomas emigrated to America in 1840 and 
landed at New York, and soon afterward 
located in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, 
and worked on a farm for twelve dollars per 
month. Mr. Brown was his employer, and 
he afterward became Mr. Steward's father- 
in-law. He continued in his employ for six 
years, and after his marriage, in 1852, 
moved to Iowa. He purchased eighty acres 
of land and engaged in farming, until, in 
1 86 1, he enlisted in Company A, Second 
Iowa Cavalry, under Captain Roberts. He 
immediately went to the front, and was en- 
gaged in many hotly contested battles, 
among them Nashville and luka, and in the 
latter made a bavonet charge. He was 
with Sherman on his famous march to the 
sea, and at the close of the war was in the 
grand review. He received his army pay 
and an honorable discharge, and was mus- 
tered out of the service at Davenport, Iowa. 
Soon after his return to his Iowa home, he 
sold his property and located in Nebraska. 
In 1871 he homesteaded one hundred and 
sixty acres in Thayer county, and as they 
were the first white settlers in the county, 
they had many hardships to endure. They 
were many miles from a trading post, and 
Nebraska City wa^ the nearest railroad sta- 



tion. Fairmont, Lincoln and Beatrice were 
but villages. Mr. Steward went to the 
Blue river and chopped and hewed logs for 
a 12x12 house. This was their home for 
several years, but a frame dwelling now 
marks the spot where the white camp wagon 
stood, which sheltered the family for many 
months, until the small house could be 
built. Buffalo, elk and deer were fre- 
quenters of the locality, and Indians made 
life anything but pleasant. The home of 
to-day has little trace of those early strug- 
gles, and Mr. and Mrs. Steward are now 
living in retirement in their comfortable 
home. Their resources on arriving in 
Thayer county consisted of two teams, 
three cows and some household furniture, 
and to-day they own two hundred and forty 
acres of highly improved land, well stocked 
and under cultivation. 

Mr. Steward was married to Miss Lizzie 
Brown in 1852. Mrs. Steward was born in 
Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in 1824, 
where her parents died, her father at the 
age of sixty-four and mother at the age of 
fifty-five. To Mr. and Mrs. Steward were 
born seven children, three of whom are liv- 
ing: Robert, unmarried, who has traveled 
extensively; William, married and residing 
in Thayer county, Nebraska; and Mrs. Eliz- 
abeth Sutton. Her husband died several 
years ago and his remains rest in Burrows 
cemetery, Thayer county. Mrs. Sutton 
owns a fine farm in Thayer county. 

Mr. Steward is a Republican and cast his 
first presidential ballot for Fremont. The 
family are devoted Christians and highly es- 
teemed. 



JW. CHRISTIE, a rising attorney and 
business man of Exeter, Nebraska, 
was born in Ontario, Canada, June 4, 1855. 
His parents, Robert and Mariah (Boyd) 
Christie, were natives of Scotland and em- 
igrated to Canada in 1815, locating in. 



1118 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



Ontario. His father was a merchant and 
also followed farming to some extent. He 
died in 1891 and the mother died in 1898. 
They were the parents of ten children. 
Our subject is the only one residing in Fill- 
more county. 

Mr. Christie received his education in 
the public schools of Ontario and engaged 
in farming there until 1882, when became 
to the United States and located in Fill- 
more county, Nebraska, seven miles south 
of E.xeter. He now has extensive farm lands 
in the county and engages in farmin to 
some extent, although his law practice 
claims the greater part of his time. In 1883 
Mr. Christie began reading law under 
Attorney John P. Maube, of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, and in 1895 was admitted to prac- 
tice in both the supreme and federal 
courts. The same year he began his prac- 
tice in Exeter and has prospered in his 
chosen profession. He is well known in his 
county and his name stands for equity and 
justice. For four years he was justice of 
the peace, having been elected to that 
office in 1892. 

Mr. Christie was married in 1880 to Miss 

Mary M. Kelly, of DeWitt, Iowa. Five 

■ children have blessed their home, namely: 

Laura, Louise, Robert, Thomas, and Marie. 

Mr. Christie is a gold Democrat. 



LF. PARDUE, a very proficient archi- 
tect and building contractor of Geneva, 
Nebraska, who has planned and constructed 
some of the finest buildings in Fillmore 
county, was born in Lawrenceburgh, Indi- 
ana, January 13, 1847. 

Our subject is the son of Anthony and 
Rhoda (Greenham) Pardue. His father was 
a native of Cayuga county. New York. 
His mother emigrated to America when 
■eleven years of age. She was the mother 
of thirteen children: Elizabeth; Myron 



died two years ago; Alice, living in Chicago; 
Mary; Albert died three years ago; Har- 
riett; L. F. , our subject; Wesley died in 
infancy; Hattie; Jennie; Carrie; Ida; Isa- 
bella died when one year of age. The fam- 
ily have exceptional musical talent. The 
father was a musician and Myron was cornet 
player in the war. Albert also served in 
the Civil war. The father died in Geneva, 
Nebraska, in 1889, aged eighty-two years, 
and the mother died in Bureau county, Illi- 
nois, in 1869, aged fifty-eight years. Mr. 
Pardue's brothers and sisters have pleasant 
family surroundings and are comfortably lo- 
cated. 

Our subject was educated in the public 
schools of Indiana and in 1872, graduated 
from the Chicago Conservatory of Music. 
He followed music teaching until 1877, 
when he began the study of architecture. 
He soon put his profession to practical use 
and, after spending one winter in Iowa, 
went to Nebraska in 1879, to engage in con- 
tracting and building. He had but fifty 
cents when he located in Nebraska, in July, 
1879, but within a year was able to pur- 
chase one hundred and sixty acres of land, 
paying for the same nine hundred dollars. 
He cultivated his land and also spent part 
of his time at his trade, and in 188 1, he 
added eighty acres to his possession at a 
cost of four hundred and seventy-five dol- 
lars. On the land of his second purchase 
he erected his residence. In 1883 he added 
another one hundred and sixty acres, pay- 
ing for the same one thousand five hundred 
dollars, and later purchased one hundred 
and sixt> acres north of his present home. 
His interests have become varied since lo- 
cating in Nebraska and he has prospered. 
In Geneva he has a large livery barn and 
owns eighty acres near Strang, Nebraska. 
He has spared no little time on his resi- 
dence property in Geneva and has a model 
home in every particular. 

Public buildings as well as private resi- 



COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY. 



1119 



dences have claimed Mr. Pardue's finest 
work. He has planned and supervised the 
construction of the court house in Geneva, 
the hotel and the Geneva high school. He 
is now giving his attention to the building of 
elevators and averages ten per year. He 
has constructed eight for one owner and 
during the past winter has built two. 

December 12, 1878, our subject was mar- 
ried to Miss Mattie Bradley. Mrs. Pardue 
was born in 1864, the daughter of John M. 
and E. E. (Thompson) Bradley. Her fa- 
ther died in 1890, aged seventy-two years, 
and his remains rest in the Geneva ceme- 
tery. He was a native of Vermont. Her 
mother, at the age of sixty-nine, has her 
home with Mr. and Mrs. Pardue. She was 
born in Montgomery county, New York, and 



was the mother of three children, all living: 
Fred E., Burt, and Mattie F. , wife of our 
subject. Mr. and Mrs. Pardue have been 
blessed with three children, two of whom 
are living. Ralph, nineteen years of age, 
has the management of his father's livery 
business in Geneva. He is an industrious 
young man of exceptional ability and is 
destined to become one of Nebraska's influ- 
ential men. Fay, aged seventeen, is a 
highly accomplished young lady. Both she 
and her brother Ralph are graduates of the 
Geneva high school. The family have a 
host of friends in Fillmore county and their 
cultured manners and upright dealings have 
won them the respect of all. Mr. Pardue 
is a Republican and stands stanchly for the- 
principles of his party. 



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